Tuhaf Hava

by Joe Hill, Esat Ören (Translator)

“Joe Hill muhteşem bir yazar. Tekinsiz, hızlı, zeki maceralar yazıyor ve bunu kendi üslubuyla, asaletle beceriyor.”
–Neil Gaiman

BRAM STOKER EN İYİ ÖYKÜ KITABI ÖDÜLÜ

BRİTANYA FANTAZI EN İYİ ÖYKÜ KITABI ÖDÜLÜ

Çağımızın en iyi korku yazarlarından Joe Hill, her yazdığıyla beraber modern korku edebiyatının vazgeçilmez isimlerinden olduğunu bir kere daha kanıtlıyor. Tuhaf Hava’da hem güncel dertlere hem de ruhumuzun derinliklerinde kök tutmuş kaygılara dokunan dört uzun öykü bulacaksınız.

İlk öykü “Fotoğraf”ta mühendislik hayalleri kuran bir ergen, insanların anılarını silen bir Polaroid kameraya sahip. “Şarjör Dolu”da ise güvenlik görevlisi olarak çalışan, öfke kontrolü sorunları yaşayan bir adam silahlı bir çatışmayı durdurup modern silah hakları hareketinin kahramanı oluyor, ta ki yalanları ortaya çıkana dek. “Bulut”ta genç bir adam ilk paraşütle atlama tecrübesinde, imkânsız şekilde katı olan bir bulutun üstünde mahsur kalıyor. “Yağmur”da, kıyamet gökyüzünden yağan ölümcül çivilerle geliyor.

Bu kitap, dört odalı bir korku bir evi. İçeri buyurmaz mısınız?

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Thriller

448 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 2017

About the author

Joe Hill's debut, Heart-Shaped Box, won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. His second, Horns, was made into a film freakfest starring Daniel Radcliffe. His other novels include NOS4A2, and his #1 New York Times Best-Seller, The Fireman... which was also the winner of a 2016 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror Novel.

He writes short stories too. Some of them were gathered together in his prize-winning collection, 20th Century Ghosts.

He won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his long running comic book series, Locke & Key, co-created with illustrator and art wizard Gabriel Rodriguez.

He lives in New Hampshire with a corgi named McMurtry after a certain beloved writer of cowboy tales. His next book, Strange Weather, a collection of novellas, storms into bookstores in October of 2017.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 Afterword

Loaded, 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, 2017

Publication
----–hardcover - October 24, 2017
-----trade paperback - June 26, 2018



=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Instagram and Tumblr pages

Other Joe Hill books I have reviewed:
-----2019 - Full Throttle
-----2016 - The Fireman
-----2013 - NOS4A2
-----2007 - 20th Century Ghosts
-----2007 - Heart-Shaped Box

A fun video interview of Hill by fellow horror writer Paul Tremblay, at LiveSigning.com

[Chelsea Humphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

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! 👊🏼🖤

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

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. At least two of the stories basically end with the story incomplete leaving the follow up events to the readers imagination

Snapshot

3 Stars

Reminded me of The Sun Dog from Stephen King's Four Past Midnight. Pretty good, but easily my least favorite of the collection.

Loaded

5 stars

A 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.

Aloft

4 stars

My 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.

Rain

4 stars

This 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.

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange Weather is the book I most anticipated this year and I'm happy to report that it lived up to my high expectations. It consists of four short novels, (Joe Hill dislikes the term novella), and I enjoyed them all!

Snapshot is a story about memory and a camera that steals them. Set in the 80's with a teenage boy as the protagonist, this story packed some powerful imagery along with a bit of nostalgia for good measure.

Loaded is a tale about guns. Joe Hill says it's not political, but I think that both pro gun and anti gun proponents will bring their own views to the party. I tried to keep my politics out of it and enjoy it for the fast paced horror story that it was. Oh yeah, and the ending was KILLER.

Aloft was the story of a man on a cloud. It wasn't cloud 9, in fact, it wasn't a cloud at all, really. What imagination and creativity this story showed! I can't seem to put my finger on why this tale appealed to me so much, but the fact remains that it did. It reminded me somewhat of Hill's short story Pop Art , in that the tale doesn't break its back trying to provide explanations or reasons why...it just IS. And what it IS, is fantastic. (Junicorn!)

Rain was my favorite story in the book. The protagonist, Honeysuckle Speck, was one of the most interesting characters I've ever met. She is so much more than what you first suspect and I would love to read more about her in the future. It's hard to say what one would do if the sky suddenly began raining sharp crystal nails. I would love to think that I would act with the same bravery and smarts as Honeysuckle did, but I suspect I don't have the strength. Hill says in the Afterword that this book was sort of his anti-Fireman story, but one thing they both have in common is strong female characters and I like that. I like it a lot.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Edelweiss, but I also received my own (signed) copy, (whoohoo!),courtesy of Joe Hill at a book festival. This gave me a chance to check out the VERY cool illustrations, before and after each story, and also the little icons at the top of each page. They give the book a unique look and feel.

I've come to love and admire Hill's work over the last few years and I think he has developed a strong voice, independent of, but respectful, of his father's. Strange Weather was worth every minute of my time and I'm sure I'll be devoting more time by reading it again in the future.

Highly recommended!

You can get your copy here: Strange Weather: Four Short Novels

*Thank you to Edelweiss and to the publisher, (who I unabashedly emailed for the e-ARC of this awesome book), in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Hill gives us four intelligent short stories of varied length that unsettle, disturb, and horrify. However, none is less than riveting reading, provoke thought and entertain. In Snapshot, a young boy faces his nightmares, the menace of dementia, and the challenge that is the tattooed Phoenician, a thug with a polaroid camera, a camera which snaps and erases memories. Loaded is a story with the capacity to emotionally tear you apart. Its focus is guns and gun violence as it explores the scenarios that lie behind the use of guns by cops. A reporter suspects all is not as it should be in a mall shooting and its apparent hero. Aloft moves us into more supernatural territory, as Aubrey Griffin's fear of parachuting has to be surmounted as circumstances change drastically. He finds himself landing on a weird cloud in the sky. Rain is a shift to a dystopian post-apocalyptic time with a terrifying and killer rain that penetrates skin and has devastating effects. Honeysuckle Speck undertakes a horrifying road trip from Boulder to Denver. A collection of odd stories that grip and capture the imagination. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to my local bookstore for giving me an Advanced Reading Copy of this book for an honest review!
***
NO SPOILER REVIEW
This book is comprised of 4 shorts/novellas (whatever)
Snapshot-5 Stars
Loaded- 4 Stars
Aloft- 5 Stars
Rain- 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!!

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four short novels with an interesting afterward, all are good, and none are especially like any of the others.

Snapshot reminds me a lot of his dad's stories, but different enough. I thought it could have ended without the Evil Corp. attachment.

Loaded is only horror because His Internal Excellency the ambassador of Hell from Perdido Street Station is in the wings. I kept picking up his faint, but an audible echo of a soul being tortured. The JPFO should like the ending.

“Aloft” is the most tightly wrapped of the four. My son said that it's like those two Cthulhu books that we both read recently, Lovecraft Country and The Ballad of Black Tom, so Lovecraftian. I think Aubrey bonked his head pretty hard coming out of the plane.

Rain is my favorite because I liked no-nonsense Honeysuckle and it made me laugh.

I enjoyed the afterward. It has some thoughtful reflections on writing as well as the usual thank yous. It’s is the first book by Joe Hill that I read. I plan to read more by this author.

[Ellen Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. Like way too many other students in America, I've had to cower 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?

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"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!

[Zoeytron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snapshot
The all-seeing eye of a camera, Instamatic-style.  Way back when, Polaroid cameras laid the groundwork for today's instant gratification.  This one works a little differently.

Loaded
By far the most powerful story of the four, in my opinion.  Timely, but preachy as hell.  Mass shooting in a shopping mall, and it was terrifying.  The ending was to die for.  Wow!

Aloft
A reluctant skydiver makes a most unsettling landing.  Love the originality of the idea, but the ending sputtered.  

Rain
Don't get caught out in the rain.  This rain is a pain.  Some mothers have a skewed notion of how to protect their kids.

[Paul O’Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 dance

You 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.

[Debra - can't post any comments on site today grrr · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Edgarr Alien Pooh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have found over my journey that I much prefer a full drawn-out novel to a collection of novellas. With Joe Hill, it seems to be the same case, loved NOS4R2, Horns, and the Heart-Shaped Box but came in as just a 3 star on this collection. However Strange Weather may have finally helped my dumb brain work it out - in a collection you have several chances to disappoint a reader, in a full-length novel just the one story.

The first story in Strange Weather, Snapshot, and the last story, Rain, were good and entertaining reads without brilliance. It was the second story, Loaded, that I LOVED. It pulls together a group of people in different eras and all experiencing their own unfortunate circumstances. Some have others to blame, some nobody but themselves but in a quirky way, they all relate. This story really pulled me in and I raced through it despite it being the longest in the book (perhaps the longevity link again). At this stage, I was certain that Strange Weather was headed for a solid 4 stars, perhaps tipping into 5 when I came across story three.

Aloft is more a fantasy sci-fic novella than horror but that did not create my disappointment. The tale itself was just not for me. It just didn't come across as anything but nonsensical crap which is always worse coming from one of your favourite authors. Overall, Aloft and Loaded cancel each other out on the good and bad scale leaving the two other novellas to land a 3-star rating.

You could ask why I read collections when I feel this way. I am always willing to give them a go and I always want to read the complete works of my favourite authors. Having said that, there is also a chance that I will find a cracker of a collection that I will always love - if Joe Hill wants to peruse the works of his old man, he will find one such collection named Different Seasons.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I haven't yet read all of his books, Joe Hill has become one of my favourite writers in recent years. I seem to gel very easily with his work, and always end up reading the right one of his books at the right time -- for example, 'The Fireman' kept me engrossed during an uncomfortably hot few days one summer, when I wanted to be distracted by something that was epic and would take a dedicated amount of time to read, while this one, 'Strange Weather', managed to hold my attention with four short novels that seemed perfectly tailored for me to be reading while I've been easily distracted and have been having trouble concentrating on a story.

I liked all of the stories here, though the last one, 'Rain', was probably my favourite. I'll write a sentence or two about each one and leave it at that I think.

SNAPSHOT
This one really got under my skin. I've been a bit wary of dangerous Polaroid-type cameras since I read R. L. Stine's, 'Say Cheese and Die!' in primary school, but this one was much, much scarier, and sad too.

LOADED
Intense and quite brutal, this one was tough to read at times, but I found it very worthwhile.

ALOFT
This one was odd and I loved it. It also has one of my favourite lines in the book:

'Imagination was a cancer of the heart. All those lives you carried around in your head that you wouldn't ever get to live - they filled you up until you couldn't breathe.'

RAIN
When I finished this one, I had a sort of mental/emotional whiplash. I think I just really loved the characters in this one and wasn't quite ready for it to end.

The pictures at the beginning and end of each novel were a wonderful element, as well as the small image in the upper corner of each page, and different one for each of the four stories.

[Eloy Cryptkeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

"—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 cerca

Merged 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

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Well, it took me nearly the entire 21 day checkout period to finish this audio collection, but I did it and I think listening was the right way for me to go. That’s not a comment I make lightly either since my drive time is so short and my attention span much like someone most are familiar with . . . .



I’ve repeated ad nauseum that short stories aren’t my bag, but the novella on the other hand??? Those could be my bread and butter. Joe Hill gives a great explanation for why the novella works so well in his afterward. You get the benefit of a fully fleshed out story, but nary a paragraph can be wasted if you want to keep the reader invested. The bonus (for me at least) in a collection of novellas is the fair to middling selections are easily dismissed and soon-to-be forgotten while the good ones will stay with you, quite possibly for a lifetime. Hill’s father’s The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption being a couple of perfect examples.


So without further ado let's talk about the first selection in Strange Weather called “Snapshot:”

This was my first experience listening to an audiobook performed by . . . . .



And now I never want anyone else to ever read to me again. Ever.

I fell in love with Wil Wheaton when I was just a little kid and he made me wish I was a boy coming of age in 1960 . . . .



He’s held a special place in my memories ever since. Fitting that “Snapshot” happens to be one about memory. 5 Stars for Wheaton’s performance, but 3 for the story itself which I thought would have been much more powerful if it had concluded at the end of Part 1 of the audio and the “Phoenician” and his “Solarid” camera being an imagined boogeyman conjured by the mind of a woman suffering from dementia rather than him actually being one. Props to Joe Hill for the Stand By Me soundtrack shout-out, however. That will be the selection that plays me through my workday today for sure.


I automatically assumed “Loaded” would be a miss for me since I prefer to keep my fiction and political opinions as separated as possible, but dagnabbit . . . .



I’m still not interested in discussing gun rights EVER on social media, but talk about a story that kept me hooked from start to finish. Every star. (I do have to say the narrator chose a pretty weak delivery for the main female voice and that sucks because she wasn’t some Mary Sue.)


Which leads us to “Aloft” – a story about a guy who nearly shits his pants before jumping out of an airplane and ends up actually shitting his pants at some point after landing on a cloud . . . .



Sorry. I just can’t. 1 Star.


Last but most certainly not least is “Rain.” Narrated by Red, I had pretty high expectations for this one due to the choice of reader alone . . . . .


(Does anyone else tune in just to see what she’s reading??? That one she’s reading right there is a good’un.)

Anyway, again I’m happy to report this did not disappoint. The narration was great, Honeysuckle was great, and what can I say about the story itself????



4 Stars.


I’m giving 3.5 Stars to the collection in its entirety. It was definitely not a waste of my listening time.

[R.K. Gold · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snapshot was read by Wil Wheaton and was 100% my favorite.
A demented man with a terrifying Polaroid that steals parts of a person with each snapshot, a fat kid with family problems, and a neighbor with dementia. It was a great story.



The other 3 stores were...eh.
I kept speeding up the narration just to try to get through them. Here's the thing, I think Joe Hill is a great writer and he seems like a fantastic person, to boot. But I didn't enjoy his childish political digs in this book. I'm so sick of liberals and conservatives saying ugly things about each other and making these sweepingly broad statements that obliterate the need to look at people as individuals.
If you are X, then you must be blah, blah, blah.
We are good, you are evil. We are smart, you are stupid.
No, thank you. I politely refuse to get roped into that kind of stereotypical thinking.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best set of short stories I've read in a long time. I didn't want them to end!

Actually, these are more novellas than shorties, which makes a big difference when it comes to allowing for more character development and plot depth. Not that Hill needs any help in this department, as he is the king of creating memorable characters that will stick with you IMO. (The Fireman comes to mind)

Once again Hill creates visual worlds where anything can happen: from a camera that steals your memories to a sky that rains needles instead of rain drops.

The title 'Strange Weather' is very appropriate, as mother nature makes an appearance in each of the 4 stories and helps to create an atmospheric tension that literally crackles. Pun intended...

Loaded is by far the most 'punch you in the face' read, but my absolute favorite was Rain, which was both heartbreaking and funny (sarcastically) all in one.

If you haven't read anything by Hill yet, this is a good way to find out what you have been missing!
Highly recommend!

[Panagiotis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Τον Joe Hill τον ήξερα ως τον υπό κάλυψη γιό του Στέφεν Κινγκ, που έχει γράψει μερικά πετυχημένα βιβλία, ανάμεσα σε αυτά και το Fireman. Ο Χιλ δεν είναι ένας συγγραφέας που θα αποτολμούσα εύκολα: δρα υπό την σκιά του ονόματος του πατέρα του, το οποίο μεταφράζεται αυθαίρετα ως ένα ευνοημένος συγγραφέας. Μα ακόμα κι αν με το σπαθί του διεκδικεί τις εκδόσεις του, δεν μπορώ να παραβλέψω πως ο πατέρας του είναι ένα αμετροεπής, που παράγει τούβλα και καλλιεργεί ένα ύφος με πολλά λιπαρά. Πόσο μακριά μπορεί να έπεσε ο γιός του; Ωστόσο οι κριτικές ήταν αρκούντως θετικές για να το τολμήσω, παρουσίαζαν μια συλλογή ιστοριών άξιων να διαβαστούν

Τελικά; Είνα ο Χιλ άλλος ένας πολυλογάς; Τον ευνοούν τα εκδοτικά συστήματα επειδή είναι γιος του πατέρα του; Γράφει τρόμο; Έχουν οι ιστορίες του κλόουν και σκιάχτρα; Αξίζει να διαβαστεί;

Το βιβλίο αποτελείται από τέσσερις ιστορίες, οι οποίες χαρκτηρίζονται short novels. Και είναι το ιδανικό μέγεθος για να ειπωθούν ενδιαφέροντα πράματα, με χώρο για την ανάπτυξη των χαρακτήρων, αλλά και κάτι από την οικονομία των διηγημάτων. Δεν γνωρίζω πως γράφει ο Χιλ στη μεγαλύτερη φόρμα, αλλά εδώ λάμπει. Παραδίδει τέσσερις μυθοπλασίες που έχουν συλληφθεί με εκπληκτική φαντασία και αποτυπωθεί με ταλέντο. Ο Χιλ χτίζει χαρακτήρεις, πυροδοτεί εξωφρενικά φαινόμενα, σκηνοθετεί εξαιρετικούς διαλόγους, γράφει με χιούμορ και πραγματικό, συγγραφικό κέφι. Δεν θα μπω σε περαιτέρω λεπτομέρειες, αλλά θα σταθώ στην δεύτερη ιστορία του βιβλίου loaded (από το γεμισμένο όπλο), μια ιστορία κατά της οπλοκατοχής, την οποία τέλειωσα λίγες ώρες πριν το μακελειό στην εκκλησία, στο Τέξας (Νοέμβριος, 2017). Είναι μια ιστορία με πολλούς χαρακτήρες, οι οποίοι δρουν ξεχωριστά, ώσπου σταδιακά τα μονοπάτια τους διασταυρώνονται. Η κλιμάκωση είναι άκρως δραματική και σπαραξικάρδια. Ωστόσο ο Χιλ δεν υποπίπτει σε μελοδραματισμούς. Οι χαρακτήρες του είναι αληθινοί, η καθημερινότητά τους έχει δράμα και χιούμορ. Και κάπως έτσι μπορεί να αντιμετωπίσει ο αναγνώστης τον ανθρώπινο χαμό, καμιά φορά.

Ο Χιλ με τούτο το βιβλίο μου έβαλε τα γυαλιά, και τσαλαπάτισε τις βιβλιοφιλικές μου προκαταλήψεις. Είναι ένα από τα πέντε καλύτερα βιβλία που διάβασα φέτος και μια από τις καλύτερες συλλογές που έχω διαβάσει τα τελευταία χρόνια. Μην τον διαβάσετε περιμένοντας τρόμο αμερικάνικο, ούτε έχοντας προσδοκίες να καλύψετε την αδηφάγα πείνα σας για άλλο ένα «Κινγκ» δημιούργημα. Τούτες είναι σελίδες γραμμένες με μεράκι, ταλέντο, που χωράνε όλα τα καλά πράματα που μπορεί να κάνει η λογοτεχνία.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange Weather by Joe Hill is a book I got from the library. I really didn't care for two of the four stories. I enjoyed the creepy and strange story called "Snapshot". A man with a odd camera that steals memories from those that he takes pictures of. The middle two stories I didn't care for. The last story called "Rain" was fairly good. It had rain with nails made of crystals coming down and killing and destroying portions of Colorado. Life gets real strange after that.

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro se compone de cuatro "novellas" (cuatro cuentos largos). Tres de ellos nos presentan con eventos insólitos: una cámara que te roba los recuerdos, una nube alienigena y una lluvia mortal de clavos. Solamente el tercero, titulado Loaded, carece de elementos sobrenaturales aunque no deja de ser inquietante pues trata el tema de la posesión de armas en Estados Unidos. Esta historia nos demuestra como un solo disparo puede desencadenar múltiples desgracias.
Me gustaron.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snapshot - I've said something like this before. No doubt I'll say it again in the future. I care about the adolescent preteens in a horror novel, in this case a novella. It's just something that works for me, and I really don't believe I'm alone in this. Granted, the characters have to be written well (check mark for this story and Joe Hill), and it always helps if the character is on the nerdy side. A troubled situation doesn't hurts either, like having a single parent. That's not quite the circumstance for 13-year old Michael in Snapshot, but it's close.

For me, this story is about memories and the those little things we take for granted, that really aren't so little, when we're kids. It's also about the people who love us, even those who are not truly family, but really they kind of are. Between the scares, Snapshot is sentimental; it is sad; and also very good. At first I thought the climax came too soon. I was wrong about that, and glad to have been.

Loaded - ”They say that guns don't kill people, that people kill people. But I feel l like the gun wanted the both of them. I really do...Sometimes guns do kill people.” So you say Kellaway. The twisted words of a twisted man. Those words come later, but I knew within the first few paragraphs that this story was not about the supernatural. Take a vacation you ghosts and goblins, we people can scare ourselves just fine, and almost everyone is packing here. The protagonist is a little too one-sided, an asshole to the “T”, and some things felt a bit cliché, but overall I thought this story was good in the way it fits our world today.
PS. The ending made me say a bad word.

Aloft - There came a moment in this novella when the character says, “What. The actual. Fuck?” Funny, because those words, or something very akin to them, had just crossed my mind. This is why: Aubrey had just crash landed on a cloud. Yes, I said cloud and meant it. Now the title is making sense. He jumps out of a plane (not exactly his choice), heads towards earth at significant speed, with a guy and a parachute on his back, and smashes into a cloud - that just happens to be in the way. What. The actual...and you know the rest of that line. If this sounds kooky to you, it is, for awhile. But then the plot thickens up a bit (like the aforementioned cloud) with Aubrey's back-story, and it just works. At the end I thought, one thing about that cloud was not so different from Aubrey.

Rain - Within a few pages the rain comes, preceded by a the sight of a thundering black cloud. You just know this will be anything but a normal rain. When it falls, it's a killer (I hope that's not a spoiler). What's an apocalyptic novel without a death - or a few thousand? It's kind of expected. The problem is that I didn't care from the get-go, and I know why. Elements (slipped the word element in for a book about weather!) of this story are Joe Hill's signature for sure, like rain that turns to crystallized nails. That's unique, if a little far-fetched. The writing though? It just didn't feel like Joe Hill.


Summary: Excellent, good, good, bad. That's how I'd describe these four short novels. I'd reread Snapshot in a heartbeat.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange Weather, the latest offering from Joe Hill, is four books in one! Collected here are four novellas, united by the theme of weather (sometimes strongly, other times more subtly), with the stories running the gamut of apocalyptic rain to raging wildfires.

Hill hits the ground running with Snapshot, an eerie little coming-of-age tale revolving around a supernatural Polaroid camera. I was worried at first that this would be Hill riffing again on his father, Stephen King, who wrote his own supernatural camera story way back when with The Sun Dog, but Hill gets off a good one here and does his own thing. The result is pretty fantastic, with some solid meditations on aging and the fear of our own personal futures. There's a great deal of emotional resonance to this one, and Hill pulled pretty hard on my heartstrings. Not quite a tear-jerker, but it got pretty dang close.

Loaded is unapologetically political, and frankly I don't think it would work any other way. This story tackles America's favorite obsession, our one true golden idol - guns, guns, guns! Sensitive readers who decry having politics in their fiction will be clutching their pearls in white-knuckled fists hard enough to make diamonds when they lay their eyes on this one! This here story is a ripped from the headlines of Everywhere, USA horror revolving around racism and gun violence. I have no problem with political stories, and I agree with the majority of what Hill has to say here. What bugged me, though, is that it took a really, really, really long time for this novella to start going places. At first it felt more like a series of short stories united by a common element, as Hill introduces a number of characters over the course of several chapters (one who disappears for a good long while) before showing us how it all comes together. I was a bit frustrated, initially, but once the various threads started coming together, I found this to be a pretty decent work overall, and I now find myself wanting to see Hill play around a bit more in the crime genre.

Aloft has some cool character development and relationships, and although the situation Aubrey finds himself in during a parachute jump gone awry is certainly interesting, I just wasn't able to suspend my disbelief deeply enough for this one to gel with me. Even at novella length, it seemed to carry on longer than needed, or at least longer than my interest could stay vested, and I found myself itching to get off this ride way too soon.

By the time I was about half-way through Aloft, I was ready to chalk up this book as a loss. What had started out strong was quickly devolving, and I'd gone from a really strong opening, to an OK crime story, to finally just wanting to be done with this thing. And then I hit upon Rain, the final story in this sequence, and holy crap.

Hill admits to spoofing himself and his doorstopper of a book, The Fireman, with Rain, and while I enjoyed the former title quite a lot, this one is better. It's shorter, leaner, and our central character goes places. It's nicely apocalyptic and strange, and Hill gets in a few solid pot-shots at Donald Trump (which are both highly appreciated and slightly amusing, but also too f'ing accurate...). So yeah, I dug the heck out of this one.

Although the middle portion of the book fatigued me, Strange Weather is ultimately redeemed by its strong opening and an even better finish. If either Snapshot or Rain had been released as solo stories, each would have been an easy five star for me. Taken a whole, though, this is a pretty solid three-star collection for me and I'll be happily adding my signed pre-order to the shelves alongside Hill's other works once it arrives in October.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss.]

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it so hard to rate novels of short stories. This one was no different.

I loved two of the stories: “Snapshot” and “Rain”, my favorite. These show Hill at his very best! I would love to see a full length novel from either of these.

The problem with the others is I just did not enjoy them. “Aloft” made no sense to me at all. I enjoy science fiction but I never connected to these characters or the situation. “Loaded” seemed more interested in making a political statement than an entertaining story. I actually agree with Hill but that’s not why I chose to read this particular book.

Overall three stars for me. And I really should stick to longer novels because I love the depth that you can only achieve in 500+ pages. 🙂

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect when I begun this series of novellas from renowned writer, Joe Hill. I was pleasantly surprised with the variety, in this anthology, as each of the four stories contained inside had an entirely different genre, focus and style, which spoke volumes of the prowess of this author.

'Snapshot, 1988' had a pure 80's horror vibe, which made this a mildly disturbing yet entirely fun story of a young boy stumbling across a camera that takes far more from this in frame than just their picture... This had the most traditional horror feel to it and provided many instances of withheld breathe and quickly turned pages. 3.5/5 stars.

'Loaded' was my favourite in this collection. My original rating was four stars but I have since decided to round it up to the full five, as days after reading it I still can't stop thinking of the horrors of this tale. The focus is on a mall shooting and Hill as woven multiple narratives and perspectives to give a humbling and horrific portrayal of gun crime, racism, and prevalent (and wholly inaccurate) stereotypes. This scathing societal insight was powerful and wrought with high emotion. 5/5 stars

'Aloft' is the story of a young man parachuting with a group of friends in memory of one lost from their group. As he descends to earth his journey is far shorter than he imagined and with some surprising consequences. This was the most bizarre tale with a unique focus that had me puzzling over where this story was going to take the reader. Whilst not the ending I had anticipated and with the slightly open-ended nature leaving me furrow-browed, this was my least favourite but still an entertaining read. 3/5 stars

'Rain' proposed the possibility of our usual liquid rain being replaced with razor-sharp needles that could fell the population in mere minutes, if shelter were not available. Whether climate change or terrorism is behind this startling new phenomena, the dystopian world that is quickly created in its wake probes at the feeble structures that hold civilisation together, and how quickly it could all crumble. 4.5/5 stars

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Joe Hill, and the publisher, Gollancz, for this opportunity.