For day 25 of Blogtober I look at the most recent collection by a fun and talented author of weird fiction!

The first time I came across Orrin Grey’s work, it wasn’t even his fiction — it was the introduction he wrote for Valancourt Books’ edition of J.B. Priestley’s 1927 novel Benighted. That introduction was so enjoyable and well-written is sent me looking for other works by Grey, and also eventually to becoming Twitter friends with him. At this point, I’ve read most of his short story collections, and blogged about Painted Monsters and Other Strange Beasts and Never Bet the Devil and Other Warnings, so when I saw he had a collection that came out in 2022 that I missed, How to See Ghosts & Other Figments, I had to pick it up and give it a read!

I’ve noted that Grey’s past short story collections could genuinely be characterized as fun — they aim to chill and scare, but more in the thrilling and fun way that classic Universal monster movies did (and it is not surprising that Grey is a fan of those classics). This collection still contains a lot of that joy, but also a bit more darkness than his past work.

The darkness and sadness that pervades a number of these stories can best be summarized by one word, that Grey remarks on in his intriguing notes accompanying each tale: “longing.” There is longing in many of the stories, which was not an intentional theme of the collection but arose organically as he started to put the pieces together for the collection. I can’t help but wonder if the stories took a darker turn in response to the dark times we’ve all experienced over the past decade, which I know has affected me in a profound way. I stress that the darker tone of the stories is not a bad thing, but shows a different side to Grey’s writing — and there is still great weird fun to be had, too!

There are eighteen stories in the collection in total; I give a short summary of a few of them to give an idea of the collection:

• How to See Ghosts (or Surely Bring Them to You). The first story in the book exemplifies the theme of longing. A non-supernatural story, it follows a group of friends who go exploring haunted houses in search of ghosts, and reflects on what truly haunts them.
• The House of Mars. When three people are found dead in the basement of a long abandoned mansion, the detective assigned to the case curses his luck in being stuck with it. Especially when one of the three people comes back to life. This story is clever and makes reference to classic science fiction stories about Mars in an unexpected way.
• Anum’s Fire (1987) – Annotated. This story is written as a summary and commentary of a weird fantasy horror movie by a cult director. Never are you made to think that you are reading anything but a movie synopsis, but that synopsis is unforgettable.
• The Power of the Dead. When a man learns that he has the power to make the dead do his bidding, like puppets, the government puts him to work doing clandestine work. But when they try to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do, they learn the true extent of his powers the hard way.
• Old Haunts. A man makes a hobby out of visiting as many haunted house exhibits as he can every Halloween season, all around the country. But this year, his instincts tell him he has found something more than some strobe lights and jump scares by people in rubber masks.
• The Drunkard’s Dream. A man distracts himself from grief by obsessively playing a vintage arcade game, The Drunkard’s Dream, in the nearby arcade. As he pushes further and further into the levels of this difficult game, we learn more about what has brought him to this situation and what might be waiting for him when he finishes. This is one of my favorite stories in the collection, and I kinda want to play the fictional game described in it!

The stories are all quite short, most ten pages or less, and this makes the collection ideal for traveling or just getting a little reading in before bed! I read the whole thing in a couple of days, as I was intrigued to see where Grey would go next. As can be seen by some of the stories mentioned above, like Anum’s Fire and The Drunkard’s Dream, many of the tales have a strange experimental feel to them, and it was fun to wander through his literary explorations.

Overall, How to See Ghosts & Other Figments is another fascinating collection of weird short fiction by Orrin Grey, and in my opinion it shows how his work is evolving, as well!