Twittering from the Circus of the Dead

May 11, 2016 6:38 PM

Twittering from the Circus of the Dead A short story from Joe Hill, from the May 2016 edition of Nightmare Magazine.
posted by jazon (10 comments total)

Originally published in The New Dead zombie fiction anthology from 2010, which I have on a shelf somewhere. I thought the story title was strangely familiar...
posted by nicebookrack at 6:49 PM on May 11, 2016

It's kinda funny to read a ghost story by someone named Joe Hill.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:46 PM on May 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

@Joe in Australia: He's Stephen King's son. His full name is Joseph Hillstrom King, and he is in fact named after that Joe Hill (who also went by Joseph Hillström).
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:01 PM on May 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed Hill's early author promo pictures, in which he's basically photographed in shadowy black-and-white while wearing a full beard and half-hiding behind a tree, all the better to obscure that he looks exactly like his famous dad.

Happily for everyone, Hill's writing stands perfectly well on its own merits! It's still fascinating to read his work while keeping King's influence in mind.
posted by nicebookrack at 10:52 PM on May 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

Adrienneleigh: That is so cool! Thanks!
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:43 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Joe Hill wrote one of my favourite comics to date Locke and key which is also wonderfully illustrated, I strongly suggest it to everybody.
posted by yann at 3:46 AM on May 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yea, Joe Hill is a great horror writer in his own right. Locke and Key is wonderful, and his "Heart-Shaped Box" novel is really good.

I sent this to my Twitter/King/Hill/horror-loving cousin, and only got back an "eff you" note. Success!
posted by gemmy at 7:41 AM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Heart-Shaped Box amazed me by working really well as both a romance and a horror story. It's relatively rare for a narrative to balance both story elements without one undercutting the other: the romance softens the horror, or the horror turns the romance bleak. HSB managed to be scary and sweet.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:42 AM on May 12, 2016

Interesting gimmick to use Twitter, but other than that, it pretty much proceeds in the standard zombie narrative. It's Ray to persist what will happen, and nothing all that original is done with the characters.
posted by happyroach at 8:49 AM on May 12, 2016

I'm glad you posted this; I wouldn't have heard about it otherwise. I ended up liking it, mostly some of the flashes of imagery when things started to go bad--e.g. the woman on the stilts was upsetting. (I mean, in the good fictional way.)

It gives me a little hope, too. Before this, I mostly bounced off of Hill's stuff, and it's been SO FRUSTRATING. I like what I've read of his persona (interviews, his Tumblr), I like his sensibilities, I like his topics and premises, I get excited and hopeful when I hear he has something new coming out. But I have not so far honestly liked any of his books! Or, in fact, his characters, with the possible exceptions of Vic and Lou from NOS4A2 (though it's not a very strong liking).

I don't think I bounced as hard off of the very first stuff of his I read, the 20th Century Ghosts story collection. Not that I remember, anyway. So possibly this tells me I get along better with him in the short form than the long?
posted by theatro at 4:04 PM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]