Stephen King is an absolutely amazing author. His extensive collection of novels and short stories gives the best authors of our world a run for their money. His writing is eloquent and beautiful but so terrifying. I love his works but understand if he’s not the author for you, or if reading is not something you do regularly. One of the only other authors I like fractionally more than King is Joe Hill.
The two authors’ writings are very similar. The styles of the two are eerie, unnerving and terrifying. Hill’s writing is more modern than King’s. There are probably many reasons for this, but I believe the biggest factor is because Joe Hill is actually Stephen King’s son. Both Hill and King conjure worlds of misfortune and dark events, but the age difference is the main reason for the two’s veer in storytelling.
My mom has been the biggest influence for my love of reading and all things terror. For as long as I could remember, and even before then, her favorite author has been Stephen King. So, finding out the relation between King and Hill was humorous. What are the chances of my mother’s favorite author is the father of my favorite author? I am not sure of the actual statistics of it because I am not great at math and don’t even know how I’d go about doing the math, but I’d love to know. That seems like it would be some interesting information. Either way, my mom and I are able to agree both authors are fantastic and we need to buy every novel and short story they have ever written.
While almost everything he has written is phenomenal, my ultimate favorite Joe Hill piece is a short story titled, “Pop Art.” It’s simple and relatable but abstract. “Pop Art” one of the many stories in Hill’s book, “20th Century Ghosts.” We had originally purchased the book on Amazon unaware of who had written it or what it was about and, boy, am I glad for it. Last semester, my mom and I won another copy of the book by commenting on one of Hill’s Facebook posts (excellent use of social media marketing, by the way). That was a great day.
If you find yourself at all interested in reading one of Joe Hill’s works, he has quite a selection to choose from. If you’re interested in novels, I suggest “Heart Shaped Box.” If you’re more interested in a graphic novel series, “Locke and Key” is fantastic. “The Wraith” is an easy to read and creepy stand-alone graphic novel. But if you are most interested in short stories, I, of course, suggest Hill’s “20th Century Ghosts.”
