Today I take a look at a father/son duo of books, The Fireman by Joe Hill (which was a long overdue read for me) and the new-ish collection of novellas by Stephen King in If It Bleeds.
The family resemblance and Stephen King's influence is very noticeable in Joe Hill's lengthy extension-level-event tale involving a mysterious virus which causes people to develop dragon-like scales on their skin and eventually explode (if put under enough stress).
Given we're living through a real life pandemic, I wasn't sure this was the right time for a book like this. However, once I started, The Fireman was hard to put down (I read the vast majority of the 700+ doorstop in two days).
Whilst I enjoyed the general premise and the characters, I thought the book could've been much shorter.
Like King, Hill's strength is characters, which, as mentioned above I enjoyed reading about them, I would've liked to have read more of the broader events surrounding the dragonscale.
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If It Bleeds collects four novellas, the best of which is the title of the collection which features Holly Gibney in, what I think, is the best rendition of the character so far. The story is intriguing and creepy; yet it's not over done - this is a plausible kind of horror which fits the tone of the larger series perfectly.
Life of Chuck had loads of promise and started off great but I felt it tapered off towards the end; a backwards telling of the titular character's life form end to beginning.
Mr. Harrington's Phone is a lot of fun and focuses on relationship with a supernatural twist. Whilst a slow-burning story, it fits the novella format exceptionally well.
Rat is perhaps the most true-to-horror story of them all. I'd love a full length novel of this one, just behind If It Bleeds as my favorite novella of the collection.
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