The yellow sticker on the front claimed this would be the most terrifying book I will read this year. I tend to be terrified by more realistic tales, but I think NOS 4R2 is one of the most thrilling books I've read so far this year.
Imagine “American Gods” on a bad acid trip, or better still 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.
Vic's bridge and Manx's car are related. They are both tools to bring their inner worlds into the material world. There are others like them to. Others who have these “knives” to slice holes in reality. Some are good, others are bad.
Nobody believes Vic's bridge is real and after years of psychiatric care she isn't sure what is real either. This makes her vulnerable and provides a lot of the drama in the story. She hates herself. She thinks she is unworthy of love when she is anything but. She is a beautifully complex protagonist and Joe Hill is a genius to have created her.
Only one thing let the book down in my opinion and I'll discuss it beneath a spoiler warning. <spoiler> The end. I cannot understand why it took Lou, the father of Vic's son, so long to take the angels down. It seems to have taken months for him to decide to do what I would have expected him to do within 24 hours of getting out of hospital. It's probably a device to ensure the FBI agent is present, but it doesn't feel true. In the acknowledgements at the end Joe Hill says he changed the end. I wonder whether originally Wayne, Vic and Lou's son, had reconstructed Christmasland and become a new Charlie Manx. I prefer the end Hill chose, but wish the timeline had been tighter. </spoiler>.
Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. I previously read “The Fireman” another great read, and love the way he combines magic and dark elements of the real world. 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.
5/5 stars.Save
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