Book Review: BestGhost

An excellent spooky short ghost story from C.J. Daley

Historically I’ve not always been the biggest horror fan. Usually something has to get just the right mix of sci-fi and horror for me to be into it, like the Alien movies, Event Horizon, or Dead Space. Very rarely do I go in for some more traditional spooky ghost stories, and I’m happy to say that BestGhost was a great novelette to help me dip my toes into the genre.

Blurb

The world's best ghost hunters, the town's most haunted mansion, what could go wrong?

A debut sample from the forthcoming Tales From Cemetery!

The Old Mayor’s Mansion sits just a few miles outside the town of Cemetery.

When best friends Sean and Devon want to increase views on their ghost investigation channel, they know the mansion is the perfect spot to film.

Armed with a slew of new equipment, the buddies set out to capture the paranormal hotspot that will make them famous—just maybe not in the way they were hoping.

Review

The first thing to note about BestGhost is how lean it is—there’s not an ounce of fat on this story. It’s tight and nothing is wasted. We get a great feel for the setting, characters, and their amateur ghost hunting shenanigans right away. The tension ramps up gradually, and there’s a wonderful sense of seeping dread as things go on.

As the reader, being genre-savvy, you know that something is going to happen, that this won’t be the run-of-the-mill that the characters have been used to. It comes with the territory. But the journey is what matters, and BestGhost unfolds its horror really well. It’s very effective, super chilling, and the ending was well done. There were the occasional moments where I lost track of who was saying what but that didn’t really detract from the experience for me.

Overall, I was thoroughly immersed, and I feel like I’ll be thinking about this one for a while yet! Bravo. I highly recommend this one if you’re looking for a quick scare.