Joe Hill
I was- and continue to be- intrigued by this set of stories, which is somewhat unlike anything I've read before. While I was expecting a collection of full-blown horror stories, Hill demonstrates his agility and resistance to be pigeonholed by writing on a variety of topics, with varying degrees of success. While many of the stories in 20th Century Ghosts do belong firmly in the horror genre, Hill often tries his hand at more traditional "literary" fiction, with varying degrees of success. One of the best stories of the collection, "Pop Art", is an excellent blend of a tender coming-of-age tale with imaginative and unique fantasy elements and an unapologetically dark tone. It is refreshing to read some of the more "literary" pieces in this collection because they bring much more to the table than the rootless extensialism that plagues many modern non-genre short stories- Hill isn't at all afraid to explore the darker corners of the human psyche and demonstrates that this can be done with a great degree of literary talent and often poetic prose. His prose is, in fact, often quite elegant and holds up to the highest standards set by more mainstream fiction. Hill throws in sly and relevant observations without hesitation or conceit and his sentences are often elegant. Too bad, then, that he seems to lack a bit in story structure.
Doubt and frustration plagued me while I was reading this collection. I often felt that a story was just beginning to live up to its potential, to get interesting, when it would stop suddenly. This kind of surprising sudden halt is done quite well in the very meta "Best New Horror", but seems lazy in "In the Rundown" and leaves the story actually unfinished. Likewise, I quite keenly felt the underlying discomfort elicited by "My Father's Mask", but at the end of the story I was quite unable to determine what exactly had happened. Ambiguity is good when used properly, but when everything in a story is unexplained the lack of development seems juvenile. Many of the stories could have been fleshed out a little more while retaining the terror that comes with the unknown and/or unknowable. Other stories seem to move nowhere for a while or to contain completely extraneous matter- most of the stories in this collection could have been shorter and would not have suffered for it.
That said, however, I did enjoy 20th Century Ghosts at times, both in horror and non-horror stories. "Better Than Home" very nearly made me cry and is a touching story in which almost nothing actually happens. Strange that the story that most closely resembles its "literary" cousins is among the best executed in this often gory collection. "Abraham's Boys" is an imaginative retelling of the Van Helsing story that leaves a little to be desired but which is interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless. Here, as in "Last Breath", the ending is perfect while being a bit abrupt.
"The Black Phone" ends absolutely perfectly, with a zinger that is at once hilarious and incredibly dark; the story requires you to suspend disbelief in the supernatural for a while, but it is totally worth it just to get the unapologetic humor in the last line. This story demonstrates best Joe Hill's strengths as a writer- he is willing to operate within the darker parts of the human mind and experience (and the darker horror genre) but maintains a literary finesse and does not compromise his prose for his subject matter. Hill writes excellently, but I believe he still has some trouble fully executing his plots; many stories left me wondering what the point was or frustrated that I had no idea what had happened, but all were thought-provoking nonetheless. Joe Hill's sheer power of imagination is certainly hard to match- he is unafraid to experiment and comes up with a few quite original and interesting ideas that successfully drive his stories. 20th Century Ghosts holds within it the promise of great talent and has a few definite keepers (heretofore unmentioned but memorable and recommended "Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead" is a highlight), worth reading if readers can withstand ambiguity and points of frustration- there is more good than bad here even if many stories leave a bit to be desired.
Grade: B
Doubt and frustration plagued me while I was reading this collection. I often felt that a story was just beginning to live up to its potential, to get interesting, when it would stop suddenly. This kind of surprising sudden halt is done quite well in the very meta "Best New Horror", but seems lazy in "In the Rundown" and leaves the story actually unfinished. Likewise, I quite keenly felt the underlying discomfort elicited by "My Father's Mask", but at the end of the story I was quite unable to determine what exactly had happened. Ambiguity is good when used properly, but when everything in a story is unexplained the lack of development seems juvenile. Many of the stories could have been fleshed out a little more while retaining the terror that comes with the unknown and/or unknowable. Other stories seem to move nowhere for a while or to contain completely extraneous matter- most of the stories in this collection could have been shorter and would not have suffered for it.
That said, however, I did enjoy 20th Century Ghosts at times, both in horror and non-horror stories. "Better Than Home" very nearly made me cry and is a touching story in which almost nothing actually happens. Strange that the story that most closely resembles its "literary" cousins is among the best executed in this often gory collection. "Abraham's Boys" is an imaginative retelling of the Van Helsing story that leaves a little to be desired but which is interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless. Here, as in "Last Breath", the ending is perfect while being a bit abrupt.
"The Black Phone" ends absolutely perfectly, with a zinger that is at once hilarious and incredibly dark; the story requires you to suspend disbelief in the supernatural for a while, but it is totally worth it just to get the unapologetic humor in the last line. This story demonstrates best Joe Hill's strengths as a writer- he is willing to operate within the darker parts of the human mind and experience (and the darker horror genre) but maintains a literary finesse and does not compromise his prose for his subject matter. Hill writes excellently, but I believe he still has some trouble fully executing his plots; many stories left me wondering what the point was or frustrated that I had no idea what had happened, but all were thought-provoking nonetheless. Joe Hill's sheer power of imagination is certainly hard to match- he is unafraid to experiment and comes up with a few quite original and interesting ideas that successfully drive his stories. 20th Century Ghosts holds within it the promise of great talent and has a few definite keepers (heretofore unmentioned but memorable and recommended "Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead" is a highlight), worth reading if readers can withstand ambiguity and points of frustration- there is more good than bad here even if many stories leave a bit to be desired.
Grade: B
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