Better Than Home

From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this e-short story—from Joe Hill’s award-winning collection 20^th Century Ghosts.

Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town. . . .

Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once, but that was then. Now he's an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

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).

“Hill’s best stories veer away from the well-trodden creep shows and back alleys of genre writing into more dangerous territory: suburban basements, ball fields and schoolyards.” — Washington Post

“[An] inventive collection . . . brave and astute.” — New York Times Book Review

“Fully developed characters with complex emotional lives enhance the 14 stories in Joe Hill’s extraordinary collection,20th Century Ghosts. There’s not a false note or disappointing effort in this volume.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The collection of short stories ranges from creepy to sweet, with an impressive arsenal of tactics to attack your psyche.” — Boston Globe

“20th Century Ghosts is Hill’s first collection of short stories and displays consummate skill in a variety of genres . . . Amusing, moving, horrifying—Ghosts runs the full spectrum.” — USA Today

“Alternately sad, scary, strange and at times even sweet, these tales will haunt you long after you’ve read them.” — Parade

“[A] lovely, earnest collection of short fiction.” — Village Voice

“[O]ne of the best [horror] collections of the year. Hill is a relative newcomer who consistently creates creepy, very disturbing stories.” — Locus

“Each tale is unique, and the collection proves that Hill’s talent is not limited to horror, but extends well into the mainstream.” — Denver Rocky Mountain News

“[A] new take on the fantasy-horror genre...Highly recommended.” — The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia)

“The selections range from the mundane to the surreal, with a strong emphasis on the kind of horror tale perfected by Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub and Stephen King.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“This solid, inventive, scary collection of stories reveals a writer who has thought hard about the problematics of horror.” — New York Times on 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS

“Each of these chilling tales arrests you from the opening sentence and leads you — trustingly, thanks to the simple mastery of the story-teller — into a place of gulping fear.” — Daily Mail (London) on 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS

“Subtle and disturbing in equal measure.” — Coventry Telegraph on 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS

“Irresistible stories.” — Evening Herald (Ireland)

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