The Lit List – Ghost Writing

Top 10: ghost stories and tales of haunted houses

1. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. A gentry family experiences increasingly sinister events, as recounted by the doctor who grew up in the same village.
2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. A young solicitor is handling the estate of a recently deceased woman who lived isolated at Eel Marsh House. 
3. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Lonely Jack jumps at the chance to make something of his life by joining an expedition to a remote corner of Norway. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. As the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness, Jack fears he is not alone. Something walks there in the dark…
4. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. As President Lincoln mourns at the graveside of his young son, the cemetery’s spirit inhabitants speak out.
5. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel. A suburban medium gives solace to her clients, withholding the terrors awaiting them in the next world.
6. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The writing is on the wall for Eleanor and her fellow paranormal investigators.
7. This House is Haunted by John Boyne. A governess arrives at Gaudlin Hall to find her two new charges alone. Neither is willing to account for the absence of any adults.
8. Beloved by Toni Morrison. Sethe escaped from slavery 18 years ago. Now living in Ohio, she is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
9. The House of Leaves by Mark Danielowitz. A tattooist, an old man and a young family are drawn into the history of the house on Ash Tree Lane, a house which measures three quarters of an inch longer inside than it does outside.
10. Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Don Wanderley travels to upstate New York following the death of his uncle, where he discovers that the death is somehow related to a local men’s society and the ghost stories told by its inner circle. 

Bubbling under…

• Slade House, David Mitchell
• The Shining, Stephen King
• The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
• The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald

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