This is my first ever Joe Hill book. Well, it is a collection of short stories to be exact.For the single titles of the stories, please refer to my status updates, where you can also see the individual ratings. As you can see, not every story was a winner for me but the majority was great. And among those with a low(er) rating, I noticed that the writing itself was always of high quality. One simply didn't belong in a horror collection in my opinion and one or two other(s) seemed too short, like...

Seldom does a collection of weird stories feature a style so accomplished, a range of tone and mood so broad, or a generosity so profound. Hill, the son of Stephen King, inherits his father's empathy for the ordeals of childhood as well as his artfulness in constructing a tale, but he also possesses a warmth and an elegance all his own. At times his stories are chilling and gripping like the horror fiction of King ("The Black Phone"), but at other times they are gentle and elegiac like Bradbury

I did itI finishedthe only story I couldn't make it through was the cockroach one.I much prefer his full length novels

Absolutely wonderful book. This is a collection of stores that will have you crying, checking for monsters under the bed, and wondering how the hell Joe Hill came up with that.Comparisons to Joe's dad will be unavoidable, especially from those of us who read Night Shift and Skeleton Crew at a certain age ... and though I believe Joe has more than earned the right to be far, far out of his father's shadow, I say with love that the comparisons are well-deserved. This is a sensational collection, a...

Read with some friends over at Horror Aficionados. I have to say I was expecting some true horror stores but I wasn’t feeling half of them. I’m giving it 3 stars for the ones I did like though. BEST NEW HORRORwas the creepiest one and I loved it! The other ones I liked were Pop ArtYou Will Hear The Locust Sing (was okay)The Black Phone Last BreathAnd the added Typewriter store in the ad sectionMel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

Joe Hill - image from Daily SundialThe crab apple does not fall far from the poisoned tree. While the sensibility is his own, it is eminently clear that Joe Hill has been gifted with DNA predisposed to horror greatness. Before Heart-Shaped Box, Hill wrote short stories. He still does.I was immediately taken with his ability to draw the reader in. For most of the stories here, I quickly felt that I could settle back in my chair and let Hill lead me wherever he wanted. He engages quickly and stron...

Short story collections can be hit or miss. Some stories may be wonderful, others may be clunkers. Every story in “20th Century Ghosts” is wonderful, some are even superlative. While Hill is a horror writer, not all of the stories in this book are horror. And, some of the ones that deal with the typical subjects of horror are not horrific. To me, the best stories in this collection are:“20th Century Ghost”, a touching story about a haunted movie theater.“Abraham’s Boys”, a tale about teen-age re...

4.5 stars!My favorite stories were:Pop Art20th Century GhostBetter Than HomeMy Father's MaskVoluntary Committal My thought on this collection cannot possibly make a dent in all of reviews already written about this book. Suffice it to say: I loved it and it gets my highest recommendation.

This was the most awful grueling book to get through. The stories had great starts (some of them anyways) but then just ended with no warning, and not even at a place that really made much sense. Some of these stories I think could have made an excellent book on their own had they been fully completed. It was very difficult to make my way through these stories. I kept hoping they would get better or I'd find one really great story in the mess. Some really grabbed my interest in the begining but

For a long time, this book was my “white whale”. Up to recently, I had three of Joe Hill’s novels (Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2) in hardcover and although 20th Century Ghosts was easily accessible in paperback or for download on my Kindle, I felt I needed to match my existing format and seek out the rare hardbound edition.With every second-hand bookstore I entered, this illusive short story collection was front and centre in my mind. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find it. A few months ago I

4.5 stars for the collection as a wholeAs always, I find Hill's work compulsively readable and eminently enjoyable. My favourites here are probably "Better than Home" and "Voluntary Committal," followed closely by "Abraham's Boys" and "The Cape." But there's nothing bad or weak in here, just varying degrees of good to excellent.Best New Horror (4/5) One of those stories that isn't creepy until it is, and the obviousness makes it more so rather than less. I love endings where the reader's mind ke...

I really enjoyed this compilation of short stories by Joe Hill! They are not all horror so know that going in when you read this.Overall, I would give this compliation 4 stars!I've broken down all the short stories below and what I liked about them. Some were "okay" and not a favorite but the writing was still good.Joe Hill has a fantastic imagination and his writing is top notch in my books!Best New Horror – 5 stars!This was one of my favorite short stories. I loved the take on the producer try...

"Best New Horror" - Fun concept and well executed for most of the story, but my interest tanked when the editor finally tracks down the author. Maybe I was supposed to laugh at the cliche-ness? 4 stars for the 1st half, 2 for the second = 3"20th Century Ghosts" - There was a delicacy to this haunted movie theater story that I appreciated, although I felt it ran too long (or rather, too wordy) for what it was. 3 stars"Dead-wood" - Instances of ghostly trees. You know, Joe, it would be okay to wri...

A fantastic collection of stories, tightly written (like a certain family member). Short stories aren’t usually my thing but between this and his more recent collection of four novellas, Strange Weather, Joe Hill has maybe changed my mind. Some stories were better than others but there wasn’t a single dudd in this collection. My favourites were Pop Art (boy makes friends with Art, a balloon), Better Than Home (a nice Father-Son story) and the longer story at the end of the book, Voluntary Commit...

Joe Hill makes me feel like I'm seven again. More specifically, I'm seven and he is the nine-year-old kid down the street hanging out with me in my tree fort telling me scary stories and urban legends that he swears are true. His voice is hushed, as if he is letting me in on a little known secret and I'm not quite sure whether to believe him but I'm mesmerized and a little afraid.Joe Hill gets the underdog and the misunderstood. He also writes childhood well, but it is when writing that mislabel...

More often than not, Joe Hill characterizes the child’s life within these stories. I think that’s where our imaginations and fears are strongest, and when things scare us the most. When we are grown, most of that is gone…until we pick up a certain book. Shit, I love the way Hill writes. It is so utterly readable. He makes me believe in ghosts and the supernatural, but even more in the power of a simple story. I say that because not even half of the stories included here are meant to be frighteni...

The title seems false and the stories are lame. 0 of 10 stars

When I read NOS4A2, I had pegged Joe Hill as a horror writer of the calibre of his celebrated father. When I started this book, I expected much of the same fare: however, I was pleasantly surprised. “20th Century Ghosts” is less about ghosts than other sorts of boogeymen: more subtle, more scary, and all definitely weird.It starts off with a traditional story (“Best New Horror”) about a horror anthology editor trapped in something like one of his own tales: despite the story-within-the-story str...

Oddly enough, this collection was something of a hit or miss with me. When the stories hit, they hit hard and wonderfully and had me chortling with glee. Best Horror Story was easily my favorite. I really liked a number of the others, as well.What really got me, though, were the stories that, while emotionally engaging and had me chomping at the bit for more, just STOPPED. Anyone who has read these particular stories will know what I mean. Some of the best ended right where we should have gotten...

I first heard of Joe Hill after winning a bundle of used hardcovers on Ebay. Among the books in the lot were several King, some limited edition Laymon, a Straub or two, and two first editions by an author of which I had never heard. Heart Shaped Box and 20th Century Ghosts were in fantastic condition, and seemed to have never been read. I threw these two books on my shelf and forgot all about them. Later that year, I found a book at my local BAM entitled Horns. The premise piqued my interest, so...