“Ghostoria” by Tam Francis is a collection of 12 short stories that range from horror/suspense/supernatural and a range of time periods from modern to turn of the century. Even though, Francis describes her collection as “vintage romantic tales of fright”, I also recognized a thread of southern gothic underpinning each of the stories. She has the amazing talent to create unique and complex characters you’d like to follow for hundreds of pages. I was amazed at her versatility and found myself reading from the point-of-view of a ghost in one story or teenagers in another story. No matter where she takes the reader, you find yourself a guest in her worlds and imagination…if you’re brave enough to follow.
If you were ever a fan of Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, or looking for something to read to family around the campfire, I would highly recommend this tome of unique lore.
I’m going to mention a few of my favorite stories, but I urge you to buy the book and find out for yourself why Tam Francis is a writer to keep your eye on.
“Long Way Home” reminded me so much of Ray Bradbury’s voice and theme in his book ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ – two boys on the brink of manhood, free spirits in an age of innocence, whose worlds are shattered with a brush with evil. When I read Bradbury’s book, I remembered the anticipation and foreshadowing that builds throughout the story. This is a talent Francis also has in each of her stories, where I was on the edge of my seat trying to out-guess the plot and always ended up surprised. In Francis’ story, the boys take a shortcut through the cemetery and encounter death in its most tempting form.
My absolute favorite story is “Roadside Passenger”, which reminded me so much of a Twilight Zone episode, in that a woman picks up a suspicious crying hitchhiker with a promise to drive her down the road. I can’t reveal too much, but I loved this story so much!!!
Ghostoria is a delight, the perfect book for the upcoming chilling months of winter. I confess that I grew up fearing ghosts. The best Casper cartoons notwithstanding, the stories of Lovecraft and Poe are the ones that affected me. Reading a book of ghost stories isn’t something I rush to do. In fact, I had to be led story by story by the author herself through the tales in Ghostoria as she presented them to our weekly writers’ circle to critique. Not without some kicking and screaming on my part, the stories won me over. I met Mrs. Francis’s first ghost as a cynic and said good bye to the final one as a fan. The book is darned good collection of entertaining stories. Good enough that I plan on making gifts of Ghostoria to some of the readers on my Christmas list.
