Matt M reviewed Ghost story by Peter Straub
3.5 stars
This was quite enjoyable. Even with its length this book feels like the beginning of a bigger story. The way different storytelling modes of oral tradition, books, and movies are used to carry the ghost story forward was clever. The malevolent force at the center has aspects of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. It was a delight to see how the different tales would overlap between the generations. But I feel like it came up just short of greatness.
The big town battle towards the end meandered as it wrapped up the multigenerational effort to bring the ghost story to a close. It felt like Milburn was supposed to have the richness of Derry from IT but it's an unexplored backdrop for the main confrontation.