After a couple of rather long books Joe Hill is back with a collection. The title is Strange Weather and collects four stories; Snapshot, Loaded, Aloft and Rain.

In Snapshot, we get to meet Michael Figlione and hear how he met the Phoenican, a man who possesses a Polaroid Camera that erases the memory of the person having his picture taken. A piece with every photo. Michael learns about The Phoenican from Shelly Beukes who has had her picture taken (involuntary) many times and is starting to lose her mind. Alzheimers everyone thinks but Michael knows better. It’s the camera…

The second story Loaded isn’t a horror story with monsters. Or maybe it is. The main character, Randall Kellaway sure isn’t a nice guy even though he stops a mass shooting in a mall. But what did really happen when he did it? What he tells the media and the cops are quite different than what actually happened… Loaded is proof that Hill is great with characters. In the beginning of the story he introduces us to the characters and we don’t really know how they tie together but as the story unfolds they do and they do it in a very smart way. Perfectly executed by Hill.

In Aloft we meet Aubrey Griffin. When the story starts, he is in an airplane about to do his first parachute jump. He’s doing it in his friend June’s memory but the closer he gets to the actual jump the more he regrets being in the plane. Just as he has decided he’s not going to jump the plane malfunctions and he has no choice. He and his jumper (that he’s strapped to) throw themselves out but after just a few feet they strike something…hard. A cloud? But how can he crash into a cloud? And why isn’t he falling through it?

Rain is probably the story that has given the book it’s title, Strange Weather. In the story, we meet Honeysuckle Speck (unusual name…) who experiences her best and worst day on the same day. The good thing is that her girlfriend Yolanda is moving in with her and the bad thing is that it rains the day she is moving in…and it rains nails instead of water. Big nail. Nails that tear those unable to get under shelter to pieces. At first no one understands how this can happen but as the story unfolds we find out...

Strange Weather is a good book. Not as much horror as strange events. There is humor in it and there is scary stuff in it. And there are a lot of references to President Trump, especially in Rain. All of this in combination with Hill’s ability to create characters you care about makes Strange Weather a very enjoyable book.

If you like Hill’s books you’ll love this one. If you haven’t read any of his previous books, this is a perfect start!