When I reviewed Joe Hill’s debut novel, “Heart-shaped Box”, earlier this year, I said that I would be following this author with a keen eye. I found his first effort to be a flawed, albeit in the end very entertaining read that was ripe with potential, and I could immiediately tell that this was a guy that was going places. The word on the web was that Joe Hill was something of a wiz kid when it came to short-stories, and that “20th Century Ghosts” was vastly superior “Heart-shaped Box”.

And after having read it, I’m more than inclined to agree. It is probably so much better that it’s almost hard to believe.

Being the son of Stephen King doesn’t exactly hurt your chances to sell books either, but thankfully I found Joe Hill easier to stomach than those of his fathers efforts that I’ve tried. They aren’t in fact hard to stomach at all, because these short stories are far removed from the gore and splatter of the horror genre. They are simply quite lovely, heart warming and amazingly written.

Best New Horror is the first short-story (excepting the one thats hidden in the “Acknowledgments” at very beginning) in this 389 pages hardcover edition that Gollancz relaunched after the success of Joe Hill’s novel. This story has a very vivid ending that you can see coming from a quite a distance, but it’s pretty entertaining to watch the author play with the trappings of the genre with it. One of the least good stories in the collection, but fine entertainment.

20th Century Ghosts is the story that gave the book its title (obviously) and is in my opinion if not the very best, than a heavy contender for the crown in this collection. When I read it I told myself that it was probably the best short-story I’d ever read - which was true at the time - but more awesomeness was to come. What I liked about this one though was how it started off as creepy ghost story and ended as a heart-tearing love story. The ending is superb (this is true of most of these stories, so I’ll be repeating it quite often. Be warned).

Pop Art made me cry. This one is about a troubled kid whose only friend is inflatable (quite literally so). It’s beautiful in and of itself, and the ending had me in bits. Equal or better than “20th Century Ghosts”.

You Will Hear the Locust Sing was an interesting tale about a boy that one day woke up and discovered he’d become a real, human-sized locust. This one didn’t thrall me in the same way that the two previous one’s did, so I’d rate it about as good as “Best New Horror”. It’s also the goriest story in the collection, but it does never become gross.

Abraham’s Boys is a vampire story, which I guess is obligatory content in a “horror-collection”, all though I never found any of these stories scary. This one very good ending, but takes some time before it gets going, and is therefore a little bit better than “You Will Hear the Locust Sing” and “Best New Horror”, all though not as good as the two best stories so far.

Better Than Home wasn’t quite for me, but I really liked the characters in it, and especially the main one, who was a troubled kid who suffered badly from OCD. I always tended to like the character’s we were introduced to, and Joe Hill didn’t need more than a page to make me care about them, which is an incredible feat by every standards, cos I can go entire books or series without giving a shit about who dies or not.

The Black Phone had that extra bit of nastiness and extraordinary that made out Hill’s best short-stories. This one is among my favorites, and it certainly gets the prize for most spectacular phone. Great ending.

In the Rundown was yet another very strong story with a great and flawed protagonist (they were all brilliantly and differently flawed). You could see where he was taking you towards the end, but I enjoyed the nasty ride to get there.

The Cape was a really, really good one that I’d rate alongside “Pop Art” and “20th Century Ghosts. Especially the ending was so brilliantly gruesome that I felt torn apart over whether or not I should grin at the mad genius of the story or if I should be horrified at what it meant. In the end I did both; just for good measure.

Last Breath probably had the best and most interesting idea of all these stories, though it didn’t have the same impact as the best ones. It was about a retired doctor who now ran a museum that displayed the sound of peoples last breaths. A museum of silence, so to speak. Good stuff indeed.

Dead-wood was short and thought-provoking. I liked it.

The Widow’s Breakfast was nicely done, and had good ending. Overall much of the same quality as “Best New Horror”.

Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead was superb. The story took place on the set of George Romero’s classic “Dawn of the Dead”, and the two main characters were both background actors (or “zombies” in this case). It was funny and heart-breaking and one of the best stories in the collection, if not the best. It’s hard to choose since they’re all so good in many different ways.

My Father’s Mask was the closest I came to being creeped out.

And lastly, Voluntary Committal was a great ending to the best short-story collection I’ve ever read. It’s a bit longer than the rest, but every sentence of it was pure gold and towards the end I became really sad there weren’t more stories left to read.

This book is simply superb in all too many ways for a regular or irregular human to understand. The best stories include “Pop Art”, “20th Century Ghosts”, “The Cape”, “Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead” and “Voluntary Committal”, and the rest of them are in most cases not far behind. Joe Hill’s prose flows effortlessly throughout the collection and his characters are often too lively for comfort.

If you’re only going to read one short-story collection in your life, make it “20th Century Ghosts” by Joe Hill. I love it with all my heart. 8,5 /10