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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Okay, so this is admittedly going to be a rant more than a review, but this book was extremely stressful and there was a LOT of traumatic scenes with very little payoff, so I am PISSEDDDDD.
Don't get me wrong - I love Joe Hill. So far, I have LOVED everything I've read of his. Locke & Key is one of my favorite series of all time. But every author, even your favorite author, has a book that makes you boil with rage and this was that one for me.
The story follows a young nurse named Harper Willows who is facing the spread of a disease where people spontaneously combust. Hey, at least it's not COVID, right? Harper ends up pregnant and sick with DragonScale and her abusive creep of a husband tries to hunt her down and a mysterious Fireman introduces her to a camp of survivors. That's pretty much all I can share without spoiling, so here we go.
I can't stand Harper. She's whiny, a coward, completely spineless. I was rooting for her for about 1/3 of the novel, when she's realizing her husband is kind of a dickwad after he makes a racist joke about the disease being from Asia, among other things. Honestly, I wonder if Donald Trump read the first chapter of this book for research when he was first making speeches about COVID. The number of things that are wrong with this man are exponential. He's just pure hot garbage. It made me feel like I had no idea why Harper would stay with him for that long if he had absolutely zero redeeming qualities. However, I know that abuse revolves around power and control and it's never as simple as "just leave already," so I really genuinely was rooting for her to get away from him, even after the chapters and chapters of rude, heartless comments, stressful phone calls, and finding out his shadiness was just pure darkness.
Then we get to the camp and I'm like "okay so now this second third of the book is going to be." Wow. And then I got 50% of the way through, and she is facing So I was like, "Oh, it's coming, soon, for sure! She's really gonna put her foot down, and I bet it will be epic if I'm almost 2/3 of the way through the book and it hasn't happened yet!" And then I got 75% of the way into the book and I realized that she had absolutely zero character development.
And then I got 100% of the way through and she still had no character development. She had several opportunities to do the right thing and never did them. At one point, you think the growth might be happening but nope, she just goes right back to being an annoying loser (I have trauma, I get how it can impact you, but after escaping an abusive relationship the last damn thing I'm going to do is put up with anymore bullshit from anyone). She was nothing like Mary Poppins, which is weird because she really, really wanted to be like Mary Poppins. I also don't understand, because we see that Harper has the ability to stand up for herself and others at times, like when she
There are parts of this where I thought I was really going to end up liking it. It had all the tropes I love: disease, cults, sweet little librarians, adorable old men, betrayal...Unlike most negative reviews, I loved the in-your-face references back to The Stand and other horror ("cup of stars" is one of my favorite parts of Haunting of Hill House so it made me smile to see it briefly mentioned here). I did feel like the Mary Poppins stuff was laid on a bit thick, and although I wasn't surprised there were multitudes of references to music due to the nature of DragonScale, I did hope Joe Hill would pick a new genre at some point. There were several really good scenes that I was kind of expecting to happen, but when they did happen, they were super rushed and jumbled up and then there were long stretches of boring after.
For example, the scene I mentioned that is 75% of the way into the book.
Then, we have the. Then, we have the . Also, almost every chapter ended with some little foreshadowing phrasing like "but they'd never see him again" or "but she'd never get the chance" or "the Church doors closed, never to open again" and that was just a minor annoyance that I felt was super repetitive and unnecessary. I already know bad shit will happen, I'm reading a book about people spontaneously combusting. Not every single chapter has to end that way, and it really took the thrill out of things which could have been shocking.
Eventually, the fire just kind of sputters out into a lukewarm ending (see what you made me do, Joe Hill, you made me go and do puns to console myself!) that just was not worth the journey to get there. Also, was completely unnecessary, it didn't add to the story or have any meaning at all other than being cruel. Joe Hill has watered down the usage of slurs that his father uses a little too much in his work, but he's not managed to decrease gratuitous . Ultimately, Renee was good and the only character I could actually stand. Renee should have been the focus of this book. I just want to stick a stone in Harper's mouth permanently. We didn't even get any steamy sexy Fireman action, for all the talk about how sexy of a disease DragonScale is, and how sexy the Fireman is supposed to be with his badassery and accent. RUDE.
Well, I'm feeling absolutely burnt out after this read. I think I'll take a brief hiatus from Joe Hill's work and let myself cool off a bit (okay, okay, I'll stop now).
Don't get me wrong - I love Joe Hill. So far, I have LOVED everything I've read of his. Locke & Key is one of my favorite series of all time. But every author, even your favorite author, has a book that makes you boil with rage and this was that one for me.
The story follows a young nurse named Harper Willows who is facing the spread of a disease where people spontaneously combust. Hey, at least it's not COVID, right? Harper ends up pregnant and sick with DragonScale and her abusive creep of a husband tries to hunt her down and a mysterious Fireman introduces her to a camp of survivors. That's pretty much all I can share without spoiling, so here we go.
I can't stand Harper. She's whiny, a coward, completely spineless. I was rooting for her for about 1/3 of the novel, when she's realizing her husband is kind of a dickwad after he makes a racist joke about the disease being from Asia, among other things. Honestly, I wonder if Donald Trump read the first chapter of this book for research when he was first making speeches about COVID. The number of things that are wrong with this man are exponential. He's just pure hot garbage. It made me feel like I had no idea why Harper would stay with him for that long if he had absolutely zero redeeming qualities. However, I know that abuse revolves around power and control and it's never as simple as "just leave already," so I really genuinely was rooting for her to get away from him, even after the chapters and chapters of rude, heartless comments, stressful phone calls, and finding out his shadiness was just pure darkness.
Then we get to the camp and I'm like "okay so now this second third of the book is going to be
Spoiler
about her recovering from her abusive loser of an ex husband, and recognizing abusive traits in certain people in the camp, and then escaping from that because she's realized she's a strong bitch who won't take this shitSpoiler
constant threats and abuse, red flag upon red flag from these campers, and just takes it. Even after they brutally attack her and tell her they are going to take her baby from her, she waits until other people decide they want to leave to get a move on. She doesn't even want to tell Father Storey when he wakes up about what's been happening!Spoiler
where she goes full traitor and sells out her friends like a true coward before uncharacteristically deciding to fight back in a rushed sceneAnd then I got 100% of the way through and she still had no character development. She had several opportunities to do the right thing and never did them. At one point, you think the growth might be happening but nope, she just goes right back to being an annoying loser (I have trauma, I get how it can impact you, but after escaping an abusive relationship the last damn thing I'm going to do is put up with anymore bullshit from anyone). She was nothing like Mary Poppins, which is weird because she really, really wanted to be like Mary Poppins. I also don't understand, because we see that Harper has the ability to stand up for herself and others at times, like when she
Spoiler
stands up to the doctor when the Fireman first comes to the hospital with Nick or when she hits Jacob with the wine and tries to escape him.There are parts of this where I thought I was really going to end up liking it. It had all the tropes I love: disease, cults, sweet little librarians, adorable old men, betrayal...Unlike most negative reviews, I loved the in-your-face references back to The Stand and other horror ("cup of stars" is one of my favorite parts of Haunting of Hill House so it made me smile to see it briefly mentioned here). I did feel like the Mary Poppins stuff was laid on a bit thick, and although I wasn't surprised there were multitudes of references to music due to the nature of DragonScale, I did hope Joe Hill would pick a new genre at some point. There were several really good scenes that I was kind of expecting to happen, but when they did happen, they were super rushed and jumbled up and then there were long stretches of boring after.
For example, the scene I mentioned that is 75% of the way into the book.
Spoiler
Harper and her friends have been captured and accused of killing Father Storey in a twist reveal. They are being threatened with execution, and only Harper knows the real person who killed Father Storey. But instead of speaking up when the camp begins to question their guilt, she betrays her friends by "admitting" to the crime. She has the perfect opportunity to reveal a bombshell, but chickens out with the piss-poor excuse that she is "protecting" Nick and Ally. So, the campers begin to stone them to death. This particular scene could have been made stronger by her revealing the truth and showing her strength and growth, but instead she randomly decides to use her newfound "powers" to break free, then Nick finally uses his powers again to assist, then the Cremation Crew shows up and all hell breaks loose. It felt like this entire scene was written in an absolute frenzy, because it did not flow together well at all and left zero time for any one part to be processed. There were just far too many spots of this book where there was nothing going on, then a burst of action, then nothing for a long time, rinse and repeat. It would have been far better organized to have her either tell the truth, or have Nick interrupt the "trial" with his massive fireworks show, then have them break free and reveal the truth, and then to have a little bit of time in between that and the Cremation Crew showing up. Having it all at once just really took away the importance of Harper using those powers for the first time, Nick finally using his powers again, and the entire drama about who killed Father Storey. Because when it is finally revealed who killed Father Storey, Carol doesn't have time to have any reaction whatsoever because the Cremation Crew is about to kill them all.Then, we have the
Spoiler
"abusive ex confrontation scene" in which we could have had some sort of closure for Harper with regards to standing up to Jacob but instead, she does nothing and once again relies on someone else to save everyoneSpoiler
"Island of the Infected was actually a conspiracy trap planted by the US Government scene," in which Harper just says "No, you can't" for the zillionth time and leaves John to yet again rescue everyone while she does nothingEventually, the fire just kind of sputters out into a lukewarm ending (see what you made me do, Joe Hill, you made me go and do puns to console myself!) that just was not worth the journey to get there. Also,
Spoiler
killing the catSpoiler
graphic animal violenceSpoiler
John's death was also unnecessary and stupid, but I already mentioned that.Well, I'm feeling absolutely burnt out after this read. I think I'll take a brief hiatus from Joe Hill's work and let myself cool off a bit (okay, okay, I'll stop now).
This is the 4th book by Joe Hill that I've read. His writing is like Stephen King for my generation; same bizarre/dark horror, but with references to the 90s/00s rather than the 80s, like in King's writing. A fantastic journey centered around characters I cared about surviving a fiery epidemic. Loved it.
Wow! This book was not what I expected. With elements of found family, grief and being other, I found myself deeply caring for these characters. And I have to say, I was not expecting that ending.
Full review to come later.
Full review to come later.
Fantastic plague/pathogen end-of-the-world story. Great characters and character development through crisis situations. Lots of little Easter eggs connecting to Joe's other novels as well as some of his dad's works.
I really wanted to like this because I love Joe Hill, but it just wasn't for me.
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
One star taken for language and other some such content. But this is SK jr.
Great book, really, though I did not find it much of a horrid book and found myself likening it a bit, just a bit, to The Passage. I liked that book too so this is a good thing. This dealt with things in some similar and some totally different ways which makes me love the books uniquely.
I got attached to a lot of the characters and even the Fireman. Some of the characters I felt like I was constantly having to battle between liking them and waffle ironing them. Teenage girls for one.
Nick was cool, I adored Harper by the end though some of the things she said at times I just shook my head.
It’s a cool, yet hot, post- apocalyptic bio-zone thriller that makes you think about the steps you would take in the shoes of these characters. What it would feel like to have what they do and to have lost what they lost. It was riveting even if a bit slower at times than others. Way to go Jr.
Edit: btw 3.5 & 4
Review still to come.
🔥🔥🔥Wow, that was a journey. A long one. Still kinda blinded by the flames. Yes, I must think. I feel there is much to consider.
Review to come. Rating too. 🔥🔥🔥
One star taken for language and other some such content. But this is SK jr.
Great book, really, though I did not find it much of a horrid book and found myself likening it a bit, just a bit, to The Passage. I liked that book too so this is a good thing. This dealt with things in some similar and some totally different ways which makes me love the books uniquely.
I got attached to a lot of the characters and even the Fireman. Some of the characters I felt like I was constantly having to battle between liking them and waffle ironing them. Teenage girls for one.
Nick was cool, I adored Harper by the end though some of the things she said at times I just shook my head.
It’s a cool, yet hot, post- apocalyptic bio-zone thriller that makes you think about the steps you would take in the shoes of these characters. What it would feel like to have what they do and to have lost what they lost. It was riveting even if a bit slower at times than others. Way to go Jr.
Edit: btw 3.5 & 4
Review still to come.
🔥🔥🔥Wow, that was a journey. A long one. Still kinda blinded by the flames. Yes, I must think. I feel there is much to consider.
Review to come. Rating too. 🔥🔥🔥
I greatly enjoyed NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box, and I was anxious to read The Fireman. I started, then I put it down. Not a great sign, but I hadn’t given up, and I picked it back up and, about 200 pages from the end, I realized that I just didn’t care about these characters any more. The bad guys weren’t bad enough, and the good guys weren’t compelling enough. Often, the story stagnated. The shout-outs to Stephen King’s The Stand (and, yes, I am aware who Joe Hill’s father is) were more distracting than cute. I am charitably awarding three stars based primarily on the fact that the ending was not nearly as bad I had come to expect. Sometimes, good authors write stinkers. Joe Hill’s dad has them, too.
An end-of-the-world scenario in which an infectious form of spontaneous human combustion spreads like... well, you know. Except it's really caused by a fungus. (It's always a fungus these days, isn't it? Thanks, cordyceps.) Some people begin to learn how to control the infection and then it's the fire-zombie apocalypse told from the zombie point of view.
As a bonus, the book is filled with fun little easter egg nods to other horror/sci-fi stories.
Very enjoyable.
As a bonus, the book is filled with fun little easter egg nods to other horror/sci-fi stories.
Very enjoyable.
Uno de mis objetivos lectores es leer uno de los libros de Joe Hill cada año.
Esta vez le ha tocado a Fuego, su última novela.
A pesar de estar catalogada en el género de terror, se aleja bastante de esta categoría. Es más a un thriller o incluso ciencia ficción por lo que plantea. De hecho, me parece que la pluma del autor es bastante suave respecto a los villanos y las escenas de violencia y gore en comparación con sus obras anteriores.
Eso sí, tenemos una premisa bastante original, estalla una pandemia y lo más destacado es que esta enfermedad hace que en situaciones de mucho estrés estalles en llamas en combustión espontánea, mandando al traste a la sociedad tal y como la conocemos. Cabe destacar que el libro fue escrito años antes del coronavirus de las narices y te encuentras situaciones que hemos vivido todos en los últimos meses.
Durante 800 páginas la novela seguimos la trayectoria de la protagonista y consigue mantenerte enganchado en casi todo momento. Si que es cierto que me esperaba que la novela fuera por otros derroteros y explorara más de esta sociedad cuasi-distópica, pero se queda durante demasiado tiempo en el refugio que encuentra la protagonista.
Como es típico en Hill, abusa de paginado y podría realizar esta misma novela con 150 páginas menos perfectamente.
Aún así, no defrauda para nada, la historia me ha proporcionado justo lo que necesitaba, es muy entretenida y te saca de las historias típicas de pandemias y distopias. Lo recomendaría a alguien que buscara salir de un bloqueo lector o buscara algo un poco tenebroso pero ligerito.
Esta vez le ha tocado a Fuego, su última novela.
A pesar de estar catalogada en el género de terror, se aleja bastante de esta categoría. Es más a un thriller o incluso ciencia ficción por lo que plantea. De hecho, me parece que la pluma del autor es bastante suave respecto a los villanos y las escenas de violencia y gore en comparación con sus obras anteriores.
Eso sí, tenemos una premisa bastante original, estalla una pandemia y lo más destacado es que esta enfermedad hace que en situaciones de mucho estrés estalles en llamas en combustión espontánea, mandando al traste a la sociedad tal y como la conocemos. Cabe destacar que el libro fue escrito años antes del coronavirus de las narices y te encuentras situaciones que hemos vivido todos en los últimos meses.
Durante 800 páginas la novela seguimos la trayectoria de la protagonista y consigue mantenerte enganchado en casi todo momento. Si que es cierto que me esperaba que la novela fuera por otros derroteros y explorara más de esta sociedad cuasi-distópica, pero se queda durante demasiado tiempo en el refugio que encuentra la protagonista.
Como es típico en Hill, abusa de paginado y podría realizar esta misma novela con 150 páginas menos perfectamente.
Aún así, no defrauda para nada, la historia me ha proporcionado justo lo que necesitaba, es muy entretenida y te saca de las historias típicas de pandemias y distopias. Lo recomendaría a alguien que buscara salir de un bloqueo lector o buscara algo un poco tenebroso pero ligerito.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This took me a really long time to read. I started it before there was even a hint of a pandemic, and now the world is in full chaos. It’s literally burning. That made this book difficult to finish. I also got bored about a third of the way in. Several times, I thought the titular character had died and then he would show up with some snarky quip and I’d be hella confused. There is some problematic vocabulary used, by Harper, surprisingly, that bothered me. It also includes one of my least favorite tropes: men writing about pregnant women. They simply don’t understand what it’s like and keep trying to make their female characters “cool” by having them do things like drink excessively, participate in high-speed chases and explosions, practically starve themselves without consequences, push through the pain of contractions for several days (not speaking for anyone else, but mine were horrific and went on for several days-once that water breaks, there is literally nothing else that occupies your mind until it either stops or you get the meds), and then forget about the fact that there’s an afterbirth. I think getting to the point where Harper discovers she’s pregnant and realizing that she would be through the entire novel soured my reading. I was over it before anything really happened.
Having absolutely adored “Horns,” I pushed myself to finish this book, but having had my fill of pandemic stories already, I hated most of my time in this world.
Having absolutely adored “Horns,” I pushed myself to finish this book, but having had my fill of pandemic stories already, I hated most of my time in this world.