The Fireman

I have to say... from the son of the currently reigning King of Horror...this is fantastic, and you can hear echoes of his father all throughout, while the story takes off, and Joe Hill manages to create an entirely realistic world of his own. Who's to say that science won't one day turn up a spore that lights people on fire? With the way our society and our world is going... it could happen. Either way, take Joe's fictional account in the beautiful territory of New England as a warning... This world does not want to end up like that.

It's a very interesting premise, but overall I felt it was very predictable. Did anyone really believe that Martha Quinn's Island was anything more than a trap? Or that the baby was going to turn out to be a girl? What I felt was unpredictable was just how quickly and easily obstacles were overcome. Most of the book moves along very slowly, and then when things start to get exciting the narrative gets rushed, only to return to a slow moving part of the book again. It was an enjoyable book, but not his best and not one I'd read again.

This is a book about a particularly hard pregnancy.

The protagonist has to cope with losing her job, an abusive partner, abandoning her home, contracting a potentially fatal disease, being shot at (multiple times), overly earnest singing, the downfall of civilisation, food poisoning, dire straits (the band), persecution by fanatics, persecution by rednecks, betrayal, the death of JK Rownling, falling in love with someone from liverpool, a drastic enforced haircut - as well as all the regular stuff that makes pregnancy such an easy comfortable experience.