Horror readers will know what I’m talking about here. Ever read a book that brings you back to the beginning, when you were first dedicating hours at a time to one book and letting it seep into your regular life like a cloying, sickly sweet incense?

Yeah. This book did that for me. It reminded me why I started reading horror in the first place, and brought me back to childhood, when I could more easily suspend disbelief and let a monster rampage through my mind like a mad horseman.

Book Description

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.

My Rating

This book.

This author.

I can’t even.

Reading this book transported me back to being a dangerously precocious preteen with a penchant for scaring myself. I can’t escape the comparison: Joe Hill’s writing reminds me of IT-era Stephen King. It’s deep, unsettling, and garish – everything I want in a horror book.

A lot of writers can’t pull off what Hill has done here. He made me believe in a girl who could ride across a magic bridge to find anything, and a twisted Santa caricature who kidnaps children and changes them into monsters who revel in a dark Yuletide amusement park for eternity.

I devoured this book. I loved everything about it. There was no mushy middle, no slow point, no reason to put it down.

I give this book ALL THE STARS. If you like horror, RUN to get this book. You won’t regret it.

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Want more reviews? Check out all the other books I’ve reviewed in the last three years on my book review master list.