Vivian Vande Velde proves here that she can do humorous horror (as in Companion of the Night) and scary horror. I made the unfortunate mistake of reading Being Dead at midnight after watching “Ghost Ship”. It kept me awake until six in the morning, when I finally dropped off from exhaustion and suffered some very strange dreams.
Being Dead is comprised of seven (lucky number?) stories, each of which shall be reviewed in turn here.
Drop by Drop
A ghost story somewhat reminiscent of the Twilight Zone (and for some reason of the Stephen King book Salem’s Lot, but that may be because I was reading it at the same time as Being Dead). It wasn’t the best story I’ve ever read, but Velde did a respectable job of making her readers’ opinions on the death of the ghost-girl change as Brenda’s do. By the time you find out what really happened, you’re weirded out enough to be ready for it. The one thing that annoyed me was Brenda’s first contact with the ghost…while interesting, it had no place in the rest of the story because that mode of contact didn’t follow the patterns of the rest of the appearances and had to be somewhat awkwardly explained away by Brenda at the end of the story.
Dancing with Marjorie’s Ghost
An entertaining and predictable ghost story modeled after camp stories…repetition of key phrases, stock characters, and themes of a “last dance” and vengance. I don’t know what the common connection is between ghosts and dancing, but I see it more than often enough. Not a particularly excellent piece of writing, but it was a noble effort at redoing the “scary story” and as always I enjoyed seeing someone get his comeuppance.
Shadow Brother
One of the better stories in Being Dead as far as storytelling goes. Sarah’s brother, Kevin, is killed in the Vietnam war and her father (A WWII veteran who got into many an argument about war with Kevin) claims to be haunted by Kevin’s vengeful ghost. Interestingly, the story is built so that you the reader can’t definitely know one way or the other: has Kevin become a spirit bent on killing his father, or is Kevin’s father so overwhelmed by grief that he’s hallucinating? Did Kevin’s father feel guilty that he hadn’t allowed Kevin to hide in Canada, or that he had survived WWII and had a whole life ahead of him while Kevin’s battle with the Viet Cong was his last? More a venture into the grief and trauma of the Vietnam War than into the world of the supernatural.
The Ghost
A hilarious story with a twist ending. The simple group relating of the story behind the ghost is easily forgiven thanks to the wonderful twist ending, which made me laugh out loud (at one in the morning nonetheless, and I’m surprised I didn’t wake anybody up). I was a little confused by the last sentence, because the detail of the garden hadn’t been mentioned before and just baffled me, ruining a great ending to a very funny story.
For Love of Him
While it had a very interesting premise, this story was easily the worst in Being Dead. It was too short, too obvious, and too unproductive. No ends were achieved. Nothing even happened, for the love of God. The morbid love story between Robert and Eulalia was good, and seemed to me almost like a variation on the ballad of “Frankie and Johnny” (one of my favorite American folk songs). Harrison’s suicidal moment was disturbing and well-written. However, everything else was useless and the inclusion of Mr. Sonneman as a plot device felt very forced. Skip it.
October Chill
Ah…the worst story in Being Dead is followed by one of the best. October Chill has no twists and no surprises. You see every movement of the plot in advance and the ending is not a shock. The biggest confliction of ideas you may experience is whether the ending is happy or sad. But that’s alright. Because the story isn’t dependant on a twist ending, it doesn’t matter. Emily, the main character, is easy to sympathize with even if you don’t like her. She doesn’t whine about her situation and her thoughts dealing with her impending death are understandable. The ghost, John, is likeable and I felt very sorry for him. The end, which I saw coming, was both chilling and warming and made me wonder “was it really better that way?”. This isn’t a ghost story with a love theme, like Dancing with Marjorie’s Ghost or For Love of Him. It’s a love story with a ghost in it, and the fact that Velde doesn’t try to force it to be both allows for a comfortable pace and a predictable but still wonderful conclusion.
Being Dead
The title story was both a touching and amusing note to end the collection on. Unfortunate newsboy Johnny is crushed under a rather corpulent businessman who lost all he had in the stock market crash and decided to jump out a window. Johnny becomes a sort of poltergeist, trying to get his former employer to give the money that was stolen from Johnny to Johnny’s mother. Johnny’s trial-and-error approach to the afterlife is incredibly entertaining, even in a story that by the end is serious and sweet.
With one very weak exception, Being Dead is one of the best collections of original ghost stories that I’ve had the pleasure to read.
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