Sunday 26 May 2013

142/111 - 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill




This is another book I've had for ages. I think I probably bought this around the same time I read Horns, as I enjoyed it very much. I had a long car journey this weekend so I thought I'd take this along as I find it hard to read long stretches in the car as I get sick and this is a book of short stories. Also, next week Joe Hill will be doing a book signing at the Waterstones i used to work in, which I'm hoping to go to, so I thought I'd get ready. However, I found that I didn't get sick at all this time, so read the whole thing. Score!

I really really enjoyed this collection, it was great. Every story was so weird and wonderful and creepy, exactly what it was supposed to be. I liked the story about the editor of a horror collection who gets caught up in his won horror story, I liked the story about the boy who wakes up to find he's become an insect, I loved the story about the inflatable boy, and the ghost forest, and I also loved the last story about the boy who builds a cardboard fort that takes you places. Just amazing, pretty much all of them.

One of the things that I though was done really well in this collection was the stories told from points of view of narrators who are imperfect in some way - either unhappy, or down and out, or downright unlikeable. Just ordinary people experiencing slightly odd things. Anyway, his new book is out next week and I'm looking forward to it.

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