It Sucked the Energy Right Out of Me!

TITLE: NOS4A2
AUTHOR: Joe Hill
PUBLISHER: William Morrow
PUBLISHING DATE: April 30, 2013

FROM GOODREADS: 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. 

MY THOUGHTS: I'm pretty sure everyone has either heard about this book or read it, especially since AMC has recently released the tv series.  I have wanted to read it forever and even preordered a hardback when it was first announced.  However, I grabbed a mass market paperback a few months ago knowing I could lug it around better and hoping it would motivate me to finally read it.  And I guess it did.  Even though it took me 2 months to finish, it wasn't because I didn't enjoy the book.  I just had other reading commitments get in the way. 

As a child Vic McQueen found a way to travel within space to find lost things - a bracelet, a cat, and in the end, her sanity.  Along the path, she runs into Charlie Manx.  Manx also uses these endscapes to travel around in his Rolls Royce Wraith, but in order to do so, he needs children.  They can provide energy for him and in return, he takes the little monsters to a place called "Christmasland" where they can experience Christmas every day.

This is not the first Hill book I read and like the others, I really enjoyed it.  However, I found "NOS4A2" to read much like a Stephen King book and was actually surprised at all of the King references.  Especially since Hill has made it a point not to write under the King name.  The book spans quite a timeline and we see Vic as a child and also as a messed up adult with a family of her own.  I really liked Wayne, her son, and Lou his father - almost more than Vic herself.  Their parts in the book were some of my favorites.

My main issue with the book is that as a reader, we really don't get a big taste of Christmasland.  It isn't until the end that we arrive at the magical/terrifying destination and while Hill paints a wonderfully disturbing picture, I would have liked to see more of it.  Also, for an extremely long book, I think the ending was a tad rushed.  For those who have read it, you might understand the part I am referencing.  But overall  I am pleased with how the ending played out and am glad I to finally put Charlie Manx to rest.

RATING: 4 PAWS