Strange Weather audiobook

Simple explanations have the disappointing tendency to be the best explanations. Only the rational counterargument was a pile of shit, and I knew it. I just didn’t want to know it. Joe Hill has taken a break between epic horror novels to put together a collection of four novellas under the title Strange Weather. The title seems an afterthought, frankly. Only one of the stories actually incorporates weather that is certifiably strange. But, no matter. Don’t go looking for story one to relate to story two to story three to story four. There are some links, but they are minimal. Read each tale on its own. The stories were written here and there, between this and that, over several years. Joe Hill - from his site Maturity is not something that happens all at once. It is not a border between two countries where once you cross the invisible line, you are on the new soul of adulthood, speaking the foreign tongue of grown-ups. It is more like a distant broadcast, and you are driving toward it, and sometimes you can barely make it out through the hiss of static while other times the reception momentarily clears and you can pick up the signal with perfect clarity. Snapshot focuses on loss of memory, but not in the usual way. A thuggish agent, The Phoenician, stalks a town, uses a Polaroid-like camera to extract recollections. An eleven-year-old boy is charged with taking him on, which will feel familiar to those of you who have read NOS4A2, a good-soul everykid being confronted with adult challenges. It is a chilling story, tucking a bildungsroman into a nightmare experience, while taking on the very real horror of dementia. If we are our memories, then what are we when those memories are gone? Loaded is the oldest story in the book. I’ve had that one in my head ever since the massacre of twenty children in Newtown, Connecticut. - from the AfterwordLoaded, takes on the very real-life horror of gun violence and death by cop, even death by mall cop, focusing on the bad things that can happen when one mixes fear, paranoia, bigotry, and greed, with ready access to ordnance. Randall Kelloway is a mall guard, a wannabe cop who keeps getting rejected from the police force for the very good reason that he is psychologically unfit. He is also in deep poo in his home life, having earned an Order of Protection for dangerous behavior with his ex and child. He is inordinately fond of guns, and imagines himself using them to heroic purpose. When a violent situation unfolds at the mall, guns blaze. When Randy emerges from the smoke he is seen as the white knight he always imagined himself to be. Aisha is a reporter, who suspects that the mall shooting may not have gone down quite the way Randall said, and digs relentlessly to find out the truth. Hill uses an encroaching brush fire (common in the real Florida in which this is set) to add to the constant ramp-up of tension. Although it can feel didactic at times, Loaded may be the most effective horror story of the collection, as it is the one we are likeliest to encounter in real life. Hill relies on flawed, corrupted humanity instead of the supernatural to jangle your nerves, and succeeds in hitting his target. You knew what was real not by its qualities but by its imperfections Aloft is the most Twilight Zone-like of the collection. Aubrey Griffin is trying to impress a young lady, a band-mate, Harriet. Their friend, June, had passed recently and they, with others, are honoring June by doing things on her bucket list. Sadly, Aubrey is scared out of his wits by the impending parachute jump, and is about to bail. But the plane loses power, mysteriously. Probably something to do with the UFO-like cloud formation they had spotted a short time earlier. Aubrey has to bail for real. But before his chute can open, he makes a relatively soft landing on something that is not exactly solid ground. This is not your typical UFO, being a mile or so long, having a malleable surface and the very non-UFO-like capacity to make one’s wishes real. Which is where we get into the content portion of our program. What if you could have whatever you wanted, physically? Of course, there is that pesky element of core beneath the surface, and coming to grips with what one wants, and what one can and cannot have. A thoughtful piece, although not particularly scary. At the end, there is a mention of New Hampshire, where Hill lives, making one wonder how much of Joe was in Aubrey. I think Rain arose from a desire to spoof myself and my own sprawling end-of-the-world novel, The Fireman. I’m a big believer in making fun of yourself before anyone else can. Rain is a shorter example of the sort of post-apocalyptic sci-fi romp Hill has done so well in the longer form. But the rain that falls is a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard rain indeed. No squishy oobleck for Hill, nosiree. His rain arrives in crystalline needles, ones that penetrate instead of melting. Twenty-something Honeysuckle Speck regularly babysits for nine-year-old Templeton Blake, a kid with some medical issues. He likes to call himself Little Dracula and Honeysuckle loves him. Good thing he is a mostly at-home kid, as vast numbers of those caught outside when the first hard rain arrives fail to make it back inside. The story follows Honeysuckle as she tries to get from Boulder to Denver to get news to the father of a dear friend, enduring some of the horrors one might expect in a road trip story, and some you might not.There are characters to engage with in every tale. The pre-teen in Snapshot is a classic Hill/King kid who must test his mettle against the hostilely weird. Readers who have not always been members of the ins all their lives will relate. Aisha gives us someone worth rooting for in Loaded. Aubrey, in Aloft, offers a pretty relatable example of unrequited attraction, and Honeysuckle, in Rain, checks all the boxes for a post-apocalyptic heroine, without the Disney songs. If you are looking for the sort of large-scale epic horror story that Hill has produced with The Fireman and NOS4A2, you will be disappointed. If, however, you go into Strange Weather expecting material more like his short story work, as in 20th Century Ghosts, you should be pleased. Hill will take you from Ice 9 to Cloud 9, from fear to wonder, giving you some good nightmare material and a few sparks to spur a bit of introspection. The forecast is for good reading ahead. Review first posted – August 4, 2017Publication ----–hardcover - October 24, 2017-----trade paperback - June 26, 2018 =============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal, Instagram and Tumblr pagesOther Joe Hill books I have reviewed:-----2019 - Full Throttle-----2016 - The Fireman-----2013 - NOS4A2-----2007 - 20th Century Ghosts-----2007 - Heart-Shaped BoxA fun video interview of Hill by fellow horror writer Paul Tremblay, at LiveSigning.com

I feel terrible that I didn't post any updates while I was reading this one, but I was so sucked in that I kept forgetting to share my thoughts here as I went! The only reason this wasn't a 5 star read for me was due to the fact that the first story (SNAPSHOT) underwhelmed me quite a bit. It didn't seem to fit with the other three, but that could just be a case of personal taste and opinion. Other than that, these stories contained a slow building sense of dread and disturbance that felt gritty and unsettling; of course, this is what we look for in a Joe Hill production so that was welcomed and expected! While I enjoyed all three remaining stories, I felt LOADED disturbed me the greatest as it hit home with all the mass shootings we've seen in recent times. That said, I do believe my favorite story, based purely on enjoyment, was RAIN. I'm not sure what the final arrangement of all four stories will be in the finished copies, but with the way they are set now, it seemed that they started mildly and grew slowly in suspense and unsettling nature until we reach the end. I really liked how that felt and hope the publisher decides to keep everything as is. Final verdict? Joe Hill has done it again and I highly recommend this to folks who enjoy a little extra thinking with their disturbing content. This is intellectual horror at its best. ****************************YAAASSSS!!! Thanks Goodreads Giveaways for this one! 👊🏼🖤

Sometimes it is considered unfair, cliche, or overdone to compare the offspring to the parental unit, but this is my review, and I feel like it, so that's what I'm gonna do!Four Novellas - all of them pretty decent. I enjoyed the way they played out but I think there is one thing that could either be a very positive aspect or a very negative aspect, depending on your preference. (view spoiler)[At least two of the stories basically end with the story incomplete leaving the follow up events to the readers imagination (hide spoiler)]Snapshot3 StarsReminded me of The Sun Dog from Stephen King's Four Past Midnight. Pretty good, but easily my least favorite of the collection. Loaded5 starsA candidate for Hill's best storytelling ever. Which is interesting because it reminded me of King's Roadwork from the Bachman Books, which I didn't care for very much.Aloft4 starsMy pick for most creative of the collection. Also, this to me was the one that left the most up to the reader's imagination. It slightly reminded me of King's The Raft from Skeleton Crew. It is more of just a feeling than a direct comparison.Rain4 starsThis was the apocalypse story of the bunch which is appropriate as it takes place mainly in Boulder, Colorado, one of the main locations of The Stand. Also, at one point, Estes Park is mentioned which is the location of The Stanley - the hotel that inspired The Shining.That averages out to a solid 4 stars. This was a great improvement, in my opinion, over Hill's last book The Fireman. I recommend this to all horror/suspense/supernatural fans.

I've read almost every piece of work that Joe Hill has graced the world of literature with, and I've loved all of them, but this was exceptionally brilliant. Rather than dwell on monsters and ghosts, the most terrifying aspect of Strange Weather was simply the horror of the human psyche, and how far people will go to inflict pain upon others. I'll be breaking this up by story, as I typically do with novella reviews. I've combined the content warnings and will add them all at the end of the review, for efficiency's sake. I'm placing these in order of how they are positioned in the ARC, but the final copy may differ. SNAPSHOT - ★★★★☆The idea that these days had been taken from her struck me as vile. It was a swallow of curdled milk. It was indecent. Snapshot, the first of four novellas, tells a man's boyhood memories of the strange man with the polaroid, and the bizarre things that each photo took along with it. I found this to be my least favorite story in the book, though it was still awfully horrifying to think of a camera that could take away more than just a photo. I found myself undeniably on edge from start to finish, and found it to be an unsettling, unique entrance to the collection. LOADED - ★★★★★All it took to turn a CD into a knife or a tape gun into a .45 was a little imagination, a little panic, and a lot of prejudice. I have no words for how stunned I was when I realized what a blatantly political direction Joe was taking this story in. Loaded is a perspective-changing story that follows in the wake of mass shootings, and tells of police brutality, racism, gun fanaticism, and hate. The villains in this story are so over the top that you find yourself desperately wanting not to believe in them, despite the fact that, as a citizen of the southern states, I can certainly assure you that I have heard many of these arguments from acquaintances in my own life. (Note: I'm not interjecting politics into this, and will leave my thoughts on gun ownership out of this, but we've all met at least one person who took things too far, and that's what's happening in this story.)Loaded absolutely destroyed me. I have never in my life cried through a horror story, yet I could hardly regain composure in one moment before the next event had me sobbing again. The hatred in the villain's heart left me hollow. This was the most horrifying story I have ever read, yet not a moment of it felt like fiction, particularly in the wake of the shootings we've seen over the last few years. ALOFT - ★★★★★Everything gets very surreal when you're falling from twelve thousand feet. First of all, if you have a fear of heights, this story may not be one you want to take lightly. I don't even have acrophobia, and I still found my stomach turning at many of this story's descriptive moments. When Aubrey's skydiving experience goes wrong, he finds himself in a very interesting set of circumstances, and... well, I'll let you go into this one blind, but trust me, you're in for a really unique (and bizarre) ride. RAIN - ★★★★★When the rain fell, most everyone was caught outside in it. You wonder, maybe, why so many people died in that initial downpour. In Rain, we watch the beginning of an apocalypse through the eyes of a young woman named Honeysuckle. As a rain of crystalline needles kills Honeysuckle's girlfriend and nearly all of her neighbors, she sets off on a journey to inform her father-in-law of his daughter's passing, only to be hunted by members of a local religious cult. As she tries to navigate the empty streets of Denver and avoid being slashed to bits by the next storm, she finds herself in a spiral of terrorism conspiracies.Like Loaded, this story hit way too close to home for comfort, though not on nearly as intense of a level. Joe let his politics shine through once more with a few catty remarks about a president who's a little too twitter-happy, and I found myself laughing despite the nature of the tale. Of course, you're never left smiling for long when it comes to a Joe Hill book, but I found this to be a fantastic rounding-out of the collection.All in all, Strange Weather averaged out to a 4.75 rating, which I obviously will happily round up to 5 stars for my favorite horror author. Now, I'm only sad that I have to wait for his next release!Content warnings: fat-phobia, ableism, homophobia, racism, police brutality, gun fanaticism, sexism, spousal abuse, child death, extreme violence, religious fanaticism/occultism.All quotes are taken from an ARC and may have been changed for the final publication. Thank you so much to HarperCollins for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!You can find this review and more on my blog!

Thank you so much to my local bookstore for giving me an Advanced Reading Copy of this book for an honest review!***NO SPOILER REVIEWThis book is comprised of 4 shorts/novellas (whatever)Snapshot-5 StarsLoaded- 4 StarsAloft- 5 StarsRain- 5 Stars***I think Joe Hill can write his ass off. These short stories were brilliant. Not a lot of people give credit where credit is due concerning shorts/novellas. They're freakin HARD! Everything the author wants to do with the story, the setting, the characters has to be done in an efficient & concise manner--there aren't any words wasted; everything counts.Not all stories have to be novel length--some stories want to be told quickly and urgently.I think it's good for everyone to go into these stories blind, so I'm not going to go into details at all on the plots of each one. I'll just say that the last two stories were my favorite. I loved the main character, Aubrey in Aloft so much. He felt like someone I would know and be friends with--there were some moments that made me laugh out loud too. Which is great because I saw Joe Hill on The Fireman Tour and the man is hilarious-so I love when that sense of humor comes out in his writing.And the last story, Rain was scary. We've seen all the natural disasters we could ever see, except this one. Loaded had this one scene in that made me happy because for the longest time, I thought Joe Hill was going to take after his father and just plain suck at sex scenes, but I think there's hope for Hill, yet.Lastly, our front runner out of the gate, Snapshot, the first story with some great feels. Punches you in the gut a little.I loved it. Great protagonist too.Anyhoodles,Not going to say too much because this is a way in advance review. Everyone needs to buy this! Joe Hill fans will LOVE IT!!

Y'all had better get ready because this was amazing and I'm about to word vomit my thoughts all over the place. Joe Hill seriously has a deal with the devil, because he can do no wrong.Four beautiful and haunting novellas, each dealing in their own way with "strange weather": a rain of crystal needles, flashes of 'lightning' that are missing their thunder, suspiciously shaped clouds, and raging fire tornadoes. Each story stands alone beautifully, but together they make a great collection. Let's take this story by story, shall we? Snapshot 4/5 She gripped my wrist. Her body was still stout and big-bosomed, but her hand was as bony and clawlike as a fairy-tale crone’s. “Don’t let him take a picture of you. Don’t let him start taking things away.” This is probably the only thing I've read by Hill that gave me strong Stephen King vibes. A young boy with an affinity for tinkering accidentally crosses a menacing stranger with a Polaroid Solarid camera that does a little more than take pictures. I really didn't find the Phoenician that scary, but the camera was a very cool concept. Shelly's plight was sad and beautifully told.It does go on a little long though. The story felt like it wanted to end, then kept going for another 15 or 20 pages. Which is probably another reason I was getting King vibes. Loaded 4.5/5 Everyone knew the drill, had seen it all on TV. Get down, be ready to run if the shooter comes in sight. A perfect storm of PTSD, revenge, racism, and violence leads to a shooting at a mall. A security guard becomes a hero in the aftermath, but reporter Aisha Lanternglass knows something is off. Both of their pasts heavily influenced by gun violence, their stories intersect and unravel in horrific fashion.This one hit me hard. I have personally cowered in a classroom during a lockdown, trying desperately to call my mother, while SWAT team members dressed in black swarmed the sidewalks outside. Thankfully no one was killed that day, but I remember every detail, clear as day. It was terrifying and surreal, and this story brought back some uncomfortable memories.It was a captivating story for sure. And that ending! It pissed me off SO much, but the good kind of pissed off. It's provocative and challenging, and will stick with you. Aloft 5/5 Fear thickens time, turns it slow and viscous. One second of deeply felt terror lasts longer than ten regular seconds. Aloft is probably my favorite of the four. To honor a friend's memory, Aubrey and several friends go skydiving. Despite his fear of heights, Aubrey is determined to tough it out. He doesn't want to look weak in front of his longstanding crush, Harriet. But when he and his jump instructor leap from the plane, they never hit the ground.Suddenly Aubrey is stranded on a cloud that isn't a cloud. He has no food or water, but whatever else he might need, the cloud provides. Other than letting him go, that is. And there's something the cloud doesn't want him to know.It's imaginative, odd, and introspective. We get to go deep in Aubrey's head, much like the cloud does. It's a fascinating story. And the ending was perfect. Joe Hill does great endings. Rain 4/5 “Climate change, my ass! This isn’t climate change!”“Well, I don’t know what else you’d call it. It used to rain water. Now it’s raining blades of silver and gold. That is a change of climate.” Teasdale rubbed a thumb against his chin, then said, “Ghosts is next.”“You think it’s going to rain ghosts?”“I think we’ll have ghosts instead of fog." This is an apocalyptic story featuring a rain of crystal nails (synthetically engineered fulgurite, to be exact.) Honeysuckle looses her girlfriend in the first violent shower of needles and everything keeps falling apart from there.It's maybe the most traditional horror in the collection. World falling apart, bodies everywhere, dead lover, utter chaos; nothing that hasn't been done before, but it's done well. And man, there was a heck of a twist that I didn't see coming!So, Strange Weather knocks it out of the park with four great novellas. Joe Hill has yet to disappoint me. Like, HOW DOES HE WRITE SO GOOD?Every bit of this was a delight to read, and I'm thrilled to say that one of my most anticipated reads of 2017 did not disappoint.---------------------PRE-REVIEW:It's fall and new Joe Hill novellas are here and I am reading them. NEW JOE HILL NOVELLAS ALL FOR ME! Happy Halloween. ---------------------Get excited y'all! There's a new collection of Joe Hill novellas coming out this fall! REPEAT: NEW JOE HILL! This is not a drill. I'm ready. And excited. Did I mention excited?

"When movie stars grieve in the tragic third act of a love story, they always make mourning look a lot more beautiful than it really is."I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy of this collection of short novels by Joe Hill (release date is later in the year). For those interested in a brief synopsis of each story... keep reading. If not, skip ahead! The first story, Snapshot, is about a young boy's encounter with a villain who robs his victim's memories by taking Polaroids of them. The second, Loaded, tells the story of a mall security guard who is believed to have stopped a mass shooting, but his story quickly unravels... Aloft, the third story, is a unique tale about a skydiver who lands on a very strange cloud in the sky. Finally, the last story, Rain, tells of an apocalypse wherein literal nails fall from the sky as rain. Pretty interesting collection of stories!I do enjoy a short story or a short novel... as Joe Hill himself says, it's all killer, no filler. However, I wish that could be said for these stories. I loved being back with Joe Hill, but ultimately felt like some of these stories just dragged on a little bit?The first story, Snapshot, was one of my favourites. A really strong opener for the collection. It was the perfect length with the perfect message. Emotionally charged too!As for Loaded... I have mixed feelings. It started really strongly, I was loving it... but it just kept going on and on. And the main protagonist was just a really hateful person. Then the ending straight-up pissed me off. I do however appreciate what Hill is trying to say with this story with regards to gun violence in America.The third story, Aloft, was so unique and original! A really enchanting and intriguing idea from Hill. But again, really felt like I lost some interest in the middle.The final story, Rain, was a terrifying concept. Nails literally fall from the sky as rain... destroying everything in its path. I was revelling in his descriptions of the post-apocalyptic world. Hill even admits in the afterword that it's a spoof of his own work - I do love when an author can poke fun at themselves.Overall, I did really enjoy this collection, I love Hill's style of writing and pop culture references. He also can write a sex scene so much better than his father! But I did feel like some stories perhaps could have been trimmed slightly. Although, I wonder if this is because I read this collection on my kindle, and I'm really not a fan of reading on my kindle. Maybe I would have enjoyed some of the stories slightly more if I was reading a physical copy. I'd give this collection 4 stars out of 5! Some really fresh ideas in here. I'm happy to have new Joe Hill!

EDIT - 5-Aug-2018 - Changed to five stars as all of these stories are still with me. A fantastic collection of novellas from Joe Hill, all with their own unique feel and a loose link to weather of some sort. This collection shows off Hill’s ability to write such believable characters (for the most part) and intriguing / non-typical plots Here is my ranking of each story:1. Loaded - Hill’s story about the ‘hard on’ america has with guns is the best thing I’ve read all year. Such an amazing story, well told with all the tragedy you’d expect. 2. Aloft - Teenager gets stuck on a cloud...not really much else to say as a synopsis. This is definately the most whimsical of the four stories but I felt it was very imaginative. 3. Snapshot - Tough to describe this one without spoiling it all but it’s the scariest story in the bunch set during the polaroid era. Very sinister. 4. Rain - The only one of the four stories that I didn’t enjoy much. It had its ups and downs but I couldn’t get onboard with it for some reason. Razor sharp rain falls from the sky, kills everyone. What makes this one interesting is that when Hill wrote it first time around it featured a time when a female president was in power with a much ‘happier’ ending. I don’t think Hill likes Trump much. Joe Hill is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and this showcases some of his best writing yet. Kellaway would smash the world to see George danceYou knew what was real not by its qualities but by its imperfections.It was reassuring to know our national leaders were using all the resources at their disposal to help the desperate: social media and Jesus.

Strange Weather is a collection of four short Novels in one book. None of the stories are similar and range from horror to science fiction. He showcases his creative mind and also his political thoughts/viewpoints.The book begins with Snapshot. This is set in the 80's and has a teenage boy as the protagonist. The "Phoenician" takes Polaroid pictures and in doing so his camera erases memories. I actually thought I would like this one the best as it felt more like a horror book/novel/story. It was slow to start for me. I kept putting the book down and then came back to it. Things do take off in this story and when I thought it would be over, it wasn't.Loaded is about a security guard stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero but is the spotlight too much? Will he unravel? What connection does a mass shooting have to a ten year old and her cousin? Spanning twenty years this story/novel felt political. Gun control - pro/against. People are passionate about this issue and it felt like Hill was making a point.Aloft is where a man parachutes to impress a woman and in memory of his friend but instead of landing on earth he lands on what appears to be a UFO. Dare, I say that this felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone. From the beginning things felt like something was not going to go right. Aubrey is scared and things go downhill from there. This becomes a type of relationship where one being is happy with the arrangement and the other is not. Rain is about nails falling from the sky instead of water droplets. Honeysuckle watches as her girlfriend dies and sets off to inform her girlfriends's father only to be hunted by a religious cult. Yep, this one is political as well - A President making threats on Twitter, Cults, Terrorists, Russians, etc. One plus, Honeysuckle is a strong female character.As I said, I thought I would like snapshot the most. It turned out I enjoyed Aloft the most and also Rain. Loaded was my least favorite. I enjoyed the concept of 4 novels in one book, but honestly, I prefer a longer novel overall.

"—Inventa el modo de no envejecer. Es una broma de muy mal gusto. Envejecer no es forma de dejar de ser joven.""De repente, la idea de que le hubieran robado aquellos días me pareció nauseabunda. Era como tragarse un sorbo de leche agria. Una indecencia.La pérdida de sus recuerdos y de su entendimiento no tenía justificación alguna, el universo no tenía forma de defender la corrupción de su mente. Ella me había querido, aunque yo fuera demasiado imbécil para saberlo o valorarlo."Mike es un joven de 13 años ,solitario, que padece de obesidad. Vive con su padre, ya que su madre esta en el exterior(lo abandono). Pasa la mayoría de sus tardes en el Garage intentando hacer algún invento único. Una de esas tardes ve pasar a su antigua niñera , la cual aparentemente esta sufriendo un episodio propio de una enfermedad de demencia senil. Sin embargo, esta le advierte que hay alguien con una cámara Polaroid que roba los recuerdos, Y que por nada del mundo se deje tomar una foto.Una historia muy original. Con una superficie sobrenatural bastante inquietante e intrigante, quizás demasiado ambigua. Pero es la excusa perfecta para una historia emotiva y nostálgica ambientada en los 80's. Con un bonito mensaje sobre aceptarse tal cual uno es. No renegar ni olvidar los acontecimientos del pasado, por mas malos que sean, porque son parte de uno. y disfrutar las pequeñas grandes cosas de la vida y la gente que tengamos cercaMerged review:"Los químicos y los geólogos no lograban encontrar ningún fenómeno natural que explicara lo sucedido... Lo que significaba que debía de ser el resultado de un fenómeno antinatural: alguien había averiguado cómo envenenar el cielo. Así que sabían lo que nos había golpeado pero no cómo había sucedido"."La tristeza es dura. Te agota como si te hubieras pasado el día cavando zanjas. O tumbas, supongo"."Da igual quién seas: buscar a tu madre cuando te has desollado las rodillas,cuando a tu perro lo ha atropellado un coche o cuando llueven clavos del cielo es un instinto humano básico".En esta novela corta, o Novelette o Nouvelle​ plantea una historia apocalíptica muy peculiar, intrigante, con chispas de humor e ironía principalmente abocada a la critica social/gubernamental.Como siempre el bueno de Joseph Hillstrom King, alias Joe Hill es sinónimo de originalidad. pero en esta oportunidad me pareció una obra irregular. No me consiguió ni inquietar, ni terminar de conquistar con su uso de los elementos antes mencionados. Puede ser que varios aspectos de la historia estén justificados por la cuota de parodia y sátira que tiene (dicho por el propio autor), pero así y todo no cambia mi apreciación.Curiosidades: La historia transcurre en Boulder, Colorado. Ciudad donde también se desarrollan eventos de la novela apocalíptica de "Papa King", The Stand/Apocalipsis.Muy al pasar lo nombra al actor Zachary Quinto. Quien le dio vida al personaje de Charlie Manx en la serie adaptación de su novela NOS4A2

I might go closer to 3.5 but I'm gonna round up to four. My favorite story was the first one by a long shot. The Polaroid man was such a cool concept for a villain. I wish I could've learned more about his history and about the metal that made his camera, especially at the end when the melted metal spoke. It almost sounded like the voice of Sauron in my head. Like the one ring was melted down and turned into a camera. The second story was disturbing but was also incredibly well written and politically charged. The stories in order of favorite to least favorite goes 1,2,4,3. I just couldn't get into Aloft. It had some vivid imagery and great backstory but I just couldnt get into it. It was the only story that had a moment where I was bored. Snapshot, Loaded, and Rain were non-stop action and thrills. Loaded had the best characters of the three. Snapshot was the most original with the most potential and the coolest villain concept.Rain had its ups and downs but I was never bored.

I read the Lock and Key Graphic novel series and loved that. I knew Joe Hill wrote that. Then I learned that Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. Next, I saw the show on Netflix 'In the Tall Grass' by Stephen King and Joe Hill. I hear people talking about him, so I wanted to read his novel. I feel like a torch has been passed along from Stephen to Joe. I even feel like they write in the same universe. It's like the pen has been passed along and Joe has something special to offer. He has merit on his own, but I feel that sense of Stephen King in his work. Joe Hill has a lovely way with words and he also writes character. His characters drive his plot. It's a gift and as Stephen King ages, it's comforting to know that Joe Hill will carry on the story. It's a comfort to me. There were 4 stories in this collection - novellas. I enjoyed a some more than others, but there was a craft in all of them. What really struck them was the voice of each protagonist in each story and how singular they were and different. I don't know if his politics aligns with his dad's, but I was struck that each character had a unique viewpoint and they were at times opposing each other. I thought it was the mark of a mature writer to be able to pull off those opposing viewpoints. Snapshot:This was my favorite story in the collection. A polaroid type camera basically steals the life out of people. It was creepy and was very satisfying to read. I love it.Loaded:This was my least favorite story. I will say, this does shows his maturity as the main character has a very different viewpoint than his other character's and Joe is true to his character. It's was about mental illness and gun violence and it was well done, but not an enjoyable read for me personally. Aloft:I loved Joe's new take on a UFO. I thought this was full of imagination and it had some excellent ideas. Joe has some interesting ideas and I want to read more. Rain:A new take on global warming. Nails falling from the sky. What a horrific thought. This was tied for 2nd place with Aloft.I now want to read more of Joe Hill. I think I am going to make him an author I read everything he puts out. He has that gift that Stephen King has and I want to see where he takes me. I will catch up and then read him yearly I think. I am a fan. I'm interested in what he has to say.

It's worth picking this up solely to read Loaded - a painful but needed take on guns in the US. I also thought Aloft was incredibly whimsical and entertaining (the protagonist is insufferable but I assume that was the point).Being transparent I skimmed Snapshot and and Rain

These four novellas were very solid. Even the one about Rain. Or maybe I should say, the Rain novella was more than solid: it was hard as diamond. :)In all cases, the characters shine. There are tons of fat comments, 80's memorabilia, and POLAROIDS in "Snapshot". The concept behind it was pure horror and quite interesting, but I was on the fence about the wrap-up. I appreciate the whole thing, the human element, and the character growth, but the oomph was kinda drowned out by it."Loaded" was probably my least favorite, but it had its gun-loving charms. It was more a police thriller than anything else, going round and round the danger until his world falls apart for good. Heroes and Villains, indeed."Aloft" was pretty brilliant from the imagination viewpoint and I rather rocked to the whole fear and astonishment and discovery angle. :) This is my second favorite story in the collection.But it was "Rain" that just stole the whole damn show. Terrorism and global warning and easily the best complicated and delightful characterization I've seen out of Joe Hill, yet. That's including the Locke and Key series. I loved just about everything in this one, from the horror to the crazy to the wicked. :) That rain is nuts! I love it most. :)It probably doesn't matter if you're a fan of Joe Hill or not if you're looking to this for a good read. Chances are, you might just fall in love with the author just from this. :) It's well worth it and super enjoyable.