If you're a horror fan, you will love these seven deliciously creepy tales featuring ghosts, cemeteries, suicides, murders, and other death-related themes. Most of the stories featuredeal with everyday teens in seemingly ordinary situations. But just as you think nothing major is going to happen, you may get a bone-chilling surprise from one of the many gruesome twists and turns. In the first story, "Drop by Drop," sixteen-year-old Brenda is very unhappy when her parents move her away from her friends and her life in the city. Worse, their new house in a small town appears to be haunted. In one creepy scene, a ghostly hand touches her through her waterbed mattress, and Brenda spends the night on the couch. Clues turn up: a missing little girl, a foul smell from the woods, a dripping ghost. But just when it seems that Brenda will solve the mystery, the truth comes out--and you may end up reeling with shock. In another story, a boy killed in Vietnam returns to haunt the father who forced him to enlist--or does he? In "October Chill," a terminally ill girl falls for the ghost of a teen from Colonial times. None of the stories are gory, but they're none too cheerful either! Vivian Vande Velde is one of my favorite authors, and she hasn't let down her fans with this macabre collection.
This book was great! I loved the short stories instead of long, boring, "scary" stories. I didn't think any of the stories were very believable, but I liked the 1st one the most. I'm not a big fan of reading but I enjoyed reading this book. It only took me 2 days to read it! I recommend this book for anyone to read. :)
ReplyDeleteThis book is not your typical "scary" story, or in this case stories. I think my favorite was October Chill. It was very romantic and sweet in a living-dead kind of way. They weren't very long, but that didn't mean that they weren't interesting. It took me less than a day to read and was one of the shortest, good read type book that I have read. I normally don't read short books because they don't hold my attention for long but this was quite the opposite. For those who usually shy away from anything remotely scary, I especially recommend this book. Anyone who needs something to do, I suggest getting this book, and curling up with a warm blanket and a warm drink. You won't be disappointed if you give this fantastic book a chance! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with the"October Chill" thing. It was my favorite, and the romance in it was interesting.
DeleteThis book was really good, I couldn't put it down. The first short story was my favorite! I loved reading short stories instead of long stories that got boring after a while. I would recommend this book to people who like to read scary and short stories.
ReplyDeleteI really enhoyed the book. i was always reading it where ever I was. In "The Ghost' I didnt find out until the end that the narrator was the ghost himself. I liked the fact that each story had a different point of view. In one story the narrator is the victim of a little girl that she had killed while driving drunk. The last story was the little boy being the ghost.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this book. I read it in 2 hours, because I couldn't put it down. Drop by Drop and For the Love of Him were definitely my favorite stories. Drop by Drop definitely was the most suspenful and For the Love of Him had the most emotions. Dancing with Marjorie's ghost was sort of slow. I didn't really enjoy how the stories consists of abuse. Really good book!
ReplyDeleteH2Gardo, I don't understand what you mean when you say, "how the stories consists of abuse." Could you explain it to me, please?
DeleteI liked this book, I even read it in two days but I found it to not be like the overview described. I knew it was a series of different short stories but they didn't reallly grab my attention. I would still give it a read though!
ReplyDeleteI really didnt like this book very much. it went to slow for me...
ReplyDeleteI disagree H2Wilkie. I think the book was outstanding and that the fact that it was broken up into stories made it a fast read. The first story was overall my favorite. It had a super surprising ending. I think that if you would have kept reading it, you would have really liked it.
DeleteI totally agree with you H2Wilkie. The book just wasn't very interesting and couldn't get into it. I was overall disappointed, because it was not very scary and it was very boring to me. It was just not something I would recommend.
DeleteThis book was a very enjoyable read. I like that it was made up of short stories, and even the short stories came in a variety of lengths. Each story had a slightly different topic on the theme of ghosts, and this helped it to stay interesting the whole way through. It wasn't really scary at all, in my opinion, but it still turned out to be truly satisfying and excellent. One of the biggest key components was the literary element of suspense, especially in the first story. Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty or excitement towards what is going to come, and it caused these stories to be definite page turners. I would definitely recommend "Being Dead" to anyone looking for ghostly tales and just simply a wonderful book.
ReplyDeleteI agree with W1mclaughlin, the story was a great read. I think the suspense in the first story was a really great aspect, it added a mystery to the ghost story which I thought made the story much more exciting as well.
DeleteI liked this book a lot, and my favorite story was "October Chill". The layout was kind of interesting, with all the different short stories in it. I'd definitely recommend this book to people who like ghosts.
ReplyDeleteI liked this book but it was a little cheesy and not as scary as I thought it would be. My favorite story was October Chill because of the unexpected ending. I was a bit disappointed because of the total lack of scariness I was expecting a lot more of this book. Over all it was good I both liked and disliked the short story lay out because some times the story would get tedious ,but I liked the short little reads.
ReplyDeleteThis book was insanely creepy! It was filled with suspense from beginning to end. For example, on the second page of the book, the phone rang and it wasn't even connected! Just that pulled me in and made me keep reading.
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree W1Shaw, I thought the book was really boring and I had to force myself to finish it. I thought everything was cheesy and predictable. I'm glad you enjoyed the book, but on the contrary I absolutely hated it.
DeleteI agree with W1Shaw the book was creepy. Especially the story of the dad that forces his son into the Vietnam war.
DeleteI thought this book was full of wonderful stories. I wished that there were more stories because even after it was finished i wanted to read more stories. I think my favorite story from the book was, "October Chill". The story was really interesting and enticing to read. I think my favorite part of all the stories as a whole was the different points of view, or being able to see the stories from different points of view like; third person, third person omniscient, and first person point of view.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a great book. I really enjoyed reading the different short stories instead of one long drawn out thing, but I guess I would've enjoyed the first story if it could've been its' own book and have been longer.(definitely a favorite) It was an all around book that provided great suspense from beginning to end. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not a very big fan of scary stories, but this book has made me change my outlook on scary stories! The first story captures my attention with the phone ringing and the last story made me mad when Demarco acted so rudely by stealing from a dead man! I think point of view was one of the biggest elements I saw in this book, because not two stories were told just a like! The book was definitely creepy, but in a suspenseful way! I would most certainty recommend this book to anyone who loves ghost stories or is willing to try them out like I did!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you W3McMahon because the first book really captured my attention when the phone rang. Also I completely agree that when Demarco stole that money from the younger boy it was rude! At the same time I thought that this book wasn't as creepy as you think it was. I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to try them out too!
DeleteWhile reading this book I was expecting it to be a lot more scarier than it was, but I still enjoyed it. My favorite of these seven short stories was the first one, "Drop by Drop", because I loved the plot twist at the end! I wasn't expecting Brenda to be involved with the little ghost girl. These short stories all had different characters which I liked because it was different from what I've read before. I also really enjoyed how quick of a read this book was!
ReplyDeleteI overall enjoyed these ghost stories. They were all chilling in their own way. Even though they weren't all that scary, I still enjoyed this book. If your a fan of ghost stories or just want a chilling read I recommend this to you.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this book. the first story was over all my favorite. The end of it was so surprising! I read the book super fast because it was divided into stories. I would give the book a 4 and recommend you read it.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't get any of the stories in the book. I don't know if it's just me, or what. The first story was unbelievably slow at the beginning. The book was nothing like I thought it would be at all.
ReplyDeleteThis book was definitely not the book for me. I thought the book was to cheesy and boring. Every time I started the book, it just seemed to get slower and slower. I was expecting more of a scary and horrifying book, but this doesn't even meet that. I wouldn't recommend this book.
ReplyDeleteThis book was the worst book out of the three we had to read. I thought it was very boring and it was hard for me to finish it. The reason why I read this book was because a friend recommended it to me saying it was "scary". Suspense, or the state of mental uncertainty or excitement, is supposed to be the main element of a scary book. This book wasn't suspenseful at all, it was really cheesy. In "Being Dead" Vivian made the stories to predictable; when the man danced with his wife, Majorie, I already knew that he and his wife would dance until he died it was quite obvious. Also I couldn't get over the disconnected phone ringing and a little girl asking for help on the other side, it was absolutely ridiculous and fake. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I really disliked it!
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