My October audiobook recommendation is an easy one: Joe Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts.
First published in 2005 by the small British specialty press PS Publishing after being rejected by major publishers, the collection contains 14 stories, including what I would argue are some of Hill’s best works. Years were spent developing these stories, and it shows.
I never get tired of reading—or listening to—this collection. Hill combines literary and genre writing beautifully—a skill I wish I possessed in my own writing. As his career progressed, I’ve noticed him leaning more into genre writing (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but here you can really see the literary wordsmith at work.
Over the course of his career, I’ve noticed Hill leaning more into genre writing (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but here you can really see the literary wordsmith at work.
This collection explores every variation of the haunting theme: horror, the supernatural, fantasy, nostalgia, grief, childhood, and the ghosts of memory.
Abraham’s Boys ventures into classic horror, imagining Abraham Van Helsing’s sons growing up with a father still obsessed with the creatures he once hunted. 20th Century Ghost takes us into an old movie theatre haunted by a young woman, while My Father’s Mask is a bizarre, dreamlike tale filled with masks, playing cards and the sense that something is very wrong. I’ve read it countless times, and it’s so wonderfully bizarre that I’m not sure whether to laugh or be unsettled—which may be exactly the point.
Then there’s Pop Art, the unexpectedly touching story of a boy whose best friend happens to be inflatable. It is, hands down, the best short story I have ever read.
David LeDoux does a great job narrating the audiobook. Interestingly, Hill frequently reuses a familiar cast of narrators in his later audiobooks, but LeDoux doesn’t seem to have joined that group.
If gore isn’t your thing, definitely skip the first story in the collection and start with the second onward. Each time I revisit this book, I find something I missed before. If you enjoy it too, you may want to check out Hill’s Full Throttle or Strange Weather story collections next. Happy reading!
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