I've always been a big fan of ghost stories. There's something about being spooked, about getting that shiver up your spine as you read, that makes me just devour them. So of course when I saw Candace Fleming's On The Day I Died, I had to read it. What I found between these pages was a perfect blend of urban legends and completely original stories. I'll warn you, once you start reading there is no turning back.

What I really liked is how the book is a compilation of stories within a larger, encompassing story. Our main character Mike finds himself in the middle of a cemetery at night. I won't tell you how he gets there, but I will tell you that he is braver than me! As the plot moves forward, Mike is treated to the tales of the dismal lives that each inhabitant of the graveyard lived, as well as the unfortunate way they met their demise. Some of these stories are better than others, but they are all wonderfully tragic.

In fact that's what I really enjoyed about On The Day I Died overall. Since it is a compilation, it's perfectly okay to skim over, or skip, the stories that might not keep your interest as well. It's also really nice that there is something for everyone who loves ghost stories. A little bit of history here, a few poor choices there, and you have a poor soul who died young and now shares their story. The characters are just vivid enough to get their story across, but it is really the stories themselves that take center stage here. It's a quick read, and a great one at that.

My favorite part was definitely at the end when the author explains where the inspiration for each untimely death came from. It's fascinating to see how real life influenced the legends. If you are looking for a quick, different, and maybe even slightly scary read, then I recommend picking this up! ( )

I did not much care for this particular book mainly from the way it jumped genres within the setting. Supernatural, natural, sci-fi, horror.... they just did not blend together very well in this particular presentation. Another detriment was that three of the stories were practically plagarized (Edgar, The Monkey's Paw, and the opening story with the girl in the white dress.)

I did enjoy some of the individual stories, such as the one about the twins and the mirror, and the grow-your-own-aliens, but the overall compilation just didn't fit together well. ( )

Bleh. Maybe I should have known by the childish (yet cute) cover that these ghost stories were going to be lame, but since Halloween is approaching I thought I’d try it out. The story starts with Mike driving home and picking up a girl on the side of the road. Ok, so this has been done a million times because (Surprise! Surprise!), she is a ghost. So Mike finds himself in a graveyard in a section just for teenagers and he has to listen to the story of how each one died.

I made it through the second story before I decided my time could be better spent elsewhere. They were boring camp fire stories with lame characters and not so scary endings for an elementary school student. Maybe it was just me who doesn’t get scared easily, but it seemed like the author wrote a bunch of short ghost stories with teen characters and was looking for a way to get them published, so she combined them with a narrow storyline of Mike having to go into this graveyard. The only interesting thing was the ghost stories took place within the last hundred years and each character lived in a specific time period, 1920’s, 1940’s, etc.

Each teen’s story is read by a different voice actor and this was a good way of differentiating Mike and all the other characters; making each of their stories unique. ☊ ★★★★☆ ( )

Bleh. Maybe I should have known by the childish (yet cute) cover that these ghost stories were going to be lame, but since Halloween is approaching I thought I’d try it out. The story starts with Mike driving home and picking up a girl on the side of the road. Ok, so this has been done a million times because (Surprise! Surprise!), she is a ghost. So Mike finds himself in a graveyard in a section just for teenagers and he has to listen to the story of how each one died.

I made it through the second story before I decided my time could be better spent elsewhere. They were boring camp fire stories with lame characters and not so scary endings for an elementary school student. Maybe it was just me who doesn’t get scared easily, but it seemed like the author wrote a bunch of short ghost stories with teen characters and was looking for a way to get them published, so she combined them with a narrow storyline of Mike having to go into this graveyard. The only interesting thing was the ghost stories took place within the last hundred years and each character lived in a specific time period, 1920’s, 1940’s, etc.

Each teen’s story is read by a different voice actor and this was a good way of differentiating Mike and all the other characters; making each of their stories unique. ☊ ★★★★☆ ( )

Bleh. Maybe I should have known by the childish (yet cute) cover that these ghost stories were going to be lame, but since Halloween is approaching I thought I’d try it out. The story starts with Mike driving home and picking up a girl on the side of the road. Ok, so this has been done a million times because (Surprise! Surprise!), she is a ghost. So Mike finds himself in a graveyard in a section just for teenagers and he has to listen to the story of how each one died.

I made it through the second story before I decided my time could be better spent elsewhere. They were boring camp fire stories with lame characters and not so scary endings for an elementary school student. Maybe it was just me who doesn’t get scared easily, but it seemed like the author wrote a bunch of short ghost stories with teen characters and was looking for a way to get them published, so she combined them with a narrow storyline of Mike having to go into this graveyard. The only interesting thing was the ghost stories took place within the last hundred years and each character lived in a specific time period, 1920’s, 1940’s, etc.

Each teen’s story is read by a different voice actor and this was a good way of differentiating Mike and all the other characters; making each of their stories unique. ☊ ★★★★☆ ( )