The Red Room (Review)

The Red Room (Review)

Short stories are often a neat little side-jaunt from longer and windier stories. And sometimes it’s a delight to discover a story from a collection by an artist crossing a genre into something he normally does not do. So that’s why I delighted in The Red Room, an old H.G. Wells story I discovered in the collection The Plattner Story and Others, easily obtainable via Project Gutenberg (right here).

Maybe because I’d had a long week and was comfortably tired, perhaps that’s the reason this “ghost” story appealed. Maybe because I had a beer in my gut, that it was late and dark and the cat was sitting on the windowsill, watching me with green-glassed eyes. I don’t know. But this story really appealed – short and sweet and clever. It was paced right, with mood going toward concern going towards fear and fright. Nice to see H.G. lead us down that familiar path, the one where the plucky fellow (with the revolver in his pocket) spends a night in a haunted room.

Go ahead. It’s short enough to enjoy in one quick pass, and it’s free at the link posted above.

But please, wait until dark and enjoy the story’s graceful flow.

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