20th Century Ghosts

It's not such a bad thing to be labeled a "literary horror writer," but to describe the stories in 20th Century Ghosts as strictly "horror" or "supernatural" would be patently inaccurate. Stories like "Better Than Home" and "The Widow's Breakfast" seemingly veer toward the supernatural or weird but are ultimately character sketches of two very different families. "You Will Hear the Locust Sing" is a great Kafka-Goes-B-Movie take on revenge. "Best New Horror" is a story that (sort of) gives itself away as it nears the climax yet you have to keep going because you can't believe that you're reading a story this good, this darkly comic, this daring. There's the disturbing and incestuous "My Father's Mask" and a twist on the superhero theme in "The Cape." And I'll bet good money that you won't read a story more touching than "Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead" for a good long while. Or at least not one that uses the filming of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead as back drop. This is a short story collection that will have you staying up late -- and pulling the covers over your head when you turn off the lights.

Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of '77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .

The past isn't dead. It isn't even past. . . .

“[An] inventive collection . . . brave and astute.”

“[A] lovely, earnest collection of short fiction.”

“The selections range from the mundane to the surreal, with a strong emphasis on the kind of horror tale perfected by Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub and Stephen King.”

“[A] new take on the fantasy-horror genre...Highly recommended.”

“Alternately sad, scary, strange and at times even sweet, these tales will haunt you long after you’ve read them.”

“Each of these chilling tales arrests you from the opening sentence and leads you — trustingly, thanks to the simple mastery of the story-teller — into a place of gulping fear.”

“[O]ne of the best [horror] collections of the year. Hill is a relative newcomer who consistently creates creepy, very disturbing stories.”

“Each tale is unique, and the collection proves that Hill’s talent is not limited to horror, but extends well into the mainstream.”

“This solid, inventive, scary collection of stories reveals a writer who has thought hard about the problematics of horror.”

“Subtle and disturbing in equal measure.”

“Irresistible stories.”

Joe Hill is the author of a previous novel, Heart-Shaped Box, a story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and an occasional comic series, Locke & Key.

Distributor: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: 09-16-2008
Pages: 336
Measurements: 8in X 5.3125in X 0.756757in X 8.96oz