"Full Throttle"

“Full Throttle”

Written by Joe Hill

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

As an occasional fan of Stephen King, I became gradually interested in reading works by his son. I was curious to see how the two prolific writers would be similar and how aspects of their works would contrast. Personally, I was astounded to see how much I enjoyed Hill’s short story collection, “Full Throttle”. I was happily surprised to notice less harsh and brutal sequences, less foul language, and less sexual content, compared to King’s work.

Hill’s short stories have very creative horror themes, as well as his father’s. However, I find that Hill does the technique of “showing” more than “telling”, while King provides far too much detail often. Hill’s work was very intriguing, depicting very realistic characters in an accurate and appealing portrayal. I chose to read this book by listening to the audiobook, which was a longer process, but I felt that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the different actors and actresses and hearing how they would bring the stories to life. There are many memorable narrators, but I was especially excited to listen to Kate Mulgrew, Zachary Quinto, and Neil Gaiman. I found myself enjoying the other lesser known narrators far more, and I hope to find more audio work by these narrators. I’d like to share my thoughts on each individual story.

The first story in this collection, “Throttle”, is about a maniacal truck driver who brutally attacks motorcyclists on a tough road. Unfortunately, I strongly disliked this story. I felt it was a strange story to open on and especially to be the story that the collection was titled after.

“Dark Carousel” is one of my favorites from this collection. A group of four teens goes to a New Jersey boardwalk, which you may know is a favorite place to be. The teens dumbly and drunkenly mess with the carousel animals and the ride’s operator. As they begin to leave, the teens notice that the animals have come to life, to wreak their vengeance on behalf of their owner. Although the premise sounds a tad ridiculous, I can assure you that the execution of the story is so well-created that the story plays off like a horror movie, akin to the great “The Twilight Zone” or Alfred Hitchcock’s work. The second act of this story was absolutely spine-tingling. The conclusion of this story truly showed madness in its most human and animal forms.

“Wolverton Station” follows a businessman, whose career involves running small businesses into the ground, to make way for new locations of Jim Coffee, a fun reference to “The Green Mile” by King. The main character of this story sits on a train, awaiting transportation to the next step in his journey, when he notices deadly and horrifying wolfmen in business clothing. This story is a tad more political but not quite absurd in its content. The audiobook narrator creates a great atmosphere with his diction and acting abilities.

“By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain” was a more unusual story, with a far too irritating narration by the great Kate Mulgrew. The story bites off more than it can chew, with a family who owns robots, of which the children find a mysterious dinosaur fossil in the woods. The children and their friends turn on each other when deciding what to do with the fossil.

“Faun” is a truly bizarre but well-rounded story. This follows two boys, Peter and Christian, who are brought on an illegal hunting expedition, in which the boys and rich men hunt elusive and endangered animals. The game changes and increases in bewildering ways, when the boys are shown magical and other-worldly creatures to hunt, that must be found in a magical parallel world. Zachary Quinto’s narration adds such delight to this story.

“Late Returns” is absolutely my favorite story of this collection and may have become my new favorite short story of all time. This splendid tale of sadness, love, grief, and death encompasses so many important themes. Our main character has begun a job, in which he drives and maintains a mobile library that’s contained in a large van.  The main character has been told by his boss that many previous drivers have encountered some strange sights. One driver had been so confused, he thought he had been trapped in a different decade. One driver believed he was seeing ghosts. The story continues in a fantastic direction. Our new driver begins the operation but comes to the realization that the people who come onto the van to return books past their due date are ghosts. They are not yet dead ghosts, but they have traveled to this bookmobile to return their late books and read a new one. There are many different characters that come aboard the bookmobile, with many different types of backgrounds and elements that add wondrously to this story. I found myself listening to this story during a night of insomnia. The story was so heartbreaking yet warming, and I found myself crying twice. “Late Returns” is a story that I will find myself talking about for the rest of my life and also perhaps hope that it might come true.

“All I Care About is You” was a strange story, and I am still not quite sure of my enjoyment level. In this, a woman named Iris uses tokens to have the assistance of a ‘clockwork’ named Chip. Iris develops an uncomfortable and obsessive relationship with the piece of machinery, that has been programmed to detect emotions, to cater to the user’s needs, and to provide conversation.

“Thumbprint” is a gritty and gruesome story about a military crew who tortures an Arab man for information. Our main character from the crew has been finding thumbprints, first delivered to her by mailbox, then inside her house, and then on her mirror. This story was very uncomfortable to listen to, and due to the material, I was not interested.

“The Devil on the Staircase” follows a man who is in love with his cousin. After killing her lover on a beautiful, ornate staircase, he becomes haunted by madness. This feels like an ode to the great Edgar Allan Poe, in its atmospheric nature and insanity.

“Mums” follows our main character, Jack, who lives in a very unhappy family. His mother attempts to escape her manipulative husband, but she is accidentally killed. By his father? Hmm. Jack must learn to survive his childhood, but he slowly loses his mind. The true kicker hits when he starts to see mums that he planted by his mother’s grave take on the countenance of his mother. The mums scream to him, begging to eat flesh. This absurd but deliciously gripping story was great, especially when narrated by a fantastic voice actor. This story reminds me of “1922” by King, one of my favorite novellas by him.

I had previously watched “In the Tall Grass” about two weeks prior to reading its short story origin. Although my anticipation for the film did not pay off, I still wanted to listen to the source material. “In the Tall Grass” follows a few different characters but primarily Cal and his pregnant sister, Becky, who have wandered into a grassy field, when they have heard a child calling for help. The grassy field starts morphing around them, which cause Becky and Cal to be trapped and separated. The grass changes the space between the characters rapidly, letting them think they are closer when they are much further apart. The two meet the Humboldt family, who have also been trapped in the woods. Father Russ, mother Natalie, and son Tobin have been running around searching for each other, but something is off about Russ. And the massive enchanting rock in the middle of the field. In reading the source material, some of the aspects I did not enjoy from the film had been taken out, but I felt that the source material also lacked a bit of charm that the film created.

“You Are Released” was a bit of a confusing and sad story. On an airplane, the story chronicles specific passengers, the flight attendants, and the captain’s crew as they all discover that Guam has been hit by a nuclear bomb, sent only by North Korea. The third world war is breaking out, which causes a certain level of terror at twenty-thousand feet.

Moreover, a great part of most short story collections is the afterword, in which the authors provide a bit of background on each story or share the inspiration behind it. Although Hill’s notes were not very fulfilling, I am glad he incorporated them. He mentioned that his main goal with assembling a short story collection is making the stories seem coherent, as if they are all connected in some ways.

In conclusion, I am so thrilled that I chose to read this collection of short stories. I do not read collections as often as I would like, so I appreciate that I took the time. I plan to continue reading Hill’s work at my next opportunity. I wholeheartedly recommend these, as well as King’s collections. I truly recommend listening to “Full Throttle” as an audiobook. It was such a worthy experience.