20th Century Ghosts

These stories were the cause of much teeth gritting, grimacing, and general unease ... which means it did exactly what a horror anthology should do.Best New Horror: 4 starsA great story to begin with, absolutely loved the format and the creepiness of the entire thing.20th Century Ghost: 5 starsWell that was terrifying. Also fantastic ending.Pop Art: 5 starsA strange and unique story about an inflatable boy.You Will Hear The Locusts Sing: 4 starsIntense and disgusting, but I could not stop reading for a single second until I reached the end.Abraham's Boys: 5 starsAgain, terrifying.Better Than Home: 3 starsThe Black Phone: 4 starsThis one kept me super tense all the way through.In The Rundown: 4 starsNow that was a messed up story.The Cape: 5 starsLoved. All. Of. It.Last Breath: 5 starsThis one gave me goosebumps.Dead Wood: 5 stars for the majority of the story, 3 stars for the ending.The Widow's Breakfast: 3 starsBobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead: 4 starsReally cool story, it makes me want to watch the movie and see if it was actual scenes and actors that was written about.My Father's Mask: 3.5 starsWhat the f.Voluntary Committal: 4 starsScheherazade’s Typewriter: 5 starsIf I am understanding it correctly, this could be a short story about this book of short stories. If it is, that makes it the best short story to end an anthology with ever.Also these stories made me realize that I need to read a lot more of Joe Hill's books.

Just finished Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts. I only had one more story to go to finish it, so I don't know what was stopping me before. College started up about the time I began reading it, I guess, but now I have a lot of time to finish books each night I work.The last story I read was Voluntary Committal, and man was it powerful. The story of two brothers, extra dimensions, and guilt, mixed in with the emotions of wanting to friends and being willing to do almost anything to attain them. There was a sense of magic in the air, but a tainted magic that warned you from the start: Don't go in there. Magic exists. Monsters are real.My favorite stories are The Cape, Pop Art, and probably Voluntary Committal, but all of them are good. Joe switches up voices, perspectives, characters, and settings. You never know what to expect; you might have a clue, but you probably won't see the complete picture until all the pieces are in place. He is great about really diving into characters, making you care, and then ripping out your guts.I've read other books by Joe Hill, like NOS4A2 and Heart Shaped Box, and he never disappoints. Give his work a chance. You will be glad you did.

When I first started reading this book, I had mixed feelings about it. Several of the early stories border on sci-fi/horror and are not really ghost stories. I still feel the title of this book is misleading. There are ghost stories in the book, but not many of them. However, there are some enjoyably creepy stories, especially in the second half of the book. Undeniably, the stories are all well-written, but if you are going after a book looking strictly for ghost stories, you won't find it here. My opinion of the stories rose as they crept away from the downright bizarre, such as a boy turning into a man-eating bug to those of the more quietly creepy and disturbing variety. I enjoyed the story "20th Century Ghost" the most, perhaps because it was an actual ghost story, but there were other disturbing tales, such as the story of a man who collects people's last breaths in jars, and a mentally disturbed brother who builds box forts that are more than they seem at first glance.

Holy crap, I loved this book. I'd already read Joe Hill's Locke & Key series, so I knew he was a phenomenal storyteller going in, but this collection of short stories (many of which are horror, but not all) was so captivating, I was torn between not wanting to put it down and wanting to delay reading the next story so it would never end.Even the weakest stories in the bunch are quite good, and most of them invoke feelings of haunting creepiness or tender beauty, and the best ones manage to incorporate both of these feelings within their pages."Pop Art" has got to be one of the best short stories I have ever read. It was so delightfully surreal, I didn't know what to make of it until the last page. It's such an absurd conceit for a story, but Hill sells it so completely to the reader that he makes it work in ways that I expect few other authors could accomplish."My Father's Mask" gripped hold of my imagination and still has me wondering just what the hell was actually going on. I should be frustrated with my lack of understanding, but I am left only intrigued, my curiosity pining for more. I suspect that with a few close rereads, I'll decipher a few more clues, but I don't think we're really meant to understand everything, and that's somehow okay with me. More importantly, it makes me want to write stories of my own."Voluntary Committal", more a novella than a short story, was as wonderfully creepy as it was fascinating. Hill skillfully suggests just enough to make your imagination run wild with the ideas he's laid down for the reader. I wanted to be spoiled, to know everything about the interiors of the mysterious box forts this story is centered around, but I also realize that knowing more about them would detract from their spellbinding appeal.YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.SERIOUSLY.READ THIS BOOK.

I approached this book with some caution as my only experience of Joe Hill was when I picked up Heart Shaped Box and then left it aside unfinished. But all in all I found this collection of fifteen short stories to be well written and interesting. Who knows, on the basis of my enjoyment of these I might just go back and pick up Heart Shaped Box again and give it another GO.I prefer novels but this collection has some solid meat on its bones. The stories were short, but not too short, and I found them imaginative and entertaining. Only four of these tales were ghost stories in the proper sense and most, but not all of the rest, were straightforward horror, both real life and supernatural. A few others were somewhat surreal, one being definitely Kafkaesque.In other hands we’d probably have some of these stories stretched out to novel length – some have that potential - but the impulse to do so, if ever it existed, was sensibly quashed. They’re tighter and tauter as they are.

A good collection fit for the son of Stephen King. I would not call this book "a book of ghost stories", it is certainly more than that.I gave it four stars because some stories just didn't falk, I couldn't understand what they were trying to communicate to me (The Widow's Breakfast and the Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead). On the other hand, there are absolutely fantastic quality stories as well.I was particularly touched by the one about inflatable people, so strange and beautiful. To me this is what stayed after I closed the book.Another superb story is about a boy building alternative universes with empty cardboard boxes. It is not only very well written, it is sad and full of love at the same time. Deeply emotional without being sweet and cloying.Give it a try, see what the stories will tell you.

I will start by saying that I have REALLY enjoyed Joe Hills other books (NOS4R2 especially, was brilliant). However this is the 1st short story collection of his that i have read, and i found it hugely disappointing. Nearly every story felt unfinished, barring 20th century ghost and voluntary commital. Very few of these stories either contain ghosts or are in any way creepy or scary, Dead-wood, Abrahams Boys and the locust one, are particularly bad, the others I can barely remember despite reading the book during a single day. I am truely sorry that this is a review i had to write but i hope that joe hill decides to return to writing full length books and stops trying to ruin his fan base by publishing his half baked first ideas and expecting people to spend their good money on buying them. Disappointed in you Joe!

I’m a big fan of Joe Hill, but this compilation of short stories didn’t really hit the mark. The title is a little misleading as most of the stories can’t be construed as ghostly tales in any way. The endings on a lot of them felt rushed, almost as if he couldn’t quite be bothered. I’ll stick to his novels in future.

I began reading this one too-hot, sticky summer's night, just after I had given up on the idea of sleeping at all. I started around 1am, and at 8am, realised that I simply couldn't put it down. I gladly sacrificed sleep and read right through until evening...each story compelling, fascinating, and as perfectly haunting in its own right as I had dared to hope, when I started the collection. I would be lying if I said I hadn't felt a frisson of familiarity, there are genetics here from one of the finest writers of all time, of course (Stephen King's son has inherited the writing gene!) but Joe Hill has his own voice, his own unique style, and is already a master of his chosen genre. I personally hope he will be as prolific a writer as his father.