Very, very short story! But a great one! I wished there was way more! The story telling was awesome!! Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review!!

4/5!

A gripping and memorable short story. My first read by this author, and I'm definitely looking forward to checking out more

Thanks Netgalley for the early ARC!

This was a fantastic short story with a great hook. In short stories there is so little time to create strong characters that readers can connect with. But, this is Joel Hill, so of course this is no problem. I found this story incredibly creepy, sad, and would have loved an expansion into a full novel. Would definitely recommend.

Short stories have had such a grip on me lately, and this one was fantastic. It was a pretty quick read, less than thirty minutes, and it managed to hold my attention the entire time. I loved Martin's personality and the way he interacted with the officers. It helped to lay the groundwork for what I thought might be a bit of a twist, and well it was. Once I finally realized what was happening at the end, I felt my heart sink. Such a good unsettling read that really makes you dig deeper than you think it will.

A very quick read. Joe Hill's ushers follows Martin Lorensen as he is interviewed by two police officers following a series of incidents of which Martin is lucky to be alive.

At under 30 pages, this story kept me gripped from the very beginning all the way up to the end. With a true Joe Hill style of writing, he creates a thought-provoking tale of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

With witty banter and some 80s-style jokes, I thoroughly enjoyed this short book.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me an advance copy through Netgalley.

Any book by Joe Hill is going to be good and eerie. This was just a short story, but I didn't want it to end. I wanted more encounters with the Ushers! I hope he expands this story one day.

Quanto mi piace Joe Hill. Idee che sembrano minimali, e intanto la tensione sale, sale, sale - fino a esplodere. Una piccola gemma.

Somehow this is actually the first Joe Hill I've ever read despite having read his father's work for eons. At 29 pages it's succinct with any fat trimmed and I think the perfect length for this great little mystery horror story. We get a sense of who the three characters are easily enough without needing too much more, and the unlikely questioning takes a turn into the unexpected for the detective and the reader alike.

Outside of Netgalley this was actually free with my Amazon subscription so I gave it a read there. Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the eARC in exchange for review!

I loved this short story and wish so much that it was a full length novel! The premise of this was so interesting. It was so very short but evoked so much emotion and thought. This honestly felt like reading a King story and makes me really look forward to picking up more books by Hill in the future. So glad to have gotten a chance to read this one!

I wasn't expecting to like this short story as much as I did. For it's very small size, it developed the two main characters well enough to make me very invested. The first interview gets you curious to know if Martin was involved in the train accident while the second one takes you to someplace else. The ending was great and closed the story very well. I definitely recommend it, specially because it won't take more than half an hour to read.

I really love Joe Hill's writing, and this short story was a quick joy to read. Clever premise, well told, with nothing unnecessary. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

"Ushers" by Joe Hill is the absolutely perfect example of what a short story should be. Everything about it is tight. The dialogue and character development is pristine, the visuals are balanced with the story and the pacing could serve as an example in a writing class about how best to pace a short story. It took less than 30 minutes to read and I was smiling through it, even as I shuddered (penny-colored eyes?!?! eughhhhhh) because it was everything I wanted and needed in my current post-election, dying of the year, here comes the darkness, morosity. I read it twice in a row and then texted my mom about it so that she could read it. Next up, the book club nerd friends at butidigressbookclub.

Good Things: uh, everything. I keep coming back though to the plot pacing and dialogue. EXCELLENT.

Opportunities: It was so neat, you might think it's TOO neat. Too ... too. But then I came back to "naw, let the man have his perfect short story". He's earned it and put in the work and it's so good to know that even as some of our literary hero's are aging, new 'my-age' author's like Hill, and Chuck Wendig, Stephen Chobsky, and Grady Hendrix are coming up through the ranks...ready to shock and awe us with the depths of their awful wonderful imaginations.

Mr. Hill sir, I hope you didn't meet a fiddling demon at a crossroads to get this story...cause it's damn good.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to have an early read by netgalley and Amazon Original Stories. The opinions in this review are expressly those of ButIDigressBookClub and are intended for use by my followers and friends when choosing their next book. #butidigress #butidigressbookclub #ushers #joehill #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #arc #arcs #horror #chefskiss

This is a wonderful short story from one of my favourite authors, Joe Hill. It may be a very quick read but WOW it really packs a punch. I can't recommend this fantastic story highly enough.

USHERS
BY: JOE HILL

I met Joe Hill the Author of this short story that can be read in about five minutes called, "USHERS," and I was very impressed how quiet and humble he is. That was quite some time ago, after he wrote his second book. What impressed me the most is how talented he is at writing in the Horror genre and he is really talented. But what I liked about him is that he is well established now and he did it all on his own talent. He is Stephen King's son, yet when I met him he was so kind and down to earth and I said to myself that he is going to be famous, because I was so impressed by his talent and the fact that he has earned his place as a skilled and talented writer who has in fact to rise to fame without using his father's name to get to be a celebrated Author. He earned his place among the great horror writers all on his own talent and with the merit of his writing. He has risen to fame all by his own talent without ever promoting his work by using his relationship with his father, Stephen King.

This was a short tale about a young man named Martin Lorensen who is being questioned by two Special Agents, who one of them by the name of Special Agent Anthony Duvall think he's most likely not responsible for the derailment of Mohawk 118, a train crashing that killed passengers. MOSTLY, he thought, didn't mean he was ENTIRELY convinced that Martin didn't have some involvement. They are there in a bookstore cafe having a friendly chat and Martin is making jokes about the Special Agents names. He thinks that sometimes when someone engineered the death of a few dozen people, it was Duvall's experience that sometimes they often wanted to tell. Duvall and his partner were often wanting to tell after they orchestrated the pulverization of a few dozen people. And after all, there was also the matter of the school shooting at Martin's High School, six years ago. Martin Lorensen was either an extraordinary lucky young man or extraordinary UNLUCKY, depending on how you wanted to look at it. OR --just possibly --luck didn't figure into it at all.

Martin is carefree and using sarcasm, but he wasn't there on that train when it crashed, and he wasn't at school the day of the school shooting. Martin had got to the bookstore before the two Special Agents and had bought a few books. One is called, "Four Thousand Weeks," and one of the agents what lasts four thousand weeks? Referring to one of the titles of the book s Martin bought which is called "Four Thousand Weeks," and Martin replies: "A human life."

I don't want to spoil anymore of the story, but I loved it and in just a few short pages Joe Hill manages to do wonders with character development and atmosphere. He fully fleshes out the two main characters Martin and Special Agent Duvall. I love how he plays with imagery like the color black and gray with soot. This is a testament to the pure talent of a masterful writer on top of his game. I loved the ending, as well. It is hard to achieve a fully fleshed out creepy character such as he managed with Martin, in a story within a few pages, but Joe Hill managed to prove his writer's prowess in this short tale.

It's not gory or bloody, but a masterpiece that has convinced me to read more of Joe Hill's work beyond his first two books. I don't know why I requested this since I already own it. This can be read for free on Amazon if you have Kindle Unlimited. It is Amazon's Original short story.

Publication Date: November 1, 2024

Thank you to Net Galley, Joe Hill you rock, and Amazon's Original Short Stories for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#Ushers #JoeHill #Amazon's Original Short Stories #NetGalley

Joe Hill is an amazing storyteller.
I fell in love with his writing starting with "The Heart-Shaped Box" and "Horns".
Even though I’m not generally fond of short stories, he has never disappointed me with anything I’ve read from him.

"Ushers" is a wonderful example of Hill’s mastery in storytelling—how he can bend reality into a nightmare and seamlessly weave together ordinary events and the supernatural, leaving no visible edges.
It delves into life and its many meanings.
It explores death, its mysteries, and everything that revolves around it.
It touches upon souls and minds. The plot is compelling to the very end.

The characters are perfectly outlined, even with just a few brushstrokes. The dialogues are fluid and realistic.
The plot twist arrives right when you expect it, yet it still manages to surprise you.
The very last words of this story gave me shivers (but also consolation... you’ll see).

I believe this is a work that any teacher could use as an example of masterful writing in a creative writing class.
Amazingly balanced.
Wonderfully absorbing.
Deeply moving.
A tiny masterpiece.

Short and sweet. You can power through in a half hour or so.

I enjoyed the small glimpse into the life of someone who can see when people are about to die. The short brings up questions about mortality and the nature of life and death, fate and free will.

What a fun little read.

The Ushers is a short, poignant story about life and death, and I found myself captivated by it. Though being so short, the characters really came to life, and I wouldn't mind reading more about Martin Lorensen.

Ushers by Joe Hill is a fine short story. I expected it to be really creepy, but that was unfortunately not the case for me. I was a little bit disappointed on that part, but otherwise it was a nice story for so little pages.

A short story by one of my favorite authors, Joe Hill, which is also exclusive to Amazon.

The dialogues are very good and so is the story. Since it is a short story, I finished reading it quickly, but I would like to read this story developed into a book.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Joe Hill again amazes me with his story telling and characters.
I couldn’t put the book down.
And it made me feel fear and dread.