Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (Epub)

Description

“One of America’s finest horror writers” (Time magazine), Joe Hill has been hailed among legendary talents such as Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Lethem. In Strange Weather, this “compelling chronicler of human nature’s continual war between good and evil,” (Providence Journal-Bulletin) who “pushes genre conventions to new extremes” (New York Times Book Review) deftly expose the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life.

“Snapshot” is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.

A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in “Aloft.”

On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. “Rain” explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.

In “Loaded,” a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.

Masterfully exploring classic literary themes through the prism of the supernatural, Strange Weather is a stellar collection from an artist who is “quite simply the best horror writer of our generation” (Michael Koryta).

User’s Reviews

Review “A four-pack of mayhem in this sparkling collection of short novels. . . .Worth waiting in line for, if you’re a Hill fan. If you’re not, this is the book to turn you into one.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Hill is not only maturing as a writer of relevantly chilling tales but he is also emerging as a distinct voice for our complicated times.” — Booklist (starred review)“[I]n times like these, when real-world terrors outstrip our night terrors, how can a novelist possibly compete? Joe Hill, the author of several terrifying bestsellers, rises to this challenge in Strange Weather.” — Washington Post“[A]nother must-read from a increasingly impressive storyteller […] Strange Weather speaks to the versatility of Joe Hill’s craft, telling deeply disturbing stories in which cataclysmic forces of nature seem like a gentle rain when set against the actions of villains who are all too human.” — barnesandnoble.com“The Weather quartet unleashes a perfect storm of styles, from a slow-burn thriller to ethereal sci-fi, all told with a consistently strong voice…. Hill whips up emotional moments in all four that strike like lightning and thunderously rumble your soul.” — USA Today“There are few authors as deft at marrying pulse-pounding action and a sense of inescapable dread than Joe Hill. Fans of his masterful thrillers NOS4A2 and The Fireman will find plenty to love in his new collection of four short novels.” — BookPage“A striking selection of novellas ranging from the playfully apocalyptic to the wickedly political… [Strange Weather] is a demonstration of [Hill’s] range and readiness to tell the hell out of any tale, be it supernatural or straight, silly or completely serious.” — Tor.comEach selection in Strange Weather is a well-crafted piece of storytelling, with characters to care about and conflicts creepy, mind-boggling and action-packed. — Portland Press Herald“It’s good to see [Hill] flex his authorial muscles with a different form. Weather changes and we never know what to expect. The same is true for great writers.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“Joe Hill is one of the 21st century’s pre-eminent writers, not just of the dark fantastic, but of American Literature. Strange Weather is a must read.” — SFF World

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I expected to read a fiction book, somewhat scifi as King writes. I was not happy that so many political references were throughout the book. Certainly we each have our views, but when you are writing a book of fiction leave political references out.

⭐ I’ve read everything that Joe Hill has written and I thought he was an exceptional author. This collection of stories is littered with Hill’s leftist views, and I couldn’t even finish it. I will never buy another book by him. Waste of money.

⭐ He uses his art to sell his politics…I did not appreciate this at all…He is out of touch…

⭐ This collection of four short novels by one of my favorite writers. Since there are four things to talk about I’ll just give you what I thought of each story, but I don’t want to give too much away, I feel its better to get very little about the book before starting them so you’ll be more surprised by how crazy they all are. The first story, Snapshot deals with this crazy camera, The Polaroid Man, and a young boy by the name of Michael Figlione. Taking place in the summer of 1988 this story takes place all in one day and is a crazy ride I loved the details of the story and it made me think of persons suffering from Alzheimer or dementia in a different way. (I gave it 4 stars) Loaded, the second story, was probably my favorite of the two, this one deals with a man named Kellaway who’s a racist gun toting mall security guard, who’s pretty much down on his luck. His wife is about to divorce him, there’s a restraining order placed against him and one morning at the opening of the mall shots are fired and five people are dead and Kellaway is the only one left standing. Okay no more, I can’t say anymore​, but it was just so good, I had to make sure I did all my adulting before I could sit and finally enjoy this story all the way through. (I gave it 5 stars) Aloft, the third story was just okay, it’s about a man named Aubrey his experience in the clouds. The story begins with him and his three friends about to jump out of this airplane to go tandem skydiving after the death of a friend. But while up on the plane, about to jump out something happens to the plane and Aubrey and his friends are forced out sooner than expected and on the way down something crazy happens within the clouds. I think the ending of the story is what saved it in my eyes. ( I gave it 3.5 stars) And Rain, the last and final of the short stories, narrated by my favorite, Kate Mulgrew, and to be honest I think her narration kicked it up a notch for me. So we follow Honeysuckle Speck on the day in which everything changed for her. What started out sounding like any normal summer rainstorm turns out to be more like a rainstorm of small needles falling down from the sky killing friends and neighbors alike. That’s all I really want to give about the happening of the story, too much and it would give it all away. Just know it’s a great read. (I gave it 5 stars) All in all, I really liked this collection of short novels/novellas/stories and I’m glad I didn’t wait till his next book was announced to pick it up and enjoy.

⭐ This book was a giant waste of time. Half the stories were nigh on unreadable and the other half were either derivative or just ridiculous.I don’t know where all the glowing reviews are coming from, and probably everyone enjoyed it more than me, but honestly I just finished it because I wanted to be able to review it with a clear conscience.Snapshot is a decent story, unless you happen to have recently read The Sun Dog. Then it’s almost a parody of plagiarism. What’s with haunted Polaroid cameras, dude? Haunted in a different way, obviously, but still. Derivative. And it dragged on and on and on from any logical ending place it should have had.Loaded was terrible. The characters were terrible. The plot was terrible. It was beyond at least my suspension of disbelief. And the crap frosting on the crap cake was the pedantic and patronizing lecture about how guns are bad. Don’t get me wrong, I completely agree. Gun laws in this country are ridiculously lax and a lot of people have guns who shouldn’t. But that doesn’t mean that this story was entertaining or even mildly interesting. It. was. NOT.Aloft was the only story that I remotely enjoyed in this book. It was unlike anything I’ve ever read, plotwise. I didn’t care much for the protagonist and the normalization of the “poor me, I’m friendzoned” tone of the whole thing, but what can you do. The plot got more predictable as the story went on, unfortunately, and the deus ex machina was just too convenient for words.Rain. WTF. Seriously, though. WTF. Why would you even write a spoof of your own writing? Why would you publish said spoof? This story reads like a video game, with the MC going from NPC to NPC and speech bubbles with convenient plot reveals appearing over their heads. It was absolute mucky drivel and I can’t believe I got all the way to the end to have Mr. Hill spring out in an epilogue and give the equivalent of “Gotcha!” I am not amused.All in all, I’d have to say this has replaced The Fireman as my least favorite Hill work and greatest waste of my time. I don’t know that I’ll be auto-buying any of his works in future, which is a crying shame.2 stars. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

⭐ Welp, my love affair with the King family will probably never end at this rate. I’m a sucker for novellas, and Hill’s weird little collection definitely hit the mark for me. The first story, “Snapshot”, was actually the weakest in my opinion. It moved quickly and had great characterization, but the plot felt…generic, maybe? As I read, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had heard this story all before. “Loaded”, on the other hand, was an original and difficult read. I appreciate Hill’s attempt to dissect America’s strange and deadly gun obsession, & while the ending was bleak as hell, I couldn’t see it ending any other way. This one struck closest to the heart for me, and I found myself thinking that any “good guy with a gun” story could be this one. I am still struggling with this story, because my country is perpetually struggling with gun violence. Mostly I like my horror of the supernatural/monster variety, but Hill didn’t let me off that easily.“Aloft” is my favorite of the four, because it’s just so damn weird. I loved the pathetic main character, his childish crush that should have ended years ago, & man did I love that cloud. This story was beautifully simple, and the climax echoed of Lovecraftian cosmic horror. “Rain” was a bit of a weak ending to this collection, although again I found the characterization unique and refreshing. I also loved the central idea of raining weapons, but the ending rang untrue. There were too many coincidences in the larger plot for me. My favorite moments were the details of people dealing with the aftermath of the first rain, & I would have liked to see more of a focus on that. I honestly didn’t really care how the rain began or Honeysuckle’s attempts to figure out “whodunit”- I wanted more of that day-to-day reality of living in a changed world.All in all, Hill’s new collection is an excellent snapshot (haha, get it?) of him as a writer. It’s horrific, weird, heartbreaking, beautiful, and funny all at the same time. Highly recommend!

⭐ I enjoyed Joe Hill’s book “Heart Shaped Box” and was excited to check this out. The ideas for the short stories were all cool. I read to escape the constant bombardment of divisive politics that are everywhere. Unfortunately, Joe Hill put overt political themes in these stories. And he was smug about it. I get tired of being beaten over the head with peoples’ politics, and when it started happening here I just put the book down. I don’t care to finish it.

⭐ 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.

⭐ Entertaining group of stories– for me “Aloft” and “Loaded” were the best of the 4 – – Loaded was especially suspenseful and timely. Snapshot and Rain did not have enough depth for me. Joe Hill’s writing is as superb as ever so it was with eager anticipation that I downloaded this group of short stories. Good reading at lunch time – something quick, entertaining and not too substantial. Would recommend to Joe Hill fans but be warned that Snapshot and Rain are so-so (in my opinion).

⭐ The first story is a so-so, predictable one that is drawn on and on after the actual story ends. The author thought it would be compelling to delve into the sad details of the remaining years of a character with dementia’s life. It’s all very weird – it just keeps going on and on, well after the actual “scary story” has ended.The second story is a tirade against evil white men with guns. It’s insanely stereotypical. White man kills black guy. White man kills Muslim woman. The white men are painted just about as you’d expect, for a story with this kind of “plot”.That was where I put the book down.

Keywords

Free Download Strange Weather: Four Short Novels in Epub format
Strange Weather: Four Short Novels Epub Free Download
Download Strange Weather: Four Short Novels 2017 Epub Free
Strange Weather: Four Short Novels 2017 Epub Free Download
Download Strange Weather: Four Short Novels Epub
Free Download Ebook Strange Weather: Four Short Novels