Halloween Reading: Among The Shadows

First, I apologize for the crappy picture of the cover of this book. It's pretty old and this apparently is the best quality picture of the cover (if not the only pic) on the entire internet. I could take a picture of mine, but that requires some form of work on my behalf and I'm really not up to that right now. Laziest book blogger of the month award goes too...

So, most readers know L.M. Montgomery for her most popular book, Anne of Green Gables. I have not actually read Anne or any other book by ol' Lucy Maud, but I hear they're pretty good. I own Anne of Green Gables and will hopefully get around to reading it someday. 

I chose Among The Shadows to read during October in honor of Halloween. I have to admit, I felt a little misled by this book. It wasn't very spooky at all. I guess the book doesn't actually make the claim that it is spooky or scary, but I mean really, look at the cover. Of course, there's that old adage, "don't judge a book by it's cover." Mmhmm. Ain't that the truth. 

There were some spooky-ish stories. Maybe like three out of what seemed like 100. One good thing is most of the short stories in this book were very short, so if they weren't good you knew they'd only last for a few pages and then something better would (hopefully) come along. 

My favorites actually ended up being two stories that had nothing to do with the paranormal. One was The Man on the Train, about an elderly woman who is scared to take a train ride because she's worrying about all the things that could go wrong, like missing her stop or her relatives not being at the station to pick her up. On her train ride she is sat next to a kind, but mysterious man. Whilst reading the newspaper during her ride, she reads a story about a man who is on the run for murder. She feels safe next to the kind man on the train, but later she finds out he's harboring a secret. 

The next one I really loved was The Redemption of John Churchill. This one is about a man who has committed a crime. He never met his son, but his son is devoted to him unbeknownst to the father. The son still loves the criminal father that he's never met and vows to wait for him and believe in him when he gets out of prison. The story was very sad and touching.

I don't really have much else to say about this book. L.M. Montgomery certainly had a talent for short stories and writing in general. Her way with words is beautiful. However, I did find myself getting bored while reading this book. I'm going to give 3 out of 5 stars to Among The Shadows.