Nothing going on in the first 100 pages or so that makes me want to continue reading.
I was getting bogged down in another book and needed a break. So I turned to this, a horror tale written by a son of Stephen King. It was kinduva cool, weird tale of a girl, Victoria (Vic) who can ride her bike across a certain bridge to find whatever she's looking for. But then there's an evil guy named Charlie Manx who has his own magical ride (a Rolls Royce Wraith with the license plate NOS4A2) that takes him to his nightmarish vision of Christmasland. Manx also kidnaps children to bring them to Christmasland and occasionally murders their parents. Lovely, right? Well these two cross paths and after a close call, their fates are intertwined. For a 700+ page book, this one reads pretty fast. I think I took about two weeks on it. It was fun to delve into horror again. (By the way, in case you didn't already know, NOS4A2 = Nosferatu, the German equivalent of vampire.)
It feels like I'm the last person to find out Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. In the acknowledgements he talks about riding motorcycles with his dad.
“It was a happy ride, following him along his back roads in the sun on my shoulders. I guess I have been cruising his back roads my whole life. I don't regret it.”
He does the old man proud too. Great characterization (which does comes at the cost of a hefty page count.) Still, I loved NOS4A2. I'm relatively new to literary horror and protagonist Victoria MacQueen's first meeting with Charlie Manx is deliciously chilling. It gets increasingly savage and brutal from there - author Joe Hill is relentless and Vic should be by rights clinically insane or dead halfway through the book.
It's a reimagining of the vampire myth, featuring an ass-kicking librarian with psychic Scrabble tiles, a time and space travelling Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, a kid named Bruce Wayne and lots of nerd love throughout.
Do yourself a favor and check out the audiobook. Kate Mulgrew narrates and absolutely kills it. She is pitch perfect and it's even more chilling in the telling.
Ah, the age old struggle, to find a horror novel that will deliver chills and a smidgen of hope after battling the darkness vs one that mostly just repels and depresses you. This one had its moments, particularly building emotional relationships, but considering the length - the pacing - the non-awful bits were too few and far between. Probably best to consider this not my type of horror, even with the unique fantastical elements.
⚠️racism, fatphobia, ableism, ageism, misogyny, domestic partner abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, SA, self harm, drug addiction
Really well done horror story. definitely worth reading if you are into the genre.
I was expecting to enjoy this book but not as much as I did. It was thrilling, sad, painful, and one that was hard to put down. This was also one of the few books where I had an actual physical response to something I read. Wonderful!
5 ⭐️s
I honestly loved this book. As a mom, I can say this played strongly on my fears of my child being stolen from me. I know I would go to hell and back to get him and keep him safe, but would I have the capabilities? I really loved the descriptive writing, the way Hill slowly builds up the suspense and makes the reader worry for the protagonists. I liked the characters, especially Lou. It got me in the feels a lot, especially in the end. I knew it couldn’t be a sunshine and rainbow ending, but still… 😢