Review: NOS4A2
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4 stars. Well, well, well. Not bad, Joe Hill! Not bad at all. This was truly exciting, creative and engaging, a delightfully twisted adventure featuring the saturated writing style he clearly inherited. Of course I went into this with an open mind, but you know I couldn't help but compare - and I'm happy to report that Mr. Hill completely and totally lives up to his dad's legacy. It's exciting!
NOS4A2 is a sprawling epic focused on a truly likable fuck-up named Victoria McQueen and her pseudo-nemesis, a monster named Charles Talent Manx. Vic and Mr. Manx have something in common: a special talent for navigating inscapes - essentially, manipulating the world, traveling between dimensions, finding things, etc. Vic uses her special powers for good, and, naturally, Mr. Manx does not. He kidnaps children and take them to Christmasland, a truly evil place where Vic must travel - years after her first encounter with Manx - to save her own son and her own soul.
There's something really tasty about taking Christmas - an event that most of us associate with good vibes only - and making it super dark and sinister. The smell of gingerbread? Toxic. The sound of Christmas music fills us with foreboding and fear. Snowmen are creepy and malevolent. Ornaments become emblems of danger and death. It's trippy and upside-down-ish and pretty genius as a premise.
The characters, too: Mr. Manx and his disgusting henchman Bing make quite a villainous pair. I loved hearing them play off each other, I loved sinking into Bing's truly grotesque headspace, and I loved Mr. Manx's jolly attitude. And Vic McQueen, man, she's so imperfect, she's so normal and she suffers and she screws up but she tries - she has nothing but good intentions. I loved that she, her parents, and Lou were all like that. They made mistakes. And they were still heroes. I'd want Vic as my badass, motorcycle-driving savior any day.
I do have a couple of observations leaning more towards criticism - first, 'twas a bit long! I feel almost ridiculous saying that about a King-adjacent novel but the plot could've used some editing. The cat-and-mouse game went back and forth maybe too many times for my taste. And Hill can't quite seem to capture being a kid as well as his dad, but hey, his dad is literally the best at that. So to come close is a huge accomplishment.
This also didn't quite go as savage as I expected, the blade wasn't sharp enough for me. I wasn't truly unsettled or disturbed at any point, although the descriptions of the pain behind Vic's left eye made me cringe. I don't know why I want things to be truly horrifying, I just do. And I saw a lot of unrealized potential here. Bing is the worst, that's for sure, and the goblin children are also ... yes, very appropriate for a horror novel, but I wanted something more extreme.
This took me a while to get through, but it was very rewarding. And FUN. Joe Hill has accomplished something extraordinary here - something truly entertaining. I completely applaud his creativity and his ability to write. I look forward to reading more from him and AMC's adaptation as well. I have a feeling this is going to be - if not already - considered a classic.