NOS4A2: A Novel

I downloaded this having read some reviews in papers and on Amazon. I guess some reviewers scare more easily than me. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good story and well written (although not quite with the flair of the author's father IMHO), but I think more could, and perhaps should, have been made of the "bad guys" in the tale. Whilst the ideas behind those characters was sound, I just didn't feel they were developed enough (or their actions/crimes) to go down as horror classics, and certainly won't be keeping me awake at night like Barlow and Straker. I was only going to give this book a four star rating as I felt that that the ending was a little weak, or even rushed (an opinion I've sometimes had of the author's father's books), until I read the final couple of pages after the acknowledgement section - Good save Mr. Hill! On a separate note, it is clear from the writing style that Joe Hill has learned a great deal of his craft from his father (Stephen King for those who weren't aware), but doesn't yet have the literary polish of the "Old Man" (very few do). I will have to read some of his more recent works to see how he develops as a writer. In summary then, this is a good story with a few artistic flaws that prevent it from being the horror classic that it could have been. I can't help thinking that this would have been a better (perhaps great or even classic) book if the idea had come to the author later in his career, once he had mastered his craft and developed as a writer.

As a huge fan of Stephen King I had no other choice than finally start reading the works of his son. I started the book without any expectations or making comparisons to the first and best works of King. First of all, Joe Hill definitely has the talent of his father, but writes his own story. Of course a self driving and thinking car does ring a bell, but the fantasy world in which the characters move and transport themselves is quite original. Hill makes the evil person also partly human, as he is convinced to do a good deed taking away children from deformed households and bringing them to his Christmasland, which changes the kids forever... Just read it, don't want to spoil to much of the content and story!

Imagine Neil Gaiman's “American Gods” combined with Clive Barker's “The Great and Secret Show” and that will give you an idea of the style of dark fantasy this is. Essentially it's a story about inner worlds brought into a space where others can experience them. Vic (our hero) learns she can find lost things. She allows her mind to drift while riding her bicycle and finds her way onto a bridge that will lead her to whatever she is looking for. One day she looks for trouble and find it in the shape of Charlie Manx. Manx is a very bad man, who believes he's a very good man. He abducts children and takes them to a special place called Christmasland, which exists in his head but can become real for the children he takes there. He drives a car, an old Rolls Royce, with the number place NOS 4R2. If you, like me, enjoy your horror with plenty of fantasy, this is a book I am sure you will love. It's one I am likely to return to again and again, as I do with American Gods and The Great and Secret Show.

NOS4R2 is a novel that does a few of my favourite things. We follow a heroine who’s a mother, but being a mother isn’t all she is – in fact because we get to know Vic McQueen long before she becomes a mother herself, we already have a sense of who she is – and she’s a mother who has to save her child from a villain she herself faced in her childhood. I love stories about parents trying to protect their children from the kinds of mistakes they made in their youth, especially in fantasy, so this book was always going to be up my street. As a child Vic had a bike that could take her anywhere she needed to go, often when she was looking for lost things. Charlie Manx and his 1938 Rolls Royce take children away to Christmasland, and it’s nowhere near as idyllic as it sounds. Then again, neither is Manx. When Vic goes looking for trouble, finds Manx and becomes the first child to ever escape from him, Manx returns years later to get his own back – by taking Vic’s son, Wayne, instead. I love Vic. She’s a messy and messed up human being, but that doesn’t stop her from being a character we want to see thrive or a character we can sympathise with. One of my favourite things about this book was that Hill doesn’t pretend that, after escaping Manx, Vic is perfectly fine and gets on with her life. Almost dying at the hands of someone who’s been stealing children for years isn’t the kind of thing anyone could simply get over, and Vic lives with what almost happened to her, and what did happen to her, for the rest of her life. Surviving something like this means surviving it every day afterwards, and Vic struggles – especially when there’s no one she can tell about her bike that could help her find things without ending up in a straitjacket. In fact there weren’t many characters I disliked. Obviously Manx and his assistant, Bing, aren’t the kind of people you’d like to meet in a dark alley, but they’re still characters that are understandable. I could have done without all the mentions of how Bing liked to sexually assault the mothers of the children Manx stole, but if I’m going to continue to read horror then sexual assault is something I’m probably going to have to get used to seeing. I loved the other characters, though, such as Lou and Wayne. I loved how much Wayne loved his parents, and how much he was like an adult in the body of a 12 year old and had to be to deal with the parents he had. Not because they’re bad people or even bad parents, but because both Vic and Lou are still dealing with old hurts that they haven’t been able to grow away from. His relationship with Vic and Lou was lovely, as was Vic and Lou’s relationship. I loved them as a little unit of three, and Lou was such a sweetheart. Much like everyone else he wasn’t perfect, but he was inherently good and exactly what Vic needed. I did start to get a little fru...

Rather than a review, I'm writing this as a letter to the author, knowing well it will most likely never be read. But maybe, just maybe the triumph will take him the shortaway to my thoughts and words. Maybe it'll be spelled out in Scrabble. Mr Hill, I'm not a fanatic or fanboy, that's just not my style. So I'm unaware of your life, your likes or dislikes. So forgive me or praise me as you will, as I don't know any better. And I'm about to compare you to your father. 5 star rating, so don't give up on me yet! Me: male, educated, 49, scientist in my own mind. I do not believe in anything I can't experience with my own senses or tools. This is why I love reading your father's work. And now yours as well. Yes, I'm one of those, I've read all of your fathers published works. I'm one that counts down the days waiting for my pre-order to finally arrive. Inbetween books, I find myself reading $3.99 or less hard sci-fi novels while I wait. When I read "Sleeping Beauties" I was introduced to your talents, but didn't know who wrote what. It took a while to sink in that this was a good thing. When that finally clicked, I knew I had to try one of your solo novels. My wife had read several, so I asked her for advice in choosing one. She instantly suggested NOS4A2. I told her I didn't want to read a vampire story, and all she said was, "it's a license plate, off an antique Rolls" and I was sold. I'm a car guy, through and through. They are my true passion. "From a Buick 8" and " Christine " are favorites, and I've always wished for more authors to turn automobiles into characters. This combines my two hobbies, cars and reading. So I had high hopes and expectations for this novel. I'm thrilled to say they were not only met, but exceeded. I couldn't put this one down. What an amazing mind you have. I mean this next statement as the highest compliment, and hope it is taken that way. You sir, have the same mind as your father, the same vocabulary and the same story telling ability. I'm some ways you exceed him. I don't recall any of his novels having as much humor, obvious and/or hidden. That's not a tick against him, but a feather in your cap that stands you apart. Since reading NOS4A2, I've now read two more. Your talent is growing and I'm excited now, for more of your works. I think it's now time that Hollywood take notice of your talent as well. "Christine" in my opinion is one of the most epic fictional "car movies" to date, right up there with the aforementioned, as well as "Bullit", but I believe "NOS4A2" could easily surpass Christine's cult following. It's not often that I read a book and think it should become a screenplay, as the silver screen rarely does a book justice. This one, however, is a natural for the screen. I can hear the engines' roar, smell the chalk of the gravel in the air, and feel the k...