Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Featuring Ghosts

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! With Halloween tomorrow, this week is a holiday freebie! I did witches last year, so this year I'm going with books that have ghosts!




Beloved: This book is a masterpiece and the way Morrison uses the ghost character is incredible and if you haven't read it already you should immediately.

Sing, Unburied, Sing: This felt very much like it was positioning itself as "in the tradition of" Beloved, for me, but without quite the skill or level of success. It's a good book, and goes into some different places, but a comparison to Morrison's masterpiece is unlikely to be flattering to anyone. 


The Inferno: They're not quite "ghosts" per se, but Virgil as Dante's guide and the shades the two encounter in hell are a huge part of this amazing work.


Lincoln in the Bardo: I felt definitely echoes of Dante in this deeply weird but very good book, especially in the contrapasso-esque disfigurements the spirits were saddled with.


The Shining: I'm not big into horror as a genre usually because I am easily frightened and have a vivid imagination but this book managed to keep the scares relatively low-impact (even the very malevolent ghosts) and told a compelling story about addiction to boot. 


The Lovely Bones: Susie isn't really a ghost, but she's a disembodied spirit and at one point possesses someone so I think that's close enough.


Stardust: The growing collection of ghostly princes of Stormhold are kind of a side plot in this fantasy adventure, but the way the brothers come up with to murder each other are honestly kind of delightful.


Rebecca: The titular first wife of Maxim deWinter does not literally appear during the story, but the way her influence continues to haunt her widower, his home of Manderly, and his new wife is so pervasive as to be effectively present. 


Harry Potter: For something a little more lighthearted, the house ghosts and Peeves the poltergeist and Moaning Myrtle are a vital part of this beloved series.


Spook: And a nonfiction take on ghosties! I love Mary Roach and this exploration of whether there's any scientific evidence for communication with the afterlife has her trademark curiosity and humor.

10 comments:

  1. Of these, I've read Rebecca, The Lovely Bones, and the Harry Potter series. Great choices! I'm also easily scared, so I avoid scary movies and books, though a friend made me watch The Shining once. I'm still a bit miffed at her for that, all these years later. So creepy!

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    1. I actually love The Shining, both the book and the movie! I actually read the book more as a story about addiction and the way it can fracture a psyche, and Shelley Duvall is so weird in the movie that it kept me from taking it too seriously!

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  2. I loved Rebecca, and I enjoyed The Lovely Bones, too, although I haven't read it in years!

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    1. Rebecca is SO GOOD. And one of the few cases where the movie does it justice.

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  3. I've been wanting to read Stardust for a while...

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    1. It's amazing! I've revisited it on audio more recently than actually re-read it and it's super (if you like audio, I'd really recommend it, Gaiman does the narration!)

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  4. Pretty much all of these are on my TBR list. I did like The Shining, Rebecca, The Inferno, and Harry Potter. Great list!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. Rebecca is one of my favorites I've read in the past few years!

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  5. I'd completely forgotten about the ghostly princes from Stardust! And you're right, they're delightful. The whole book is just fun.

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    1. It's what got me into Neil Gaiman...I'm glad I didn't read American Gods first or I might have thought he was a little dry

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