Jakob goes off the rails so completely that we never see any redeeming feature that might have made us care about him or their marriage. Harper spends most of the book as an oddly passive Fretful Pregnant Lady. Unfortunately, the main characters are pretty dull stereotypes. But we do need to have some emotional investment, which usually means believable characters whose problems we care about. I’m not one to quibble over a little suspension of disbelief when it comes to global pandemics. Obviously, from the plot summary, realism isn’t a big part of this story. Can the Fireman protect Harper long enough to give her baby a chance? And even if he can, what kind of world will the baby be born into?

But Harper hears about a mysterious man, the Fireman, who has supposedly conquered Dragonscale and uses its pyrotechnic force as a supernatural weapon. Jakob blames Harper for bringing Dragonscale into their home and has a mental breakdown, turning into a cartoon villain with swirling crazy eyes.Īs the disease worsens, society starts to break down, and vigilantes attack the sick. She and her husband Jakob swore a suicide pact in case they ever caught the disease, but suddenly Harper realizes that she wants to live - if only long enough to give birth to the baby she’s carrying. Harper Grayson, a tough but dedicated nurse, cared for hundreds of plague victims until her hospital burned down. First, the highly contagious disease marks its victims with striking black-and-gold patterns - and then they BURST INTO FLAMES. We’re big fans of plagues and dystopians around here, so imagine our excitement when we heard about The Fireman, which combines elements of both and adds a splash of spontaneous human combustion! (This book also appeared in our Winter/Spring 2016 fiction preview, if you’re looking for more new books to add to your list.)Ī horrifying plague known as “Dragonscale” is spreading across the United States like, er, wildfire.

The fireman book review