Full Throttle: Stories

As I get older, I find that I give fewer books the full five-star rating and review treatment. Whether it's because I'm just more tired these days or more curmudgeonly about my entertainment, I don't know. There have been exceptions recently. My [b:Full Throttle: Stories|47770521|Full Throttle Stories|Joe Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565719889l/47770521._SX50_.jpg|66041568] review is going to be one of those exceptions because the collection is exceptional.

Like many horror fans, I grew up reading Stephen King's work. It is from a combination of reading Edgar Allan Poe in school and the collections of Joe Hill's dad that I learned to love a macabre short story. More than that, I learned to show more love single-author collections of short tales. It was because of King that I ended up reading and rereading collections of [a:Richard Matheson|8726|Richard Matheson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1200467797p2/8726.jpg]'s work.

King once contrasted short stories to novels as a kiss from a stranger in the dark versus a long love affair. Although I enjoy reading horror novels, I suppose I have always been more attracted to the mystery of that stranger in the dark. More than that, I love returning to visit my favorites in short story collections for an occasional tryst. I can't count the number of times over more than three decades that I've reread King's [b:Night Shift|10628|Night Shift|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342215309l/10628._SY75_.jpg|2454497] and [b:Skeleton Crew|13440|Skeleton Crew|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1271861632l/13440._SY75_.jpg|1814] stories "Jerusalem's Lot," "Sometimes They Come Back," "One For The Road," "The Mist," Mrs. Todd's Shortcut," "The Jaunt," "Gramma," and "Ballad of the Flexible Bullet."

Similar to his dad's collections, Joe Hill's Full Throttle is a book I plan to revisit in pieces (after I buy the Kindle edition; this is a review of the audiobook). The collection as a whole is a lovely mad romp through the mind of a man not only inspired both by his father and the passion of special effects artist Tom Savini, but who has also grown into his own man with his own ideas and his own appealing style. I don't want to dive into details on every story in the book, but I will point out some particular favorites that I know I will return to over time:

Wolverton Station -- werewolves in London? Well, not exactly, but this is the first story in the collection that really grabbed me and dragged me along by the ear holes. Something about imagining werewolves in business suits just got me smiling a big old canine smile.

By The Silver Water of Lake Champlain -- an imaginative tale of mystery and disbelief that had me begging the characters to not leave each other alone with the dead beast. If you watch Shudder's new Creepshow series, expect to see an adaptation of this story somewhere near the end of the first season.

Late Returns -- Great Scott, do I love time travel stories, especially ones where the science fiction aspect of the travel is downplayed so that the effects on the characters is in focus (think King's [b:11/22/63|10644930|11/22/63|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327876792l/10644930._SY75_.jpg|15553789] or Audrey Niffenegger's [b:The Time Traveler's Wife|18619684|The Time Traveler's Wife|Audrey Niffenegger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380660571l/18619684._SX50_.jpg|2153746]). This is a beautifully crafted character-driven story. I was surprised that Hill didn't devote more time to discussing it in his afterword.

In The Tall Grass -- Remember King's "Children of the Corn?" This is not that. However, this was a story on which Hill and King collaborated. Before GPS on mobile devices, getting lost was one of the biggest anxiety producing things that could happen to me. I like to know where I am at all times. This story plays well on that old fear and I found myself wishing the protagonists had tied some rope around their waists before they decided to venture into that field. Of course, the field probably would've foiled that effort to trip it up as well. This story has been recently adapted into a Netflix original.

My one criticism about the audiobook edition of Full Throttle is that "Twittering From the Circus of the Dead" is missing (actually, it is provided as a free PDF download). Although I understand the difficulty of narrating a piece that consists of nothing but social media posts, I also know from experience that it can be done and done well. If a new audiobook edition of Full Throttle is released in the future, I hope the producers find a narrator who is comfortable with performing social media posts. It has been done in other audiobooks.

Speaking of the narration, this audiobook is full of stars, all of whom were perfectly cast for the tales they read. Including Hill himself, you'll get to hear from all of the following names: Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, [a:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg], Ashleigh Cummings, Laysla De Oliveira, Nate Corddry, Connor Jessup, Stephen Lang, and George Guidall.

If you're a King fan and you've never read any work by Joe Hill, you might ask the obvious fan question: will I like his work as much as I like Stephen King's? I can't answer that for you. I can say that King coauthored two of the stories in the collection ("Throttle" and "In the Tall Grass"), so there's the familiarity you want if you need it. I can also say as a fan that I now know that the "is it like Stephen King?" question is the wrong question to ask. You should not go into a Joe Hill book (or an [a:Owen King|218826|Owen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1352054111p2/218826.jpg] book, for that matter) expecting nostalgia for the youth you spent reading the works of his dad. You won't find that nostalgia (although you'll sometimes find some Easter eggs), but you will be entertained.

Finally, I can say that if I had read Joe Hill's short story collections entirely separate from the knowledge that he is Stephen King's son, I know I would have added Full Throttle to my stack of rereads anyway. And that is the biggest compliment I can give to any single-author short story collection. show less

⭐ 4.75 — Full Throttle by Joe Hill

(Review by Lori — still looking sideways at white trucks)

The best stories punch you in the soul and leave you wondering what it means to be human. Joe Hill does that—again and again.

I didn’t expect Full Throttle to wreck me, but it did. I came for fun, punchy horror, and I got that—but I also got war trauma, grief, broken parents, haunted children, gaslighting, and the gnawing realization that people are always worse than monsters.

Hill is his father’s son in the best possible way. These stories aren’t about castles, exclusive schools, or distant lands—they’re about your neighborhood. Your job. Your broken relationships. The horror doesn’t come from a hellmouth; it comes from your show more own reflection in the microwave door at 2am.

Favorites:

"Thumbprint" — Hands down the best in the collection. Disturbing, precise, and devastating. Mal is a female veteran who lost her conscience to war, and Anshaw is her consequence. This one made me feel the cost of violence in my bones.

"Wolfton Station" — Prime Creepshow. Gory, ironic, ethically complex. Did the werewolves go too far? Or was this cosmic justice for a man who’d crushed so many lives?

"Mums" — An earth-mother horror that spirals out of grief. Beautifully grounded until it turns tragic and strange.

"You Are Released" — The best kind of Twilight Zone. The world ends mid-flight, and no one knows who’s telling the truth anymore. Serious, quiet, and utterly shattering.

"The Devil on the Staircase" — Skipped it. Too stylized.

"Faun" and "In the Tall Grass" — My brain shuts down with fantasy. These were not for me.

"Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" — So clever and so bleak. I remembered it well and still loved the re-read.

What sets this collection apart is Hill’s range. He can give you a Bradbury-esque haunted lake, a Tales from the Crypt revenge tale, and then hit you with something like Thumbprint that feels more like a gut-punch from a veteran than a work of fiction. He wants you to think. To question. To flinch. And he succeeds.

Warning: This book may cause nightmares. Especially if white trucks creep you out, or you’ve ever felt the slow, mounting dread of society crumbling outside a sealed airplane cabin. show less

Everything short story in this collection is perfect. Literally. Every. One. As a librarian I ADORED Late Returns; a story about a bookmobile that happens to service ghosts intent on returning their overdue books. All I Care About is You didn't grab me at first, but two pages later I was sold and the ending threw me for a freaking loop. The world building in that short story is masterful and I read a whole novel set in that world! Faun was like Chronicles of Narnia meets Oz with a dark twist and characters who aren't very moral (karma bitch!). I could go on and on about how much I loved each story, but really, do yourself a freaking favor and read this book. The stories are dark, trippy, fantastical, amazingly well written, and show more impossible to put down or guess the ending to. I even loved the intro; Hill talks about all the influences he had while writing the book from Ray Bradbury to his father, Stephen King, to Lawrence Block and monster movies; Joe Hill credits a lot of amazing creators out there for helping inspire his unique style. It's a love letter written to the greats that us mere humans are lucky enough to get to read. An amazing collection and one I'll revisit again and again. Joe Hill's writing is only getting better and I can't wait to read what he writes next!! show less

Not sure why I'm seeing so many "this anthology let me down" reviews. Yes, there were a few retreads here (the two stories co-written with his father, Dark Carousel, You Are Released, and the Twitter one, for starters), but I have to say, this is the strongest book Hill's put out since [b:NOS4A2|15729539|NOS4A2|Joe Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1369591617l/15729539._SX50_.jpg|21408527].

Each story here is wildly different from every other one, yet each one works exceedingly well. My biggest complaint with Hill is the cloying sweetness he often busts out when he gets into romantic relationships, but there's absolutely no evidence of that here. It could have gotten ugly with Late Return, but show more instead, that turned out to be the best story of the bunch.

Truth be told, after the disappointing one-two punch of [b:The Fireman|25816688|The Fireman|Joe Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469316385l/25816688._SY75_.jpg|40296144] and [b:Strange Weather|34066621|Strange Weather|Joe Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493845147l/34066621._SX50_.jpg|50720361], I was starting to wonder if I was going to really every enjoy anything of his again. This took away all doubts. show less

The theme of this short story collection is "literary influences" or "paying homage" to those that inspired you, or even "directly remixing or riffing" off some influential writers' stories. An interesting premise, and I'm glad he's forthright about it in the beginning of the book, but it still seems like a bit of a letdown almost. On the one hand, its an interesting exercise to pay homage to the writers who influenced you, and to acknowledge that you never quite lose that influence, no matter how successful you are, but on the other hand, let me see more of your original ideas, not just riffs on other people's works. That being said, the stories here are still good. They are solid stories that go in interesting directions and run the show more gamut of emotions, which is what one wants from a good short story collection. My favorite story was probably "Late Returns," or "All I Care About is You" and my least favorite was probably "Thumbprint," which wasn't a bad story, just featured almost unredeemable characters. So, overall, it was a good read, I don't feel like I wasted my time, and I'm glad that Joe was upfront about the inspiration for these stories, but next time I want to see all original works. show less

I don't much care for Hill's novels, but, in my opinion, he is a brilliant writer of short fiction, and I wish he wrote more of it. This is a dynamite collection. I thought every tale was top-notch, and this book deserves a space on your shelf right next to Hill's other classic collection **20th Century Ghosts**. It's difficult for me to choose a favorite among the stories here, but there are three that really knocked me out:

"Late Returns" is a ghost story of sorts, not particularly scary, but wonderful and moving and a great love letter to libraries and librarians everywhere.

"Mums". This tale is a great example of how ambiguity can work wonders for a short horror story. It's original to this collection, and I loved it.

"In the Tall show more Grass". This is a collaborative effort between Hill and Stephen King, and it's a textbook example of what both writers do best. It's scary, grotesque, and quite disturbing. A masterpiece. show less

This review can also be found on my blog.

Joe Hill does it again, folks. From the first story, I was absolutely glued to this book. I actually started it just before game 1 of the World Series and, uh, I really just had to finish that short story, y’all. To the detriment of me missing some incredible plays. I don’t know how the man does it -- the weakness of short stories is that sometimes it is difficult to develop a connection to the characters or to feel that the story itself isn’t quite fully-formed; this collection doesn’t suffer from either. I found myself gripping the book tightly, bent over it in anticipation as I waited to see what would happen next. Each story managed to elicit strong emotions: anxiety, grief, horror, show more or some combination of the three. And each story was completely different; I never felt like I would mix up plot or characters, and always felt like I was being given something fresh and original.

Joel looked at her in surprise. “You’re the smartest little girl on this side of the lake. You talk just like you’re reading from a book.”
“I’m the smartest little girl on either side of the lake.”

One of the things that really impresses me about Joe Hill is that he’s able to write such good bad characters. There were characters in this I truly despised, extremely bad people. But the way he writes them makes you truly interested in reading more about them. He humanizes them without justifying the horrible things they’ve done or asking you to forgive them. Sometimes you even root for them, but not always.

Who is worse, Christian, the sadist who serves his true nature honestly or the ordinary man who does nothing to stop him?

The foreword is not something I’ve really seen before in a short story collection and was a bit meandering, but since I’m biased and adore Joe’s writing, I didn’t mind it at all. I think once you’ve become so loyal to an author, learning about their history and writing process becomes much more interesting than it may have been otherwise. The story notes following were also insightful, although much briefer.

The price of being alive is that someday you aren’t.

My ratings for each story are as follows:

Throttle (with Stephen King) 4.5/5
Dark Carousel 4.5/5
Wolverton Station 4/5
By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain 5/5
Faun 4/5
Late Returns 4/5
All I Care About Is You 4/5
Thumbprint 3/5
The Devil on the Staircase 3/5
Twittering from the Circus of the Dead 3.5/5
Mums 4/5
In The Tall Grass (with Stephen King) 3.5/5
You Are Released 4/5

While that only comes to an average of 3.92, I was just so consistently impressed and haunted by this collection that I have to give it five stars. Even the stories that I didn’t feel rated highly stuck with me, which I think says a lot about Joe Hill’s writing and how he’s able to truly understand how good writing impacts the human psyche. This honestly may be my favorite book of the year — although we’ll see come December. I was constantly dropping this into my lap just to stare into the distance and contemplate how haunting some of the content was.

Her song — a low-pitched, unearthly dirge, like the forlorn cries of the whales that have long been extinct — has no words. Perhaps there never are for grief.

Overall, Joe Hill is incredibly talented. Please read this. show less