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20th Century Ghosts
20th Century Ghosts
20th Century Ghosts
Audiobook12 hours

20th Century Ghosts

Written by Joe Hill

Narrated by David LeDoux

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this award-winning collection of short fiction.

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. . . .

 

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateOct 16, 2007
ISBN9780061554667
Author

Joe Hill

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman, NOS4A2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box; Strange Weather, a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner Award–winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, Locke & Key. Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), In the Tall Grass (Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse).

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Reviews for 20th Century Ghosts

Rating: 3.968583654739084 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A disappointing read for me. The stories have a over-wrought quality to them, and fall short of what I had hoped a ghosting-themed collection would be. Many twist endings. Meh.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    OK. 20th Century Ghosts was one of the best short story collections I have ever read. I loved best The Cape, 20th Century Ghost, Abraham’s Boys, My Father’s Mask and Pop Art.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A wonderful array of short stories. My first listen to a Joe Hill audiobook and it didn't disappoint. Highly recommend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought Heart Shaped Box was really good, but 20th Century Ghosts is great. While some of the stories have a sweet or perhaps sad undertone, all our good in their own way. My three favorites from this collection are 20th Century Ghost, Last Breath and Abraham's Boys.Without giving too much away, 20th Century Ghost manages to tie in a love of movies with a ghost, Last Breath is a creepy story about a musuem owner who manages to extract the last breaths of the dying, and Abraham's Boys is a tribute to Dracula. Also good were Voluntary Comittal and The Cape.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Joe Hill is one of my favorite authors and I have been wanting to read some of his shorter stories. With The Black Phone becoming a movie, my friend and I decided to snag 20th Century Ghosts and have a listen.

    First, the narrator is fantastic which made for a hard to put down audiobook. I usually don't want to keep listening to books but David LeDoux is great.

    I don't usually read short stories either, but there is something about the weird and scary that make them fun for me. Joe Hill is great. He can spin a tale whether it's creepy, eerie, spooky or just down right scary. This is a great mix of all that.

    Out of all the stories, my favorite is The Button Boy. Just woah. Haha I did also enjoy The Black Phone and can't wait to see that on film.

    If you're looking for a little strange and sometimes spooky, this is a great one. The music also keeps the eerie factor alive between chapters. Perfect one for Spooktober.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The collection presented here start off strong, but fizzled towards the midpoint. Favorite one was The Cape for its twist and unexpected ending. My least favorite was My Father's Mask which I found to be weak and unappealing. Definitely better than Strange Weather, but I much prefer Hill's novels. A decent collection but not a great one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Joe Hill has a very fluid and direct flow to his writing which makes it easy to devour. A very cool and creative assortment of shorts. I’m interested to read more of his work now.

    Didn’t enjoy the narrator however, who I felt often missed the tone of what he was reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought this was a remarkable collection of short stories, standouts for me were "My Father's Mask", "Voluntary Committal", "The Cape" and "20th Century Ghost". Each story had a certain unique flair and left me wanting more. "My Father's Mask" was truly extraordinary, he needs to continue it. I feel that it was unfinished, I still am thinking about it, hours after reading it.

    This is a book that I was meant to read in between books, however it was so good that it demanded my full attention. It's a must read in my books and I'm sad that it is over.

    This book is going to haunt me for a while and I think that's what Mr Hill was aiming for. Remarkable.

    This would have received five stars if it wasn't for all the bloody baseball references. I also wasn't a fan of "Better Than Home" because of this. Scrap that story and it's perfect!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read each story, and then reviewed them separately:

    Best New Horror- Wow!! Talk about starting off with a bang. This story is slightly too short, and made me want more of an ending. Did he make it? I sure hope so. You didn't expect to find what you did, but it came out of no where, and hit you in the face.

    20th Century Ghost- a lovely story that makes you want to see a ghost at your local movie theater, and chat about the movies they've seen. I bet she's seen a lot, more than just the movies playing. The ending sucked, but was wonderful, all at the same time.

    Pop Art- the name of this story is kind of a play on words. It's about two boys in middle school, one of who was named Art, and was inflatable. He was Jewish, and his being inflatable was a disease that ran in his family, kind of like Tay-Sachs. No one has ever done a story like this before, and I doubt anyone will, ever again, after this one.
    While it started out with a rough, uncultured protagonist, who is essentially nameless, it became so much more. They are best friends, at a time when the nameless kid really needs one. Sweetly sentimental, this story does not seem at all over-done. And the ending really hit home with me, and made me tear up. What a lovely thing to find, in a book of ghost stories!!

    You Will Hear the Locust Sing- I love this story! Nothing else in my life or reading is like this story, of a child turning into a 5 foot cock roach. Original, and it made me want more of the same. Or maybe just a longer story about the cockroach boy.

    Abraham's Boys- freaky!! Minnie, of Dracula fame, married Dr. Van Helsing, and had 2 boys? And continued his 'work'? I want more....! WHY did it have to end so soon...?

    Better Than Home- sweet, sentimental, and pure; this story reminds me of my dad. He never liked baseball that much, but he always understood, and he could always make me feel better. No matter what.

    The Black Phone- just like old school Stephen King stories, this one was pure horror. Creepy, a little supernatural, and gripping.

    In the Rundown- a sad, short story with no ending.... I wish so much I knew what happened next!! Ugh.

    The Cape- i knew where it was going the whole time, and enjoyed the ride there. Totally the kind of story you should read at night, in the dark.....

    Last Breath- a shining jewel of a story, just waiting to be fleshed out, plumped up, and expanded. I would read a whole novel about this man and his collection, and gladly. How fascinating a subject....! I keep wondering if it would be possible.

    Dead Wood- a tiny 3-page story about trees. Not really sure what the last sentence meant, but the ideas it gave me...

    The Widow's Breakfast- an interesting story about hobos. I had thought one certain thing was going to happen, but it didn't. Then it was over too soon.

    Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead- a story about coming home. And suddenly finding out that it would be better than you ever thought. Cute premise.

    My Father's Mask- weirrrrrrrd...... But cool. Not really sure what it was trying to say, or where it was trying to go. But I liked it a lot.

    Voluntary Committal - an absolute gem of a story. Pure perfection. I cannot stop thinking about the people in the story....wow! This one belonged at the very end, so it could kick you in the gut; & make you think about it all night. Man!! One thing is for certain, I love Mr. Hill's style of writing. He's a genius. It must run in the family (ha ha. Those who have read the story will get the joke.)



    --Very, very worth the read. Highly recommended. My only issues with these stories were that they didn't last long enough....God, I love this man's writing style!!

    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, and very much worth your time.

    *** READ PAST THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS !!! There's another little story just past them, about a typewriter. A true ghost story that you won't want to miss.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm loving this collection. Joe Hill writes with great pacing, well-developed characters and fluid prose. "Pop Art" may be one of the best short stories I've ever read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an interesting collection of stories. Many of them just don't behave they way you initially expect them to. What they ultimately hold isn't clear until you're done. I like the originality of thought that has gone into them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the finest short-story collections I've ever read. I am a better person, in some small way, for having read it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These short stories contain content and ideas that I have never read before. Not all of the stories were creepy, which was what I had anticipated, but they were entertaining nonetheless. I experienced a bit of a lull in the middle, but the last 4 stories made up for a few of the mediocre ones in the middle. My favorite stories (by far) were: 20th Century Ghost, Pop Art, In the Rundown, Last Breath, Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead, My Father's Mask and Voluntary Committal.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a book of short stories, some horror, some fantasy, some a combination. Some of the stories include: a young Van Helsing, a movie theatre ghost, a boy who wakes up one morning having turned into a bug, two brothers – the younger a savant who builds cardboard box mazes, an inflatable boy, a very reclusive horror writer, a basement with an old nonworking phone that rings, an odd museum, a boy who can actually fly while wearing his cape, and more.I really enjoyed most of these stories. Collections of short stories often end up ok for me, with a mix of liking some stories and not liking others. I don’t think there were any I disliked in this collection, and most I really liked. Many of the stories don’t quite “end”… with more of a leave-it-up-to-your-imagination kind of thing, which can be extra-creepy with horror stories! I have had “The ants go marching one-by-one...” going through my head since I finished the book (it played a role in one of the last stories).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Best New Horror - Okay. I would have liked to see the story expanded and continued.
    20th Century Ghost - Really good. A nice, but still creepy, "love" story for horror buffs.
    Pop Art - The best short story that I have ever read. Can't go into too many details without giving away spoilers.
    You Will Hear the Locust Sing - Nice story with a 1950s "giant monster" movie feel.
    Abraham's Boys - Nice "continuing" tale of Van Helsing from Dracula. Good ending.
    Better Than Home - Eh, sucked.
    The Black Phone - Another fine, scary story. I feel like Joe Hill, at this point, already does short stories better than his dad.
    In the Rundown - Okay at best.
    The Cape - My third fav after Pop Art. Gave me the chills.
    Last Breath - Very chilling. I would love to see this made into a tv show of some sort.
    Dead-Wood - Could have saved some trees and done without this one.
    The Widow's Breakfast - The daughter's were creepy. Would have liked just a story about them.
    Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead - Eh. One of my least favorite. Seems to just remind the reader that Joe Hill grew up being Stephen King's son.
    My Father's Mask - WOW. If I hadn't already read Pop Art, then this would be my fav short story. Simply amazing.
    Voluntary Committal - Nice build up of dread as the story went along, but I felt it was a little dragged out.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I enjoyed 20th Century Ghost. I liked all the creepy, quirky, scary short stories. The stories are full of suspense with a high creep factor. All the characters were rich and believable. Great creepy book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Hill's collection of short stories if a phenomenal and varied collection. With a combination of eeriness, supernatural turns, and characters or plots which are simply dark (and all too believable), the collection moves from moment to moment like a beautifully twisted roller coaster. Hill's writing brings each of them to life in turn, and it's difficult to put down the collection at any point. Unlike so many collections where themes and characters seem to be repeated in different settings or times, Hill's work is so varied that each story seems to present its own universe, and Hill's talent is undeniable in each one.Absolutely recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The title couldn't be more accurate, because these stories all feature characters that are haunted--haunted by their pasts, by inner demons, by troubled childhoods, and horrible secrets. Identity seems to be the common theme that connects these stories--how do we decide who we are? Is it a gift (or a curse) from our families? Do we decide ourselves who we are? Do we embrace our secret self (You Will Hear the Locust Sing, The Cape), do we run from it (Best New Horror), do we hide from it (Voluntary Committal)? Are we predetermined to become our parents (My Father's Mask)?

    Joe Hill displays incredible talent in this book. NOTE: Many of the stories feature threatened children. If this sort of thing bothers you, stay away.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Creepy stories! Favorites are; "You Will Hear the Locusts Sing", in which a teenage boy wakes up as a giant locust; "The Cape", where a child's blanket becomes more than a comforter; and "Last Breath", about an unusual museum holding nothing but bottles of dying people's last breaths.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I love a good ghost story! Joe Hill's last book, THE HEART SHAPED BOX was just that - a great ghost story. This compilation of short stories, sadly, not so much. It contained a few memorable stories like "Abraham's Sons" and "The Inflatable Boy". As much as I enjoyed them, even they were not true ghost stories. But, that is the nature of a book of short stories, something for everyone.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this short story collection. As with most collections, I liked some stories better than others - but I have to give props to the author for his creativity/originality with all of them. Personally, my favorites include: Best New Horror - an editor trying to track down the author of a unique horror story. I particularly enjoyed the way it ended.20th Century Ghosts - a somewhat sad story about a haunted movie theater Pop Art - a unique tale about a boy and his best friend, who happens to be inflatedLast Breath - a museum of last breaths (predictable ending, but a unique concept!)Voluntary Committal - what might happen when a cardboard fort becomes something more... Many of the stories do not actually fit the horror genre, so if you aren't big into horror, this is still a worthwhile gem to pick up. I admit, I did notice that all of the stories in the edition I checked out were all male narratives, if that sort of thing bothers you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was really great. Some imaginative supernatural stories and some really good slice of life stories.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Sorry to say that this is NOT one of Joe's better novels. Just could not grasp the stories...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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 I bought the hardcover, devoured it over the course of three days, and then went to place the book on my shelf in alphabetic order by author. Low and behold, I laid eyes on two other books by the same writer, the aforementioned ones I'd won in the bundle, which I had forgotten all about. It wasn't until I finished Heart Shaped Box (which was in slightly less perfect condition in comparison to 20th Century Ghosts) and went in search of more Joe Hill goodness on Amazon that I found out that Hill is Stephen King's son. Surprise, surprise! The following year, Hill released NOS4A2 and cemented his place as one of my new favorite authors. Still, I hadn't read 20th Century Ghosts. You may be asking yourself why, and the answer is one that all book collectors can sympathize with: my hardcover copy is a first edition AND it is in pristine condition. I wouldn't crack that book open if you put a gun to my head. But I had to read it, of course I did, so I bought the ebook and added the audio book as a companion purchase. And let me tell you, the audio book is the way to go.

    Notes on the Audible Edition: David Ledoux has a unique narrative voice. Every story herein is worth a read, but David's narration gives them that little something extra that just makes 'em pop. On the down side, the music, while thoroughly creepy, was produced at an entirely different volume than the spoken word. I had to turn down my device every time a story ended for fear of rupturing my ear drums when the musical intro for the next story began. Other than that, I recommend the Audible version.

    Now, I will not be reviewing each and every story because they're all above average. I will warn that some of these tales have no ending. They are not open endings, or bad ending, but the stories of which I speak are completely devoid of any closing scene. They simply STOP. A perfect example of this is the opener, "Best New Horror", which is also one of the best stories in the collection. My absolute favorite story in the collection is "Pop Art", and that's because of the sheer originality of the tale. Going into 20th Century Ghosts, I knew nothing about "Pop Art", and I hope you have the same option. Even giving you a brief, vague synopsis would ruin the experience, so I will move on. Other notable tales are "20th Century Ghost", "The Black Phone", "The Cape" (which has one of the best endings I've ever read where short stories are concerned), and the uber imaginative "Voluntary Committal". The only story I disliked was "Abraham's Boys". Hill tried too damn hard to breathe new life into overused, out-of-date characters, and it resulted in the book's only failure. That one story slowed the book down and gummed up the collection's works so badly I was compelled to knock off a full star from the overall rating. Yes, it was that bad. If I had to rate "Abraham's Boys" on its own, I would give it two stars. Everything else gets fours and fives.

    You should know that these are not short stories; not technically anyway. Hill suffers the same what-ails-him as his father. Neither man seems to grasp the concept of "short", but they write so damn well that you barely notice that their outings are more along the line of novelettes and novellas than they are short stories.

    In summation: A terrific collection of longer short stories, and far more literary in scope than your average horror anthology. If you're a fan of Stephen King's Skeleton Crew or Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, you should enjoy 20th Century Ghosts.

    (A Note to Completionists: Hill hides a short story in the afterward, so make sure you don't skip the acknowledgment section. You're welcome.)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Joe Hill is without a doubt one of the best Dark Fiction authors. And 20th Century Ghosts is really a showcase for just how much talent Hill has as a writer. I wouldn’t call this collection of short stories Horror per se, the stories are much too bizarre for that label. I would characterize this more abstractly as a short story collection from a macabre and twisted imagination that makes Stephen King’s work down right normal. With Hill perfectly ordinary events and people are twisted to elicit a reaction. Very few supernatural elements are used to set up the moment of shock. Hill isn’t the first author to try this in the Horror genre but he has quickly mastered the technique. He has a way of twisting the mundane into the surreal without going too far with the premise to make it an outlandish parody. My one knock on the collection of stories, and it’s a pretty big knock, is that the endings are so flat. Really great writing is rendered dull by some of the most predictable and uninspired closings I’ve ever read in the horror genre. It’s really too bad because Joe Hill can do so much better. My advice is to buy the Kindle singles with the highest ratings to get a taste of the very best Joe Hill has to offer. It’ll be less expensive than buying the collection.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent collection of short stories. Everything from the mundane to the creepy to the gory to just plain weird. Something for everyone. Good times.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rating: 4.5 of 520th Century Ghosts WOWed me! I loved Hill's take on "ghosts." I loved that the collection included horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and mainstream fiction. But what I loved most was that I could (can) still remember all 16 stories (there was one hidden in the Acknowledgments), and there were only two I didn't like. Frequent readers of short stories know how rare that is.Hands down my absolute favorite of the collection was My Father's Mask. After I finished it I sat dazed for about 15 minutes. Then I just sat there, staring at the wall, and thought about it for another 30 minutes. Finally I had to consult the Net to see if others reacted the same way. Sure enough, I was not alone. I'll be thinking about this story for I don't know how many days (weeks? years?) to come.Best New Horror was pure fun, and a warning to all us horror nuts who think we'd never end up like one of those characters. HA! Voluntary Committal, The Black Phone, The Cape - all equally creepy and brilliant.Highly recommended to fans of psychological horror and/or great storytelling. If you're looking for tons of BOO! in your face scares or a splatterfest, skip this one for now, but come back to it when you want something deeper and, at times, more frightening.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Good enough, just not that in to short stories. If you like them, then this is a solid collection.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Definitely like the longer novels better, but the story "Pop Art" makes the entire collection worth checking out.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If it was possible, I would give this 4.5 stars! It has a nice mix of sad, bittersweet and deliciously dark and creepy stories. Not every tale was a hit but overall I think it's a great collection.