Girls & Ghosts by Anne Michaud
Publisher – Fox Spirit
Published – Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £2.99 Kindle ebook
Five girls, five ghosts. Five tales of hauntings and secrets. In this collection Anne Michaud brings us empathy and horror. Never underestimate the anger of the dead or the resilience of the living
As regular visitors to the blog know I’m quite a fan of Anne Michaud’s short stories and have reviewed her two earlier Fox Spirit collections earlier this year. They are often dark tales that put young teenagers in situations that may appear familiar to regular horror fans but I am hugely impressed by the general focus on empowering the female characters and not making them victims. Pleased to report this collection of five ghostly encounters is just as good. In this collection we have: -
Cursing at the Stars – This is quite unusual as we have a main character Ina who is not a sympathetic character. We find her someone suffering the loss of their legs in hospital, but we also find out that she was a drunk driver who killed those in the car she hit. I have a soft spot for stories that make us understand why someone is the way they appear to be. Michaud skilfully unpeels the anger, shame and despair that led to the fateful night and adds in that there is a eerie sense that Ina is not always alone. Ina has to learn or fail to own up to her actions and the repercussions of them but despite the dark places it goes it ends on a potential note of hope.
Strings Binding My Doll – Sukhi is a young woman living in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina living with her mother and Grandmother Maw-Maw. Sukhi starts to see strange shadow men and realises she is part in a long line of women in her family who have to stand up to the darkness out there. Not quite working for me as it felt a little too predictable.
Melancholy of Souls – this is a hugely inventive tale of an America where the souls of the dead can be captured, sold and used for entertainment or science. Mackenzie and her father lost their mother to cancer, but they also know that someone gathered up her soul after death and are on a dangerous road trip against powerful forces trying to stop them. I loved how we have a government where effectively the Ghostbusters have gone corporate and evil and seeing people use actual spirits to create haunted houses and horror movies is a fantastic concept but as always there is some beautiful bittersweet emotions that captured me and this was my favourite tale in the collection.
Giving Up the Ghost – Sophie in this tale in another unlikeable lead. She is incredibly sarcastic; doesn’t mind lying to customers or family in their little antique store and yet again we start to understand her if not always be on her side. Her father is re-marrying and she finds out she is actually adopted, and her birth mother has responded to a letter. This though is a background to a potentially haunted house and photograph that itself has dark secrets. The ghost story here is a big mystery but Sophie’s growth in the story and learning who she is was the main attraction and I lived the nuanced character development even if by the end I still was not entirely approving of Sophie’s actions.
Soul Ashes – This is a very strong end to the collection. A young woman is brutally murdered by US soldiers in Afghanistan. Her spirit survives and she decides to travel back to the US with her killer for revenge. But she finds the worst thing that could happen to the killer is already happening. This story has an interesting path. It shows revenge be it attacking those in another country for the actions of a few or trying to torment a family with a dying child is ultimately horror. In this story all the living suffer and its only by learning to let go there can be ever any release. Hauntingly beautiful.
