Review of Haunted Train Anthology by Rayne Hall
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 3 / 5 Ravens
How was this review scored?
All aboard! I couldn’t resist. Actually, you might be screaming ‘let me off!’ after a few of these frightening tales takes hold. The perfect reader for long journeys, or explorations abroad. Each of the train related tales in this anthology stands on its own as entertaining, unsettling, and worth reading.
Rayne Hall has done a superb job blending classic works with modern writer contributions in a way that feels natural. Each successive tale will leave readers feeling further away from the safety of the platform from which they departed, and hurtling faster into the deepest of uncanny territory where familiar rules don’t apply.
Editor Rayne Hall has assembled a collection of twenty railway tales - each one more creepy than the last. Stories range from spooky, to downright scary, and others pose a puzzling mystery.
Along the journey readers will board a Gothic railway in Victorian England, a freight train in the Carpathian mountains, a high tech sky train in Bangkok, and an underground railway in Tokyo.
While the writers backgrounds vary, one of the most intriguing features of each story are the sources authors reveal concerning their inspiration.
“Beware of Tuesdays” by Frederick Langridge was a good unsettling story. The suspense builds on each successive day of the traveler’s routine. What first appears as an apparition soon reveals itself to be something much more grim.
“11th Hour Ghost Train” by Morgan A. Pryce seats the reader behind the eyes of the main protagonist and straps them in tight. The author is a master of deep point-of-view writing. Readers gain an authentic glimpse of a different culture and the main character’s interpretations of life during the global pandemic. The themes of loss and being invisible to society combine to deliver unsettling revelations.
“Why Are Trains Always Late” by Nicole Tait left me with a singular thought. “Remind me to never ride the rails with Nikki!” What is a woman to do, all alone, on a late-night train ride. Apparently nothing good. At all. This short story was a delight and a shock!
“A Journey” by Edith Wharton is a classic, and for good reason. Married young, a woman’s husband falls ill. She is carried away from the life she knows in the hopes of his ailment passing. Her husband gets worse and worse until the unthinkable happens. The tragedy and horror however, are the realities of what his passing means to her own life. The short story is one that explore class struggle and women’s rights. Wharton is a joy to read anytime you have the opportunity. Take this ride!
“The Drowned Subway” by Clint Spivey does an excellent job placing readers into the mind and body of the protagonist. His word choice upholds the theme, and he masters sensory expression which delivers deep point-of-view. The unsettling ride to a claustrophobic subway station by the sea is enhanced by the author’s own experiences of the place.
Rayne Hall helps good writers become great. She’s penned bestselling Writer's Craft guides, coaches authors, edits books, speaks at conferences and teaches online classes.
After three decades in the publishing industry, she is now a professional writer, with more than sixty books published under several pen names, in several genres, by several publishers, in several languages.
She has lived in Germany, China, Mongolia, Nepal and Britain. Rayne is now based in Bulgaria where she enjoys visiting ancient Roman ruins and derelict abandoned homes, going for walks in the woods, gardening and training her cats.
Read more from Rayne Hall at https://www.raynehall.com and find her on social media at Facebook(@RayneHallAuthor), and Twitter(@RayneHall).