The spine-tingling, bone-chilling novel of supernatural suspense from the #1 New York Times bestselling 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 … 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.
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Finished this book yesterday. Let me just say that I really enjoyed this book. I needed a good 24 hours to think of how I to write down my review. I can’t stop thinking how good this book is. The writing is amazing I really thought this book was going one way and nope. This book i very unpredictable. You don[‘t see the twists coming. The narrator did amazing job with all the different characters. There is not one bad thing I can say about this book. I did love the riddles in the book. Had me laughing out loud and I mean loud.
Highly recommend this book.
About Book-
Victoria is a young girl when she sees and goes through the bridge. Where when something is lost she goes back and finds it.
Charlie Manx is old man who takes children in his old classic car. To a place he has called Christmas town. When these two come in contact with each other. It doesn’t go well. Don’t want to give to much into it. In this review because it that kinda book. The less you know. There are some triggers like rape and kidnapping and cuss words, But over all a great book.
Amazing writer and creative story! I really enjoyed getting into the intricacies of each of the characters and stuff and aerator did a terrific job. The twists and turns in the story show what a great writer the author is and prove that the television version will be around for a long time. Definitely recommend this to anyone who likes Dark, twisted and fantastic stories.
This was the first book I read by Joe Hill and I was impressed! He has established himself apart from his famous father and written a haunting story that you will think about long after you have finished the book!
I loved this book, Mr. Hill (wink) your Dad would be proud to have a chip off the block
Main character is one of the best-written female protagonists I’ve ever encountered; stakes are personal but high, and the rules and limitations of the supernatural aspects are super interesting and well done.
Joe Hill is definitely his father’s son. Very talented.
I stayed up to finish this book. Loved the craft. (Dare I say the author’s even better than his dad?)
Best book I think I have ever read
A wonderful creepy read by an author who has grown with every book.
WOW! What a great, twisted, fun, disturbing, story!! I loved it! It isn’t for the faint hearted, but those of you that like weird and disturbing…… you’ll love this!
This is a hard book to review because I feel like the story was everywhere. It was like 5 books in one. I would give the Language 5 stars. But the plot meandered and I had to put down the book more than a few times because I got bored. Also I love Joe Hill’s characterization.
Very very GOOD !!!
Fantastic book
WOW! NOS4A2 was quite the ride.
Unexpected. This was the first of Joe Hill I read and all I can say is it was a great start.
I feel like I am WAY behind the ball on finding Joe Hill. As you all know, I am an audio book junkie. One day, I hopped out to Audible to find something new to listen to and one of my recommendations was a book titled NOS4A2. My first thought was clever title (for those who are somehow missing it, it’s a license plate representation of the word nosferatu). Well, as a long time lover of vampire fiction, I couldn’t not grab it.
Weeks went by with it sitting in my library. At the time, I was wrapping up listening to a series I had been hooked on and when I was done, something else I was waiting on had come out, and NOS4A2 got pushed to the back of the line yet again.
Then I got an email. River Run Book Store in Portsmouth NH was having an in-store event with author Joe Hill. There it was, NOS4A2, staring back at me again. I bought a pair of tickets and a few weeks later, my friend Jessilyn and I made the road trip to meet this Joe Hill.
At the time of buying the tickets, I didn’t know this, but Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. Yes, that Stephen King. You know, the author I WORSHIP as a writer. So, yes, cool, but he wasn’t Stephen himself.
At the time, I was also listening to the audio book for Doctor Sleep, the 36-years-coming sequel to The Shining. Imagine my surprise when I went to the meet-n-greet/signing with Joe Hill to hear things I was familiar with – Charlie Manx and Christmasland among them. Turns out, there are some tie-ins between Doctor Sleep and NOS4A2.
That was it. With how much I loved Doctor Sleep, I had to read this book. I got a copy of NOS4A2 signed and got to meet Joe. He was super nice and funny as hell. As an added bonus, I also got to meet Christopher Golden that night, an author I have been a fan of for YEARS. We sang fucked up Christmas carols (you have no idea….) and did a lot of laughing. It was a pretty incredible night and a memory which will always make me smile.
So, I started listening to NOS4A2 the next day at work….and I was blown away.
What I Liked:
OMG, I dont even know where to start. As I said, Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son, and apparently, that is a gene pool to be ENVIED. Although his style is a little different than his father’s, you can definitely feel the influence. Even with how dark the majority of SK’s body of work is, Joe has got him beat, I think. Joe Hill has a seriously twisted imagination and I think I might be a little bit in love.
NOS4A2 is a super-duper creepy story, a story which will, at times, leave you with a serious case of goosebumps. It’s been a long time since I have read a character I was genuinely afraid of, and Charlie Manx is a dude I would not want living in our world.
He’s……he’s…….omg, I cant even think of a word with the power to properly convey just what a fucked up package of psychopathy goodness Charlie Manx is. Trust me, if you like dark fantasy and have a thing for really well-written villains, NOS4A2 is for you.
The story itself is a work of art. It’s well-woven and never moves slowly. I did something with this book which I almost never do. I read some of the reviews before reading it, both good and bad. I have to say, I respectfully disagree with all the folks out there who claimed it was slow or got weird too fast, and I have to believe you’re probably attempting to read the book while your head is firmly implanted up your ass because that is the only logical explanation for why one would think those things about this book. Does it get weird early? Yes, and it’s shocking because it’s not like every other book on the market. NOS4A2 doesn’t make you sit through eighteen chapters of world building before something exciting happens. You get a small glimpse of the normal and then you’re violently shoved into the world of the not-so-normal. I fucking loved it.
What I Didn’t Like:
Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Absofuckinlutely nothing. This book is brilliant from cover to cover.
Who I Would Recommend It To:
EVERYONE. lol If you’re a fan of DARK sci-fi/fantasy, paranormal anything, and/or horror, you MUST read NOS4A2. It’s flawlessly written, creepy as hell, and kind of leaves you wanting more.
Now that I have had a taste of his writing ability, I cant wait to read more Joe Hill titles. I just may have found a new favorite author.
loved this book!! great writing, excellent characters, very scary concept, could not put this one down
This story and its cast of unforgettable characters will keep you reading well into a few scary nights. No surprise it is being adapted for the streaming audience
I’m a big fan of this author. His works are thoughtfully written and page turners for sure!!!
This book was actually really good. I wasn’t sure if I would like it. Joe Hill is Steven King’s son, and that family has a history of strange – and scary – books. I read “Horns” by Joe Hill and found it quite disturbing, but mildly humorous, so I decided to give him another go.
I wasn’t disappointed. I thought the book was well written and ended well. (A problem that his dad has with his books). The book is about a vampire names Charles Manx (although the vamp never really admits it) who kidnaps children who he thinks have an unhappy life and takes them to a place called “Christmas Land”. He usually kills their parents, whom he thinks are unfit to be parents. He is, of course, a wacko and a serial killer. NOS4A2 is his license plate and it stands for Nosferatu, which is Romania for Vampire.
Along comes the main character, Vic. Her story starts when she is a young girl and she finds that when something is lost, a bridge appears, and she can cross it and find what is missing. The bridge will take her anywhere in the country the “lost” object is. And this is how she comes to cross paths with Charles Manx. Charles spends he life trying to track her down, and Vic spends her life trying to run from what she believes was a terrible hallucination (the bridge and the man).
Vic falls in love, has a child, and the story comes full circle. I do recommend it, if you can stand the books length. I don’t think it was long winded. It truly needed all 686 pages to tell the story. Check it out.