For over a decade now, the writer Joe Hill has been quietly carving out a niche for himself as a writer of (largely) horror fiction. Joe Hill, it has been revealed, is the son of Stephen King.
The recent official announcement only served to confirm the worst kept secret in the history of worst kept secrets. Joe Hill, author of the novel 'Heart-Shaped Box' and the short story collection 'Twentieth Century Ghosts', is actually Joe Hillstrom King, son of Stephen King. Why all the subterfuge? Well, quite understandably, Joe Hill wanted his work to be judged on its own merits. I mean, imagine putting your heart and soul into a novel and never really knowing if the publisher agreed to put your book out because they genuinely admired your work or because they were thinking, "Wow: this guy's a living, breathing marketing campaign!" And then, at the opposite end of the spectrum, there's the critics; they'd be double-checking the spelling of the word 'nepotism' before they'd even cracked the spine of the review copy, feverishly imagining the moment when Stephen King stepped into his publishers' offices waving a copy of his son's manuscript and demanding they publish it or he'd take his considerable earning potential elsewhere, dammit.
No, the subterfuge (no matter how ineptly executed) was necessary. Without it, I suspect Joe Hill would have been reluctant to pursue publication at all. And that would have been something of a disaster, as both 'Heart-Shaped Box' and 'Twentieth Century Ghosts' are excellent books.
So, now for obvious question: Does a Joe Hill book read like a Stephen King book? In terms of style, the answer is a resounding 'no'. There is a cool edge to Joe Hill's writing that you won't find in a Stephen King book, an almost European sensibility (when I first began reading 'Heart-Shaped Box', I thought Joe Hill was an English writer. Stephen King is one of the most American of American writers, his work possessing a folksy camp fire quality). In fact, the only time you'll hear his father's voice is in the acknowledgements at the end of 'Heart-Shaped Box', when Joe Hill writes, "Raise your lighters for one last schmaltzy power ballad and allow me to sing the praises of those folks who gave so much to help bring 'Heart-Shaped Box' into existence." Pure Stephen King, but only once Joe Hill has stepped outside of the narrative. So, although, stylistically, there are no readily discernible similarities, there are similarities in terms of effect. 'Heart-Shaped Box' gets its hooks into you from the first page and doesn't let go until the last. It's an incredibly difficult book to put down. Sound familiar? For sheer narrative energy, Stephen King has always been the absolute master. Until now. The same goes for the ability to create characters the reader quickly comes to identify with and care for. And, of course, the talent for scaring the living daylights out of the reader. Who'd have thought there would be a gene for storytelling? But I suppose it makes a kind of sense in evolutionary terms. I mean, stories have always been used to communicate the presence of threat, and those primitive individuals and tribes who possessed the ability to communicate these dangers effectively will have stood a greater chance of survival. So, maybe it is in the blood, after all. And when it comes to Joe Hill and Stephen King, you can be certain there's going to be an awful lot of blood.
