B. Lorenzo Buckinchere
Oct 26, 2025
It’s the end of the month, and time once again for our monthly review series. Our muse for the month of October is Louise, the titular character from a short story, titled, “Louise’s Ghost.” But before we dig into all the deliciously juicy gore, here’s a disclaimer.
Disclaimer:
The following review contains spoilers. With that said, please support the official release before reading this or any other review on the topic. Without further ado, let’s begin.
Plot:
Louise’s Ghost is a 2001 short story, written by Kelly Link, part of her collection, “Stranger Things Happen.” It was also featured in Peter Straub’s 2008 anthology, “Poe’s Children: A New Horror.”
In the story, there are two women who are friends, both of whom are named Louise. One of them has a toddler named Ana, who only eats green food, and believes that she was a dog in a past life.
The other has a ghost who lives under her bed, and comes out occasionally. The ghost in question is a bald, naked man who sometimes levitates above her bathtub in the middle of the night.
The two Louises meet up for lunch as often as they can to catch up with each other and talk about life. They have known each other since childhood, and have been best friends for a very long time.
Louise calls her mother who lives in a nursing home for advice on how to get rid of the ghost. Her mother suggests salt and water, but has no memory of Louise’s friend named Louise, or her daughter, Ana. This is a very important detail.
It is also revealed that the Louise who is Ana’s mother, only dates cellists due to her belief that they all have low sperm count. Louise would have proximity to cellists considering that she is also involved in stage work.
Louise, on the other hand, only sleeps with married men she meets at her job. She sleeps with them in hotel rooms, then he showers and leaves her there by herself.
Louise tells the cellists about Louise’s ghost, and they become curious and wish to play for the ghost, hoping to gain supernatural talent if one of them can get the ghost to haunt their cello.
Louise agrees and orders catering to host them in her home, hoping they can get the ghost to leave with them. The cellists play as Ana sleeps soundly inside one of the cello cases. They take a cigarette break when the ghost doesn’t appear, and Louise asks Louise if the ghost is even real.
Louise insists it is, but doesn’t try too hard to convince her. All along, she’s had a change of heart, and is in fact, hiding the ghost inside the closet, serenading it with some music of her own that she had previously purchased from a record store.
The cellists return from their cigarette break and continue playing, louder this time, and the lines between fantasy and reality become blurred as Louise pictures herself in a wild orgy with some of the cellists.
Eventually, the ghost hears the cellists playing, and decides that he prefers their music instead. So he shrinks himself, which he tends to do occasionally, and goes to live inside one of their cellos, and they all eventually leave, except for one.
He spends the night with Louise, much to the dismay of her friend who takes Ana and leaves angrily. Realizing the error of her ways, Louise tries to reconcile with Louise for sleeping with her favorite cellist, but to no avail.
Distracted in her fury over her friend’s betrayal, Louise misses her footing one day, falls off the edge of a stage, and dies. Louise is soon contacted by Louise’s attorney who tells her that Louise is dead, and that it was her will for Louise to raise Ana in the event of her untimely death.
Louise is confused because Louise died still angry at her, but eventually she agrees to raise Ana. The two have always had a quarrelsome relationship, and Ana says that she would rather live with her father, who lives in Oregon. Louise tells Ana that she would like Oregon, because it’s green.
Then she arranges for Ana’s father, who is ironically not a cellist, to come and take her away with him. Louise attends a concert in Louise’s honor, hoping to see her ghost. She looks through her opera glasses, and eventually spots Louise’s ghost living inside one of the cellos.
In the end, it is revealed that Louise’s ghost was a story that Charlie, the youth counsellor at their summer camp told them as teenagers about the way their friendship would blossom into adulthood.
The two girls think that Charlie is kinda cool. They think she is pretty, and she lets them ride the horses bareback during the day. But she can get scary at night, especially when she tells them stories by the campfire. They are rather apprehensive of her. Then they hold each other’s hand and look at each other saying, “Are you scared?” “No, are you?” “Not as long as you’re here.”
Analysis:
It seems pretty obvious to me that Louise’s ghost had come presenting the opportunity to bless the cellists with extraordinary gifts due to his fondness of music. Why he didn’t visit the other Louise who had more proximity to the cellists is probably due to her having a daughter, and him not wanting her to see him.
The ghost could also be a manifestation of Louise’s conscience for only sleeping with married men instead of dating cellists the way her friend did. Charlie introducing the element of death in her story only serves to make the story scarier and more believable to the girls who probably don’t scare easily.
This is the kind of story to be told over roasted marshmallows by the campfire. A spooky treat for those cozy autumn nights. I give it a four out of five green marshmallows.
Thanks for reading!
© Copyright 2025 The Buckinchere Publication, SP.
All Rights Reserved.