Stephen King Fans discussion

Has anyone read this? I'm reading it now, it's by Joe Hill (aka son of Stephen King) it's awesome. His writing style is definitely similar to his dad's but maybe that's just because I know who his dad is. I have about 100 pages to go, it's totally creeping me out!

I liked this book. Some of the strong character development skills that a lot of Stephen King's books is also present here. Add in a few deftly handled plot twists and tweaks, and what you've got here is a good, solid read.

I took a creative writing class in high school with King's youngest son, Owen. I know Owen's style was very similar to his dad's...I can't image that's completely by accident. Growing up in that house must influence in many ways, both intentional and accidental. Owen was extremely talented too, for the record. Must be in the genes... :P

I read this when it came out. It was amazing! One of the creepiest books that I have read in a long time! Yes, I definitely noticed the similarity with his dad's earlier books! It's right up there with Salem's Lot, The Shining, etc. Enjoy!!!

I didn't know about this book! I am going to go and pick this up soon. Thanks for the info!

"I took a creative writing class in high school with King's youngest son, Owen. I know Owen's style was very similar to his dad's...I can't image that's completely by accident. Growing up in that house must influence in many ways, both intentional and accidental. Owen was extremely talented too, for the record. Must be in the genes... :P"

cool. I'm confused as to why he would enroll in a creative writing class to begin with, though. I mean, he's got the master writing teacher living with him!

They've done an excellent job of keeping the relationship secret. "Joe" definitely did not just ride the "my Dad is the greatest author ever" train. I just ordered this online and am looking forward to reading it.

I was/am not impressed with Tabitha's writing style so maybe "Joe" will be different.

Thanks for bringing this up, folks! i had no idea "Joe" was treading in dad's bloody footsteps . :)

"cool. I'm confused as to why he would enroll in a creative writing class to begin with, though. I mean, he's got the master writing teacher living with him!"

Well, the teacher who taught the class was actually a very decent writer in her own way, as well...had quite a good reputation. But really, I think was just an opportunity for him to be in a creative atmosphere and create some writing to throw off of other writers. It was a really great little class.

I wonder if he enrolled because it was a requirement for his degree? Maybe an elective? Did you get to read any of his stuff in class?

I finished the book over the weekend. It was really well done, I really cared for the characters whereas sometimes in horror novels the characters are weak and I don't really care what happens to them. For anyone who hasn't read it it's definitey worth checking out. I want to read his short story collection next but I hope he comes out with another novel soon.

"I wonder if he enrolled because it was a requirement for his degree? Maybe an elective? Did you get to read any of his stuff in class?"

This was a creative writing class in high school. I was a senior, Owen was a sophomore. (For readers outside the U.S., I was in my final year of schooling before University, Owen had two more to go after that year).

Anyway, it was very much a creative class...part of the creative process, as many of you know, is reading your work aloud to the other members of the group to get critique and ideas. So, I heard many of his stories, and he heard many of mine...it was really a fun class. His stories were always vividly descriptive and wildly imaginative. This is why I have a feeling the talent runs in that family's blood.

actually, he's published a book of short stories- I haven't read them, but I've heard they're on the dark humor side...

Plus I imagine that having Stephen King teach you about writing might be like having Monet teach you about art, I don't know if people who come by things that naturally can always break it down to explain it to others.

I really admire that he wanted to stand on his own two feet and not make it on his dad's name (unlike Anne Rice's son Christopher) I think it's admirable.

Just finished this one. Very good in my opinion. I could see similarities to his dad SK. They both reference rock and roll music a lot. The humor used even in scary situations is very reminiscent of his father. Also the attention to gory details is similar. All in all it is a great ghost story with good characters. I hope he keeps writing and I'm eager to read another one by him.

Joanie, I think Stephen King broke down his writing methods quite well in his "On Writing". Although I agree that many people who "do" aren't so good at the "teach" part of it.

You're right Tamara, I had forgotten about On Writing. He does break it down quite well there.

Shane.. have you ever checked out SK's music station? You should be able to stream music from the website:

http://zoneradio.com/wkit/index.shtml

AWESOME!!!! I had not heard of that before, Angie - THANKS!! Something new to listen to all day now.

as many people have previously said, i had not heard this before, no clue, but i'm really interested to check it out.

Looks like SK and his son are going to be collaborating on a novella, that might be cool. I don't think it comes out till Feb 09 so a long time from now but still neat:

http://stephenking.com/pages/news/kin...

I tried to get heart-shaped Box from the library today but it had already been taken out, so I got 20th Century Ghost instead which is also by Joe Hill.

I'm interested to hear what you think of 20th Century Ghost, I haven't read that one yet.

20th Century Ghosts is great! I am about halfway done so far and am loving every minute of it. I highly recommend it!

20th Century Ghosts is on my TBR list. Heart-Shaped Box was great, I really enjoyed it.

I'm about to start reading 20th Century Ghosts and am looking forward to it even more - lots of people have said it was really good. I think I'm gonna order Heart Shaped Box off Amazon and have it as one of my holiday reads.

I've just read that Heart-shaped Box is going to be made into a film by Warner Bros at some point this year.

I can see it as a movie, I just hope they don't make gear it towards the teenage audience and totally wreck it!

I know what you mean Joanie - I haven't read it yet but I hate it when they dumb movies down.

Hill's short story collection is 20th Century Ghosts--wiki tells me it was a limited edition press in 2005, but was reissued in 2007. He is also author of a comic book series, Locke & Key. He looks just like Dad, but skinnier with a Moe Howard style haircut and black beard.

There are some good stories in that one Hayley. I found a few of them similar to stuff his dad has written, but not blatant rip-offs. I really liked it and hope he keeps on spinning them out.

Well I finished Heart Shaped Box. When certain revelations came out about why the suit was cursed late in the novel, I lost heart in this. In the hands of a more seasoned author, this would have been better handled. Hill also has a bit too much Richard Bachman in him when it comes to violent confrontations. And he has Daddy King's bad habit of taking forever to end the tale.

However, I really am loving 20th Century Ghosts, especially the title story, "Pop Art" and "Abraham's Boys", among others. Hill needs some more time in longer stories and novels to become a great writer, I think.

Just reserved it on our local library system; I'm surprised that they even had it, seeing as how they only have 3 SK books on their shelf, lol. I love the title too. It's one of my favorite songs :P

I've tried to read something Tabitha King and it was pretty horrid. I'm sure his son would do better though!

I really liked 20th Century Ghosts. The stories were so well done, some not really even horror at all but others like "Best New Horror Writer" (or something like that) totally freaked me out. "Pop Art" was so different, and I really liked the last one about the brother who builds "forts" out of boxes. I'm really looking forward to reading more by him.

Joanie, that 'boxes' one is "Voluntary Committal"--and I just finished that one--absolutely incredible...the best of the whole book, in fact.

20th Century Ghosts was a great book! I loved all the stories! I can't wait for more by Joe Hill!

I audiobooked Heart Shaped Box. I didn't like the female character at the beginning--thought her character development was very shallow--but by the end it was veerrry good. Liked it so much more at the end than I did at the beginning--and it was a TOTAL creepfest.

20th Century Ghosts comes out in paperback in Sept.--my sis and I are going to pick up and read then.

I loved Heart Shaped Box, it was one of the best ghost stories I had read in ages. I look forward to read more of Joe Hill in the future.

I finished Heart Shaped Box a couple weeks ago and as far as im concerned it was great I havent read such a good ghost story forever it was actually creepy! Im definetly looking forward to more of his writing!

At the end of September, there will be a book of short stories put out called Livind Dead. It will contain Stephen King, Joe Hill, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, etc. I can't wait. That seems to be the closest thing we have to something new by Joe Hill for awhile. Hopefully not too long.

Ooh, Clive Barker! I love that guy (ignoring his last sad excuse of a "novel"...). Thanks for telling us about that short story collection, I never would've known otherwise :P Definitely going to pick it up now, when it gets released.

Just got Heart-Shaped Box from the library today, will start asap :D

I picked up and read The Heart Shaped Box recently. I thought it started very strong and very creepy, then kind of drug along for about 100 pages or so, then picked back up for a strong finish (although some of it was predictable).

I'd love to get people's thoughts on his 20th Century Ghosts...

I just bought 20th Century Ghosts. Havent' read it yet, but really looking forward to it.

I loved the angle about the dogs and their "spirits" in Heart Shaped Box--and I love big dogs, so those characters worked very well for me.

I agree that there's some down time in the middle. I was sooo creeped out by the old man sitting in the hallway--Heart Shaped Box was the first true horror I had read in years (I read it just before I picked up Cell), and the heart pumping feeling was nice to get back to...

I'm a huge Joe Hill fan! I loved both of his books so far. 20th Century Ghosts has some of the best short stories in it that I have ever read! Definitely worth trying out!

i can't believe how long it took me to find this topic! I resisted reading Heart Shaped Box at first because I had just finished The Dark Tower series and was avoiding all things remotely Stephen King related ( I don't really like reading that many books by the same author back to back) but I needed books to read for a trip. I drifted into the horror section and 2oth Century Ghosts caught my eye. I kinda didn't realize what it was at first. I thought it might be non-fiction stories about ghost sightings. Anyway, ignorance aside, I flipped the book over and looked at the picture on the back . The guy looked vaguely familiar. I think there's a strong family resemblence. i bought it, read it, loved it then gave Heart Shaped Box a try. Extremely good and very scary horror story with characters that have arcs that make sense and I could kinda relate too. I recommended it to my sister and it scared the crap outta her but she loved it too. I'm glad I read 20th Century Ghosts first though because not all those stories are horror and they're all good. I feel like just reading Heart Shaped Box, it'd be easy for skeptics to dismiss Joe Hill asa great "horror writer" but 20th Century Ghosts shows he's a great storyteller. Like father,like son. Just my 2 cents.








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Anyone checking out King and Hill's new book?

I'm waiting to get Heart Shaped Box first. Do you know what it will be called? It's not out yet, right? (please don't let it be out yet!!!!!)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Road...


It is called Road Rage, looks like it doesn't come out till Feb 24th.

It's an audio disc of short stories by SK, Joe Hill and Richard Matheson.

I didn't realize it was audio only!