20th Century Ghosts
Joe Hill, 2005
A collection of short stories. Mostly ghost stories, but not all.
Lame summary, I know, but how do you write a summary on a short story collection?
I mostly adore Joe Hill. The first novel of his that I've read - Heart-Shaped Box - was delightfully terrifying. His comic book series - Locke & Key - is some of the best fantasy-horror writing I've seen ever, in novels or in comic books. I've got most of the rest of his novels sitting on my shelf waiting to be devoured. Fortunately, this short story collection didn't stop me from wanting to pick up his other writings... but if this had been my introduction to Joe Hill, I will admit that I probably wouldn't have read any further. While there are a few truly great stories here - "The Black Phone", "My Father's Mask" - a lot of them just kind of fell short for me. Others, like "Pop Art", were good, and I would have liked them if I had found them in a normal short story collection, but they were by no means horror stories, which was really what I was looking for.
All in all, this is a pretty good collection, with a few great horror stories, a few very good non-horror stories, a few decent stories that will give you the shivers but that could have been better, and a few stories that leave you feeling let down. Worth a read, but nothing to get too excited about.
Lame summary, I know, but how do you write a summary on a short story collection?
I mostly adore Joe Hill. The first novel of his that I've read - Heart-Shaped Box - was delightfully terrifying. His comic book series - Locke & Key - is some of the best fantasy-horror writing I've seen ever, in novels or in comic books. I've got most of the rest of his novels sitting on my shelf waiting to be devoured. Fortunately, this short story collection didn't stop me from wanting to pick up his other writings... but if this had been my introduction to Joe Hill, I will admit that I probably wouldn't have read any further. While there are a few truly great stories here - "The Black Phone", "My Father's Mask" - a lot of them just kind of fell short for me. Others, like "Pop Art", were good, and I would have liked them if I had found them in a normal short story collection, but they were by no means horror stories, which was really what I was looking for.
All in all, this is a pretty good collection, with a few great horror stories, a few very good non-horror stories, a few decent stories that will give you the shivers but that could have been better, and a few stories that leave you feeling let down. Worth a read, but nothing to get too excited about.
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