Review: Krampusnacht: Twelve Nights of Krampus

The Christmas season in America is popularly portrayed as a jolly, gaudy time. But in old Europe, with its long history of dark, cold winter nights and thick, spirit-haunted forests, darkness has always walked hand-in-hand with light at Christmastime, evident in the numerous goblins, witches, wild men and child-snatching devils that prowl the Yuletide night.

In recent years one of these monsters- goat-legged, long-tongued, devil-horned Krampus- has made the voyage across the Atlantic to be warmly embraced by a small but significant number of American Christmas revelers. Krampus originally hails from Germany, where he accompanies St. Nicholas on Christmas Eve. While the kindly saint gives presents to good children, Krampus punishes the naughty with beatings from a bundle of switches, or sometimes even takes the worst away in a basket.

To celebrate Krampus’ growing popularity in the States, editor Kate Wolford and World Weaver Press put together an anthology of stories that showcase the Old Christmas Devil in his many forms and aspects.

Krampus as a holiday character is scary fun, his antics so over the top that they’re almost funny in a dark way. When you read an actual piece of fiction about Krampus, however, you realize that a demon who kidnaps and tortures children for minor misbehavior is actually pretty brutal. Some stories in this anthology embrace this grotesqueness, using it either for horror or absurd comedy. Other tales tweak the Krampus narrative a bit.  Sometimes he genuinely is a monster that is rightfully feared, as in Cheresse Burke’s “The God Killer” or Colleen H. Robbins’ “Peppermint Sticks”. Caren Gussoff’s “Ring, Little Bell, Ring”, however, explores the appeal and even attraction of Krampus.

Krampus does punish children in a few tales. Sometimes it’s for minor naughtiness as in Jill Corddry’s “Marching Krampus”, but other times it is for more vicious, selfish behavior as in Patrick Evans’ “Santa Claus and the Little Girl Who Loved to Sing and Dance”. Other stories, though, acknowledge that it is adults who are the most wicked and cruel, and most deserving of Krampus’ attention. Such is the case in Lissa Sloan’s Victoriana pastiche “The Visit” and Mark Mills’ more modern “Raw Recruits”.

Several stories, such as Elizabeth Twist’s “Prodigious”, mix Krampus with the modern trappings of American consumer culture Christmas: bored mall Santas, plastic trees, holiday sales, and kitschy décor.

My favorite tale, Elise Forier Edie’s “The Wicked Child” shows that many times people have a distorted perception of what a “bad child” is, and maybe when Krampus takes a child away, it is a far better gift to them than anything Santa brings.

For those looking for a darker alternative to elves, jolly men in red and sugar-coated cheer, or for long-time fans of the Old Christmas Devil, “Krampusnacht” is a satisfying addition to your holiday reading list.

Review: 13 Ghosts of Winter

 Walsh's ghost stories- like many in this unique genre- are not exactly horror stories. At least, not what one usually thinks of as horror: mounting dread, cold, visceral fear, cosmic terror (though certainly, these traits can be present in a ghost story. Well, except for cosmic terror). These are more like campfire tales, or an odd incident a friend might relate to you while driving down a lonely road at night.

The ghosts in this book come in many forms: mournful, vengeful, frightening, or sympathetic. Some are mysterious and unknowable. Some are not even human. One is a mirror, another an entire house.   The stories fluctuate between light supernatural fantasies such as “The Rose Stone” and “The Room in the Mirror” to frightening, brutal hauntings such as “The Edge” or “Number Twenty-two” that might have come from a vintage EC comic like Tales from the Crypt.  Some stories feature ghosts that cannot rest and must repeat their deaths over and over, such as the specters in “The Car in Front” and “A Dark Place in the Forest”. “The Riven Ash” even veers into Welsh mythology. All these different styles clumped together in one collection may seem incongruous at first. But ghosts are mercurial beings, and so are tales about them.

Many of these stories deal with loneliness. The protagonists often feel like they’re out of place in the world. Some would rather escape to an imagined golden past. The supernatural offers them this escape. But in ways they don’t expect.

Most of the stories don’t take place in winter, except for the last tale which is Christmas-themed. The Winter of the title instead refers to the suggested reading season. it harkens back to a tradition of telling ghost stories in the long, chill nights when blankets of sound-muffling snow create the appropriate spooky atmosphere.

If there is any critique about this collection, it is that sometimes the stories over-explain, dropping a huge pile of information about exactly where the ghost came from, which dissipates the aura of supernatural mystery. Better to leave some questions lingering. Overall, though, this is an excellent collection of ghostly tales for reading in the quiet, dark hours.

You can get a copy of 13 Ghosts of Winter here.

Review: Tombstoning and Other Supernatural Tales by J. A. Gilbert

Autumn may be the season for scares and spooky happenings, but winter is the season for ghost stories. You can read my previous thoughts about this most distinctive category of eerie tales here. 

Ghost stories occupy an odd, liminal genre. Some could be classified as horror. Others would be better placed under the broader category of fantasy. And some are more like modern folktales.

 Ghost stories often have what author M. R. James- widely considered the master of ghostly tales- described as “a pleasing terror”- a chill that makes one want to hide under the covers and leave a little light burning to keep out the night. There is no crushing existential dread or cosmic Lovecraftian horror in ghost stories, and gore is rare. Fright and a slow-mounting dread are often components, however.  Ghost stories are really a category unto themselves, a fact which is illustrated well by this collection of diverse tales by J. A. Gilbert.

Many of the stories in Tombstoning read like anecdotes. Tales told by friends at a party about that strange thing that happened to them that one time. Some stories are small brushes with the supernatural like “The Camera”, “Windmill Hill” or “Hag Stones”. Others are classic hauntings by enigmatic entities or phantasmagoria from the past such as the ones encountered in “Abbot’s Marden Manor” or “The Gamekeeper”. Other stories, particularly “The Estate Agent” and the titular “Tombstoning”, are dark tales of supernatural revenge that wouldn’t be out of place in a classic EC horror comic like Tales from the Crypt.

The stories in this collection often focus on small, domestic details. These descriptions may slow down the narrative too much for some readers, but they serve to ground setting, making the supernatural elements that much more unearthly when they manifest. We get to know the characters and feel more connected to them. This is especially prominent in “The Maintenance Man”, where the majority of the story is about a wounded veteran adapting to a civilian job and home life with only a sprinkling of ghostly happenings. In some stories, the characters even learn to make peace with their ghostly neighbors and accept them as part of the household.

There are a few stories where the endings drag on longer than they need to, and sometimes the supernatural elements are explained too much, when leaving them ambiguous would have made the tale much more effective. Overall, though, Tombstoning makes an excellent introduction to the ghost story genre for newcomers, and provides a decent bundle of modern tales for long-time readers of the spooky and macabre.

You can get a copy of Tombstoning here.