Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill

5 reviews

lancemama's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Murder, Xenophobia, and Grief

biobeetle's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Violence, Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Racism, and Child death

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I like Joe Hill's horror for its earnestness and earthy modern headspace. His protagonists are largely losers who have no guarantees to emerge from injustice or horror successfully. Hill has few qualms about making anyone suffer quickly, horribly, often without warning. At his best, the supernatural horrors they encounter merge in challenging parallels to the cultural politics we inhabit. Other times his stories are settled plots probable and tense. 

Strange weather is strong for its four tightly-plotted works, weaker for its thoughtful ties between the natural and supernatural. His characters sometimes emerge with needful growth, but sometimes they just emerge. This is realistic, but--as too often with his works--not as satisfying to a reader. It forces readers to find the joy of the tale elsewhere, and here--because the stories are so brief--there is too little time to allow the terror to fully develop. 

Most unsettling for me was the work "Loaded," which is better described as political horror than supernatural. "Aloft" and "Rain" do better in character development, though the conceit of the horror premise is too obscure or too neat. Short fiction is hard, and maybe Hill requires more space to flesh out his stories suitably (i.e. Horns or Heart-Shaped Box or The Fireman). So while this read was satisfying, each story left me wanting more.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, Grief, Dementia, Body shaming, Blood, Animal death, Xenophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Murder, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Homophobia, and Cursing

mondovertigo's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Dementia, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, and Suicide

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Addiction and Car accident

socialpsysteph's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a collection for four novellas. I have learned I'm usually not a fan of short stories, but novellas are a sweet spot for me. I love the fast-paced rush of a novella, especially with horror. Of these stories, Rain was probably my favorite - this was a climate sci-fi horror where it starts to rain crystal needles and chaos ensues. This novella was basically perfect, totally didn't see the twists and turns coming. Both Snapshot and Aloft were fun and very different. They were creepy, eerie, and so much fun. Then there was Loaded. To me, this was not the type of horror I like; this was too realistic (this could, and has, happened) and it made me sad and anxious. Now, it was fantastically written, just not what I was looking for right now. Plenty of content warnings on this one!

This book counts for Popsugar 2021 for a book seen on someone else's shelf.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Islamophobia, Infidelity, Death, and Child death