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20th Century Ghosts
  

20th Century Ghosts (Hardcover)

by Joe Hill (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 341 pages
  • Publisher: PS Publishing (30 Sep 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1904619479
  • ISBN-13: 978-1904619475
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,270,754 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review

A collection of pleasantly creepy stories follows Hill's debut novel (Heart Shaped Box, 2007).Published in a number of magazines from 2001 to the present, most of the stories display the unself-conscious dash that made Hill's novel an intelligent pleasure. In addition to the touches of the supernatural, some heavy, some light, the stories are largely united by Hill's mastery of teenaged-male guilt and anxiety, unrelieved by garage-band success or ambition. One of the longest and best, "Voluntary Committal," is about Nolan, a guilty, anxious high-school student, Morris, his possibly autistic or perhaps just congenitally strange little brother, and Eddie, Nolan's wild but charming friend. Morris, whose problems dominate but don't completely derail his family's life, spends the bulk of his time in the basement creating intricate worlds out of boxes. Eddie and Nolan spend their time in accepted slacker activities until Eddie, whose home life is rough, starts pushing the edges, leading to real mischief, a big problem for Nolan who would rather stay within the law. It's Morris who removes the problem for the big brother he loves, guaranteeing perpetual guilt and anxiety for Nolan. "My Father's Mask" is a surprisingly romantic piece about a small, clever family whose weekend in an inherited country place involves masks, time travel and betrayal. The story least reliant on the supernatural may leave the most readers pining for a full-length treatment: "Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead" reunites a funny but failed standup comedian with his equally funny ex-high school sweetheart Harriet, now married and a mother. Bobby has come back to Pittsburgh, tail between his legs, substitute teaching and picking up the odd acting job, and it is on one of those gigs, a low-budget horror film, that the couple reconnects, falling into their old comedic rhythms. Not just for ghost addicts. (Kirkus Reviews)


Book Description

Imogene is young, beautiful, kisses like a movie star, and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead, the legendary ghost of the Rosebud theater, and one afternoon in 1945, a boy named Alec Sheldon will have an unforgettable encounter with her... in the dark...

Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with a head full of big ideas and a gift for getting his ass kicked. It's hard to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town...

Francis is unhappy. Francis is picked on. Francis doesn't have a life, a hope, a chance. Francis was human once, but that's behind him now. Francis is an eight-foot tall locust, and all of Calliphora, Nevada will shudder to hear him sing...

John Finney is in trouble. The kidnapper locked him in a basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. With him, in his subterranean cell, is an antique phone, long since disconnected... but it rings at night, anyway, with calls from the dead...

Eric is a twentysomething burnout, who just lost a girlfriend and a job. Once, though, he was the Red Bolt, and with his home-made cape he could fly. Now the cape is back in his hands, and Eric's future is looking up... and up...

Nolan Lerner is guilty. His past is a thing choked with secrets, blood – and sunflowers. Only Nolan can tell the story of what really happened one summer in 1977, when his younger brother, an idiot savant named Morris, built a vast cardboard fort, with secret doors inside, doors leading into other worlds...

Like Morris Lerner's impossible cardboard fortress, 20th Century Ghoss is big enough to get lost in, a maze filled with exits into a vast country of the surreal. With an assortment of dazzling ideas stickier than flypaper, Joe Hill's unforgettable first collection introduces a startling new imagination.


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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars no - still don't get it...............!, 29 Nov 2008
By kermit 333 (England UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 20th Century Ghosts (Paperback)
Having read "Heart Shaped Box" and not been impressed (see my review) I thought I'd better give 'ol Joe another go; after all Daddy is Stephen King so surely he has absorbed some writing ability from his pa, right? Wrong. I tried and tried to like him but to be perfectly honest he bored the pants off me again and I gave up! What "Pop Art" was trying to say is beyond me; maybe someone can enlighten me ??? will be interested to read others take on this one.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 20th century ghosts, 25 April 2009
By Mrs. Denise Walker (england) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: 20th Century Ghosts (Paperback)
i loved this book. ok so some of the stories need imagination, but whats wrong with that? Is Stephen King really his Dad?
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4.0 out of 5 stars Superbly Crafted Short Stories, 11 Feb 2009
By Amy Goldsmith (Surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: 20th Century Ghosts (Paperback)
I wasn't really overly enamoured with 'Heart Shaped Box'- whilst I thought it had lots of promise, it didn't really go anywhere interesting- but I thought that I would give Joe Hill's short story collection a go when I saw it in Borders. I am very glad that I did. Joe's writing is of the very first order; it sucks you in and with little apparent effort you are placed right into the heart of his stories- you are an (often unwilling) observer.

Pop Art is heart wrenchingly poignant and original; the first story, Best New Horror, is claustrophobically terrifying; The Black Phone is also terrifying (the black balloon image still haunts me!)- there aren't really any weak stories in the whole volume. I haven't read a better book of short, scary, well-written(and powerful) stories since Ramsey Campbell's 'Alone With the Horrors' (or Stephen King's 'Night Shift.')

A must-read for all fans of short scares - or, indeed, for fans of the art of the short story. Fantastic.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The ant's go marching two by two! Hurrah!
Although this book wasn't as good as heart shaped box it's still pretty good. I especially enjoyed my father's mask (the playing card people!! Read more
Published 11 months ago by Geek girl

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