NOS4A2

A Novel

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew

Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The spine-tingling, bone-chilling novel of supernatural suspense from the number one New York Times best-selling author of The Fireman and Horns - now an AMC original series starring Zachary Quinto, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Ashleigh Cummings.

"A masterwork of horror." (Time)

Victoria McQueen has an uncanny knack for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. When she rides her bicycle over the rickety old covered bridge in the woods near her house, she always emerges in the places she needs to be.

Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own. He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland.

The journey across the highway of Charlie's twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor.

Then comes the day when Vic goes looking for trouble...and finds her way to Charlie. That was a lifetime ago. Now, the only kid ever to escape Charlie's evil is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx hasn't stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. On the road again, he won't slow down until he's taken his revenge. He's after something very special - something Vic can never replace.

As a life-and-death battle of wills builds, Vic McQueen prepares to destroy Charlie once and for all - or die trying.

©2013 Joe Hill (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Quite simply the best horror writer of our generation, Joe Hill’s masterful storytelling is on full display in NOS4A2. It is by turns terrifying and hilarious, horrifying and full of heart, and relentlessly compelling." (Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of The Prophet)

"Fascinating and utterly engaging, this novel is sure to leave readers wanting more. One thing is for certain, however. After reading this book, readers will never hear Christmas carols in quite the same way again." ( Library Journal, starred review)

"[A] new take on the fantasy-horror genre...Highly recommended." ( The Sun Herald Sydney, Australia)

Destined to become a classic

Joe Hill is back, delivering another supernatural thriller of epic proportions. According to Hill, everyone exists in two worlds - the physical world and the "inscape." The inscape is the world of the mind that we all create, and this story is about the few rare individuals who can merge their inscapes with the physical world.

The main character is Victoria "Vic" McQueen, also known as the brat. We first meet Vic when she is 8, and Vic is a finder. She rides her bicycle across a dilapidated, non-existent covered bridge of her inscape, and comes out at a point where she needs to be in order to find some lost or misplaced item. Vic's nemesis is Charles Manx, a 140 year old man who "saves" children by taking them to his inscape, a kind of amusement park known as Christmasland, where the children never grow old and never die. Helping Vic is Maggie Leigh, a librarian in Iowa who can predict the future by reading scrabble tiles. And helping Manx is his chief elf, Bing Partridge, who is physically an adult but mentally a child. Bing can not access his inscape, but instead helps Manx tie up "loose ends," which are usually the parents of Manx's kidnap victims.

The merging of the two worlds has a price for all of those able to accomplish the feat. For Vic, it is a searing pain behind her left eye which gets worse the longer she stays and usually requires bed rest when she returns to the real world. For Maggie, the more she uses her scrabble tiles the worse her stutter gets. And for Manx, who has been doing this the longest, it has cost him his very soul. Also, each person needs a tool in order to punch through the real world to get to their inscape. Vic uses her bicycle (and later a Triumph motorcycle), Maggie uses a bottomless bag holding her scrabble tiles, and Manx uses a 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. Nosferatu was a legendary German vampire, and Manx is a different type of vampire who instead of sucking blood, sucked the souls of the children while he drove them to Christmasland.

Each of the characters is shown as a mixture of good and evil, which I feel mirrors the real world. Vic is predominantly a good person, but is terribly flawed. She was a rebellious teen who became mentally unhinged after she became a mother, and constantly fought to maintain her sanity. Manx, for all the evil he represented, actually believed he was doing the children a favor by sparing them a life of poverty and abuse and making every day Christmas, which is usually a child's happiest time.

It was Vic's testimony that caused Manx to be arrested and incarcerated, spending more than a decade in a Colorado jail. When he is miraculously resurrected, he vows revenge against Vic and decides to take her 12 year old son Wayne to Christmasland. This sets the stage for the final confrontation between Vic and Manx with Wayne's soul as the prize for the victor.

I thought this was a very well written book and brought up some interesting points, especially the fact of spending time in our inscapes. The only negative I can note is that it seemed a bit long winded. Other than that, it was a top notch horror novel and cements Joe Hill as among the best in this genre. I can honestly say that I will never listen to Christmas music the same way as I did before I read this book.

Kate Mulgrew's performance was absolutely spectacular. She presented Charles Manx with one of the creepiest voices I have ever heard, and she captured the innocence and naivete of the children. Bing Partridge is also well done and projects the image of the somewhat retarded man he was, and Lou comes across as the big-hearted loveable man he was. All of her voices were simply magnificent and added greatly to my enjoyment of this book.

Enjoyed it BUT

Enjoyed this book in its whole but will say that it's so long winded and repetitive which gets old fast.

Not in his dad's shadow

What made the experience of listening to NOS4A2 the most enjoyable?

The fact that while the genre tends to be in the same ball field as his dad they tend to be playing diffent games in the metaphorical sense. I love that while some aspect seemed to be taking you along the course you thought you were gonna go, suddenly you go around a corner and whoops we weren't where you thought you were gonna be at all. NOS4A2 had an essence of innocense fractured, lost and refound even if slightly damaged that I found enchanting in a bloody mess sort of way; frankly isn't that the best kind. It is after all the basis of most childhood nightmares. This is those childhood nightmares all dressed up and brought out for the grown folks. After all what is a parents worse fear after all? Not being able to save their child from that monster that wants to take them away never to be seen again. What nightmares erupt from not knowing where those children go? Ok enough kiddies, want more buy it lol.

What other book might you compare NOS4A2 to and why?

WOW, really I can't say that I would want to compare it to any other book. It has similar componants to alot of differnt stories in one way or another; but not enough to say it is comparable. Joe Hill has done a wonderful job of putting a story out there that stands alone on it's many little feet.

Which character – as performed by Kate Mulgrew – was your favorite?

Vic, I understand that character on alot of levels as I am a mother as well and went through a situation where my child was lost to me for a time. Joe Hill hit that nail on the head far closer than he could ever realize it unless they were unfortunate to have gone through something like that himself.

Who was the most memorable character of NOS4A2 and why?

Vic, Lou, Manx, Bing.............those are probably the 4 most memorable.

Any additional comments?

Not sure I like the relationship that develops toward the end. Don't want to ruin anything for anyone that may not have read this yet. If you haven't though you really should! Today!

Modern day adult Grimm's fairy tale!

The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star is that I several times stopped listening to do other things and really didn't want to come back to it. The supernatural just isn't my cup of tea and I didn't care much how it ended. That said, Kate Mulgrew's performance was so outstanding that I did keep coming back to it and she got me through it. The story was good, I guess, for the subject matter. Well written but even better performed.

Joe Hill is the new King of Horror.

Very few novels get a second read from me. (or a second listen).

Even fewer get a third, or a fourth. I'm on my fifth listen of this story.

I wish I could put into words the ways that this book exceeded any expectations I've got in a horror book, but I can't. The best thing I can tell you is that I wish I could find more books of this calibre; not only in terror and darkness, but in storytelling style. The pacing is perfect, the writing is perfectly balanced between description and action, enough backstory to fill you in, but not so much that you lose track. The scares are sometimes expected, and sometimes come out of the blue. Hill hints at things to come, but still leaves you worrying.

I can not praise this book, and this narration enough!

The narration is above and beyond anything else I've heard on Audible! I hope that Ms. Mulgrew does more horror stuff; she makes the bad guy so slitheringly vile, and creates a heroine who is empowered and broken at the same time.

If you're still reading this review - here's some qualifiers, (I always wonder if this reviewer has the same tastes?).

I love pop-horror. My other five-star books from Audible include authors like Christopher Moore, David Wong and Chuck Palahniuk. Quirky odd stuff that's contemporary. This novel is probably one of my all-time favorite books; up there with It and The Stand.

If you're STILL reading this review, debating whether to get this book, why? Why are you waiting?

Horrible Narrator

I did not enjoy the narrator at all. It almost made me give up on the entire story. It was a strain to listen to her portray the various characters. The story itself was entertaining but would've been much better with a different narrator. It was very unique and I have enjoyed many of Joe Hills's stories. I can tell there is a lot of similarities in his writing style and his father's, Stephen King. They are both very descriptive in their weaving of a tale. This would probably have been a much better "read" than as an audio.

Highly Recommend!

The story was amazing and the performance by Kate Mulgrew was phenomenal! Truly creepy fun!

Christine Arrives In Salem's Lot On Christmas

Excellent all around. A classic in the making. Kate Mulgrew's narration is fantastic. I'm very excited to read more of Joe Hill, who is a unique and yet familiar storyteller. I am a big King fan, and appreciated all the references to his father's and Hill's own works.

Unique story

Good book. Intriguing, unique story. Wasn't as creepy/scary as I expected, which was disappointing. But still, it kept me interested enough. Loved the ending, which was not the way I thought it was going.

If you like Stephen King you’ll love this.

Terrific narration. You won’t be disappointed. Very good descriptions...you’ll be in Christmas Land with the characters.