NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

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NOS4A2 by Joe Hill


                Vic McQueen was good at finding things with her Raleigh Tuff Burner, the bike she was given for her eighth birthday. All she had to do was ride across the Shorter Way Bridge and it would take her exactly where she needed to go. Like when her mom couldn’t find her bracelet, the Shorter Way Bridge took Vic from Haverhill, Massachusetts to New Hampshire in minutes to the diner where she left it. Or when her friends doll went missing, the Shorter Way Bridge took her exactly to where she needed to be to find the doll. For years the Shorter Way Bridge took here where she needed to go to find things. So when Vic went looking for trouble after an argument with her mother, she found Charlie Manx. Manx had a 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith with a license plate that spelled NOS4A2. His car was able to bridge gaps too. His car would bring him, and the children he “rescued” to Christmasland where the only thing that existed was fun. But those kids would never return home. They would stay with the other children in Christmasland. Vic would survive her encounter with Manx but just barely. Their meeting would haunt both of them though for the rest of their lives.
                I am pleased. I picked up this book after seeing some great reviews and after finding out that Joe Hill was Stephen King’s son. Of course I had to read it. Could Joe Hill possess even a smidgen of his father’s brilliance? Yes he can and he does. This book was great. Vic is a character that you try to understand and root for even if she does some things that make you want to scream. I loved her because she knew she was imperfect and she called herself out on those imperfections. She had been in a mental institution and was convinced that all of these trips she took on The Shorter Way Bridge were just the works of her vivid imagination and it caused her to battle with her reality. Manx, on the other hand, was a great villain. He was easy to hate, easy to root against, corrupt, vile and set on revenge. It was collision that I couldn’t wait to happen.

                Joe Hill created a novel that swept me away into this land where some people can bridge the gap between our world and their inscape, the world within their own head. NOS4A2 was highly imaginative with just the right touch of horror, mystery, suspense and humor. What really threw me over the edge and made me love this novel even more was the fact that Hill consciously merged it into the same universe as his father. Stephen King has stated that all of his novels come from the same universe. Well I guess Hill lives in that universe as well because he definitely mentioned Shawshank, Derry and Pennywise which are all subjects highly significant in the Stephen King universe. This novel stands on its own BUT that one touch of King, promises so much more and just makes me excited for the things to come from Hill. I highly recommend this novel and give it 5 out of 5 stars. 

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