The Fireman - Joe Hill in Reading Journal

This is a book too much like one of his dad’s. Primarily, it is too much like the Stand, with maybe a bit of Cell, and some of the Running Man. It didn’t feel like a Joe Hill book at all. From another mute Nick (but this one is a child) to another pregnant dystopian heroine (but this one is a nurse) to another totem male character (this one a “fireman” with an English accent) and another camp full of religious fanatics…it was very derivative, in a very unfun way. I loved the opening, but then the book turned into the minutiae of running an infirmary for religious fanatics, more or less, and it all wrapped up too neatly. Bad people were bad. They didn’t have a good side. Good people were good. They didn’t have weaknesses.

There was a lot of fire, guns, and sneakin’ around.

It’s okay for a summer afternoon, but this one’s not making waves in my head. Would make a great Netflix show, though. They could run it against Handmaid’s Tale, as both are dystopians with feminist issues (although Fireman’s are less overt: Harper has to handle some unwanted advances and stuff, and there’s a potential rape scene, and her ex husband is an abusive sack of incel-grade shite.) Maybe the screen would give it some humanity it just doesn’t seem to have.

Joe, I love you, but if you’re gonna ask for an afternoon with a tantalizing premise like the book blurb, you’re gonna have to pay out. This time, you owe me. ‘Sokay, though. We’re still friends.