The Widow's Breakfast Audiobook By Joe Hill cover art

The Widow's Breakfast

A Short Story from '20th Century Ghosts'

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The Widow's Breakfast

By: Joe Hill
Narrated by: David LeDoux
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From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this e-short story—from Joe Hill’s award-winning collection 20th Century Ghosts.

Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town. . . .

Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once, but that was then. Now he's an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Listen to more stories from 20th Century Ghosts, or download the complete collection.©2005, 2007 Joe Hill (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Horror Scary

Critic reviews

"Most of the stories display the unself-conscious dash that made Hill's novel an intelligent pleasure....Not just for ghost addicts." ( Kirkus Reviews)
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i'm glad i only spent 69 cents on this; the story is like a long joke that, when the punch line comes, i don't get. it's not supposed to be a joke, of course - it's supposedly a ghost story - but it's constructed just like a joke, consisting of a long lead-in followed by a punch line, if you will, on which the whole thing evidently hinges...but there's nothing revealed in the punch line; there's no surprise or anything else i didn't see coming. the big scary "sting" sound after the final line makes me think the final line was supposed to send chills up my spine, but it didn't; it couldn't have. it was like someone telling me two plus two equals four. nothing there that i didn't already know. what did i miss here?

the story wasn't masterfully read, either. the reading wasn't horrible, but it was kind of amateurish and over-the-top. i only gave it two stars instead of one because it was effective in creating a certain atmosphere for a while there, but for me it was not an effective story. not really worth $0.69; i would NOT recommend spending a credit on it.

i don't get it

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I'm hoping that the other stories in this collection are better. I'm not sure however after hearing this one if I will bother to give it a chance. I guess this is supposed to be a post-modern ghost story - with no ghosts, no mystery. However the lack of the usual elements of a ghost story are not made up for by what I had hoped - things like poignancy or thoughtfulness. So - surprise surprise - the reader expects it to be scary and then it's not - but what is it instead? If it gave you a more significant emotion, now that would be an impressive feat - but instead it just ends up seeming like it is missing the most important ingredients (and scary music is not one of them!).

Not impressed

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This story is a true adventure into the macabre. It leaves you with a truly Eerie feeling that you normally only feel when things are on the cusp of going terribly wrong in dreams.

Beautifully written!

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I didn't get this story either. Was it a ghost story? No. Was it creepy? No. Did it make sense? Definitely no. Don't waste your time.

Not the best

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