To celebrate Halloween, here’s my book review of Fun Phantoms, an anthology of funny ghost stories, published in 1979. I’ve always enjoyed scares with laughs, and that’s what these stories deliver. All of them are fun, but I’ll highlight my four favorites below. Because it’s an old book, your best bet at finding a copy is going to your local library and searching for it through inter-library loan.
“The Water Ghost” by John Kendrick Bangs
The current head of a British family takes steps to end the haunting of the Water Ghost in a particular bedroom at Harrowby Hall. When the master asks why the ghost haunts his family, the specter replies says that she haunts the room that would have been her bedroom because her father decorated it in pink and yellow when she could only stand blue and gray.
“That night I ran from the house and jumped over the cliff into the sea.”
“That was a bit hasty,” said the master of Harrowby.
“So I’ve heard,” returned the ghost.
“The Night the Ghost Got In” by James Thurber
Although this story takes place in 1915, there’s a modern feel to Thurber’s whacky family as they deal with the possibility that a ghost is running around in their dining room at one in the morning. Thurber and his brother hear the ghost, but when their mother gets up, they tell her it’s a burglar. This unleashes a whole train of events, including Mother hurling a shoe through the window of the neighbor’s house to get their attention and tell them to call the police. When the neighbor finally gets the message, Mother gets ready to throw another shoe.
Not because there was further need of it, but, as she later explained, because the thrill of heaving a shoe through a window of glass had enormously taken her fancy. I prevented her.
“The Open Window” by Saki
This short story has one of the all-time great surprise endings. It seems like a typical ghost story until the rug is whipped out from under readers’ feet.
“To Starch a Spook” by Andrew Benedict
When Sue’s father and a developer realize they have unwittingly bought a haunted house, chocked full of ghosts that the previous owner, Mrs. Ferguson, collected as a hobby, they don’t know how to rid the property of the phantoms. Sue and her friend Bill set out to take care of the problem with a special solution and technique.
When they enter the house, they find a ghostly knight in the library.
Inside that suit of ghostly armor was a ghostly skeleton! He clashed his teeth at us with the most frightening noise. Bill and I were speechless in admiration.
“Mrs. Ferguson certainly knew quality when she collected phantoms,” Bill said.
So if you like fun instead of frights with your ghost stories, see if you can locate a copy of Fun Phantoms. For a recommendation of some chilling short stories, click here.
