Book Review: "The Haunted Library" ed. by Tanya Kirk

Full Title = The Haunted Library: Tales of Cursed Books and Forbidden Shelves edited by Tanya Kirk

To be too impressionable is as much a source of weakness as to be hypersensitive: so many messages come flooding in upon one another that confusion is the result; the mind chokes, imagination grows congested.

- The Whisperers by Algernon Blackwood

The British Library Tales of the Weird is an anthology I am very interested in. I've read many across the years and I've even ranked my favourite ones in a list. I might updated it soon, but for now, I think I'm pretty much correct. Apart from the British Library's Crime Classics series, Tales of the Weird allows for me to re-read older, more familiar stories whilst also encountering new and exciting ones. The best anthologies are a blend between old and new, showcasing that the theme is pretty continuous throughout the history of horror literature. Let's see where this one stands then...

The book opens with an antiquarian styled story in the fashion of MR James (well, I believe they have some similarities anyway). The story is titled The Devil's Manuscript by S. Levett Yeats and centres on the character of John Brown, a publisher of questionable morals. John Brown is visited by a figure only known as M. De Bac and he tells Brown that he can provide a manuscript that will make him a rich man again (Brown had since gone bankrupt). The strange figure offers to fund the publication in order to make Brown a wealthy man again. Honestly, Brown is already a sketchy character from the beginning. There are hints and clues to his "past crimes" and what really caused his bankruptcy (I'm not going to say too much here, don't worry). It is so well written and concealed that it definitely keeps the reader guessing about the true nature of our main characters - both our morally grey protagonist and strange 'friend'.

A story I enjoyed was called The Whisperers by Algernon Blackwood, mainly because I am quite familiar with it. When Mike Ashley compiled his anthology of stories by Algernon Blackwood, I reviewed it and found The Whisperers to be one of my favourites in there. A slow-burn horror story that stands at around 10 or so pages long, Blackwood's claustrophobic narrative creates huge amounts of atmosphere. We have at its centre, an 'imaginative writing man' named Jones and all of these ghosts and oddities surrounding him. I don't want to give too much of the story away but it is truly fantastic and one of my favourite Algernon Blackwood stories. If you haven't done so already, please check it out even if you think you don't like slow-burns. It goes much deeper than what is seen on the surface and definitely begs the question of whether an imaginative and bookish mind can drive itself insane with wonder.

Another story I found quite interesting regarding whether someone can drive themselves insane was W.S by LP Hartley. A spooky story about an author named Walter Streeter who receives postcards from a person with the same initials as his own. W.S claims that the author doesn't understand his own characters, critiques his writing style and choices of words and drives the author insane. Streeter eventually becomes paranoid and verges on a mental breakdown as the postcards become more and more personal, getting closer and closer with each step. That is, until W.S appears in a confrontation of personal darkness. I thoroughly enjoyed the implications of this story - it felt like I was constantly being tricked and I couldn't guess the ending. The trick is not to be so obvious about it. It all makes sense in a weird sort of way. It genuinely left me wanting to turn back a few pages and read the whole thing again, if not just to see what I had missed.

All in all, I enjoyed this anthology thoroughly because not only does it explore the world of literature and libraries, it also lets us into the horror stories that we have perhaps let go unknown. There are so many great stories in this anthology but the ones I have picked out are, in my opinion, the best of the bunch.