My Book Reviews: ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’ by Charles Dickens.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Dec.20, 2023, under Books
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain by Charles Dickens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is more a book to be at the end of October than Christmas. I don’t care for horror stories. Many of Dickens are along those lines. This is the closest I’ve read yet. Though I didn’t care for the very dark aspects, it’s the construction of the story that stinks.
A muddled mess of poor plotting and storytelling. I know Dickens had his own financial issues. This may have been shuttled through to meet whatever requirements were required to exchange story for shillings.
Dickens would have been best to have edited this to a good half of what it is. The droning on and on and on of darkness and shadows and such silliness. Same with dialogue.
The relentless pounding of darkness in the first two parts and then the flip to a, relatively, happy ending is far too contrived to be considered good writing.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 out of ten points.
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