Book Name: The Ghost Pirates
Author: William Hope Hodgson
Genre: Horror
Year Published: 1909
So this book I literally chose because it was called "The Ghost Pirates" and I'm pleased to say it didn't disappoint. Despite the occasional issue with nautical language I found this story really enjoyable (and to be honest I just substituted the words I didn't understand for "that place" or "that thing" and the sentences worked just fine :P) It's about a sailor on a ship with a bad reputation but nobody believes in ghost stories... you know, until they start getting killed off.
Anyway, I don't want to give away too much, so suffice to say, it has a good horror atmosphere, light on description of what's attacking them and heavy on the psychology of the main character and his mental state. Thanks to the tension and pace of the writing, I found this book hard to put down, which has been a pretty rare occurrence of late thanks to being super busy with work, theatre and NaNo.
Speaking of NaNo, that's basically the reason this blog post is so late - I actually read it in September, but then was doing prep in October and of course writing in November! Also, (spoiler alert!) my next book I'm reading is To Kill A Mockingbird and I was having trouble getting hold of a cheap/free copy. I don't like to start reading my next "100 Year Challenge" book before I've written the blog post on the old one XD
Anyways, I really do recommend this. It's not too scary if you're worried about that, but it does have some good old style horror (seeing as how it was written in 1909). It has some good characters and in particular the narrator is someone you can actually empathise with which is always a bonus. Plus the fantasy elements of the story are interesting to the point I'm considering stealing some for my roleplaying game :P So yeah, give it a read!
Other Books I Considered: Sorekara - Natsume SÅseki
Books I Read Inbetween: A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
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