VOYA

In this collection of fifteen short stories, Hearne looks at hauntings of the not-so-supernatural kind, instead focusing on love, loss, regrets, or worries. Divided into tales of the past, present, and beyond past and present, each story examines the various ways in which a person can be "haunted." The stories of the past include Nurse's Fee, which is based on the legend of the Selkie, and The Crossing, which is a story of doomed lovers. The stories in the present are set mostly in the U.S. and include Loose Chippings, a tale based on a terrorist bombing that the author witnessed in 1989. The two stories placed beyond past and present include a note that they are "set mostly in heaven and hell." The book closes with a notes section that explains the impetus for each story, which is often a take on a classic story, ballad, or legend. The title and the cover art, a graveyard scene, will lead readers to believe that this book is a collection of ghost stories or more traditional tales of "hauntings." Unfortunately many stories fail to resonate with a true sense of haunting as the theme would suggest. It is an optional purchase for libraries in which short story collections are popular. Hearne is the author of several books for teen readers, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, Seven Brave Women (Greenwillow, 1997).