Review of ‘Real Ghost Stories: True Tales of the Supernatural from the UK’ by Tina Vantyler

Do NOT read this book at bedtime. It’s truly terrifying. I enjoyed it but I was genuinely scared, because these stories are encounters with ghosts as told to the author, who has written them up in very compelling short chapters. If the stories were fiction, they wouldn’t be the scariest. It’s their presentation as ‘true tales’ which makes them particularly spine-chilling and that some of the narrators do not seem to be the sort of people who would believe in ghosts. Some of the spooks in this book are benign, while others are evil. There is an interesting variety of locations and situations, from Blitz victims seen on the Tube, to a glove worn by an invisible hand who stalks a woman on a country walk, to a haunted old sewing box, to a girl standing on her grave on the anniversary of her death. One of the stories in particular was so frightening that I go cold every time I think of it even now. I almost wish I hadn’t read it.

This book is the first in a series. I know I shouldn’t read the others… but I probably will.

Independently published in 2021.