The Burning Baby and Other Ghosts

by John Gordon

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564020673
• ISBN13: 9781564020673
• Release Date: October 1993
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 16 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 11

Customer Reviews

Out of the fire, under the ice

My heart sank when I saw "A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age" printed on the back of this book, because ghost stories aimed at teen-agers are for the most part, boring. But this British author reminds me of Ramsey Campbell without the dense psychology, but with the increasingly macabre wind-up to the story's gut punch. The only things 'teen age' about "The Burning Baby and Other Ghosts" are the ages of most of the characters, and the shortness of the book--only 112 pages long. I would have preferred something the size of a Stephen King triple-decker, because this author has a keen sense of the macabre, and his stories menace the reader from page one onward. "The Burning Baby"--An auto mechanic treats the local kids to a huge Guy Fawkes night bonfire in an attempt to incinerate the corpse of his pregnant girlfriend. Rather like the 'utburd' of Scandinavian myth, something crawls out of the fire. "Under the Ice"--This story plays on my recurrent nightmare of drowning. The author went to school on the east coast of England, and the bleak and lonely fens are the setting for this tale of ghostly vengeance. "The Key"--A young man tries to lure his girlfriend into a mansion haunted by the ghost of a suicide. "Eels"--An old woman is caught stealing at a bingo game. However, that's not the worst crime on her conscience. No one yet knows that she drowned her granddaughter. "Death Wish"-- Young love turns to death rather than sex. The local rector's son takes his girlfriend on a tour of the graveyard and church belfry. Then she makes the mistake of staying overnight in the rectory.