It’s no secret that I’m a
huge fan of ghost stories, especially well-written, evocative, psychologically astute
ones. Susan Price’s collection Hauntings ticks all three boxes, and more
besides.
The ghost story, at least
if it’s to be done well, isn’t an easy form to master. (Having written a few
myself, some of which were more successful than others, I can speak from
experience.) The ghost story is often categorised as a sub-genre of horror, yet
usually contains few of the over-the-top theatrics that characterise a much
more showy kind of horror. The ghost story, instead, relies on the slow,
careful evocation of place and mood and a mounting sense of dread or
uncertainty, followed by the careful, controlled release of tension. A good
ghost story, it’s fair to say, is a great deal easier to read than to write.
Price, however, knows exactly
what she’s doing, and the stories in this collection are an unqualified success.
These are tales set on the curious, queasy border between this world and
another, a border which may or may not exist only in the mind (this uncertainty
is partly what lends the ghost story it’s curious power, perhaps). Most of them
are set, very recognisably, in more-or-less contemporary Britain, and yet they
allow us to experience another world and time. An old farm, slowly being
swallowed up by urban sprawl, seems to coexist with another dimension, which is
also perhaps in danger of disappearing. A young woman lives another life
through her dreams. A terrorised victim of school bullies finds that she can
have her revenge – at a price. A fraudulent medium experiences something truly
unearthly. The tensions and power play of an ordinary marriage attract, or
create, a supernatural force.
What anchors these stories
and makes them so believable and powerful is that they are set in a realistic,
tangible world. It’s a world of suburbs and pubs, farms and industrial estates.
The characters too are real people: they speak in local dialect, behave as everyday
people do, and often seem to be way too down-to-earth to be afflicted by
supernatural happenings. So when the supernatural arrives it seems all the more
urgent and real, and all the more unsettling.
Though these stories will
almost certainly send a shiver up your spine, they are not primarily horrifying.
They are rooted in folk tales, folk history, and legend. Like many ghost
stories, they are often also curiously comforting – that death might not be the
end has always been a seductive idea, which is perhaps why ghost stories were
dreamed up in the first place. In one particularly memorable moment in one of
the stories, a witness cannot bear to look: not, as you might think, because he’s
scared, but because he can’t bear the thought that there might be nothing there
after all.
These are ghost stories just
the way I like them: stories that suggest that, just beyond the realm of
ordinary perception, there is another world; and that, sometimes and in some
places, the veil can be lifted, and that world can be glimpsed or experienced.
This may or may not be true, but it’s a powerful idea; and that power is
channelled carefully in Hauntings, and crafted to create these
marvellously-realised tales. If you like ghost stories, you’ll love this.
To buy Hauntings, go to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.
