MashReads Podcast: Can Joe Hill's horror books stand out from his father's works?

What happens when the master of horror's son follows in his footsteps?

Joe Hill's writing career is nothing new; his first book, 20th Century Ghosts, was published in 2005. But the son of Stephen King has still had to constantly try and escape from the shadow of his father's legacy. Especially, since his books bear a striking similarity to many of King's dark, twisted novels.

We here at the MashReads Podcast look into this comparison as we discuss some of Hill's new novella collection Strange Weather on this week's episode.

We specifically read and discuss the first novella in the collection, "Snapshot," in which a young, outcast boy becomes entangled with a mysterious stranger, his even more mysterious camera, and their bizarre, horrifying connection to a neighbor who seems to be losing her mind.

In the episode, we comb through the world, the language, and the plot of Hill's story and how it compares and contrasts to those of his father's.

Then we discuss the stories and books that scared us the most as children. Though we're no psychologists, we sure tried to get at the root of some deep-seated childhood fears, and, so far, we haven't charged each other for the session.

MJ urged people interested in the plot of "Snapshot" to check out the lauded short story by George Saunders "Victory Lap."

During the podcast, we also learned of the very sad death of author Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the The Earthsea Trilogy and The Left Hand of Darkness. We discussed her tremendous two-page short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" early last year on this podcast. Her talent will be very missed and we are lucky to have the impactful books she left behind.

As always, we close the show with recommendations:

• Martha says she's "obsessed" with a new song by Troye Sivan called "My My My!" and has been listening to Tinashe's "No Drama." Her recommendation unfortunately sparked a debate over whether Tinashe can put out "bangers." MJ is unconvinced that she can. You be the judge.

• Peter recommends a new band that he's discovered and can't think of anyone to recommend it to. Their name is Super Whatevr and they have a new album released last week called Never Nothing. It's really good, but you probably won't listen to it.

• MJ recommends Ólafur Arnalds' recent Facebook post about the composer's favorite cue from his score for Philip K. Dick's "Electric Dreams." MJ also gushed over Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet's throwback high school rap video about statistics. On top of that, we all continue to recommend that you see Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name.

Please join us next week for a discussion of Chloe Benjamin's new and spectacular novel The Immortalists.

And if you're looking for even more book news, don't forget to follow MashReads on Facebook and Twitter.