Scary & Freaky stories: The Paranormal World

*BONUS EPISODE* TOP 10 GHOST STORIES TO TELL ON LONG NIGHTS

What better time of the year could there be for reading ghost stories? There is a chill in the air, the nights are longer, and things start to go bump in the night. It comes as no surprise that Halloween comes at this time of the year, and ghost stories are a natural companion to this night, but did you know that ghost stories are also traditional at Christmas time and were told around Christmas Evefires at night in Victorian England in fin-de-siècle America. A major part of the Victorian Christmas tradition is the reading of ghost stories. Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is perhaps the best and most renowned example of this tradition. Still don't believe me? Then check out fourth line of this classic Christmas carol, "Most Wonderful Time" (emphasis added):

There'll be parties for hosting, 
Marshmallows for toasting, 
And caroling out in the snow. 
There'll be scary ghost stories 
And tales of the glories of 
Christmases long, long ago.

2001 was the year that this concept was finally drilled into my thick head, I had heard it before, but it never hit home until I read Charles Palliser's The Unburied, which bills itself as a "Victorian Christmas Ghost Story." So, without further ado, here are The Best 10 Ghost Stories I have read. Pick them up for Halloween, save them for Christmas, read them in July at the beach for all I care. Just read them and I guarantee you'll get chills and goose bumps with every single turn of the page:

1. Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell (New York: TOR Books, 1989). A colleague's violent death and its apparent cause - a stolen copy of an old, never-released Karloff/Lugosi film - set film editor Sandy Allan on the trail of the tragedies which haunted its production, she finds herself threatened by an ancient force protecting secrets deeper than the 50-year-old movie. Ramsey Campbell's Ancient Images is a book that will keep the Reader up into the wee hours of the morning, staring into the shadows in the corners, daring them to move. Atmosphere plays a large part of this book that relies heavily on the Reader becoming so engrossed in the story that when the things start to move out of the corners of the characters eyes and on the periphery of their vision, the Reader can't help but look over their shoulders as well. Its a little slow to start, but once Sandy Allan starts her hunt for Tower of Fear, the story moves along at a very fast pace and doesn't let up until the very end. As I said, atmosphere plays a heavy role in the mood of this book, and Campbell lays it on really thick, so much so that the book seems to come with its own thunder and lightning storms. What I truly loved about this story was the history that Campbell creates, not only for the fictitious Karloff/Lugosi film, but also the history of Redfield, which plays a large part of not only the film's plot, but also that of the story Campbell is attempting to tell. The scenes Campbell has put to page as Sandy investigates the film's history, and its connection to the Redfield family, in the town of Redfield are some of the most eerie scenes that I have come across yet. This is where the book's oppressive atmosphere looms heaviest, especially as Sandy begins to stumble upon the sordid and macabre history of the town and its inhabitants. My only beef with Images is that while Campbell neatly wraps everything up at the end, it still remains somewhat ambiguous ... although, the more I think about it, maybe that's for the best. The best horror stories are often - in my opinion - those that make the Reader scratch his head at the end as ask "Okay, now what just happened?" and Ramsey Campbell's Ancient Images is just such a story. However, all things considered, Ancient Images is a knock out horror story ... a real hackle raiser. Don't read this one too late at night, it'll make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, and you'll never be able to get to sleep.

2. Bag of Bones by Stephen King (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998). "I hope Bag of Bones gave you at least one sleepless night. Sorry 'bout that; it's just the way I am. It gave me one or two, and ever since writing it I'm nervous about going down into the cellar - part of me keeps expecting the door to slam, the lights to go out, and the knocking to start. But for me, at least, that's also part of the fun. If that makes me sick, hey, don't call the doctor" (35). From King's May 1999 letter to reviewers of Hearts in Atlantis. Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs, Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra away from her widowed and impoverished young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie and Kyra's struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What are the forces that have been unleashed here - and what do they want of Mike Noonan? I found this to be one of the scariest King books to date. The scene on the cellar stairs is one of the tensest he has ever written. It makes me glad we don't have a cellar that I ever have to go down into! King has described Bones as a "haunted love story" and it is definitely that. It is also an open and honest homage to British fiction, and heavily echoes Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca, but instead of a wicked woman being mistaken for a good one (as inRebecca) in Bones, a good woman - recently deceased Jo Noonan - whose newly revealed secret life causes her husband to doubt his complete trust of her. Vindictive millionaire Max Devore also evokesRebecca's Maxim de Winter. Bones was King's first authentic ghost story since Pet Sematary and revisits Derry and Castle Rock. Bag of Bones boasts an ancient curse, dazzling sequences of mind-boggling and horrifying paranormal activity, as well as a couple of the most memorable villains with which King has ever blessed us. Again, as in The Dark Half, Misery, "Secret Window, Secret Garden,"Desperation, The Tommyknockers, The Shining, etc., etc. King has made his main character a successful writer of mysteries. One of my favorite aspects of Bag of Bones are the little "insides" that King gives, with repeated references to Thad Beaumont (and, of course, George Stark) from King'sThe Dark Half, and William "Big Bill" Denbrough from It. Both characters - like Mike Noonan inBones - are successful writers, and because King has Noonan comparing himself to these two, it lends a kind of odd credibility to Bones by playing it off of The Dark Half and It. Further adding to that sense of credibility is a cameo appearance by Ralph (and mentioned in passing) Lois Roberts, the main characters from King's Insomnia, itself a novel of the ill-fated town Derry; there is also the Dark Score Lake connection with Gerald's Game, and many more, linking Bag of Bones to Dolores Claiborne, The Tommyknockers, Needful Things, and "The Sun Dog" (in Four Past Midnight). Michael Noonan's narration on the writing process and the publishing world makes one wonder how much of King himself is in Noonan, and how much of Noonan's experiences are autobiographical. According to King, "Bag of Bones contains everything I know about marriage, lust, and ghosts," and the last 300 or so pages of the book contain some of King's best writing to date. Bag of Bones is an incredible ghost story that will - at the risk of a bad pun - haunt the reader even after having finished the last page. This one is perfect for cold winter nights.