This is a fantastically varied and haunting collection. With a fair number of long stories, untraditionally formatted stories, and shorter works, there's something here for every lover of ghost stories and horror stories. I normally prefer more traditional works, but even so, some of the more experimental forms here made me fall in love with their stories, which I never would have expected. I think my favorites ended up being "How the Trick is Done," "The Last Sailing of the 'Henry Charles Morgan' in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw', "How to Host a Haunted House Murder Mystery Party," "Exhalation #10," "The Nag Bride," and "The Ghost Sequences"--but in all truth, I really did enjoy this whole collection. A number of the stories here (some mentioned as my favorites) felt like whole worlds, and could easily be novels in themselves if Wise wanted to extend them.

Either way, she created such a complete world in each of these stories, and there was so much variety, I simply fell in love with this book. I look forward to reading more of her work, and would recommend this one to any lover of horror stories or ghost stories. ( )

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

The Ghost Sequences is A.C. Wise’s collection of short stories. Most of these have been published somewhere previously, such as magazines or anthologies (there is a complete list at the end of the book), but they all have one thing in common; they’re all based on the theme of “ghost”. When I went into this book I was expecting a certain type of collection, namely hauntings because after all that is what a ghost story is, right? By the time you’ve finished The Ghost Sequences you’ll realise like me that there is so much more to that theme, to the word ghost that we already know, yet we don’t really consider.

Wise has considered it, at great length and the title of this short story collection, “The Ghost Sequences” is perfect. If I was reviewing this book simply based on literally and creative licence I would give this a five-star rating, however, I’m not reviewing it in a critical or academic way. I’m reading it as a reader, and from that perspective I felt that some of the stories missed their mark for me personally. On the one hand, I loved the ways Wise was experimenting with writing, on the other I just didn’t connect with it as a reader.

For example, ‘The Last Sailing of the “Henry Charles Morgan” in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841)’ is a story told through museum pieces that have been curated. As the daughter and granddaughter of two men who loved nautical history, this brought back a lot of great memories of walking through nautical museums with them. Likewise, as an Art History, and Information and Library graduate, I appreciated the way Wise chose to use history and information to tell her story. However, something fell flat in the actual story telling. A for effort and imagination, but in execution there was just something missing.

In comparison, a later story in The Ghost Sequences, ‘How to Host a Haunted House Murder Mystery Party‘ is another unconventional piece by Wise and hit the spot perfectly for me. The thing about short story collections and anthologies is that not everything will resonate with every reader, and that’s ok. There are some fantastic stories in here, and the way that Wise draws out the true meaning of what “ghost” means, of what being “haunted” means, will keep you thinking for a long time. The Ghost Sequences is a lot like the cover of this book; you won’t look at it the same way once you’ve seen it.


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Michael Kelly at Undertow Publications certainly has an eye for authors of speculative fiction whose short stories make for great collections. Elsewhere on this blog I have reviewed I Would Haunt Youif I Could by Seán Padraic Birnie and To Drown in Dark Water by Steve Toase, both of which were published by Undertow and made a lasting impact on me. To these must now be added The Ghost Sequences by A.C. Wise, a volume of sixteen tales which run the gamut of speculative fiction, from fantasy to horror (folk and otherwise) with echoes of classic ghost stories.
The title piece which closes the collection, is a good example of A.C. Wise’s style, which reinterprets common tropes and presents them to the reader anew in beautiful language and unusual formal structures. For instance, this story is, in essence, an art gallery’s description of a themed exhibition prepared by four artists, alternating with their personal account of the events leading up to the exhibition. Through their respective media, the artists express the theme of ghosts and hauntings. This turns out to be an unexpectedly dangerous subject when dark forces are unleashed by the unwitting artists.

There are other pieces in this volume which rework tropes of classic Gothic tales, for instance The Stories We Tell About Ghosts and How to Host a Haunted House Murder Mystery Party, a semi-comic meta-fictional set of instructions on how to organise (or, perhaps, write a story about) a party meeting all the genre elements which horror fiction and film have accustomed us to.

Indeed, in Wise we often sense a preoccupation both with other artforms (particularly visual ones) as well as popular culture. The title story is a case in point, but one could also mention Exhalation #10, (originally published in Ellen Datlow’s Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles) about a gruesome snufffilm of sorts and Excerpts from a Film (1942-1987). In the End, It Always Turns Out the Same is a dark Scooby-doo send-up. The Secret of Flight combines extracts from an imaginary play with epistolary exchanges about the mysterious disappearance of a leading actress. I Dress My Lover in Yellow concerns a cursed work of art, and although originally published in a volume of Lovecraftian tributes, its fevered imaginings reminded me particularly of the atmosphere of Chambers’ The King in Yellow (perhaps the reference to the colour in the title is no coincidence).

How the Trick is Done and The Men in From Narrow Houses both deal with the world of magic shows and magicians. Unfortunately, I’m not really into their more fantastical, surreal style and, given that the volume opens with the former story, I was initially concerned that this collection was not for me. If, like yours truly, you are more into mainstream supernatural fiction, albeit presented in novel and original ways, fear not and read on – there are plenty of stories which fit that description, including the brilliantly creepy folk-horror piece The Nag Bride, which is original to this collection.

I haven’t mentioned all the stories in The Ghost Sequences, nor can I do justice to them in this brief review. But I must find some space to also credit the amazing cover design by Vince Haig, and the cover art by Olga Beliaeva, based on a photograph by Serge N. Kozintsev, which stunningly complements this set of eerie tales.



Here is the full list of featured stories:



How the Trick is Done

The Stories We Tell About Ghosts

The Last Sailing of the “Henry Charles Morgan” in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841)

Harvest Song, Gathering Song

The Secret of Flight

Crossing

How to Host a Haunted House Murder Mystery Party

In the End, It Always Turns Out the Same

Exhalation #10

Excerpts from a Film (1942-1987)

Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story

I Dress My Lover in Yellow

The Nag Bride

Tekeli-li, They Cry

The Men From Narrow Houses

The Ghost Sequences

4.5*

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