Hooked on Books

Introduction Excerpt:

"The telling or reading of ghost stories during long, dark and cold Christmas nights is a yuletide ritual which dates to at least the eighteenth century, and was once as much a part of Christmas tradition as decorating fir trees, feasting on goose and the singing of carols. During the Victorian era many magazines printed ghost stories specifically for the Christmas season. These "winter tales" did not necessarily explore Christmas themes in any manner. Rather, they were offered as an eerie pleasure to be enjoyed on Christmas eve with the family, adding a supernatural shiver to the seasonal chill. This tradition remained strong in the British Isles (and her colonies) throughout much of the twentieth century, though in recent years it has been on the wane. Certainly few in North America— in Canada or the United States—seem to know about it any longer. This series of small books seeks to rectify this, to revive a charming custom for the long dark nights we all know so well here at Christmas time."  

The Signalman is a short ghost story written by Charles Dickens. When a guest at a nearby hotel is out taking a stroll, he comes upon a signalman working at a train tunnel. They start talking and the signalman tells him that he has encountered a ghost several times warning him of dangers on the tracks and each time something has happened. He's worried because he just saw the ghost again while the man was visiting him and he's at a loss at what to do and hopes the man can help him.

The story is written in the old style language so it took me a couple of paragraphs to get use to it but once I did the style didn't bother me too much. As for the plot, it started out great and the story was very atmospheric but then the ending just fell completely flat. Even after reading the last paragraph several times, I'm not sure that I even actually understood it. It really had the potential though to be a nice little ghost story but unfortunately the ending wasn't very satisfying. It's not something I would recommend to anyone on the hunt for a good ghost story. 

*I received this ARC from Consortium Book Sales & Distribution and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

**I read this for my 2016 Halloween Book Bingo: ~Ghost Stories & Haunted Houses~ square