Books to Die For

Brian Keene's THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER

The second half of our two-week ghost book duo is a world away from Will Storr's investigative, extensively researched tome, but no less compelling. Brian Keene's THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER treads on the side of memoir-style meta-fiction, with the type of haunting that anyone who has ever felt haunted will recognize - and perhaps that's why this book clicked with me. I was once a diehard sceptic until I encountered something scepticism couldn't square away. THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER is all about the things we can't square away - both supernatural and concrete. And that's why ghost stories have such power, because unlike vampires and werewolves and zombies which couldn't scientifically exist, ghosts are a more nebulous phenomenon, and such a widespread one it's hard not to think there might be something to them. 

I visited this part of my life, and Keene's book, in Library of the Damned in Rue Morgue #136
THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER is a largely autobiographical novella-length ghost story, that offers both an intimate look at the pitfalls of being a full-time writer and a completely non-sensationalized account of a possible haunting following a fatal accident at the end of his driveway. Truly fascinating stuff, which not only reminded me of the startling similarities between seemingly authentic hauntings (someone's violent death, cold spots, things that only children and pets see, etc.), but also of the year I lost my own scepticism - the year of the haunted apartment. 

Ghost stories were scary before that, but they were much scarier afterwards. Over my twelve-month occupancy - during which time I witnessed a light fixture fly unaided from a wall, cold spots no space heater could overcome and once awoke to the ceiling collapsing in a perfect rectangle over where I slept , among other weirdness - I came to vividly understand that when things cannot be explained by any ordinary, rational means, there only remains the extraordinary. Like Keene, I questioned my sanity, at least until the day the police called and informed me the previous tenant, a woman my age, had been raped and murdered in the bedroom and a prosecutor needed to tour the unit. After that, I became a hesistant - though still science-minded - believer, and moved out the day my lease expired. (For the record, I haven't experienced anything like it since.) 

For me, that's what gives ghost stories much of their power, the idea that hauntings could very well be real. Consider it: almost everyone knows someone who claims to have seen/experienced a ghost, and they don't just bubble up out of some lunatic contingent. Keene relates his through a slightly fictionalized series of diary entries, which are as concerned with the personal, mental journey that something like this takes a person on, as with the instances the spectre seemingly greeted his toddler, set stationary toys in motion and did other seriously spooky shit.

If you're reading this thinking, 'Monica, you've finally lost it.' I don't blame you, but I do implore you to check out THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER and, last week's book, WILL STORR VS. THE SUPERNATURAL. If you're a sceptic, I guarantee you'll come away from these books with a few new nagging doubts. And if you're not, you'll probably be creeped out by them all the more. Happy uneasy reading!
THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER can be purchased digitally on Amazon for less than $2.