THE FIREMAN BOOK REVIEW

THE FIREMAN by Joe Hill

     This month, I had the pleasure of reading The Fireman by Joe Hill, who has become of my favorite authors since about two years ago when I read NOS4A2 and I just decided to continue working my way through his books with his 2016 release. The Fireman starts off with a woman named Harper who is looking out her office window (she's an elementary school nurse) and sees a man in the playground who appears to be drunk, falls and then unexpectedly bursts into flames! 

     And so it begins. 

     There is a new very contagious disease called Dragonscale that effects people, first it looks like a simple bruise, but it grows and spreads across the body flaked with bits that look like gold. But no matter, once you are infected, it's only a matter of time before the person infected burns. Now Harper, being a nurse and since the closing of the schools, works at a hospital trying to give some kind of hope to those infected. While working at the hospital she meets a fireman, bring a sick kid in, later learns his name is Joe. But in the act of bringing the sick kid in a scuffle happens and in the end the fireman is indebted to Harper.

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     But of course when working with those infected with Dragonscale Harper is then infected and her husband Jakob doesn't have the best reaction and the Fireman, Joe has some rescuing to do. Joe takes Harper to this camp on the edge of town where there are other people living, surviving with this Dragonscale. And so this tale of survival for Harper (who is pregnant by the way) begins.

     Okay, let me just say that I love the way Joe Hill writes his female lead characters, they are (to me) very realistic and the hardships that they go through are crazy and you can't help but root for them and get wrapped up in the whirlwind that is their life.

"The hens are clucking. Harper thought it would be a toss-up, which term for women she hated more: bitch or hen. A hen was something you kept in a cage, and her sole worth was in her eggs. A bitch, at least, had teeth."

      Now in reading this book, I knew one thing was bound to happen, when you have people setting up "camp" and if there is someone is in charge unofficially and something happens to them and someone else takes the reins ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE, it never fails. People take sides, punishments get out of hand, guns are handed out, chaos ensues. People want to escape, break free, they would rather try and make it out one their own and try to beat out/hide out from the Cremation Crews than to be stuck here waiting to be punished for pushing back, the whole mob mentality.

     What I like about this book, or I guess you can say what really makes this book scary is the realness of it all. It reads like something in our not so distant future, remember that Ebola scare? Or that Swine Flu or that thing about the mosquitos a few years back. We're waiting for that one thing to really takeover and this is but a small blueprint of what can happen in some small town somewhere. It was hard for me to put this book down. I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook (using my Overdrive app) and I love Kate Mulgrew voice. She's one of the best, hands down.

     All in all I would rate this a 4 out of 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐. I liked this book very much, there were moments where I was biting my fingers, pausing my reading, because I was too chicken shit to read on, but the ending was kinda dragging on in my opinion. I was like WHAT MORE CAN THERE REALLY BE?! But I'm so glad that I have finally tackled this book. Can't wait to pick up another one from him.