Full Throttle

Book (Short Stories), 2019

Premise - A collection of short stories by horror fiction writer Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, with whom he co-wrote a subset of the stories including the titular "Full Throttle". While not all deal in the supernatural or fantastical, every story deals with the fundamentals of fear.

Review - I'm not sure if Joe Hill has ever, within one of his books, spoken so openly as he did in this book's introduction about his relationship with his father and the oddness of following in his enormous footsteps. A few of the stories were even co-written with his father and, if I'm being completely honest, they were my least favorite in collection. The titular "Full Throttle" was definitely my least favorite of all. Not that they weren't enjoyable and valuable adds to the collection, just that Joe's own work really, truly stuck with me more.

 

"Full Throttle" was the first story in the collection, and I kind of read through it like "Hmm... not sure if I'll like these" and wondering if the book was worth the physical purchase. And as I read through more stories, they started becoming better and better, each consecutive story more entertaining than the last, that by the time I finished I was truly disappointed it was over.

 

Every single story I could imagine as a full-length novel or film (which is what happened to "In the Tall Grass"). "Faun", for example, was such a rich storytelling idea that I was almost hurt it wasn't a full novel. But there is admittedly something very special about short-story form, particularly in these stories it's the ambiguity. There wasn't necessarily ambiguity in that readers were left preemptively hanging, but there was definite ambiguity in "What did that mean? What really happened or what was imagined?" that could have been muted by a longer story form.

Though short, the stories definitely knew how to create fully realized characters, better so than most authors can. I loved the last story, "You are Released" which bounces around an airplane cabin full of several characters, each of them fully dimensional human beings described in only a few short pages.

I also love how Joe is clearly a fan himself of pop culture. The modern-day references to Marvel, Harry Potter, and more are sprinkled in throughout. I have a habit of reading current non-fiction, and old, classic fiction. Reading current fiction felt like a real treat. (89/100)

Quote - “It’s quite common to enter a library and find yourself in conversation with the dead. The best minds of generations long gone crowd every bookshelf. They wait there to be noticed, to be addressed, and to reply in turn. In the library the dead meet the living on collegial terms as a matter of course, every day.” - LATE RETURNS, THE BEST STORY

What to read for - My favorite was "Late Returns", as I stated above. It's the story about a librarian who can travel through time to give modern books to people from the past. As Joe Hill said in his notes, he hates the idea of dying mid-way through a novel. I do too. One of my favorite quotes of his, from The Fireman, is "Death is a raw deal for narrative junkies." Think of all the stories you'll miss out on that come out after you die. I would love for someone from the future to hand me all of its stories.

If you liked this book, I'd recommend watching the film adaptation of one of the stories, "In the Tall Grass"

Written by Joe Hill

Published by William Morrow