AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: Casting the Runes and other Ghost Stories by MR James
Doing research for ghosts I looked up scariest ghost stories to see what popped up that I want to cover. The name M.R. James kept showing up in lists.
He’s a very well respected author from the late 19th-early 20th century. Most of his work with ghost stories shows up in the early 1900s. James began what is now called “antiquarian ghost stories”. James abandoned the high “Gothic” cliches of what was then the presiding style of ghost stories and set his stories in a more contemporary setting. He also generally used a protagonist that was a naive or very reserved scholarly gentleman who had found or come into possession of a mysterious object that drives the crux of the story.
There have been several collections of James’ ghost stories, so I picked one that had the most variety but also one that included several that were generally considered his best. Hello Oxford World’s Classics edition.
In this collection, the main ones I wanted to read were Casting the Runes, Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, and A Warning for the Curious. I also planned to cherry pick a few others depending on how much I liked what I read first.
So, I read the stories, what do I think? Honestly, the stories just didn’t grab me. There’s some interesting things James is doing, but none of them connected with me. I read the story, liked the setup, but nothing ever creeped me out or scared me. I came in fully expecting to be terrified of these stories but…nope. Nothing. I think James is a good writer, but for whatever reason, these just didn’t punch those specific creepy buttons for me. I was more scared when I reread those old Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books than I ever was here.
This is a shame because I really was excited to read these stories for some good creepy fun.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
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