I think this book broke me.

Joe Hill is an awesome writer, and I'd say his short stories are stronger than his longer ones (although for novels, I've only read [b:Heart-Shaped Box|153025|Heart-Shaped Box|Joe Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328043955l/153025._SY75_.jpg|1412280] and [b:Horns|6587879|Horns|Joe Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1402958805l/6587879._SY75_.jpg|6781405] so far). "Strange Weather" is a collection of four novella-length stories, and every one of them broke me. These stories are gonna haunt me. I want everyone with a beating heart to read this book because that's what this book feels to me: a beating heart.

The first story, Snapshot, is very close and personal because I can empathize with the protagonist who is a fat kid.

I was fat, and I was lonely; in those days if you were the former, the latter was a given.

And it's about a camera possessed by an evil man (who's evil because he doesn't have anything better to do) which features is to steal memories from someone, one picture at a time, leaving them an empty shell without important moments and important people to cherish. It's a very sad, unfortunate tale, and I sighed to my ceiling a couple of times reading this because the pages seem to bleed feelings.

The third story, Aloft is awesome in its weirdness. Aubrey Griffin is a coward who's helplessly and pathetically in love with his bandmate Harriet, who sees him as no more than a friend. I, as a reader, spend a lot of time knowing his thoughts, his desires and delusions, until the moment acceptance and realization finally come upon him.

Dreams had a habit of making jumpy, improbable leaps.

Aubrey is annoying at first but then I warm up to him because of his vulnerability and zero pretense. Man has self-awareness. The ending is great and satisfying, and it doesn't ruin the magic (or the strangeness of Aubrey's experience) at all.

Rain, as the last tale in this book, is an excellent closing. It borders on the apocalyptic theme, "What if the world stops raining water and starts raining sharp nails made of crystal stones instead?" and the madness that follows suit. This story is unabashedly political and I LOVE, LOVE IT. Honeysuckle is a great protagonist. Her journey to inform the parent of her girlfriend about their loss is engaging and left me on edge the whole way because I'm so scared something bad would happen to her.

I’ve already visited the lost and lonely place at the end of the world, and all I know is, the only way to keep going is to do the things the people you loved would’ve wanted you to do.

The ending? Also great. I genuinely think Joe Hill is capable of writing great endings.

But the second story, Loaded, hits like a direct bullet shot through the chest. Nothing, nothing, prepared me for Loaded. The main character, Randall Kellaway, is filled with hate and prejudice to the brim it gnaws at my soul. He's a man beyond redemption. This story does not read like fiction and that makes it beyond terrifying. The last paragraph of it left me hollow; I stared blankly at my walls and ceilings with a heavy chest as if an elephant has sat on it. My heart hurt for Aisha and her daughter and Colson and Okello and Yasmin and everyone else who can be easily mistreated for no reason.

All it took to turn a CD into a knife or a tape gun into a .45 was a little imagination, a little panic, and a lot of prejudice.

I am so, SO GLAD, to have met your stories and read them, Joe Hill.
I will be thinking of these four tales for a long, long time.