Hauntings in Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories

An unnamed narrator is plagued by guilt after he does something awful to his pet cat, but the feline is not about to let the narrator escape his punishment in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat.” This is the first story in Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories introduced and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. This collection is diverse with authors from different eras and stories that vary from the frightening to the ironic and funny.

In “Mezzotint” by M.R. James, a seemingly ordinary print of a house changes over time revealing a horrifying tragedy. “Honeysuckle Cottage” is a humorous take about the effects a haunted house has on a confirmed bachelor and is by P.G. Wodehouse who wrote the stories featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. The disturbing “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” by Neil Gaiman is about a young boy who is a little scared as he leads a man into the dark part of the house. Other authors included are Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling, Saki, Audrey Niffenegger, and Ray Bradbury.