Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Fireman by Joe Hill

8 reviews

karly_ackley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, and Murder

pathiess55's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury

loxeletters's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This had surprisingly nice prose, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I found myself regretting that I couldn't annotate some lines in a physical book - I might have to get a copy!

The characters were incredibly likeable and I did not see most of the plot's twists and turns coming. While I felt that the continued presence of Harper's ex was a bit contrived, he did serve as a compelling villain figure - if a bit exaggerated in some aspects.
The discussion of humanity's kindness towards the end was especially interesting to me. 

However I did feel that the last part was quite rushed, compared to the previous sections, and featured surprisingly little detail - though I understand this choice from a storytelling perspective, it felt a bit incoherent with the rest of the book.

One thing I noticed was that John apparently learnt an unspecified sign language from his Irish mother, likely BSL or ISL, which somehow resulted in him being able to sign ASL? That seems like an unfortunate oversight on part of the author.

Nevertheless, the characters, their relationships, and the intricate plot had me devouring this book within a few days, and I even shed a tear towards the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Police brutality, and Child death

Minor: Animal death

smithreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Blood, Body horror, Hate crime, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Self harm

idroplungs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

As with all of Hill's books, it was a great read that was hard to put down. A lot of twists and turns that were often foreshadowed, but not always how you expected. Like a marvel movie, hang on after the credits, there is just a bit more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal death

ripxw's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

bookishaddictions's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

What is a better time to read about a misunderstood epidemic than during our own pandemic? Follow along with Harper, John (the fireman), and other key characters as they navigate life after the spread of the dragonscale spore. While COVID comes with risks like an inability to breathe, dragonscale can make you suddenly catch fire. Harper and friends are stuck learning how to survive with dragonscale, especially since Harper just wants to survive long enough to deliver her baby. Nurse Harper Willowes will bring you all of the comfort of Mary Poppins, and the Fireman will just in general leave you laughing. This story is full of vulgarity, betrayal, love, and adventure. I absolutely loved every step of the way. It also distinctly reminded me of King’s Cell- both books are 700+ pages, include a spore/virus that leads to a “hive” mentality, and both essentially see the downfall of civilization as we know it. Ultimately, I found I enjoyed The Fireman more than Cell though; the story is exciting, anxiety-inducing, and left me laughing loud enough to concern my family in multiple chapters. If you’re looking to get into Joe Hill’s works, I recommend this one before reading N0S4A2 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, Child death, and Torture

myka's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Violence