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20th Century Ghosts
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Oct 2018 Group Read: 20th Century Ghosts
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Ronald
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rated it 4 stars
Sep 30, 2018 08:43PM
This is the thread for 20th Century Ghosts.
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I guess I'll get this started.The setup in "Best New Horror" is more longwinded than I remember. But there are a number of funny details, and the inevitable trajectory of the last section is nicely handled.
Bill wrote: "I guess I'll get this started.The setup in "Best New Horror" is more longwinded than I remember. But there are a number of funny details, and the inevitable trajectory of the last section is nice..."
That was my favorite story in the collection.
I had computer problems, now resolved. I intend to comment on _20th Century Ghosts_ this week.
I found the title story to be sweet and affecting. I have a soft spot for that experience.Of course, "20th century ghost" is no more about ghosts than "20th century fox" is about foxes. Check out those hilarious one-star reviews.
"Best New Horror" An editor of a year's best horror fiction series--who reminds me of Karl Edward Wagner--searches for the writer of the story "Buttonboy". The search and finding the of writer is like a horror story itself. I was amused at times. 3.5 stars.
"Pop Art" moves from its bizarro premise to surprisingly darker, poignant territory. I thought the next few stories were rather conventional and uninteresting.
I rather enjoyed the slippery "Better than Home". But I'm looking forward to "The Black Phone", which I remember well from my first reading.
Bill wrote: ""Pop Art" moves from its bizarro premise to surprisingly darker, poignant territory. I thought the next few stories were rather conventional and uninteresting.
I rather enjoyed the slippery "Bet..."
The Black Phone was one of the more memorable selections for me. Pop Art was interesting and weird. Better Than Home I thought was just OK.
Second time around, I have to say it's striking how uneven this collection is. But I think the highs are pretty high. I don't know where everyone else is. But if you're getting bogged down in "Abraham's Boys" or the tired locust story, just skip on to "The Black Phone" or "The Cape".
The former is a good example of what I like about Hill's pieces; constructed around a few interesting ideas, and finally careening toward a car crash of an outcome that's so satisfying. "The Cape" at first reminds me a little of Steven Millhauser's "Flying Carpets", with its gentle Americana. Then things take a darker turn quickly, and I was blindsided by the ending.
Bill wrote: ""The Cape" at first reminds me a little of Steven Millhauser's "The Flying Carpet", with its gentle Americana. Then things take a darker turn quickly, and I was blindsided by the ending."I read this a couple years ago, but I still remember when the narrator says (view spoiler) It was a great moment.
Just started this collection. I've never read anything by Joe Hill before although I have encountered him as an editor. I have mixed feelings about the first two stories, "Best New Horror" and "20th Century Ghosts". While I felt both were well-written, they also felt slightly synthetic and manipulative to me, particularly "Best New Horror". Like they were trying too hard to be a horror fan's idea of a horror story. Too meta, maybe, and that took away from the impact. I liked them but I didn't love them.
Marie-Therese wrote: "Like they were trying too hard to be a horror fan's idea of a horror story."I do agree that they're very self-conscious in that way. Normally this would annoy me, especially with my negative reaction to a lot of horror. But for some reason I found these charming.
20th Century GhostMovie theater haunted by the ghost of a young woman. 3.5 stars
Pop Art
Slipstream story about the friendship of two socially outcast boys: the narrator, who has a dysfunctional home life, and his only friend, a human boy made of inflatable plastic who has loving and supportive flesh-and-blood parents. 3.5 starts
Bill wrote: "Marie-Therese wrote: "Like they were trying too hard to be a horror fan's idea of a horror story."I do agree that they're very self-conscious in that way. Normally this would annoy me, especially ..."
Very well put. That was my thoughts regarding most of this collection although I enjoyed it overall.
I have a hypothesis that the idea of a short story can be expressed in a sentence.For "You Will Hear the Locust Sing" it is: An adolescent turns into a giant insect.
The Goodreads ratings for this story range from one star to five stars, averaging out to 3.5 stars.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
My rating: 3.5 stars.
"Abraham's Boys"Abraham Van Helsing has two sons who don't believe in vampires and think that their father is a nutter.
3.5 stars.
"Better Than Home" is a story about a troubled boy whose father manages a baseball team.3 stars.
"The Black Phone"Thirteen-year-old John Finney is kidnapped by a man named Al. Trapped in a basement room, the boy's only hope may lie in a mysterious disconnected black phone hanging on the basement wall. The phone rings at night with the whispers of the kidnapper's previous victims.
4 stars
"In The Rundown"A video store clerk comes upon a grisly scene on a dirt lane.
3.5 stars
Ronald wrote: ""The Black Phone"Thirteen-year-old John Finney is kidnapped by a man named Al. Trapped in a basement room, the boy's only hope may lie in a mysterious disconnected black phone hanging on the base..."
One of my favorites in the collection.
"The Cape"Seven-year-old Eric learns that he can fly while wearing his blue cape. After suffering a injury he thinks the cape is lost, only to find the cape again years later.
3.5 stars
"Last Breath"
The story concerns Dr. Allinger, an old man who runs a "Museum of Silence" which contains the last breaths of various people, some being famous figures such as Edgar Allan Poe. Macabre humor.
4 stars
"Dead-Wood"Two page story about haunted trees.
3 stars.
"The Widow's Breakfast"
A hobo who jumps from a train in New England during the great depression and finds himself a guest in a home where the children's games include staging mock funerals.
3.5 stars
"Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead"
A failed comedian meets his now-married ex-girlfriend during the filming of the Dawn of the Dead movie.
3.5 stars
My Father's Mask Thirteen-year-old Jack's parents take him on an unexpected trip to their cabin on Big Cat Lake. Along the way they play a game made up by Jack's mother in which they are being chased by the "playing card people". At the cabin Jack finds various masks, which he is told must be worn to disguise themselves from the playing card people. Jack grows weary of the game, but soon he finds that it may not be a game at all.
An Aickmanesque "strange story". What a story for Halloween!
4.5 stars
"Voluntary Committal"A medium length work where the adult narrator explains how he and his brother were involved in the disappearance of a friend.
Lovecraftian fiction for the 21st Century!
4.5 stars
Acknowledgements/Scheherazade's TypewriterIn the Acknowledgments section of the book, Joe Hill writes: "Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman have both hidden stories in introductions, but I don't think anyone has ever buried one in their acknowledgements page. I could be the first."
In this section is a three page story entitled "Scheherazade's Typewriter". Elena's father died an unpublished, unsuccessful writer. Not long after his death, his electric typewriter comes back to life, producing interesting supernatural stories. 3 stars.
For me, these stories average to 3.594. Rounding up to 4 stars.
