This year, Vivat Publishing House published a collection of short stories «Black Phone» by the famous American writer Joe Gill (son of Stephen King). This book was the first in his career and was published in 2005 under the title «Ghosts of the Twentieth Century». It brought the author fame and several serious awards, including the «Bram Stoker Prize». As you can see, it was released in Ukraine under the name of a famous story from the collection, which was used to make a movie of the same name. Because of this, a potential reader may have a false impression of the book, and you will find out what kind of impression and how it affects reading below.
Pluses:
good quality of the publication; scary and atmospheric cover; wonderful diverse stories
Minuses:
not everyone can enjoy all the stories equally; the cover gives a false impression of the book
«Black Phone» / «20th Century Ghosts»
Author Joe Gill
Publisher Vivat
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 416
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 197×127 mm
Website vivat.com.ua
The collection «Black Phone» includes 15 stories of various sizes. Of course, I won’t tell you about them in detail so as not to spoil them, but I can probably say a few words about the story «Black Phone» because you may have already seen this movie.
Here we have a story about a boy named Joe. He was kidnapped by a maniac and locked in a basement with a broken old phone. This is not the first victim of this madman, so the boy is doomed. But something goes wrong with the kidnapper, so Joe has a slim chance of being rescued, and then the phone that can’t do it rings, sends greetings from the other side and increases the boy’s chances of survival.
As you can see, this is a classic fall and Halloween story, but Joe Gill’s collection is actually very diverse. There is a disgusting story about a teenager who became an insect, a ghost in a movie theater, a boy who was friends with a classmate with a balloon, an editor of a horror magazine who stumbled upon a real horror while looking for a talented author. And many more interesting, unusual and diverse stories.
Joe Gill has truly created a universal collection of short stories for those who love not only something scary and mystical, but also bizarre, fantastic, cool, sad, and sometimes funny.
He also writes beautifully, with a simple but detailed and slightly rough style that is similar to the work of his father, Stephen King. I must say that Joe Hill made his way on his own. No one, not even the editors, knew that he was the son of the King of Horror because, as you can see, he took a pseudonym. Or rather, he shortened his real name from Joseph Hillstrom King to Joe Gill. And only later, after several of his books became bestsellers, people accidentally found out that he was the son of King.
It is logical that Joe Gill has certain parallels with his father’s work because it influenced him and inspired him to become a writer. He also inherited King’s talent because Hill’s writing is excellent. However, this is not a brazen copy, but something familiar and new at the same time because he is sometimes harsher and more horrifying than his father. And sometimes even more repulsive in a good way and bolder in his ideas.
In the collection «Black Phone», Joe Hill not only experiments with genres, scares, comforts, and inspires. Often he makes the reader think of the ending on their own, or guess what happened next. He doesn’t reveal everything, creating, so to speak, a Schrödinger’s ending. In it, the hero, for example, is both alive and dead at the same time, and it depends on the reader’s desire and thoughts on this matter.
Like any collection, this one also has a disadvantage in the form of itself. That is, there are high chances that out of the 15 stories, some people will like some more and some less. This is a kind of flaw in any collection by any author. You have to be prepared for this. I liked all the stories, but, logically, some more, some less, but there were no stories I didn’t like.
However, the story «Black Phone» is good, but no more. But the film adaptation of the same name has already been made really cool, and this came as a surprise to me. Usually, film adaptations simplify the literary source, cut it down, distort it, and so on. But in this case, it was just the opposite. The story was somehow unfinished, imperfect, and incomplete. And in the form of a movie, it was finalized and made better. This is especially true of the maniac himself, who, played by actor Ethan Hawke, turned out to be several heads better than in the story.
Before purchasing this collection, it is also important for the reader to know that there are fewer stories in the horror genre and various similar genres than in others. As I said above, there are dramatic and simply instructive stories, thrillers and the bizarre, mysticism, and so on. That is, you will not be scared all the time, and often you will even smile.
My point is that the incredibly cool, terrifying, red eyes that seem to be watching you, and the atmospheric cover by Vivat gives a false impression of the collection. It makes it seem like the reader is being sold horror stories, but it’s not.
As you can already tell, I really liked the publication itself, and you can see for yourself how atmospheric and cool it is. And although I don’t like color cuts, they are very much in theme here, so they are only a plus for the book. The font is also easy to read, and its size is optimal.
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