My ranking of the individual stories in this collection:
-Behind A Mask
-The Abbott’s Ghost
-The Mysterious Key
-Pauline’s Passion and Punishment

If you’re a fan of Louisa May Alcott in any way, I recommend you read this collection!

Behind a Mask
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I really enjoyed it. The combined charm and wit of the protagonist is something to behold.

Pauline’s Passion & Punishment
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ or 3.5 compared to The Mysterious Key
Reads quickly and is enjoyable but gave me a sense of unease bc of the characters’s intentions and vengeful plots. Didn’t really like the ending, but it makes sense.

The Mysterious Key
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Loved it! Reads very quickly and is very suspenseful. The ending is heartwarming, too.

The Abbot’s Ghost
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Suspenseful and entertaining.

All four novellas are quite entertaining and compelling. There’s always a mystery that you’re waiting to uncover. Highly recommend all four, but my favorites were Behind a Mask and The Mysterious Key.

I love pretty much anything by Louisa May Alcott. I enjoyed this book. Not my all time favorite, but definitely worth the read.

Totally different book and perspective on a great author. This was written under a pseudonym, AM Barnard.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, though I don’t think I could call it good. It read like a Mary Sue fanfic, but with an odd twist that highlighted all of the worst qualities of “women.” It’s honestly terrible, but I cackled with delight as I read it.

I never knew that the author of one of my favorite books, Little Women, had a slightly sinister side. I don't want to say too much because it gives the story away, but read these if you enjoy dark stories in an 1800's sense.

Who knew LMA could write suck kick-ass Gothic thrillers?!?! I was blown away by these stories.

Meet another side of Louisa May Alcott with this book. A collection of "thriller" stories previously published anonymously or under pseudonyms. Easy to read, hard to put down, and well written.

Esperaba más, creo.

De niña me gustaban mucho los libros de Alcott y he vuelto a leer fragmentos de sus obras ya adulta, encontrando que a pesar de las constricciones de sus tiempos plasmó ideas mucho más progresistas de lo que parecen a simple vista.

Sabía que había escrito otras cosas, pero nunca me había dado la oportunidad de leerlas, así que al fin me decidí por esta colección de thrillers y no me dejaron buen sabor de boca.

Se nota bastante que a pesar de ser buena escritora, estas historias no le apasionan igual. Se sienten planas y anticuadas.

As a young person I read all of Alcott's books multiple times, Little Women being my favorite. Knowing that the character of Jo March was based on herself, and that Jo started her writing career selling short stories to popular magazines, it didn't surprise me to learn that Louisa herself had gotten her start in that way. What did surprise me was the quality of her writing for adults, and how modern her stories seem in many ways. Behind a Mask, the title story, is a true mystery, giving only hints at what the young Miss Muir is playing at in her position as governess to the Coventry family. In Pauline's Passion and Punishment, a jilted lover tries for revenge, with disastrous results. The Mysterious Key is romantic and suspenseful, and The Abbot's Ghost plays around with ghost stories on a dark New Year's Eve. I am grateful to Madeleine Stern for her introduction and for her love of Louisa May Alcott, which led to this collection.

I recommend it!!!!!! a lovely book!!!

This book of short stories made me fall in love with LMA.