20th Century Ghosts ~ Joe Hill

This is a selection of short stories from the son of Horror Master Stephen King. Joe’s full name being Joseph Hillstrom King.


I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of these stories. They’re not out and out horror to shock, they are very intelligent, and gradually draw you in, leaving you feeling very unsettled.

Pop Art was my favourite. This story was so sensitively written in it’s own way. It is a story about a young boy’s friendship with an inflatable boy. It was disturbing but quite beautiful and I just loved the last line. I have thought about it often since reading it.

Abraham’s Boys was a little twist on the Dracula theme but was very reminiscent of the movie Frailty. Having recently read Dracula I found the premise of the story a little hard to swallow, but I did think it was cleverly done.

20th Century Ghost tells the story of a haunted theatre, again it was beautifully written and quite sad.

Best New Horror was really good too, it actually reminded me of Coraline crossed with The Chainsaw Massacre!

Stephen King was one of my all time favourite authors when all I read was horror. During his later years, after his accident, I felt that he didn’t ‘have it’ any more. The stories were bland and the shock factor just wasn’t there. These stories do take you that one step closer to the edge, and the quality of the writing makes you want to peer over. Reading these stories has sparked my interest in horror again.