Guess what I'm bringing back to my blog! Reviews! A couple of people had asked me to bring back reviews because sometimes Goodreads isn't as easily accessible to them and what not, so I thought I would start bringing them back onto my blog! 

But, because it was super draining that I was reading faster than I was blogging, I'm only going to post reviews of select books onto my blog; that might be because it's a popular book or because I have a strong opinion on the context itself. So, not every book I'll read will be reviewed on here to save me more time on blogging and will make me feel less drained!

I've been really excited to bring these posts back and hope you guys are excited too!

Strange Weather by Joe Hill 

Strange Weather is a bind up collection of four novellas written by horror writer Joe Hill and it consists of Snapshot, Loaded, Aloft and Rain.

*So I wanted to do something a little different with this review, and I wanted to not only talk about this collection as a whole, but I also wanted to talk about each of the stories individually as well.*

**Trigger Warning for gun violence**

I definitely wanted to read this collection before Full Throttle had come out - which it is out now and I definitely did finish reading beforehand, mainly because I wanted these to be the expectation setter for the next collection as weird as that sounds. I just thought that four stories would be easier to consume first than the eight or however many is out with Full Throttle and I'm happy I did.

I genuinely enjoyed this collection as a whole and seemed to really enjoy Joe Hill's writing throughout the whole collection. I'll admit, a couple of stories were a little off for me or some parts bored me, which I'll get to in a little bit but I did really like this set for the most part. 

Snapshot

Snapshot follows a kid who is haunted by a man that carries a Polaroid camera which steals memories. This story is probably one of my favourites in the collection because of how much the characters really consume you. (I cannot remember the kid's name for the life of me, so we're going to call him kid throughout the review lol) Right from the very start, I felt very attached to the kid as if he was my own son - as if we're that much apart age-wise lol, but I genuinely wanted to protect him at all costs. The fact that he's so driven to protect his previous babysitter who is now elderly was so precious to me, but he figured everything out when it came to the Phoenician and wanted to defeat it right away. I had watched an interview with Joe Hill after reading this novella and I loved how he related this novella to a person witnessing a loved one suffering with dementia and I thought that was the sweetest thing.

Loaded

Loaded follows a mall cop who had just gotten custody of his son, and has just witnessed a mistress shooting her boss. This was the story that made me feel the most uncomfortable. I can read anything; you guys know how much I love horror and all that, and I can even bare scenes with sexual assault and what not, but gun violence always gets to me, so this was a hard pill to swallow. For starters, this is the longest story between the four; I believe it's at least half the book. This story also has multiple ways of portraying gun violence, not just the one with the mistress who kills her boss; but also, the mall cop automatically assumes the lady who is Muslim and also in the shop (held hostage) is the reason why the gun violence is occurring, so he shoots her, not knowing it was not her and that she was also carrying her baby - which by the way, was so heartbreaking. What made me so uncomfortable is that this is a real-life thing; like it could potentially happen and thats scary. I also read an interview from Joe Hill about this story and he says he wants the readers to be uncomfortable because it seems like media coverage doesn't make people worry enough and after reading that interview, I get what he means. More people seem to be concerned about books and movies than they do with what's happening in reality so it makes sense that Joe Hill has incorporated this in his collection as well. It's a hard pill to swallow, but also a huge slap in the face.

Aloft

Aloft follows a man who skydives but falls on a strange cloud. I think this was my least favourite of the four. Not because it was written poorly but because I was really bored for most of it. I really liked the fact that Joe Hill tried to incorporate the whole "aliens are real" within this story and it seemed to fit the reality of what people in our society believe. (I think aliens are real, fight me). I'll admit it was quite interesting at first but it seemed that the more I read through the story, the more I was losing interest.

Rain

Rain is about a storm occurring across a city in Colorado, although it isn't raining water, but sharp crystals than can kill anyone or anything that isn't under a sustainable shelter. This was my second favourite of the four. I found the concept to be very interesting especially because of how vivid Joe Hill draws the scenes! You witness the main character's pain as he sees his future wife being ripped to shreds just a couple of feet in front of him and you can feel his heartbreak and devastation. And I think this is an important twist to a story to make people be afraid of all the climate change we are dealing with right now. I mean, I can't say if the sky will ever rain nails though.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this collection by Joe Hill. You can really see a lot of writing techniques and what not that Joe has inherited from his dad because at some points, I forgot that I was reading a Joe Hill book and not a Stephen King collection. 

I also really enjoyed the fact that Joe Hill decided to dive into different societal occurrences that are popular right now and give it a little more horror twist - as if some of them even needed it; Snapshot with dementia, Loaded with gun violence, Aloft with aliens, and Rain with climate change. Although I did have a couple of rough spots with some of the stories, I do think some of them I'd read again (Rain and Loaded for sure.) 

What do you guys think? If you'v read Joe Hill's Strange Weather, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Also, what do you guys think of this way of reviewing short stories? Love it? Hate it? Let me know on here or on my Instagram!