Strange Weather

Earlier this year I challenged my partner to give me 5 books they really enjoyed to add to my reading pile and this is the 3rd of those books. Joe Hill is one of her favourite authors and I have read a couple of his novels but this is my first look at his shorter fiction. Strange Weather collects 4 short novels/novellas into one book. As always with collections there is some variability - I found 3 of the stories more enjoyable than the other - but overall these are an impressive collection.

Snapshot was a sad and poignant look at dementia and the importance of memories with a twisted dark fantasy element with some kind of magical camera that steals your memories. Having had family members with Dementia and knowing just how hopeless it feels to watch someone fade away that way, this one hit home with the feels.

Rain was an intriguing dystopia where someone has caused the rain to fall as deadly needles. Definitely a twisted look on what technology could do to nature.

The highlight for me was probably Loaded - it was horrifyingly believable and ultimately a fierce critique on gun culture in America. With the amount of gun crime and police incompetence in the news this one hits home hard.

The weak point for me Aloft. It had a certain whimsy, but its weirdness just didn't quite gel with me.

All in all a very impressive collection!

Ranked in order best to worst:
Rain
Snapshot
Aloft
Loaded

I agree with the politics of loaded but felt it was too long for a simple obvious message.

This is a decent collection of novellas, two of which were excellent and will stay with me for a long time.

“Snapshot” was good up to a point, with its subtle emotional resonance about dealing with aging loved ones afflicted with Altzeimers. It should have ended about 20 pages sooner than it did. Hill dragged out various epilogues, for what?

“Loaded” was more of an agenda than entertaining story, made obvious by portraying the protagonist, Kellaway, as an absurd caricature. (The secondary definition of “loaded” is “weighted or biased toward a particular outcome.”)

“Aloft” was excellent and convinced me that Hill can indeed be a good storyteller. A little cosmic horror, a little personal growth. Fantastic imagination and imagery. Rock solid for a story about a cloud.

“Rain” was my favorite, bizarre apocalyptic road story with an oddball cast of characters. The answer to where the rain originated was far-fetched, yet, since the story is flavored with tongue-in-cheek humor and outrageous incidents, the resolution suits the tone.

I nearly gave up on this after the second novella but the last two saved the collection for me.