Shannon Turlington

This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019.

Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (2017)

I agree with what Hill writes in his afterword about short novels: I am drawn to them more and more, especially in the horror genre, as they seem to be just the right length for a scary tale, with space for characterization but also not losing their punch. This is a collection of four novellas by Hill. I’ll review them in the order with which I liked them.

“Loaded”: A gut punch of a story. There is nothing supernatural about it, yet it is the most horrific story in the collection. It’s about the out-of-control spiral that can happen when a gun seems like the answer to every problem, and it’s also a searing indictment of my country’s love affair with guns.

“Rain”: A chilling and unique end-of-the world scenario. What I really liked about this story was its narrative voice and also all the crazy characters that live on the narrator’s street.

“Snapshot”: Isn’t it funny that Stephen King also has a story about a supernatural Polaroid camera? This was an interesting concept, but I was left wanting something. I just didn’t feel like the supernatural element was well enough explained for me to fully buy into it. Well-written, though.

“Aloft”: Okay, this one was just weird. A guy who is sky-diving lands onto a sentient cloud, which then tries to keep him as some kind of pet. Bizarre.

Overall, this was a great collection that I really enjoyed.