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342nd out of 474 books
—
576 voters
The Two Sams: Ghost Stories
In the title story of this unique collection a husband struggles with the grief and confusion of losing two children, and forms an odd bond with the infant spectrals that visit him in the night. "Dancing Men" depicts one of the creepiest rites of passage in recent memory, when a boy visits his deranged grandfather in the New Mexico desert. In "Mr. Dark's Carnival," a colle...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
September 14th 2003
by Carroll & Graf
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Jun 10, 2012
Bill Kerwin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Mary
Shelves:
weird-fiction,
ghost-stories
Glen Hirshberg's ghostly tales are firmly in the tradition of the literary short story These are disciplined short works of plain style and poetic detail in which credible characters experience suitable revelations. and the narrative efficiently reaches a well-executed (although never melodramatic) climax. You will find no whiff of pulp horror here, and yet you will indeed find much to disturb and to terrify. Henry James, Edith Warton, Walter de la Mare and Robert Aickman once did wonders with t...more
Dec 20, 2011
Thea
added it
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Yep, that's right, folks. I'm giving this book of short stories zero stars. It was terrible. I felt that there were good ideas in some of the stories, but the execution was lacking.
I was clued-in by the intro by Ramsey Campbell, which went on, and on, and on, and on, and ON about how wonderful these stories are and what a great writer Glen Hirshberg is. Campbell was trying awfully that hard to convince readers of this book's greatness, and that right there raised a r...more
Yep, that's right, folks. I'm giving this book of short stories zero stars. It was terrible. I felt that there were good ideas in some of the stories, but the execution was lacking.
I was clued-in by the intro by Ramsey Campbell, which went on, and on, and on, and on, and ON about how wonderful these stories are and what a great writer Glen Hirshberg is. Campbell was trying awfully that hard to convince readers of this book's greatness, and that right there raised a r...more
****1/2
Glen Hirshberg has written one of my favorite novels of recent years, "The Snowman's Children," but I've just now gotten around to checking out his short stories. "The Two Sams" didn't exactly take me by surprise, having read the very dark, very sad "Snowman's Children," but it did startle me a little just by how creepy and unsettling the stories are.
There are five of them, and they're all creepy, shadows-and-haunted-house-type ghost stories. Which isn't to say you've already read these s...more
Glen Hirshberg has written one of my favorite novels of recent years, "The Snowman's Children," but I've just now gotten around to checking out his short stories. "The Two Sams" didn't exactly take me by surprise, having read the very dark, very sad "Snowman's Children," but it did startle me a little just by how creepy and unsettling the stories are.
There are five of them, and they're all creepy, shadows-and-haunted-house-type ghost stories. Which isn't to say you've already read these s...more
You won't find any vampires, werewolves or other traditional monsters in Hirshberg's horror fiction. You'll barely even find horror in The Two Sams. What you will find are five stories laden with human sorrow and a palpable atmosphere of dread. These stories are not so much written as they are crafted. You can practically see Hirshberg's professorial, academic fingerprints on every carefully sculpted line of text. The five stories collected in The Two Sams quietly wrap you in a cloak of uneasine...more
Hirshberg's novel The Snowmen's Children, a genuine, bracing remembrance of a childhood terrorized by a serial killer targeting children in the narrator's neighborhood, surprised me when I read it a few years back. I wasn't expecting much from this new champion of horror fiction. The genre, except for a few glaring exceptions, and they are blindingly glaring, is a bit of a joke, and most books disappoint, not only on the horror level, but also from a basic storytelling level. I've read absolute...more
In the title story of this unique collection a husband struggles with the grief and confusion of losing two children, and forms an odd bond with the infant spectrals that visit him in the night. "Dancing Men" depicts one of the creepiest rites of passage in recent memory, when a boy visits his deranged grandfather in the New Mexico desert. In "Mr. Dark’s Carnival," a college professor confronts his own dark places in the form of a mysterious haunted house steeped in the folklore of grisly badlan...more
I've been dancing back and fourth on how well I liked this and decide that the style was what made it stand out. It was much more literary than most ghost stories I've read. I found this approached worked well. It was chilling at times and thoughtful at others. There is a nice mix of range in the stories, my personal favorite was Mr. Dark's Carnival. I think what is neat is that the style will make it more suited to readers of all types of work rather than just pinning it in the horror genre.
I read this when it first came out. I had found it while browsing the San Francisco Library. I loved it. I couldn't remember the title (until tonight) and have wanted to read it again! Yay! This book is a gem!
Out of the five stories here, I only really enjoyed the title story. The others seem that they'd have more potential impact had they not been clothed in genre. Fortauntely, Hirshberg's writing is competent enough to keep me reading, so I may check out one of his novels in the future.
Five short stories of varying power. The second, Mr. Dark's Carnival, is one of the best ghost stories I've ever read.
May 05, 2012
Andrea
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
My husband
Recommended to Andrea by:
My husband
I originally had trouble reading the first story, couldn't get into it. I took a break from it and read a different book. Came back to The Two Sams and really enjoyed the three middle stories. I did not like the last story however I think most people will. Glen writes with a lot of detail so the visions in my head were vivid. The 4th story "Dancing Men was the one that freaked me out the most.
Aug 09, 2007
Eric
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Ghost story buffs, horror fans not interested in gore.
This is probably the best collection of horror stories I've read in a long time. While the stories seem "high brow" and literate, they still carry a chill about them. And yet, the mass slaughter is traded for more of a quiet, implied sense of doom. Hirshberg relies on atmosphere, but his stories are definitely not dry. My favorites are "Struwwelpeter" and "Mr. Dark's Carnival", although I'd say that "The Two Sams," the title story, hit me hardest.
Specifically, The Dancing Men. Creeeeeepy and awesome and Golem-y. The Two Sams is also horribly creepy.
A fabulous collection of spooky short stories. Probably even more fabulous--Glen was my first creative writing instructor, back in my college days! He was a great teacher, and an all-around cool guy, and it's so terrific to see his success!
Hirshberg seems to have a little trouble with muddiness in a lot of his endings, but "Mr. Dark's Carnival" is pretty much the only ghost story ever to make me yell aloud as I read. The guy is brilliant.
I enjoyed the collection of stories as a whole, however, the second last one was just not for me. It was a good, fairly quick read.
Not horror per se, more a collection of melancholic and eerie stories. Mr. Dark's Carnival is good for those into haunted houses.
May 21, 2013
Vicky
marked it as to-read
May 08, 2013
jorycat
marked it as to-read
Apr 13, 2013
Moomuk
marked it as to-read
Apr 05, 2013
Rosy Misra
marked it as to-read
Mar 31, 2013
Ashley
marked it as to-read
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