Title NOS4A2 Series --- Author Joe Hill Cover Art --- Publisher William Morrow - 2013 First Printing William Morrow - 2013 Category Horror Warnings Rape, torture, etc Main Characters Victoria "Vic" McQueen, Charles Talent Manx, Bruce Wayne Carmody, Bing Partridge Main Elements Demonic cars

NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

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.

The car, it's all about the car. Charlie is creepy sure, but he's really an idiot, in fact it was often mentioned that he was dumb. He's a pawn, a puppet, but the car! Now that was sleek and dangerous and evil. I mean one is given the impression that Charlie and the car are one, and that Charlie controls it, but I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. The car sucked out his soul and made him a servant to it's whims. Read this book for the car.

Do not read this book for the vampires. I mean sure, it is a kind of psychic vampirism, a kind of soul sucking, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to call the Wraith a vampire, not unless you want to push the limits of the term. But the license plate is still cool, in fact when Charlie was in jail and Bing got the license plates to hold onto for a while, then later when the plates were restored, those were kind of dramatic key moments.

The idea behind the story was interesting too, the idea that some people have access to this kind of alternate, internal "inscape" of the world that can only be visited through thought and with the use of some kind of tool, whether it be a car, a bicycle, or Scrabble tiles. In Charlie Manx mind, this is where Christmasland exists, a place where children have no concerns, no sadness, only complete an utter freedom (including freedom from morals and any other restrictions society may put on us, where if it happens to cross your mind that poking out someone's eye might be fun, or pulling legs off an ant, or wings off a butterfly, well, go do it, after all, it's about having fun! In a way this is really about the horror of completely unrestrained feral children, and children like to destroy things).

When I read the first few chapters I was tempted to stop. First, it was kind of creepy, and I'm not a huge fan of horror, but the idea of pedophilia was a real turn off...but that's not what Charlie is. He never physically molests the child, in fact he never physically hurts them, he honestly believes he is saving them from a horrible life in our world, bringing them to a place where it is Christmas every day, hot chocolate, candy canes and presents. But then he's had his brain mangled by the Wraith so can't see the monsters that these children turn into, only sees that they are always happy, and never sad. He's quite happy to torture adults however, especially if they try to stop him from his higher calling.

And I may never listen to Christmas carols in the same way.

As the story went along I got more and more involved with these characters. Where Hill's father (Stephen King) has a tendency of making books that can drag, where you could cut out a third of it and not feel like you missed anything (I'm thinking the Stand here, even the Gunslinger), I didn't really feel that there was any filler in this massive nearly 700 page hardcover. It was also a quick read, where I would normally get through 50 pages I could read 100.

I'm not sure if I want to watch the TV series that was made based on this book, some things are better left to the imagination, but actually seeing the Wraith driving around? Maybe I'll watch a couple episodes if I ever comes on cable.

And ugh...the teeth falling out bits...I have recurring nightmares of that (minus the hook teeth that grow in afterwards).