Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories

In this spine-tingling anthology, readers meet a girl who bargains for her sister’s life in Seanan McGuire’s “Must Be This Tall To Ride.” Justice for a murdered woman comes from beyond the grave in “About the O’Dells” by Pat Cadigan. Four artists work the supernatural into their mediums and unlock a door that should have stayed closed in “The Ghost Sequences” by A.C. Wise. Bracken MacLeod depicts the lengths an old woman will go to not to be alone in “The Loneliness of Not Being Haunted.” This collection includes these and other ghost stories by best-selling authors, such as Richard Kadrey and Nathan Ballingrud, as well as original stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Tremblay, and Alice Hoffman. VERDICT Captivating and utterly creepy, this is a book to curl up with by the fire on a stormy night—just hope that the lights don’t go out.—Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., PensacolaTremblay, Paul. Growing Things and Other Stories. Morrow. Jul. 2019. 352p. ISBN 9780062679130. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062679147. HORRORThroughout this anthology, Tremblay (The Cabin at the End of the World) tackles a range of mysterious subjects. From the title story about two young girls “Growing Things” in their basement to “Something About Birds,” in which a journalist interviews a novelist whose writing becomes all too real, the author invites feelings of unease. Other stories include “It’s Against the Law To Feed the Ducks,” told from the perspective of a five-year-old vacationing with his parents when an unnamed catastrophic event causes other vacationers to disappear suddenly and “The Teacher,” in which a video shown in class disrupts a student’s mental well-being. Tremblay’s unsettling prose, filled with poetic metaphors, sets an ominous tone, and readers will be sucked in from page one. His unnerving creations leave just enough room for readers’ own imaginations to fill in the gory details.