Full Throttle: Stories

Full Throttle: Stories

Illustration By Dave McKean

Dust jacket, interior artwork, and design by Dave McKean.

We’re thrilled to announce the signed limited editions of Joe Hill’sFull Throttle, which we’ll be publishing in two unique editions.

The numbered edition will be fully-designed and illustrated by Dave McKean, and printed in two colors on a premium paper, bound in cloth, and housed in a custom slipcase.

The lettered edition will sport all the features of the numbered edition, but be specially bound, housed in a custom traycase, with each copy featuring an original remarque by Dave McKean.

About the Book:

The book you are holding is Joe Hill’s first short story collection since 2005’s 20thCentury Ghosts. It’s been a long time between volumes, but the wait is finally over. Full Throttle is quite simply a stunning collection, filled to overflowing with wonders, terrors, and pure narrative magic. It is the work of a profoundly gifted writer who has come fully—and memorably—into his own.

Full Throttle contains thirteen stories and novellas, along with extensive story notes and an illuminating introduction that explores the various influences that have shaped its author's life and work. The stories themselves encompass an impressive assortment of settings, ideas, and emotions. Each story, without exception, is a meticulously crafted gem. 

Many of these stories concern journeys—some of them brief, some more extensive—that lead to unexpected, frequently lethal destinations. In “Wolverton Station,” an American executive boards a British train and finds himself faced with impossible—but very real—horrors. “Faun” takes its privileged protagonists through a “little door” that connects our world to. . . somewhere else. “Late Returns,” a gently affecting story with just a touch of Jack Finney, offers a fictional meditation on time, mortality, and the enduring importance of books. “Throttle,” the first of two notable collaborations, tells of an imperiled outlaw biker gang and offers a brilliant riff on the Richard Matheson classic, “Duel.” A second collaboration, "In The Tall Grass," follows a brother and sister off a lonely state highway and into the high weeds of an occult wilderness, where time and space have come apart, and only the mad can survive. In the closing story, “You Are Released,” a plane bound for Boston takes an abrupt detour through the geopolitical horrors of our age.

Taken both individually and together, these stories show us a writer in full, mature command of his considerable gifts. Full Throttle is, of course, a dark, unsettling book, but it is also a good deal more. Each story is filled with grace notes. Each is marked by compassion, empathy, and an underlying decency that lends an emotional weight to every page. These stories may have been a long time coming, but—like their author—they’re here to stay. Full Throttle is a gift to Joe Hill’s many readers, and a treasure trove of story worth returning to over and over again.

Limited: 750 signed numbered hardcover copies, in slipcase

Lettered: 26 signed specially bound copies, housed in a custom traycase

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Shades of Narnia color ‘Faun,’ in which a small door in a ramshackle farmhouse leads to a hunting ground… ‘Late Returns’ is a love letter to librarians and a haunting exploration of the transformative power of grief. Hill tackles his dark subjects with humanity and empathy, and his complex, fully realized characters leap into the imagination.”

From Booklist (Starred Review):

“Hill returns to short stories (after the novella collection Strange Weather, 2017), where his terrifying genius most brightly shines… [I]t is also the sense of place that dazzles, whether it’s a sinister version of Narnia in ‘Faun,’ on a coastal pier in ‘Dark Carousel,’ or on a plane as WWIII breaks out in ‘You Are Released.’ Hill lulls the reader into deep enjoyment, even as terror lies just around the corner. He rounds out this superb collection with insightful notes and a surprise fourteenth story hidden in “About the Author.“ The tale that will be the biggest hit with library workers and patrons is the beautiful, elegiac ‘Late Returns,’ featuring a grieving bookmobile driver who sometimes delivers books to ghosts.” 

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction: Who’s Your Daddy?
  • Throttle (with Stephen King)
  • Dark Carousel
  • Wolverton Station
  • By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain
  • Faun
  • Late Returns
  • All I Care About is You
  • Thumbprint
  • The Devil on the Staircase
  • Twittering from the Circus of the Dead
  • Mums
  • In the Tall Grass (with Stephen King)
  • You Are Released
  • Story Notes and Acknowledgments
  • About the Author
artists_list:
Dave McKean
authors_list:
Joe Hill
binding:
Hardcover
book_case:
None
book_edition:
Limited
book_type:
Collection
country_of_manufacturer:
United States
is_subpress:
Yes
print_status:
Out of Print
year:
2020