NOS4A2 by Joe Hill on April 30, 2013
Genres: Fiction / Horror, Fiction / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Supernatural
Pages: 720
Format: Hardcover
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“Already, though, she understood the difference between being a child and being an adult. The difference is when someone says he can keep the bad things away, a child believes him.”
Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.
Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”
Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.
This book kept me up at night! What a bone chilling thriller. I felt as if I needed to sleep with the light on. Very creepy and a very interesting concept. The characters were great, whether good or bad. The novel kept me engaged the whole time and even though the concept easily could’ve turned ridiculous Hill managed to keep it creepy. Everything that Charles Manx was doing, I can’t even explain the anxiety and anger I felt, especially when the book was at its climax in the end. I really enjoyed the supernatural vibe Hill struck where it felt like something that could exist in real life also because it isn’t so ridiculous that some people may have a hidden gift like that.
I gave this a 4.5 star-rating. While the book clocks in at nearly 700 pages, it reads quickly and keeps your interest from the first page. Admittedly, it does feel unnecessarily long at times and by the halfway point you have a pretty good idea how it will all end up, but the journey is still exciting and never feels like a waste of time.