Walls of Fear

In this anthology of 16 stories, Kathryn Cramer has assembled a wide mix of original fiction about haunted houses. Sometimes it is the homes themselves that are haunted, and sometimes, it is the people that are haunted by the homes. Some of the stories are more traditional-ghost ridden, horrific- but many of the stories are more psychologically based. Though every anthology has its good and bad stories, only one among the group Penelope Comes Home by M.J. Engh seemed to be a `clinker' in my eyes, the only story the book could have done without. It's not a bad story but it is a 50 page long story that could have been written easily in 15 pages so it drags on much more than I prefer. The rest were quite good and well worth reading. The stories are: ***Out of Sight, Out of Mind by Jack Womack ***Takes from a New England Telephone Directory by James Morrow -(this story is great!) ***Firetrap by Greg Cox ***The Art of Falling Down by Jonathan Carroll ***The Cairnwell Horror by Chet Williamson- (One of the most horrifying stories I've ever read) ***Erosion by Susan Palwick ***Happy Hour by Ian Watson *** The Haunted Boardinghouse by Gene Wolfe *** Inside the Walled City by Garry Kilworth (So creepy, this is one of those stories that stays with you after you're done reading it) *** Grandmother's Footsteps by Gwyneth Jones *** Madame Enchantia and the Maze of Dream by Jessica Amanda Salmonson *** Slippage by Edward Bryant *** The House on Rue Chartres by Richard A. Lupoff *** House Hunter by Sharon Baker *** Penelope Comes Home by M.J. Engh *** Cedar Lane by Karl Edward Wagner So if you're looking for something to keep you up at night and make you wonder if the sounds of your house settleing are that or something far more sinister, then this is the perfect book to reach for. Just don't be surprised if you have to have a bit of light in order to go to sleep, if for no other reason than to better see what your house may be up to when it thinks you're not looking...