With 20th Century Ghosts, I realized I’m not doing myself any favors by listening to Joe Hill’s novels in audiobook format.

In N0S4A2, narrated by the talented Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway!), I couldn’t get past the grating voice she used to bring Bing Partridge to life. The Laurel and Hardy-esque slapstick humor between the two big-bads of the novel was more eye-rolling than knee-slapping. Also, the amount of juvenile humor was too much (how many times do I have to hear mommy milkers…). In 20th Century Ghosts, it only gets slightly better. David LeDeoux brings to life all Hill’s tropes, from the dumb hillbilly voices to more nasally caricatures reminiscent of Mulgrew’s work. These had to be prompts given to the narrators, so I can’t be too harsh on them. I still think I would have been better off reading rather than listening.

As for the stories themselves, for the most part, Hill writes with an excellent hand. They are well-crafted, slow burns. Content-wise, some are like a Twilight Zone episode (“You Will Hear the Locust Sing”) while others dig a little deeper (“Pop Art”). I am surprised to find “The Black Phone” here (now a major motion picture!), although I’m not sure where else it would be. As good as they were, I wished Hill would have pushed things a little further on some. After reading “Pop Art”, for instance, I wished he had made me question whether the plastic boy was actually real. That said, I did have to Google it to be sure, so maybe I’m speaking out of my ass on this.

There is still Hill’s annoying juvenile writing: kids talking about masturbation, farts, and the like. I rolled my eyes in more than one story at some of the comments made. Some odd dialogue runs through his work. I got tripped up more than once because I stopped to think about how people don’t talk that way.

On the flip side, there are some stories where Hill leaves his tropes behind and instead gives over much to the imagination. This is where I found the most enjoyment. In “Last Breath”, for example, I love how what is said to the characters isn’t explicitly told to the reader. It’s not revealing if the monster was in the closet after all, but letting your imagination run wild.

All said, for a novel titled 20th Century Ghosts, which contains stories like “Best New Horror”, I thought I’d find this novel scary. I found it mildly creepy at most. It’s well written and worth the read, but your mileage may vary.