I wish I knew how to properly explain Joe Hill's effect on me. He's such a great writer and yet, almost everything he writes either unnerves me or scares the crap out of me. No matter how much he gets into my head and keeps me awake at night, I just want to read more of his stuff. He's like a scab that you're not supposed to pick, lest it get infected. Yet, it feels so good.
The latest work of his I read is this collection of 4 short novels. From 2017, this tome came out immediately after The Fireman and was next on my list of his stuff to read, when I took a sharp detour into the NOS4A2 realm of his. That book took me a very, very, VERY long time to read considering how scary it was. But once I completed it, I then went into some of his Hill House comics before I finally got around to this anthology.
The overall connection to this book is the weather; though it's not exactly the main subject of the story. The first two stories have the meat of the action of the book happen during a massive thunderstorm and a firestorm brought about by wild fires. The later half of the books do have to do with unusual occurrences with weather.
The first is about a teenage boy whose former babysitter is in the early stages of dementia. Only the elderly woman claims that her memories are being removed by a strangely dressed man with a Polaroid camera. The kid kinda shrugs off her claims as that of a lady sadly losing her mind to a medical monster. That is until during a routine trip to his favorite convenience store, he runs into a smarmy dude in a cowboy hat carrying a strange camera with him and driving a car full of photos starring the lad's old nanny! Don't let him take your 'Snapshot'!
'Loaded' involves a mall security guard who seemingly stops a mass shooting. At first, this man is considered the hero of the media and the local police. But when an investigative journalist starts digging into his past, the guard's account of the crime begins to unravel.
'Aloft' sees a young man about to go on his first ever skydive. Scared out of his wits, when he finally exits the plane, he experiences firm ground! That's because the cloud that he was expecting to fall through is completely solid and seems to conform to his every needs and thoughts. As he explores this atmospheric mystery, he'll also confront his past as well as the forbidden love affair that has been holding him back in life.
Lastly, if you thought the weather of Summer, 2023 was bad, you haven't experienced 'Rain.' In this story, the Denver metro area experiences a downpour of sharp metallic nails! Walk with one woman as she tries to alert her in-laws of the death of their daughter and systematically witnesses the downfall of civilization. This story will make you question the next storm cloud you encounter!
My favorite of the 4 stories was 'Aloft'. It was so ethereal, having such a differing pace from the other stories. 'Rain' was good and if you recall that Image Comics had released a 2022 5-issue miniseries with the same name, then give yourself a cookie. That's the comic book adaptation of this final mini novel. I just wanted more out of this story and I felt that the ending was too abrupt. I'm also wondering if 'Aloft' and 'Rain' occur in the same universal as when the main character stuck on that weird cloud takes a bite out of it, he claims that the material seems like needles in his gut.
'Snapshot' was also very good, though I felt like the last chapter should have zigged when it instead zagged. If the closing events of the future had gone full circle with the action set in the 1980s, I think it would have been my favorite story.
The best story was 'Loaded.' Mind you, I didn't say that it was my favorite. The controversial topic of gun control and American's gun culture obsession, mixed in with dashes of race, how poorly we treat over vets, especially with their mental health, and police violence makes this book very hard for many to read. The amount of violence that occurs in this story was what did it for me. Oh, how I hated... I dreaded that ending! (Note to anyone reading this review with the power to do so, if 'Loaded' ever becomes a movie, the main character MUST be played by GOTG's Chris Pratt!)
"Loaded', in my mind, is Joe Hill's version of Stephen King's Rage, which was written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. I'm not trying to compare Joe Hill to his dad. I say that this 'Loaded' is like Rage because I truly feel that if Strange Weather was ever to be re-released, there is a very good chance it won't be included in the reissue. After Columbine, Stephen King took Rage, about a troubled teen who shoots up his homeroom class, out of The Bachman Books anthology. I just think if we get an episode like what happened in 'Loaded' to occur for real, it might hit too close to home for some and we'll see that book get shelved.
Every novel in this collection ended a bit too soon for me. It left me wanting so much more. Hopefully with 'Rain', Image might make a sequel. I really think 'Loaded' might one day be a movie, if not a streaming series. 'Snapshot' had potential for one of those great 'the villains isn't dead' moments (and to be fair, I never said the antagonist died). As for 'Aloft', I liked the ending. However, it had an ending a lot like Tom Hanks' Cast Away where it's left up to the reader to finish the story and I'm not so fond of those ambiguous endings.
On to the next Joe Hill work to scare my pants off...
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment