Haunted Houses by Robert D. San Souci
A collection of creepy tales. I like collections of short stories, but at the same time, they always feel so rushed. These tales are creepy, but they feel like a summary of a longer book. I will say that there are some illustrations throughout the books that help with the creepy feels!
Chimera House– 5 teens head to a haunted house. If you make it through all 5 levels you get your money back. What could be so scary?
Webs– Oh no! This one deals with spiders! I don’t love that. Danny and his family are staying at a summer home, and he keeps finding tons and tons of spider webs. This place is full of spiders! I would have been out of that place within minutes. I don’t have a phobia of spiders, but I am not a fan.
Dollhouse– Like the title suggests, this involves a dollhouse. A little girl finds a dollhouse in the basement of her new home. She sees some dolls in the dollhouse, a father and a mother. There is a room for a little girl, but where is the little girl doll?
Tea House– I was a little worried that this would upset my tea drinking obsession. There is an old, abandoned tea house in town, and there are a ton of stories about it being haunted. Of course, Larry and Kat make it their mission (mostly Kat) to explore it at night. I thought this one was going to have a bittersweet ending. I don’t know what the ending was. It did make me want to do a little more research into Chinese mythology or fables.
Dust Creatures– I was not a fan of this one. It really didn’t make sense. The two characters, two girls, are exploring an old house. Weird things started happening, but the thing that didn’t make sense was that there were times when they would begin to giggle. It was so odd, and I felt it just didn’t make sense for them to laugh. I thought more would be explained, but I guess it was nervous laughter. I don’t even know. It was just not a great story. I suppose you will always have a few stories that you just don’t like or get in any collection.
Many– Okay, this one was creepy. It did involve a Ouija board; nothing good comes from playing with a Ouija board.
The Lodge– This one was more sad than scary.
La Casa de las Muertas– Another one that was more sad than scary. Also, I thought the title translated to ‘the house of death’, and even in the story, they point out how close ‘mujeres’ and ‘muertas’ seem. It is actually The House of Women. I felt silly when I read that. But I’m glad they pointed it out!
Doghouse– This one does involve dogs, as you can imagine. Blake and his younger brother are visiting their uncle when they learn of a neighbor’s death. Blake has always had a knack for just ‘knowing’ things. Is it ESP? Seeing into the future? Something else? Anyway, Blake wants to help solve the neighbors’ murder, so he does a little exploring. He also starts to have dreams and visions that might be related to the murder. I really liked this one.
The Haunted Mansion– Two boys are staying at an Inn. They spend their time sharing spooky stories about all sorts of lore: whangdoodles, the monster Utlunta, the Gray Man of Hatteras, and pirates. One day, the boys decide to go in search of an old house that a pirate used to visit. This house is said to be haunted; no one visits, and no one talks about it either. The boys are looking to find ghosts and treasure! What will they find?
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