Joe HillHorror · Fiction·b. 1972
The Fireman
Synopsis
As a contagious, deadly spore called Dragonscale spreads across the country — marking the infected with gold-flecked patterns before causing spontaneous combustion — nurse Harper Grayson discovers she's contracted it while pregnant. Determined to survive long enough to deliver her child, she's abandoned by her increasingly unhinged husband and hunted by armed vigilante "Cremation Squads" who kill the infected on sight.
Her only ally becomes a mysterious, fire-controlling stranger known only as the Fireman, who has learned to master Dragonscale rather than be consumed by it. Joe Hill builds a sprawling apocalyptic thriller around community, motherhood, and the line between salvation and fanaticism as society collapses.
How it reads
Genres
Characters
Harper GraysonProtagonist
A New Hampshire nurse infected with Dragonscale and pregnant, determined to survive long enough to have her child.
Jakob GraysonAntagonist
Harper's husband, who turns on her and joins those hunting the infected as the outbreak worsens.
John RookwoodSupporting
The Fireman, a man in firefighter gear who has learned to control the fire inside him and shelters Harper.
Tom StoreySupporting
Father Tom, the leader of the refuge camp where the infected hide.
Allie (The Fireman)Supporting
Tom Storey's granddaughter, a child living in the camp who befriends Harper.
Subjects
Places
Awards
- Locus Award for Best Horror Novel2017
