Peter Straub was inspired to write this book after reading Stephen King's Salem's Lot, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that King's inspiration for IT came from Ghost Story.

In my opinion, though, IT is vastly superior to Ghost Story for several orders of reasons:

1) the overall story is simply better: tighter, sharper, more engrossing, better plotted;

2) the characters are more lifelike and likeable: we have firsthand knowledge of all of them, even if one dies before the adult storyline begins in earnest, and so we have time to get attached to them, to worry, to grieve when necessary; the main characters of Ghost Story are either already dead before the story begins or die very abrupt and sometimes pointless deaths, in one case without having contributed anything of substance to the narrative;

3) the motivation that drives the Evil Force and the rules that govern it are much better laid out in IT, while in Ghost Story the whole thing seems at times rather arbitrary (why did she wait 50 years to come back for the Chowder Society as a whole but took a detour to harass one of the members' nephews? how it is that if she gets killed in human form she can shift to an animal body but if she gets killed in an animal body that's it? why does the former Eva Galli suddenly start to always go by the initials A.M.? was Viola Frederickson part of the whole thing?);

3-b) the Evil Force in IT is an universal concept, and relatable to all readers; the Evil Force in Ghost Story is, well, active female sexuality. The Chowder guys kill Eva, with which they are infatuated, because she makes sudden and unexpected advances on them. They do not act out of concern for their friend's well-being (her fiancé just died, it would be easy to assume she's acting out of shock): they are sincerely worried about the possibility of being corrupted by her because she dances wildly and takes off her shirt and tries to kiss them. While depressingly common, I don't think this is quite as universal a fear as the author seems to believe;

3-c) speaking of which, they are lucky that Eva turns out to have been a demon or whatever, because what Lewis did and they all helped cover up is DEFINITELY manslaughter, and it's a bit surprising to see the narrative not explore the fact that the characters seem to believe that the action that was taken (violently tackling someone and killing them in the process) was fundamentally justified as a reaction to, again, easily rebuffable sexual advances from a supposed friend that was believed to be in a state of shock;

4) none of the female characters act like people: they exist only in relation to men, with the possible exception of the two women who have a fight over canned pumpkin (but maybe it was their husbands who had a craving for it!). Their descriptions obsess over their physical appearance and sex appeal even in their own interior monologue. Ricky's wife is perfectly satisfied with her husband postponing the explanation about the events that almost resulted in their deaths until they go on holiday several months later. Their daughter's defining trait in her father's mind seems to be "overweight".

All in all a pretty disappointing read, mostly because I went in expecting a truly great novel. That said, it was engaging enough that I did read all 700-odd pages of it over three days, so three stars for entertainment value.

Huge disappointment. I was looking forward to reading this, especially because it came with such a glowing review from Stephen King. However, the more I read, the less I liked. I thought the characters were too archetypal (especially Stella and Sears), the plot meandered, and the fear - which was supposed to build up - never really took hold. At times I even found some of the characters intensely annoying. I was only interested in the story of Alma Mobley, but in the end, I even found that story pointless. :(

Giving up on it. I just can't go on. I don't care for any of it.

This book has been on a bunch scary book lists. Even Stephen King put it on his list of the best horror books. And yet... I didn't think it was scary at all. I think I need to accept that no fiction book will give me the scares I crave. In spite of that, I did enjoy Ghost Story. It had a surprising depth to it. I have been reading so many simple, straight-forward books lately that this was kind of refreshing. It is a long book though (which I don't always love), and at times I was like "WTF does this have to do with anything!" but everything made sense in the end.

I'd recommend it to anyone craving a long ghost story.

Reading ‘Ghost Story’ is similar to a chilly walk on a lonely path in woods for most of the book. The trees are bare of leaves and a cold wind blows ice down your neck. Far away a wailing wolf sings to the moon. The atmosphere seems vaguely threatening - but despite the creeping sensation crawling up your spine, there is nothing to see.

At least, nothing living can be obviously seen or heard, although as time goes on, dread begins to grow from suspicion to certainty. Something must be watching, following. That crawling sensation of eyes staring at your back is palpable, and every hair on your body is standing up...what was that sound? A whisper? A giggle?

*Hehe*

‘Most of the action in the book takes place in Milburn, which is an old-fashioned small town of old-fashioned values in rural New York. (Author Peter Straub’s book was first published in 1979.) Milburn is like many of the fictional towns in early Stephen King novels. There are one or three main streets, maybe one or five traffic lights, small mom-and-pop stores servicing rural people with large lots for farms and barns, and storefront townsfolk who provide professional services such as that provided by doctors, lawyers or accountants. Kids who run wild tend to do so acting out with petty thievery, vandalism, bullying, underage drinking. Everyone knows everybody.

A gothic undertone slowly breaks out more and more into the open as characters go about their lives in Milburn. Then, mysterious deaths begin to occur (after about two hundred pages), and everything going bad seems to have at the center of it all a small informal club, the Chowder Society, whose five members are respected men in their late 60’s and early 70’s. They usually meet twice a month for conversation and companionship.

Sears James, John Jaffrey, Lewis Benedikt, Edward Wanderley, and Ricky Hawthorne have known each since they were Milburn kids in the 1920’s. Some married, some didn’t, some had kids. They appear to be ordinary men - a doctor, lawyer, accountant, writer. An old tragedy has bound them together, but they never discuss this incident. They spend their social evenings together telling stories. But after the death of one of them one year ago, they change their ritual of general storytelling into instead telling a story of the worst thing that ever had happened to them. This is the moment when things seem to be going a little dark for them all, although the men refuse to take much notice upfront. The remaining four members are carrying on normally as far as they are concerned. Except for Ricky. Ricky feels it - oncoming darkness. The nightmares are getting worse, ever since Edward died. Is he the only one? No. Not, gentle reader. Something IS coming to get them....

Ghost Story’ is somewhat flawed, in my opinion. The first half is overlong and not really a horror story as it reads more like sort of a mild panegyric to small-town life, as well as a slow-moving domestic fiction. Readers get to really know how some of these characters are living every day - somewhat stereotypically but hey, that is reality too. Finally, after too many pages of ‘a day in the life of’ reveals, there is a sense of growing doom and gloom, some strange deaths, and periodic paranormal happenings which chill the blood! At this point, I was reminded of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’. I wish these gothic occurrences had begun sooner. However, the writing is always first-class, and once the deaths start, the horror definitely takes charge of your headspace. The last quarter of the book is gripping - like claws into your body....

;)

I think book experience can be driven to some extent of your preexisting thoughts. For Ghost Story I knew it was not only on most best of horror list but has been cited as one of Stephen King’s farorits , king is my most read and beloved authors so I had expectations that might resulted in confirmation bias. Had I read cold turkey my reaction might be different

I really enjoyed Ghost Story. I was expecting literary master work but what I got was a slow burn horror tale reminiscent of Salems lot and all time favorite. I have always loved forces of evil manipulating small town stories. Although set in late 70s it had a quaint 1950s vibe of wholesome town besieged. I really like the elderly protagonist. Older characters are often portrayed as generally needy or wise sages. Straub provides relative layers. Over 60 can be very attractive, stubborn, sexy, brave, stupid, etc. the “scary” scenes worked for me but had to lean in on vivid imagination. Jump scare are just not the same in print.

My problems that prevented me from loving were the pace. It is the slowest of slow burns. Narrative structure changing tense, and some flawed logic with evil antagonist that see all know all until they don’t.

I went in with high expectations, having heard the claims that Ghost Story is one of the best horror stories ever written. And sure enough, it starts very promisingly. The initial idea of a bunch of old men telling spooky stories to each other seemed intriguing, and the first story told was also if not scary, at least unsettling, which is good.

As I kept reading, there were more promising hints of things to come. Unexplained things happening, people seeing what the reader could only assume were ghosts etc. The characters are wonderfully fleshed out and seem like real people with real faults, which does admittedly make them a bit hard to root for, but hey -- not all good characters are good people!

Despite these nuggets of a good spooky book, Ghost Story never really went anywhere. The horror elements didn't go beyond hints of things to come and as the page count builds up, the book starts to drag in a major way. The tension doesn't keep rising, but instead settles at ankle depth while characters keep dropping off. Most disappointingly when everything was revealed, it was a massive, massive letdown.

I don't think the problem is in me having too high expectations, either. It's not like Ghost Story ended up being a good, if not spectacular experience for me. Instead it was a major disappointment. Competently written, of course, and with good characters, but very little horror to be found.

3.5/5