The Fireman
Author(s): Joe Hill
Dragonscale is a terrifying new plague. A highly contagious, deadly spore imprints its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected. There is no cure. No one is safe.
Nurse Harper Grayson has discovered the telltale gold-flecked designs on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, made a pact that they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. But now Harper wants to live…until the fetus she is carrying comes to term.
Convinced that his wife has made him sick, Jakob abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who carry the spore. But a stranger in a firefighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he is afflicted with Dragonscale but has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted...and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.
Review(s):
“Original and gripping, a page-turner.”
“[A] superb supernatural thriller . . . a tremendous, heartrending epic of bravery and love set in a fully realized and terrifying apocalyptic world, where hope lies in the simplest of gestures and the fullest of hearts.”
“Hill has a talent for depicting fascinating characters caught in terrible situations. . . . With a full cast of characters and multiple story lines to keep the reader hooked, Hill’s enthralling fourth thriller hits another home run.”
“Joe Hill has always been good, but he’s created something incandescent here, soaring and original. He’s a master storyteller who writes with fire in his veins.”
“Fascinating and utterly engaging, this novel is sure to leave readers wanting more. One thing is for certain, however. After reading this book, readers will never hear Christmas carols in quite the same way again.”
“[An] undeniably readable work.”
“Read it with the lights on and your children locked in a closet.”
[Hill]’s got horror down pat, and his debut is hair-raising fun.”
“[A] wrenching and effective ghost story . . . reads like good, early King mixed with some of the edgier splatterpunk sensibilities of David J. Schow . . . [HEART-SHAPED BOX] has genuinely touching emotional moments as well as action-packed confrontations with the dead.”
“A genuinely scary novel filled with people you care about; the kind of book that still stays in your mind after you’ve turned over the final page. I loved it unreservedly.”
ISBN: 9780062661036