I don't read a lot of horror literature so I didn't have a lot to compare this book against. But I liked it a lot. The book had a bit of a ghost story meets cyberpunk feel in many places. It was also quite eclectic in the sorts of supernatural horror it contained. ( )

Enjoy getting lost in a good book? Well getting lost in this one could prove fatal.

Jeremy Dyson has been asked to fictionalise true accounts of the supernatural and so we are introduced to a book of deliciously creepy stories, personally introduced by Dyson. A homage (as he says in the intro) to the scary books of his childhood. There are unsettling modern hauntings and hidden crimes, disappearances, terrifying
meetings with other selves, desolate moors and secret government bunkers. Then of course they start to bleed their themes into the authors reality and then .. and then they .. well um.. hmm.. lets just say this is not a book to take to bed it is a book to be constrained in a locked bookcase in case it gets out.

It's wonderfully written, with a lovely mix of tales and almost, but not quite, too clever for its own good. It incorporates good old fashioned horror with a modern spin and it knows its genre. Knows exactly how to worm its way into your head. I couldn't put the book down and this is while I was truly, utterly freaked out (note to self: do not read this alone in the house & never visit Library basements).

If you are not a sensitive soul like me there is still much to like here, much to appreciate not just the stories
themselves but the unusual, fun narrative. Horror aficionados as much as meta fiction fans will lap this up. If there is anything else out there like it I would love to know.

Highly recommended. ( )

What unspeakable horror glimpsed in the basement of a private library in West Yorkshire drove a man to madness and an early grave?

What led to an underground echo chamber in a Manchester recording studio being sealed up for good?

What creature walks the endless sands of Lancashire's Fleetwood Bay, and what connects it to an unmanned craft washed ashore in Port Elizabeth, nearly six thousand miles away?

In 2009 Jeremy Dyson was contacted by a journalist wanting help bringing together accounts of true life ghost stories from across the British Isles.

The Haunted Book chronicles the journey Dyson, formerly a hardened sceptic, went on to uncover the truth behind these tales.


Love this review from the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-haunted-book-b...

It's traditional to present ghost stories with an authenticating framing device: the dusty diary, the old newspaper clipping, the aged man who relates a terrible experience.

The shtick here is that a journalist, Aiden Fox, who writes a column about true ghostly encounters, has proposed a collaboration to Jeremy Dyson, the co-creator of The League of Gentlemen; he provides his extensive source material and Dyson will write up the stories as fiction. Dyson, or should that be "Dyson", accepts, and vows to visit all the locations. But that is just the start of the game.

The 10 stories which comprise The Haunted Book explore the conventions and tricks of the form, although some have no ghost at all. We begin with a straightforward haunted house yarn. A young man is taunted by calls from a disconnected telephone; but it seems that the clue lies in his own psychosexual make-up. The sense of a link between a character's sexual life and his supernatural experience intensifies as the book goes on, and is one of the unifying features of the collection. Another is the way that "Dyson" himself becomes a haunted figure, as he roams around the country following Fox's leads.

"A Wire with Gain" concerns the surviving (heh, heh, heh) members of an Eighties band, Zurau, who reunite to complete an album in the very studio where one of their number had a horrible experience. The recording terminology of the title becomes an elegant metaphor for time passing and opportunity lost.

After four tales, the book turns into a replica of a 1978 title, This Book is Haunted, within which lies perhaps the most terrifying tale, "Tetherdown Lock". The spirit of the writer Robert Aickman – much admired by Dyson – presides over all (one of Zurau's songs is named after an Aickman story). Aickman also ties sexuality and coercion in some of his creepiest tales. The last two formal tales, which purport to come from yet another source, "A Book of Hauntings", make this link explicit with a Leeds library haunted by a porn fiend, and a series of sex crimes out on't moors. But there's one more surprise for the reader, in the final, coal-black pages.

The Haunted Book sets out not merely to entertain, but to embody a creeping menace in the text itself. The trompe-l'oeil cover is just the start of the fun. Open it if you dare ….
( )

Warning: contains plot spoilers

The book begins with a preface by the author, explaining how, since childhood, he has harboured a fascination with the supernatural, both in physical (seeing a Hand of Glory, for example) and literary form. One of the books in his collection filled him with such an irrational fear that he couldn’t bear to sleep in the same room as it, and had to remove it prior to going to bed. Growing into an adult, he became a sceptic, as most adults do, but his interest was reawakened by a journalist (Aiden Fox) contacting him to see if he wanted to turn Mr Fox’s collection of real-life supernatural accounts into a work of fiction. Intrigued, Jeremy Dyson accepted and went about travelling the length and breadth of England to visit those places, thereby hoping to find inspiration for the evolving stories and recreating the guide-type nature of his childhood book that was able to exact such a powerful fascination on him. Some of the stories are preceded by a brief introduction where the author shares his thoughts and a growing sense of unease with the reader.

The first impression of the book is that it is beautifully produced, made to resemble a battered old tome with old-fashioned font and embossed front cover, complete with stains, invoking the impression that therein are dark and dangerous tales to be found. The second thing that struck me was that this seemed an intensely personal book, the author recreating those lost childhood days and experiencing almost a kind of catharsis by writing it. His writing, especially in those, what appeared to me, one-on-one exchanges, is very engaging, and I felt myself being drawn in. The stories themselves are a bit hit-and-miss, some starting promisingly but then fizzing out, whereas others start rather innocuously and then turn very eerie indeed, but common to all of them is a sense of dread or unease along the way. Roughly halfway through the book, the author suddenly devises what I can only describe as the literary equivalent of a Matryoshka nesting doll, and the result isn't entirely satisfactory, even if the unexpected ending somehow (with a lot of goodwill) makes sense. I begrudgingly changed my initial, less favourable impression of the book after a fair amount of reflection, as I think one has to admire the skill and sheer inventiveness and originality of it, even though I still feel slightly annoyed at having been thus manipulated. I also don't like that the ending seems a little bit too clever by half, and I imagine Jeremy Dyson smiling a rather smug grin and giving himself a congratulatory clap on the back, not the best impression an author wants to leave behind after the final page has been turned. I fully expect that this book will leave readers divided: some loving and some loathing it; but the bottom line is that only your opinion counts.

(This review was originally written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.) ( )

Having been disappointed by some of Dyson's earlier works, the stories in this book were a relief in how well written they were. It's more reminiscent of his stage play, Ghost Stories, which ranks as quite possibly the scariest thing I've ever experienced.

It's hard to review the book as a whole without spoiling the ending. The conceit is not complicated, but prior to it's revelation I admit there were elements of the structure I found frustrating, and I was pleased to realise this was deliberate. However, I felt the ultimate revelation was a little self-congratulatory, and though it broadly worked the details were overcomplicated and there was a thread of literary snobbery in it that I didn't like.

This is far and away my favourite book of Dyson's, and I'll probably reread it at some point. ( )