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    Full Throttle: Stories
    Full Throttle: Stories
    Full Throttle: Stories
    Audiobook16 hours

    Full Throttle: Stories

    Written by Joe Hill

    Narrated by Joe Hill, Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton and

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    2020 Audie Awards® WINNER - Short Stories/Collections


    The number one New York Times best-selling author of The Fireman and Strange Weather returns with a dark and ingenious collection of 13 compelling short stories that showcase his ability to “push genre conventions to new extremes” (New York Times Book Review), performed by a stunning multi-cast featuring Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, Neil Gaiman, Ashleigh Cummings, Joe Hill, Laysla De Oliveira, Nate Corddry, Connor Jessup, Stephen Lang, and George Guidall.

    In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in 13 relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including “In The Tall Grass”, one of two stories cowritten 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”, 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”, cowritten with Stephen King.

    Featuring two previously unpublished stories and a brace of shocking chillers, Full Throttle is a darkly imagined odyssey through the complexities of the human psyche.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.

     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 1, 2019
    ISBN9780062956644
    Full Throttle: Stories
    Author

    Joe Hill

    Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman, NOS4A2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box; Strange Weather, a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner Award–winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, Locke & Key. Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), In the Tall Grass (Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse).

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    Reviews for Full Throttle

    4/5

    265 ratings23 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Rapidly becoming a Joe Hill fan. A really good collection

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It's Joe Hill. It is very much worth your time.
    • 4/5
      Awesome collection by Joe Hill. Imaginative and compelling as always. As with any short story collection there will be some you love and some that may not hit the mark, but to paraphrase Kipling: “the remainder is worth the effort for its own sake.”
      The narrators were excellent as well, and I enjoyed “In The Tall Grass” a whole hell of a lot more than I expected to. Check it out if you love short stories!
      If you’re new to Joe Hill I might recommend 20th Century Ghosts before you read this one.
    • 2/5
      Not for me, not interesting or scary, had trouble following all but one or two stories
      ..
    • 5/5
      Another great collection of stories by Joe Hill. Good stuff!
    • 4/5
      My favourite stories in this collection are "Dark Carousel" and "Faun." I also thought the reference to NOS4A2 in "Dark Carousel" was great: "The cat was a gift from Manx, who runs Christmasland in Colorado."
    • 4/5
      Oh well, I guess my expectations were too high. The book was a bit of a disappointment for me inasmuch as I expected more graphic horror stories. Instead, all of the stories were mild horror at best. There were a handful of stories that were good. Not that the rest of the stories were awful. Just that most of the stories didn't hit that "Oh wow, what just happened?" mark.

      I haven't read any of Hill's standalone novels; and just because I didn't care for this collection of shorts, it won't deter me from trying those standalone novels.

      I'm rating this one 3 .5 stars rounded up. It's in between, "it was okay," and "I liked it."
    • 5/5
      This is such a good anthology. Almost every story is gripping, and there are two or three that I will keep on thinking way after I have finished the book.
    • 4/5
      I have been a Joe Hill fan ever since I read Heart Shaped Box though I believe it was The Fireman that earned his place on my must read authors list. I had been meaning to read "In The Tall Grass" for years so I was especially happy to see it included in this collection just in time for me to read it before the made for Netflix movie comes out next month. It was definitely worth the wait and one of my favorites in this collection. It had everything I could want in a horror story, the spine tingling fear of the unknown, coupled with the sheer terror of being suddenly separated from your loved ones. It was a fine example of how no good deed goes unpunished. In fact all of these stories were more than they appeared to be on the surface. They each have a weight and depth that is often lacking in short stories. I can't say that I loved every single one of them, but they all surprised me in their own way. As a horror fan, I most enjoyed the stories that had supernatural elements, including Late Returns, and Dark Carousel. It won't surprise me if someone is smart enough to make movies out of both of them. If thrillers are more your thing Thumbprint, and Throttle are both action packed suspenseful reads. Another of my favorites was Mums, which kind of left me guessing whether delusions or the supernatural were at work after a woman tries to take her child and flee from her survivalist/separatist husband. Those were the 5 star reads for me in this collection.

      I received an advance copy for review.
    • 4/5
      He's writing more and more like his father, which I actually don't love. Keep your own voice, Joe.
    • 3/5
      A big letdown after reading the author's [Strange Weather]. Some stories I either skipped or started but never finished; they were too gruesome. Others were mediocre. My favorites:Dark Carousel: Merry-go-round animals take revenge on a group of teenagers.Late returns: a bookmobile driver checks books out to dead people.The devil on the staircase: A murder leading to the devil giving the hero in Fascist Italy a tin bird that will only sing for him if he tells lies. When he hears Mussolini speak, he's sure he hears a tin bird singing in the background.
    • 3/5
      There were some standouts and some mediocrities in this volume of short stories by Joe Hill. His horror stories were pretty eccentric - I mean, I guess many horror stories are, but some of these were kind of over the top. Still, it was, for the most part, an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      This is a novel of short stories, most by the author Joe Hill, but a couple are coauthored by Stephen King. Most of these stories I have heard or read before, but a few of them are new. I just wish there were more new ones.

      The audiobooks has a different narrator for each story. They are as follows: Zachary Quinto,
      Wil Wheaton,
      Kate Mulgrew,
      Neil Gaiman,
      Ashleigh Cummings,
      Laysla De Oliveira,
      Nate Corddry,
      Connor Jessup,
      Stephen Lang, and
      George Guidall.
      With the foreword and afterwards narrated by the author, Joe Hill.

      4 stars, and recommended.
    • 4/5
      A really strong collection, with no clunkers at all; "You Are Released", "Late Returns," and "Mums" were especially haunting and thought-provoking.
    • 5/5
      More fun than the movies.
    • 4/5
      Joe Hill is one of those rare authors who seems equally adept at short fiction (see the previous 20th Century Ghosts (HarperCollins, 2007) as he is with full-length novels (my favorites being his debut Heart-Shaped Box (William Morrow, 2007) and The Fireman (William Morrow, 2016). He's also had award-winning success with the Locke & Key comics series and a number of his works have been adapted for movies or television. It's all rather irritating for those of us who struggle to master even one of these creative art forms. Despite these personal peeves, I always look forward to new work from Hill, and his latest story collection does not disappoint.The stories in Full Throttle (William Morrow, 2019) run the gamut from thriller to suspense to supernatural to indescribable, and kept me turning pages to the very end. The collection hits the ground running, so to speak, with the opening story, "Throttle" (co-written with the author's paterfamilias Stephen King) which sees a gang of aging biker thugs being terrorized by a truck driver carrying a grudge. And from there, we're off to the races. Not all of the stories have supernatural elements ("Throttle" doesn't, for instance) but the ones that do are very effective. The standout for me in this sub-genre was "Faun". I thought I knew early on where this hunter-and-the-hunted story was going; I was delighted and horrified to be so wrong. Other stories have a sweetness to them, like "Late Returns," about a bookmobile driver who keeps encountering patrons from the past. And "You Are Released," the final story in the collection, offers a high-altitude look at how the world ends — with both a bang and a whimper.Bonus content comes at the end, where Hill has written notes describing his inspiration and influence for each of the stories. And don't skip the About the Author section, where you'll find a bonus micro-story titled "A Little Sorrow."The StoriesThrottle — See above.Dark Carousel — Four teens carelessly cross paths with a carousel operator, only to find themselves on the run from the ride's supernatural spirits.Wolverton Station — A wolf of Wall Street meets his match on a British train.By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain — The childhood wonder of discovering a legend is true, and the childhood frustration of not being believed by adults.Faun — See above.Late Returns — See above.All I Care About Is You — Money can't buy you love? Don't tell that to this teenager of the future.Thumbprint — The sins of the desert visit an ex-soldier in Maine.The Devil on the Staircase — A poetic fable about the true costs of selling your soul.Twittering From the Circus of the Dead — Predictable but enjoyable modern zombie tale.Mums — A boy digs up dirt on his dad. As I read, I wasn't sure if this was a tale of the supernatural or mental illness, and I'm not sure it matters. It's compelling either way (though please note, Mr. Hill, it's Iowa State University with the ag program, not the UI Hawkeyes).In the Tall Grass — This one gave "Faun" a run for its money as Story Raising the Most Hairs on the Back of My Neck. Forget everything you thought you knew about the children of the corn; here, the Kansas prairie strikes back.You Are Released — See above.
    • 5/5
      I think it's safe to say that Joe Hill is one of my new favorite writers. After completing Strange Weather last year, I was very excited to tackle Full Throttle. It took me awhile to get to it, but it certainly does not disappoint. Every story is gripping and full of a sense of mystery and adventure. The additional social and political commentary that runs in each tale is will what make his stories so special when they are absorbed by fans in the future. Although I have enjoyed many of Joe's full-blown novels, I think I may enjoy his short stories even more. He's able to pack an incredible punch over 30-40 pages that always leaves me stunned in the end and craving more. For me, "Mums" and "In the Tall Grass" are the most devastating, but all of them are worth the time! Keep it up, Joe! Can't wait to read what's next.
    • 4/5
      Another masterful work of art from one of my favorite authors working today. Joe Hill channels his father, Richard Bachman, Ray Bradbury and many other legends of the craft in this stupendous collection of stories delving from the scary real world to the supernatural. Even with a small lull in the middle, the first few stories and the last few kept me reading and yearning for more. The audiobook had a delightful menagerie of narrators that enhanced the tales and a few of the stories had me literally creeped out as I listened. I can’t wait for more of Mr. Hill’s work.
    • 5/5
      I don't much care for Hill's novels, but, in my opinion, he is a brilliant writer of short fiction, and I wish he wrote more of it. This is a dynamite collection. I thought every tale was top-notch, and this book deserves a space on your shelf right next to Hill's other classic collection **20th Century Ghosts**. It's difficult for me to choose a favorite among the stories here, but there are three that really knocked me out: "Late Returns" is a ghost story of sorts, not particularly scary, but wonderful and moving and a great love letter to libraries and librarians everywhere. "Mums". This tale is a great example of how ambiguity can work wonders for a short horror story. It's original to this collection, and I loved it."In the Tall Grass". This is a collaborative effort between Hill and Stephen King, and it's a textbook example of what both writers do best. It's scary, grotesque, and quite disturbing. A masterpiece.
    • 4/5
      My favourite stories in this collection are "Dark Carousel" and "Faun." I also thought the reference to NOS4A2 in "Dark Carousel" was great: "The cat was a gift from Manx, who runs Christmasland in Colorado."
    • 4/5
      Reads very much like "son of Stephen King," in a good way. There are bits I just can't stomach--"In the Tall Grass," soon to be seen as a series on Netflix, is the example that springs immediately to mind, gag--but I did admire them all, and several are memorable. Hill (of the Kings) hits the right note again and again in the dark triumph of the hunted fantastical beings in "Faun"; the tragic father-son relationship of "Full Throttle"; the sweetness of "Late Returns," reminding me of a similar vibe in Stephen King's Dr. Sleep; the clever artistry of "The Devil on the Staircase"; the surprising sensibility of "All I Care About Is You"; the weirdly satisfying dissonance of "Mums"; the breathtakingly hard protagonist of "Thumbprint"; and the compassion of "You Are Released." There was one story, "By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain," that I couldn't finish--at first it seemed the one that would be most like my "thing," but somewhere toward the middle I found my mind wandering away. I didn't read "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" past the first sentence, which was structured as a tweet. The whole story, I could see, was told in tweets. I smirked at the first tweet, then grimaced, and flipped through it to the next story. I find the stories actually told in Twitter threads to be scary and grotesque enough--and funnily, it looks like Hill agrees with me, as the accompanying story note points out: "Truth is, here in 2019 it's clearer than ever that social media won't save us from zombies--it's turning us into them." Cheers to Joe Hill for resisting the hordes and sticking to good, human craft.
    • 4/5
      “I am not going to be killed and eaten by a wolf on an English train.”Or stomped to death by a carousel horse come to life? Then you’d better not open this book?Of the thirteen tales within, I had read three before, "Throttle", "In The Tall Grass", and "You Are Released", and I enjoyed all three very much! And I LOVED "Late Returns" the best of the new stories for me! In fact, there were only three stories I didn't like, so I'd say that this book is a dang good read! I also liked how Hill gave us two stories with a different "style" or look. One is written like up and down staircases, and the other looks like a Twitter feed. Pretty cool to look at, and good stories to boot! Thanks Joe!“And you’re not an envoy from the Lord? You’re not an angel?”“Nope. Just a librarian.”
    • 5/5
      Everything short story in this collection is perfect. Literally. Every. One. As a librarian I ADORED Late Returns; a story about a bookmobile that happens to service ghosts intent on returning their overdue books. All I Care About is You didn't grab me at first, but two pages later I was sold and the ending threw me for a freaking loop. The world building in that short story is masterful and I read a whole novel set in that world! Faun was like Chronicles of Narnia meets Oz with a dark twist and characters who aren't very moral (karma bitch!). I could go on and on about how much I loved each story, but really, do yourself a freaking favor and read this book. The stories are dark, trippy, fantastical, amazingly well written, and impossible to put down or guess the ending to. I even loved the intro; Hill talks about all the influences he had while writing the book from Ray Bradbury to his father, Stephen King, to Lawrence Block and monster movies; Joe Hill credits a lot of amazing creators out there for helping inspire his unique style. It's a love letter written to the greats that us mere humans are lucky enough to get to read. An amazing collection and one I'll revisit again and again. Joe Hill's writing is only getting better and I can't wait to read what he writes next!!