Category: Folktales

Fantasy, Folktales, Ghosties, Horror, Magical, Mythology, Short Stories, Victorian, World Literature

Christmas Ghost Stories

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

I’ve had a lot going on lately so my reading time has been limited. However, given the season, I thought I’d share a bit about one of my favorite things: Christmas Ghost Stories!

I’ve loved ghost stories since I was a child, and delved into the weird and wonderful Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmastime during an English class in college. Before the advent of radio and television, storytelling was a true art which thrived in wintertime when people gathered closely around the hearth for warmth during the darkest days. Tales of ghostly apparitions provided rich fodder for talented storytellers who entranced their listeners then scared the pants off them with a well-timed BOO! You can learn more about the tradition from History.com – https://www.history.com/news/christmas-tradition-ghost-stories

Some of my favorites are shown below…

My Favorite

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – the quintessential Christmas ghost story chronicling the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge after a night of facing three ghosts. Storytelling at its best!

For Young Readers

Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford – Spend Christmas in a mysterious house high up on a cliff overlooking the equally mysterious Nagspeake with a colorful cast of characters including the “raw nights” performers.

Fotinoula and the Christmas Goblins by R.G. Fraser-Green – Follow Fotinoula as she works feverishly to save her little sister from the fiendish Kallikantzaroi, the Christmas Goblins.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper – Young Will finds himself hunted by the mysterious and threatening horseman who threatens to bring chaos into the world. This classic is a must-read for fantasy fans.

Super-Scary Collections

The Mistletoe Bride by Kate Mosse – Mosse is one of the best writers out there today and here she turns her attention to traditional ghost stories from England and France, including the eponymous “Mistletoe Bride,” truly a gruesome and sad tale.

Christmas and Other Horrors: a Winter Solstice Anthology – The long nights in the darkest time of the year call for scary stories from Garth Nix, Alma Katsu, Tananarive Due, and others.

The Scary Book of Christmas Lore: 50 Terrifying Yuletide Tales From Around the World – Bone-chilling global tales of monsters such as the anti-Santa Krampus, the bloodthirsty ogre Gryla, and the Mari Lwyd (touched on in Greenglass House).

The Haunting Season – a shiver-inducing collection of tales from the English countryside.

Winter Spirits : Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights – original ghost stories from current horror writers Catriona Ward, Stuart Turton, Jess Kidd and more.

If you’re looking for something weird and a little twisted, check out these and other holiday ghost collections.

Merry Christmas!
Children's, Folktales, Magical, Middle Grade

Fotinoula and the Christmas Goblin by R.G. Fraser-Green

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

A thrilling battle of wits between girl and goblin in snow covered Athens…

Never forget how devious a Kallikantzaros can be. It will try to snatch Mirtoula. It will keep trying until it has her. And if it succeeds you’ll never see your sister again.

11-year old Fotinoula doesn’t believe her grandfather when he warns her about the Christmas goblins. After all, the Kallikantzaroi were just an old Greek myth. Creatures with blood-red eyes didn’t really climb up from the underworld during the Twelve Days of Christmas to steal little children, and certainly not in a busy city like Athens.

But Fotinoula soon discovers that some folktales have more truth to them than others. With her father away at sea and only an old book for guidance, she must summon up all her courage and problem-solving skills to save her little sister from one of these hideous creatures. In the process she comes to realise just how much her sister means to her.

This touching story weaves together Greek customs, music, food and history to bring alive a fascinating culture and a rather creepy festive folktale.

My Thoughts

I am often contacted by independent authors or publishers asking me to read and write about their book. Sometimes the books are not great, sometimes they are just okay, and sometimes they are absolutely wonderful. Fotinoula and the Christmas Goblin is one of the latter.

Cultural folklore has fascinated me for about as long as I’ve been reading but I’d never encountered the Greek legend of the Kallikantzaroi, or Christmas Goblins. Fraser-Green has taken that ancient legend and woven a story that, at its core, is about family – specifically sisters.

Middle grade readers who are interested in exploring folklore and ready for a scary story will appreciate the short chapters, well-paced, action-filled plot, and accessible language. The author does a skillful job of building the tension as Fotinoula herself comes to understand that the Kallikantzaroi are real and her little sister is truly in danger.

This is available on Amazon’s KindleUnlimited and in paperback form. If you’re looking for something fresh and new, give this one a try.

Publication Date: 2020
Published By: FotaPress
Thanks to the author for the review request

 

Family, Folktales, Suspense, Teens

Rick Riordan Presents: It Waits in the Forest by Sarah Dass

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

The very first thriller from Rick Riordan Presents! Drawing from the darkest corners of Caribbean mythology, acclaimed author Sarah Dass crafts a chilling tale of magic, murder, and how far we’ll go to protect what’s ours—perfect for fans of Angeline Boulley and Tiffany D. Jackson.

Unlike the other residents of the small Caribbean Island of St. Virgil, Selina DaSilva does not believe in magic. With a logical mind and a knack for botany, Selina used to dream of leaving the island to study Pharmacology—until a vicious, unsolved attack left her father dead and her mother in a coma.

Now her guilt over her mother’s condition keeps her tethered to the island, relegated to conning gullible tourists with useless talismans and phony protection rituals. But when one of those tourists ends up at the center of a string of strange murders, the truth that Selina has been denying can no longer be avoided: there is evil lurking in the forests that surround St. Virgil. Another thing that can’t be avoided? Selina’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel, newly employed at the local newspaper and eager to put his investigative skills to use.

Desperate to put an end to the killings and claim justice for Selina’s family, these two former lovers race to find answers. But evil bides its time. And as long-buried feelings and long-hidden secrets about Selina’s family’s past begin to reveal themselves, only one answer remains—and it waits in the forest.

My Thoughts

A Rick Riordan and Sarah Dass collaboration produces a dynamite book? Shocker, I know.

This is everything I expected and more. It’s an ancient trope at the heart of the story, but Dass drapes the old “selling your soul” skeleton with plenty of modern dress. There are some great plot twists and one really terrifying underwater scene near the end that only further reinforced my irrational fear of swimming in anything but a pool with a defined bottom.

The Rick Riordan Presents series has introduced me to so many new stories from world folklore. This one is another winner.

Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Published By: Disney Publishing Worldwide
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Family, Fantasy, Folktales, Magical Realism, Mystery, Teens, Young Adult

Under the Heron’s Light by Randi Pink

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Inspired by stories about the real-world Great Dismal Swamp, this dual POV Young Adult fantasy by Randi Pink explores alternate history, a family’s supernatural connections to the swamp, and the strength that comes in knowing your roots.

“Four thousand six hundred forty-two steps in,” Grannylou interrupted. “You remember that now, Baby. Four-thousand six hundred forty-two steps to paradise.”

On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher’s son—so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on their heels, the four siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, amid the biting moccasins and pitch-black waters, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp’s natural—and supernatural—protection.

Three-hundred years later, college student Atlas comes home to North Carolina for the annual Bornday cookout and hog roast: a celebration of the fact that she and her three cousins were all born on the same day nineteen years ago, sharing a birthday with their Grannylou. But this Bornday, Grannylou’s usual riddles and folktales about a marvelous paradise deep in the Great Dismal Swamp start to take on a tangible quality. Change coming.

When Dismal calls, sucking Grannylou in, it’s up to Atlas and her cousins to uncover the history that the black waters hold. Centuries of family tension, with roots all over Virginia and North Carolina, are about to be dug up. Because Babylou and Grannylou are one and the same, and the power she helped cultivate hundreds of years ago—steeped in Black resistance, familial love, and the otherworldly mysteries of the Great Dismal Swamp—is bubbling back up. But so is a bitterness that runs deep as the swamp’s waters. And some are ready to take what they feel they’re owed.

My Thoughts

This is a complex, absolutely gripping novel that crosses genres to create one of the best stories of the year. Pink introduces plenty of southern Black folklore regarding the Great Dismal Swamp, and does a fabulous job of incorporating original takes on traditional folklore to create an unusual and authentic world of magic.

However, this is also a story about family – connections, betrayals, unshakable love, protection, and redemption. It is a book that requires the reader to pay attention and be fully immersed in the story – coming eye to eye with moccasins, feeling the black water of the swamp pool over your feet and the mud squish beneath you.

Pink does some extraordinary storytelling here that will both challenge and engross the reader. If this doesn’t become a movie or series, I will be very disappointed.

Highly recommended.

Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Published By: MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Fantasy, Folktales, Magical, Magical Realism, Mystery, Mythology, Women, World Literature

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, or life force, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.

A young woman is found frozen in the snow. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes involved, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and men. Bao, a detective with a reputation for sniffing out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family that owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments, but not the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. Now the only grandson of the family is twenty-three. When a mysterious woman enters their household, their luck seems to change. Or does it? Is their new servant a simple young woman from the north or a fox spirit bent on her own revenge?

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about a winter full of mysterious deaths, a mother seeking revenge, and old folktales that may very well be true.

My Thoughts

This is my first 5-star review in awhile. This book gets ALL the descriptors: mysterious, lovely, heartbreaking, satisfying, lyrical, deadly, and so many more.

Ah San (or Snow) and Tagtaa are characters I will remember for a very long time. Both driven by love for family and loyalty to friends and lovers, they drive this story forward as one seeks revenge and one seeks to protect. The complicated relationships that connect the two women and Bao are intricately plotted and beautifully rendered.

The writing here is some of the best I’ve read in a long time and the story grips you from the first page forward. I feel like this would be amazing in audiobook form and will look for that in the future.

I will be purchasing a print copy of this for my own shelves (which rarely happens!). Highly, highly recommended.

“Beware: once you start, you may not be able to put it down!”
—Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of Independence and The Last Queen

Publication Date: February 13, 2024
Published By: Henry Holt & Co.
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

British, Folktales, Magical, Makes You Think, Mythology, World Literature

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock is trying to make sense of the world. Living alone in an old house, he spends his time reading comic books, collecting birds’ eggs, and playing with marbles. When one day a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears on a horse and cart, offering a cure-all medicine, a mysterious friendship develops and the young boy is introduced to a world beyond his wildest imagination.

Luminous, evocative, and sparely told, Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth, folklore, and the stories we tell ourselves.

My Thoughts

I picked this book and put it down twice before I decided to really dig in. It’s a short book – 152 pages – it should be a quick read, right?

Nope.

Treacle Walker is a captivating blend of myth & folklore, and a thought-provoking treatment of sight (and all it means), healing, and age. But this is not an easy book to read. For starters, it’s written in dialect which took me some time to understand. (I was reminded of the first time I read A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh.) And this is not a superficial book. It is layer upon layer of story and observation, which takes some concentrated reading.

I’m finishing a year of mostly soft reading where I’ve read stories with linear plots that end with positive resolutions. It’s been that kind of year where reading was an escape. This one is anything but soft.

The thing that pulled me in and kept me reading was when I realized the catalyst to the action was derived from one of my favorite childhood folktales involving ointment that when applied to human eyes allows you to see the faerie world all around you.

The concept of a person seeing things that “aren’t there” is something I’ve struggled with especially in my professional life over the last few years as we’ve seen more and more library visitors experiencing mental health crises. People seeing the world in different ways is a real thing and Garner beautifully communicates all the emotions Joseph experiences as this happens to him – his fear, frustration, confusion, and curiosity drive the story.

This is especially poignant as we reach the end, where Joseph becomes the one to make the world a’right again. He says tearfully “I’m only little. I’m only little.” But he has done a thing that is really big. He’s changed and grown despite the challenges.

There’s so much to unpack in this book. I haven’t even talked about Treacle Walker himself, who is certainly an allegory for time and aging. This would make a fabulous book discussion selection for a group really willing to bite into the text and chew on it.

Publication Date: 2021
Published By: 4th Estate London

Folktales, Ghosties, Historical

The Lady in White: a Tale Set in Rochester by Zachary Finn

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

In the fall of 2015, PhD candidate Jason Green made his way to the decrepit Hotel Celeste hoping to conduct an interview of disgraced historian Richard Dawdson, an academic with once unlimited prospects who had disappeared from the tenure track with enough drama to have become an urban legend himself within the department.

The conversation that followed would not be cited in any dissertation, but here, for your consideration, is the tale Dr. Dawdson told that evening.

This is her story.

My Thoughts

Anyone who has lived in Rochester NY certainly knows the local legend of The Lady In White who haunts Duran Eastman Park. Legends and stories about ghostly “White Ladies” abound in local folklore all over the world. Rochester’s White Lady is a grieving and vengeful mother looking for the men who murdered her daughter. Accompanied by ghostly hounds (another common trope in world folklore), she roams Durand Eastman Park on the south shore of Lake Ontario, looking for revenge.

Zachary Finn has taken that old legend and fleshed it out with a well-researched and imaginative story that draws on quite a bit of Genesee Valley and Rochester history. He imagines what happened to Mary Browncroft, the aforementioned daughter, leading up to the event that essentially resurrected the spirit of her mother.

Finn immerses the reader in mid-19th century Rochester when the Spiritualism Movement was at its height and the Fox Sisters were demonstrating their psychic abilities on stages all over the region. Our protagonist, Mary, eagerly attends these sessions, hoping to make a connection with her departed mother. At one of the events, Mary’s own psychic abilities come forth when a murdered boy talks to her from beyond the grave and identifies his killers. Mary passes this information on to the law, which results in a series of events that end very tragically.

Finn starts and ends the story in the present time, with the present day protagonist seeking out a disgraced scholar who holds the key to this story. Both time periods are knitted together to form a cracking good ghost story. Rochester natives will recognize lots of landmarks and names, and will certainly know the White Lady legend.

Highly recommended for fans of local lore and legends.

Children's, Fairytales, Fantasy, Folktales, Magical, Women, Young Adult

Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

The start of a swoony, high-energy duology that Emily Lloyd-Jones, author of The Bone Houses, calls “reminiscent of classic fairytales yet brimming with a charm all its own.”

“A world of glimmering fae that sparkles with mystery, adventure, and enchantment.” —Andrew Joseph White, New York Times bestselling author of Hell Followed with Us

Iselia “Seelie” Graygrove looks just like her twin, Isolde…but as an autistic changeling left in the human world by the fae as an infant, she has always known she is different. Seelie’s unpredictable magic makes it hard for her to fit in—and draws her and Isolde into the hunt for a fabled treasure. In a heist gone wrong, the sisters make some unexpected allies and find themselves unraveling a mystery that has its roots in the history of humans and fae alike.

Both sisters soon discover that the secrets of the faeries may be more valuable than any pile of gold and jewels. But can Seelie harness her magic in time to protect her sister and herself?

“Housman’s stunning debut is the sort of love letter only an autistic author could write. Fae canon has been waiting for this one.” —H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King

My Thoughts

The author provides an informative and thought-provoking introduction to Unseelie where she discusses what it’s like to be a changeling. Ivelisse Housman, you see, is autistic. She presents an interesting case for the changelings – those unusual beings well-known in folklore as fairy children who have replaced human children – having been children with autism whose differences made them part of folklore.

In Unseelie, Housman has created a character who is different. Whose differences are acknowledged by her family, if not fully accepted, and who is loved unconditionally. Iselia or Seelie as she is called throughout the book, doubts herself and feels responsible for bad things that happened to her family. In Housman’s hands, though, Seelie becomes powerful as she accepts who she is and what she can do.

The story follows many of the familiar themes in folklore – there’s a quest, a treasure, and a band of misfits who battle powerful forces. There is also a strong theme of family and friendship which provides the backbone upon which the story is built. And this is a cracking good story – imaginative, clever, and full of vivid description.

This is a beautiful and powerful story that will surely appeal to fans of fantasy and folklore of all ages. Appropriate for upper middle grade and older.

Publication Date: January 3, 2023
Published By: Inkyard Press
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Fairytales, Fantasy, Folktales, Magical, Romance

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.

My Thoughts

This was exactly the book I needed in place of the negativity out in the real world right now. Heather Fawcett has given us a fabulous heroine who inhabits a world many of us fantasy fans only dream of – scholarly study of faeries. I mean, who wouldn’t love that job??? There’s no suspension of disbelief here. These things are REAL!

Fawcett’s writing is peppered with high-level vocabulary that incredibly flows through the text without bogging down the narrative. She tosses out words like “inchoate” like candy left as offerings for the fae. Main character Emily Wilde is delightful. She knows who she is and she definitely knows her value, even if she’s socially awkward. It’s refreshing and comforting to find a character who isn’t perfect and who lives in her skin no matter how odd that feels sometimes.

The only thing that keeps this from being a 5 star read for me is the goofy and IMHO unnecessary romantic entanglement that happens in the last half. However, I expect that will appeal to fans of romance/fantasy of which I am not one.

UPDATE: I’m re-reading this for a book club and I have to admit that my previous statement was off the mark. The relationship between Em and Wendell is, indeed, the very heart of the story. They seem to understand each other in ways others cannot, and I have begun to suspect that Emily may indeed be more than she seems.

Otherwise, this is a supremely fun read. I look forward to more of Fawcett’s stories.

Publication Date: January 10, 2023
Published By: Random House Publishing Group; Ballantine, Del Rey
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Fantasy, Folktales, Horror, Magical, Women

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

In the tradition of modern fairy tales like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver comes a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore—a debut novel about the ancestral hauntings that stalk us, and the uncanny power of story.

The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive a mysterious inheritance, the siblings are reunited—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs. 

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home in Russia—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.  

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is an immersive modern fantasy saga by a bold new talent.

My Thoughts

This is a remarkable story. Loosely based on the old Russian tale of Baba Yaga and full of symbolism, this tale will haunt you. Nethercott’s protagonists – brother & sister Isaac and Bellatine – are challenged to resolve trauma through generational memory as they inherit the infamous Baba’s house on chicken legs along with an age-old enemy out to destroy the house and those connected to it.

There are so many layers to unfold here – lots of references to Jewish history, family trauma across generations, magic and mayhem, and ultimately the power of story and the bond between family members.

Lately, I find my attention often wanders when I read, and there are few books that I’m unable to put down. This is one. The story is so intricate and beautifully rendered. IMHO, Nethercott immediately joins the ranks of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden with her glorious and deadly prose and an absolutely stunning story.

Publication Date: September 13, 2022
Published By: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group: Anchor
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy