Joe Hill: Who He Is and Which Books to Read First
Joe Hill is the pen name of Joseph Hillström King, an American author of horror and speculative fiction known for novels, short stories, novellas, and comics. He is Stephen King’s son, but his work has its own voice: strange, emotionally sharp, and focused on the fear that enters families, friendships, and ordinary life. For a first book, try *Heart-Shaped Box* for a fast supernatural horror novel, *20th Century Ghosts* for short fiction, or *Locke & Key* if you prefer comics.
Which Joe Hill are you looking for?
This article is about the writer born Joseph Hillström King, who publishes as Joe Hill. He has written novels, short-story collections, novellas, comic books, and screen work, largely in horror and speculative fiction.
He is not the same person as Joe Hill, the Swedish American labor activist and songwriter born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, who became associated with the Industrial Workers of the World and was executed in 1915. The activist belongs to political history, biographies, and protest songs; the author writes contemporary fiction.
For example, Heart-Shaped Box, NOS4A2, and Locke & Key are works by the author. If the context is labor organizing, protest songs, or the early twentieth-century American labor movement, it is almost certainly the activist.
Is Joe Hill Stephen King’s son?
Yes. Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King and novelist Tabitha King. That connection is useful background, especially because both writers work with horror and supernatural premises, but it is not the key to understanding Hill’s work.
Hill began publishing as Joe Hill rather than Joseph Hillström King, and his early career did not emphasize his parentage. The pen name allowed readers and reviewers to meet the work before his surname became the main subject of comparison. It was a practical choice, not a rejection of his family.
The two writers have recognizable overlaps. Both can make familiar American settings feel unstable, put character ahead of spectacle, and draw freely on popular culture. Both also return to childhood, grief, addiction, violence, and the force of the past.
Their differences matter just as much. Hill often starts with a compressed, high-concept premise: a haunted online purchase, a car that steals children, keys that alter reality, or a plague that appears on the skin. His fiction can be playful and formally experimental while still centered on private emotional damage. Reading him only as “Stephen King’s son” misses what is distinct about his books.
What kind of books does Joe Hill write?
Joe Hill writes horror that often crosses into dark fantasy, thriller plotting, crime fiction, and family drama. A ghost, demon, cursed object, or impossible place may set the plot in motion, but the story usually turns on what that threat reveals about people.
His novels tend to pair strong premises with sustained suspense. Heart-Shaped Box turns a collector’s purchase into a brutal haunting. NOS4A2 pits a young woman with an unusual gift against a predator who feeds on children’s unhappiness. The Fireman imagines a contagious condition that causes people to burst into flame, then follows survivors trying to make moral choices as society collapses.
His shorter fiction ranges more widely. Some stories are openly frightening; others are melancholy, funny, surreal, or closer to literary fantasy. He also draws on films, comics, rock music, internet culture, and genre fiction without treating those influences as a joke.
For example, say you want horror with an emotional core rather than nonstop violence. Hill is a strong fit. His books can be disturbing, and some include graphic scenes, but much of their tension comes from dread, guilt, loss, and relationships under strain rather than gore alone.
The Joe Hill books most readers start with
Heart-Shaped Box
Hill’s first novel is a lean supernatural horror story about Jude Coyne, an aging rock musician who buys a dead man’s supposedly haunted suit online. The purchase brings a malicious ghost into his home. It is direct and tense, and it suits readers who want a traditional scare with modern details.
Horns
This is a dark, strange blend of crime story, fantasy, and grief narrative. After a terrible loss, Ig Perrish wakes to find that he has horns and an unsettling ability to draw people’s ugliest truths from them. It is less a conventional monster story than a furious, sad examination of blame and moral hypocrisy.
NOS4A2
A large-scale supernatural thriller centered on Victoria McQueen and Charlie Manx, who drives a 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith to a place called Christmasland. It offers a villain with the scale and memorability of classic popular horror alongside a long-running family story.
The Fireman
A post-apocalyptic novel about Dragonscale, a fungal infection that can cause its victims to ignite. Harper Willowes is pregnant and searching for safety as fear pushes communities toward cruelty. This is Hill’s broadest novel, with more social-collapse material than the others listed here.
20th Century Ghosts
Hill’s first major story collection moves among horror, fantasy, sentiment, and experimentation. It includes “The Black Phone,” the source story for the film adaptation, but its strength is its range: some pieces are frightening, while others are wistful or formally unusual.
Strange Weather
A collection of four novellas, each built around an unsettling event or image. It is a good choice if you want more time with each premise than a short story allows without committing to a full novel. The moods range from disaster suspense to psychological horror.
Full Throttle
This later collection contains short stories and novellas, including “In the Tall Grass,” co-written with Stephen King. It is a strong option for readers looking for Hill’s mature short fiction, including stories that are frightening, darkly comic, or more directly concerned with family and memory.
Locke & Key
Created by Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodríguez, Locke & Key is a comic series about the Locke family, Keyhouse, and magical keys with dangerous powers. It combines haunted-house horror, fantasy adventure, and coming-of-age drama with an exceptionally visual sense of place. Rodríguez’s art is inseparable from the series’ impact.
Which Joe Hill book should you read first?
There is no mandatory starting point. Choose the book that best matches what you already enjoy.
| If you want... | Start with... | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A direct supernatural scare | Heart-Shaped Box | A fast, focused haunting with a hostile ghost. |
| Big, immersive horror | NOS4A2 | A long novel with a memorable villain and a large emotional canvas. |
| Horror mixed with crime and tragedy | Horns | A supernatural premise used to explore accusation, rage, and grief. |
| A plague-era survival story | The Fireman | The broadest social and apocalyptic story among his major novels. |
| Literary, varied short fiction | 20th Century Ghosts | A compact introduction to his range. |
| Novellas with strong hooks | Strange Weather | Four longer pieces, each built around a distinct premise. |
| Graphic storytelling | Locke & Key | A complete horror-fantasy comic series with striking art. |
For example, if you want a haunted-house-style scare but not a very long book, start with Heart-Shaped Box. If you like Stephen King’s longer novels but want to meet Hill on his own ground, NOS4A2 is a better fit. If you are unsure about his tone, 20th Century Ghosts lets you try several modes without a major time commitment.
Do Joe Hill’s books connect, and should you read them in order?
Most Joe Hill novels and story collections stand alone. You can read Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2, or The Fireman in any order without missing required plot information.
Hill sometimes includes Easter eggs, recurring names, imagined brands, and small shared-world touches. These reward attentive readers but are not barriers for newcomers. A reference can add flavor without spoiling another book or making the story hard to follow.
The main exception is Locke & Key. Read the original six-volume comic sequence in order:
- Welcome to Lovecraft
- Head Games
- Crown of Shadows
- Keys to the Kingdom
- Clockworks
- Alpha & Omega
Later Locke & Key material is best read after those six volumes because it expands the world and can assume that you know the central family, Keyhouse, and the significance of the keys.
Where this does not apply: adaptations have their own continuity. The Netflix Locke & Key series is not a panel-by-panel version of the comics, so watching it is not a substitute for reading the comic in publication order if you want that story.
What has been adapted for TV and film?
Several Joe Hill stories have reached the screen, though the adaptations vary in how closely they follow their source material.
- NOS4A2 became an AMC television series that ran from 2019 to 2020. It adapts the novel’s conflict between Vic McQueen and Charlie Manx while expanding and rearranging parts of the story for television.
- Locke & Key became a Netflix series that ran from 2020 to 2022. It draws from Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s comic series but changes characters, plot emphasis, and tone in significant ways.
- The Black Phone is a film adaptation of Hill’s short story “The Black Phone,” originally collected in 20th Century Ghosts. The source is much shorter than the film, so the adaptation necessarily builds out its setting and characters.
- In the Tall Grass is a 2019 Netflix film based on the novella Hill wrote with Stephen King. The novella was first published in 2012 and later collected in Full Throttle.
Other screen projects are connected with Hill’s work, but these are the clearest places to start if you want to compare a well-known adaptation with its source. For the clearest sense of Hill’s prose and pacing, start with the books; each screen version makes choices shaped by a different medium.
Quick answers about Joe Hill
Joe Hill is a pen name based on Joseph Hillström King, his full name. He used it early in his publishing career without emphasizing his relationship to Stephen King.
His main genres are horror and speculative fiction, a broad label that includes supernatural thrillers, dark fantasy, crime-inflected stories, apocalyptic fiction, and comics.
He has collaborated directly with Stephen King. Their best-known prose collaboration is the novella “In the Tall Grass,” and “Throttle,” included in Full Throttle, is another collaboration.
Readers who dislike extreme gore can still find good entry points, but they should choose carefully. Hill writes violence, death, abuse, frightening children, and disturbing imagery. 20th Century Ghosts offers the broadest range of intensity, while Heart-Shaped Box, NOS4A2, and The Fireman all contain material that can be graphic or upsetting.
Conclusion
For the simplest first choice, pick *Heart-Shaped Box* for immediate supernatural horror, *20th Century Ghosts* for a broad introduction to Hill’s voice, or *Locke & Key* for his best-known comic work. After that, choose by mood rather than publication date: his major prose books are designed to stand on their own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Joe Hill use a pseudonym because of Stephen King?
Partly. Publishing as Joe Hill gave his work a chance to be assessed without his surname dominating every review or reader reaction. His identity was later publicly connected to Stephen King, and he has continued to publish as Joe Hill.
What is Joe Hill’s scariest book?
It depends on what unsettles you. *Heart-Shaped Box* is often the strongest choice for ghost-story dread, while *NOS4A2* sustains a larger sense of menace over a longer novel. “The Black Phone” is short but especially effective if captivity stories disturb you.
Do I need to read Stephen King to understand Joe Hill?
No. Joe Hill’s books stand on their own. Familiarity with Stephen King may help you notice shared genre interests or influences, but it is not needed to understand Hill’s plots, characters, or references.