Twittering From The Circus of the Dead - Joe Hill (Book Review)

 

Title - Twittering from the Circus of the Dead

Author - Joe Hill

Genre - Horror

Story Summary -

Blake is a young girl who spends most of her time tweeting, more so now than ever since her mother banned her from her blog. Like many of today's youth, Blake's main ability to communicate is with an electronic device in her hand. No longer able to blog she is left with just her phone and her twitter account which she updates continuously.
Her life is about to get worse as her parents plan a cross country trip in a Van. Trapped inside a moving vehicle with her little brother, father and mother she despises, Blake is slowly going insane as many of her twitter followers are reading about constantly.
Somewhere off the beaten path in Colorado or Arizona the family comes upon a Circus.

"...TYME2WASTE God this is the stinkiest circus ever. I don't know what I'm smelling. Are those animals? Call PETA..."

It's not animals that are the attraction in the Circus of the Dead. It is the dead. A circus of zombies and the patrons of the show are locked in with them.
Furiously Blake realizes that the show is not just a show and she is trapped, locked inside with the dead. Can she find help in time to save herself and her family or will she just become part of the show in the Circus of the Dead?

Review -

I have mixed feelings about this story. While I enjoy small horror tales, I can't help or hope that this is just a small bit of a much larger story. That the tale of Blake and her family is just a small part of a novel yet to come.
On its own the story does stand well but there is a lot not explained. Who runs the Circus of the Dead. Who keeps control of the zombies. Where do they go when they are not brought out to perform and how does no one notice whole stadiums of people going missing? Does the circus travel and if so, how?
You see, there is so much to explore and with an author who is coming into his own like Joe Hill, well you can just imagine what the whole tale could be like. I know I would definitely like to give it a read.
What is so awesome about Twittering from the Circus of the Dead is that the whole story is written in tweets. Yes tweets. There is no dialogue and no other form of narrative in the short story. Just an endless series of tweets by Blake as she journals her angst, her family and eventual meeting with the Circus of the Dead. I found this to be creative and full of risk by the author. If only for this, the story is worth picking up.
But besides the novelty of the format, the short story is a good tale. Something you would catch late night on the far end of the cable channels where those dark and demented horror stories wait for the insomniac to watch. Twilight Zone without the TV censors of its day.
You should pick up this short story and if nothing else, introduce yourself to a good young horror writer in Joe Hill and his traveling Circus of the Dead.