In the Tall Grass

Stephen King · Joe Hill

Oct 2012 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Now a major motion picture streaming on Netflix!

Mile 81 meets “N.” in this novella collaboration between Stephen King and Joe Hill.

As USA TODAY said of Stephen King’s Mile 81: “Park and scream. Could there be any better place to set a horror story than an abandoned rest stop?” In the Tall Grass begins with a sister and brother who pull off to the side of the road after hearing a young boy crying for help from beyond the tall grass. Within minutes they are disoriented, in deeper than seems possible, and they’ve lost one another. The boy’s cries are more and more desperate. What follows is a terrifying, entertaining, and masterfully told tale, as only Stephen King and Joe Hill can deliver.

Ratings and reviews

Short but good Sad the story is short It is also so WEIRD and detailed and creepy and all things horror but I loved it!!!! Wished the end didn't come so quick and that there definitely could have been more but I can't complain about the imagination put in to this book Just 4 out of 5 only because it is such a creative idea and plot and wish it had more!!!!

A good short story if you're okay with major shock factor, any specific content warning would give spoilers but I think that if you're opposed to reading any squicky topic this is not your story. It is very short - about thirty pages of the e-book is a preview of Dr. Sleep so I hope you already read The Shining (edit: also a preview of Joe Hill's novel N0S4A2). It was not a lot of book for what I paid for it. So far this has been criticism but I did like it in the sense that it got my goat. It is a collaboration of the style and content that you'd expect from each of it's authors, it genuinely feels like both a Stephen King and a Joe Hill story and I found some value in that as well. It was okay and it'll keep you busy for an hour or so, it might make you nauseous.

Yes I know King as a rule is "disturbing ". I am a lifelong King fan. This is the only book/short story I would NOT recommend. The girls pregnancy and horrid end is what turned me completely off. I love the idea, however, just because you can write about something doesn't mean you should.

About the author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Joe Hill is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Heart-Shaped Box and Horns and writes an ongoing comic book series, Locke & Key. He makes lots of noise on Twitter under the handle @joe_hill.