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Book Summary and Reviews of Full Throttle by Joe Hill

Full Throttle by Joe Hill

Full Throttle

Stories

by Joe Hill

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Oct 2019, 496 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in thirteen relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including "In The Tall Grass," one of two stories co-written with Stephen King, basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.

A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in "Faun." A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in "Late Returns." In "By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain," soon to be an episode on Shudder TV's Creepshow, two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water's edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality...and other horrors that lurk in the water's shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in "Throttle," co-written with Stephen King.

Replete with shocking chillers, including two previously unpublished stories written expressly for this volume ("Mums" and "Late Returns") and another appearing in print for the first time ("Dark Carousel"), Full Throttle is a darkly imagined odyssey through the complexities of the human psyche. Hypnotic and disquieting, it mines our tormented secrets, hidden vulnerabilities, and basest fears, and demonstrates this exceptional talent at his very best.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"The poet laureate of everyday terrors returns with a baker's dozen of deliciously sinister tales...Miniature masterworks of modern horror, proving that life is hard, weird, and always fatal." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Hill tackles his dark subjects with humanity and empathy, and his complex, fully realized characters leap into the imagination. This collection cements Hill's reputation as a versatile master of scares both subtle and shocking." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Every piece is driven by anxiety and unease and feature Hill's trademark characters who feel absolutely real. But it is also the sense of place that dazzles, whether it's a sinister version of Narnia in 'Faun,' on a coastal pier in 'Dark Carousel,' or on a plane as WWIII breaks out in 'You Are Released.' Hill lulls the reader into deep enjoyment, even as the terror lies just around the corner." - Library Journal (starred review)

This information about Full Throttle was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Joe Hill Author Biography

Photo: J. Lassen

Joseph Hillstrom King, born in 1971 (pen name: Joe Hill), is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman and Heart-Shaped Box. His second novel, Horns, was made into a feature film starring Daniel Radcliffe; his third, NOS4A2, is forthcoming as a TV series from AMC. His book of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, won the Bram Stoker Award and British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. His most recent work, Strange Weather, a collection of novellas, was published in the autumn of 2017. He earned the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his long-running comic book series, Locke & Key, featuring the eye-popping art of Gabriel Rodriguez. Look for that one as a Netflix show in the not-too-distant future.

Link to Joe Hill's Website

Other books by Joe Hill at BookBrowse
  • Heart-Shaped Box jacket
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