STARRED Book Review: Strings by Joseph Edwin Haeger

Reviewed by Lauren Hayataka

An intricately woven exploration of one man’s journey through the splintered possibilities of fatherhood

Fatherhood is redefined through speculative glimpses of love, fear, and uncertain futures in Joseph Edwin Haeger’s Strings. In the aftermath of an explosion, William, our protagonist, is consumed by an overwhelming fear for his unborn child, a fear that unravels his mind across three distinct narratives.

This literary work offers more than just speculative fiction—it provides a raw glimpse into the essence of parenthood and the existential dread of shaping another human life.

At its core, Strings poses a harrowing question: Should I bring a child into this world? Throughout the novel, William’s life splinters into various versions of himself—William, Will, Bill, and Billy—each navigating distinct circumstances yet all bound by the same sense of helplessness.

In BEGIN, William is an English teacher with a reserved, analytical mind, grappling with the end of his marriage to his pregnant wife, Mandy, while obsessing over the nurture-versus-nature debate.

In MORNING, Will works at a fast-food joint called Taco Taco, struggling with sleepless nights and a deteriorating relationship with his wife Julie, while trying to manage the overwhelming responsibility of caring for their baby Celia.

In AFTERNOON, Bill, a data input supervisor, faces the disintegration of his long marriage to Kim and a widening gap with his teenage son Sam, all while fearing mysterious energy-draining orbs that hover in the background of this speculative world.

And in EVENING, Billy and his partner Charlie are struggling to survive the end of the world. Living in poverty, they’ve never had a child, being too young and uncertain, but now they grapple with whether they should have considered it, even as the world collapses around them.

Haeger carefully explores how, despite his life’s vastly different paths, William remains trapped by his internal flaws, particularly his inability to understand his partners—Mandy, Julie, Kim, and Charlie. Each relationship becomes strained as William fails to fully connect with them, leaving him isolated in his anxieties about fatherhood. His desire to mold his child’s future reflects a sense of nurturing and his attempt to quell his fears of powerlessness and loss of control.

Haeger’s prose is sharp and evocative, capturing the quiet despair of each character’s internal struggle. The novel’s structure, broken into three speculative novellas, mirrors the fragmentation of William’s psyche, as each narrative offers a glimpse into alternate realities where William is forced to confront his deepest fears.

From the peeling yellow paint that haunts Will’s home in MORNING to the sci-fi touches like the orbs in AFTERNOON, Haeger effectively weaves speculative elements into the story, blurring the lines between reality and William’s growing sense of dread.

Strings is about the thankless sacrifice that comes with parenthood. This is a concept that weighs heavily on William in all his forms—each version of himself grapples with the notion that children will always take more than they give back. And yet, despite the fear and uncertainty, despite the heartbreak that inevitably comes with bringing a new life into the world, William’s love for his child is the one constant across every reality. It’s a love that transcends the narrative and consumes and defines him, even as he struggles to reconcile it with his own sense of self.

Haeger’s portrayal of William’s fragmented realities offers readers a glimpse into the universal fear of parenthood—the fear of failing, of losing control, of not being enough. And yet, within this fear lies a quiet hope, a recognition that, while we may not be able to control the world around us, we can still choose to love fiercely, even when the future remains uncertain.

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