About The Author

The riveting stories that comprise Brooke McKenzie’s Ghost Games explore the dark side of the internet, where the ‘games’ that are played are anything but. The narratives derive their power from the juxtaposition of the visible world and the one that exists unseen beside it. Whether inadvertently releasing demons or getting caught in an alternate dimension, the women in these stories suddenly find themselves in a kind of jeopardy they never imagined. Absorbing and genuinely terrifying, the stories of Ghost Games will stay with you long after you close the book.” - Kathleen Donohoe, author of Ghosts of the Missing and Ashes of Fiery Weather.

 

"Ghost Games both brought me back to the delicious terror of childhood slumber parties, when friends pulled out Ouija Boards or convinced everyone to chant "Bloody Mary" in front of bathroom mirrors and anything felt possible, and also took me someplace brand new. Brooke MacKenzie has gifted us with a spine-tingling, energizing collection." --Gayle Brandeis, Author of Many Restless Concerns: The Victims of Countess Bathory Speak in Chorus 

Note: You can shorten the title of Gayle’s book to Many Restless Concerns

​

Do not play this game.  This is the standard Internet disclaimer given to anyone who wishes to summon the supernatural through a potentially dangerous ritual or game.  

 

But how scary can a game really be?

 

As it turns out, games can be terrifying. GHOST GAMES is a collection of short horror fiction intended for adults (but appropriate for young adults), in which the female main characters throw caution to the wind, play a game, and summon an entity.  What happens next will make you think twice before riding in an elevator, looking in a mirror, or soaking in a bathtub. There are six fictional stories—each one devoted to a specific game—and one non-fiction story, in which the author describes her real-life encounter with an evil spirit after playing with a Ouija Board.

 

Brooke Mackenzie joins a growing list of women who are reinventing the horror genre with stories based on women’s lives and women’s fears.

 

The stories in GHOST GAMES thrill with satisfying scares, and tap into each character’s internal psychological struggles as the motivation behind wanting to escape reality. The reader develops a relationship with the characters, making each of their experiences all the more harrowing.  While the stories themselves are fiction, each of the games they describe has a life of its own on the Internet, and several forums are filled with firsthand accounts of bold (or foolhardy) players who played the games with terrifying results. 

 

Instructions on how to play the games are also included in the book with the explicit warning: Play at your peril.

​