Ghost Story

By: Peter Straub

Narrated by: Buck Schirner

Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub’s classic tale of horror, secrets, and the dangerous ghosts of the past...

What was the worst thing you’ve ever done?

In the sleepy town of Milburn, New York, four old men gather to tell each other stories - some true, some made-up, all of them frightening. A simple pastime to divert themselves from their quiet lives.

But one story is coming back to haunt them and their small town. A tale of something they did long ago. A wicked mistake. A horrifying accident. And they are about to learn that no one can bury the past forever...

©1989 Peter Straub (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

A good story, but not scary enough

I appreciate the literary merits of this book more than I did the first time I read it. I find Buck Schirner's performance immensely less grating than the first time, and in fact I think it suits the material very well.
But I didn't find the story scary!
Not in the individual episodes, or in the broader plot.
A lot of it is creepy, and the atmosphere can get spooky and unsettling, but it's not enough scares for how much story there is.

A great classic for winter season.

Even though it’s horror, I find a lot of comfort listening to this story because I like the characters and their complex relationships, trying to save their small town.

My Story

What I didn’t like it was the same narrator, I think it should have had different narrators for each character.

I would recommend this book for people who like to read about mystery and ghost stories .

I gave it the rating because I would have like to heard different narrators.

Brilliant horror!

Genuinely scary with so many twists and turns, you never know what’s going to happen until the end!

Interesting story but bloated + not great narrator

Title says it all - could have really been great but ruined by excess bloviated storytelling by the author and a lackluster narration.

Awesome story

Very well written and very well performed. A gripping adventure. Worth reading or listening to a second time.

the perfect distinction

The story is engaging and swift. Buck Schimer, as narrator, brought personality and life to each character. I enjoyed this writing very much.

Very suspenseful

Great book. Lots of twists and turns and very scary! A great ghost story! I loved it.

Ghost Story Review

3.5 Stars rounded up.

Whenver I finish a book it usually takes be only a few seconds to determine my rating for it. Ghost Story on the other hand took about 30 minutes for me to decide what to rate it.

The book starts out following a man who has kidnapped a girl. Honestly i thought about burning this book after the first two pages. Thankfully I kept reading because after the first chapter it jumps back a couple of years.
The story then follows a group of four old men who tell eachother ghost stories once every two weeks. From here the stories progresses at a rather steady pace and I found it a very enjoyable read.

The plot is well fleshed out and very entertaining. I found it similar to Salems lot in that the town is very well developed throughout the story, many characters are involved and the heros must join up to kill the monster. Eventually we come back to the opening scene and the events all make perfect sense.

But I did have several drawbacks with this novel which prevented me from giving it a full 4 or even 5 stars. The first is that almost all of the characters are detestable and having an affair. Leaving only a few likeable characters reminiscent of a Stephen King novel. These pointless affairs and vulgarity greatly retracted from the quality of writing and added far more to the story than was neccessary. Secondly one of the main Characters, Don, gets a backstory that is about fifty pages too long most of which is filled with boring, pointless details. If the affairs and lengthy backstory had been removed or just shortened the book could have been 100 pages shorter and a more enjoyable read.

Overall I found Ghost story to be a good book and a great October read despite having select poor qualities.

This was a struggle.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I'll say up front I didn't finish it. I know this is considered a classic story, but for me it wasn't very ghost-y and it seemed disjointed.

Would you ever listen to anything by Peter Straub again?

Possibly, but I will find out more about the story first.

Any additional comments?

I thought the narrator did a good job with character voices and keeping a steady pace.