Book Review: NOS4R2 by Joe Hill

 

It seems that this is the most well-known work by Joe Hill. It tends to be the favorite for many of his fans, and the one which seems to come up the most.

I had read this book a long time ago. probably over a decade or so ago. Yet, I had decided to reread it late this year. And like with most books which I read again after many year, it was different. Unlike Horns, I remembered a lot more of this one. Yet, there were still a surprising number of things which I had largely forgotten.

However, it is more or less as I remember it for some things. Firstly, it is a horror book, and it does a good job at being scary. Also, it is well-written, which is a trademark of Joe Hill, as well as his family, more generally. 

Before I go any farther, however, let me give the usual warnings to stop reading if you intend to read this book, because there will be spoilers ahead.

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this story already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning. 

So this book focuses on two characters more than any others. They are Charlie Talent Man and Victoria "Vic" McQueen. On a superficial level, they could not be more different from one another. Manx is a very old man and a convicted serial killer Meanwhile, we first meet Vic when she is just a little girl, and we see her grow up to be a middle-aged mother.

However, there is one thing which these two have in common: they can "travel" to faraway places with astonishing speed due to mental constructs. Yes, they can get to impossibly far places in very short time simply by traveling via mental devices. 

For Charlie Manx, it is an antique car, a classic 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith. His car does several things. First of all, it can allow Manx to travel to places which exist only in Manx's imagination, particularly Christmasland. A bit more on Christmasland in a bit. Secondly, when Manx brings one of the children he has kidnapped, they cannot escape the car no matter how hard they try. And the longer they physically stay in the car, the more it hypnotizes them to ultimately become vampires. Finally, the car also seems to hypnotize people on the outside as to what is going on inside of the car. Several times, people trapped inside of the car desperately bang on the windows and try to get the attention of people on the outside. Each time, they are met with smiling faces and waves, as if the people outside not only see nothing amiss, but seem convinced that some kind of a game is being played.

For Vic, it is an old, rickety covered bridge. This bridge actually existed at one time, and Vic crossed it when she was very young. It did not inspire confidence, and seemed ready to topple into the stream it crossed over at the slightest touch. Yet whenever Vic rides her trusty bike, the "Triumph," the bridge pops up. When she crosses the bridge, it takes her to places she wants and/or needs it to take her to. In one case when younger, she finds something which was lost at a diner far away. Later on, it takes her to the "Sleigh House," which is what Manx's house will soon be referred to as by people (it is a double-entendre, of course) and her first encounter with Manx while she is a teenaged girl. Much later on, Vic uses a motorcycle that she feels a special attachment to in order to find first the Gas Mask Man (a bit more on him later) and then, once again, Manx.

Manx refers to these things as "inscape." He becomes fascinated with Vic once he recognizes that she is able to traverse her own "inscape" to get to faraway places and, in this case, to find Manx himself. He hardly even seemed particularly startled to find an old, New England-style covered bridge near his Colorado home. That is how they originally end up crossing paths, as well. In fact, it was this seemingly improbable meeting that helped to Vic reach Manx caught in the first place, although she probably did not realize that beforehand. It leads to Manx getting arrested and becoming perceived as a psychotic monster by the general public. Thus, Manx wants revenge on Vic and remains both fixed on and fascinated by Vic, even though his real fixation normally is with children. 

However, Manx does not do all of this on his own. He recruits help, tacitly. We see him basically manipulate an adult child, an overgrown little boy in a man's body named Bing Partridge. Bing receives a gas mask as a Christmas gift once, and he feels that Christmas is the one holiday when he was absolutely at his happiest in life. He believes that, through Manx and the promise of Christmasland, he can be that happy again, every single day. So he does his part to help Manx, and receives some awards on the side, such as the mothers of captured children. Manx convinces Bing (a little too easily) that they are terrible and abusive mothers, freeing Bing to do with them as he likes. Bing works at a medical facility and has access to chemicals which most people do not, and so he is able to keep these women (mostly women) as docile de facto prisoners. These chemicals are also a large part of how the kids are kidnapped and also kept docile, although it is important to note that Manx makes a point of not wanting the children (or animals) to suffer. In his own mind, he is doing something heroic, and Bing (again, too easily convinced) also believes this of his work with Manx. 

Meanwhile, Vic has lived a troubled life following her initial encounter with Manx. She was institutionalized, which sometimes leads to her questioning her own sanity. The incident where she encountered Manx happened just as she had a falling through with her parents. From that point onwards, the problems began, and she lived a wild lifestyle. She returns to Colorado and seems to live a carefree existence, but ultimately, she "settles" with Lou Carmody, the heavy man on a motorcycle who just happened to be passing by, but helped her escape Manx. He showed bravery, and Vic felt indebted. But once she becomes pregnant, and they become parents to Bruce Wayne McQueen, she becomes almost like a standard stay at home mom. She is not happy with her life and longs to leave. Yet, she still feels that Lou is a good man who deserves better than her, and also suspects that her boy, whom she calls Wayne, deserves a better mother than her. 

Vic is haunted by her episode with Manx, and keeps getting phone calls (which nobody else hears) from the children Manx has captured and brought to Christmasland, but not before turning them into vampires first. These calls keep coming and there is no way for her to stop them. Ultimately, she has a breakdown and once again, is institutionalized. She leaves Lou and Bruce, but years later, tries to bring at least Wayne back to try and pass as a mother while trying to find stability in her own life.

At around this time, Vic finds out that Manx has died. He was in a coma and simply died of old age. Yet, his body disappears from the hospital, which we find out is because of a much older, now middle-aged and fat Bing, who by now is known as the Gas Mask Man. While Manx is proclaimed dead, another of the powers or abilities he has with his car is that it brings Manx back to life. At first, he hardly truly seems alive. Later, he seems to come to life more fully and, impossibly, even seems to grow younger.

Manx and Bing aim to kidnap Wayne, in part to have another child to "rescue" and bring to Christmasland. However, it is also a way of getting revenge on Vic. Also, Manx seems to know that kidnapping Wayne will surely bring Vic. A part of his revenge, sure. But we also get a feeling that he is legitimately fascinated by her "inscape" abilities and wants to talk to her.

Before Vic can pursue Manx, however, she has to get past the local authorities. Once Wayne has been abducted, those authorities are, perhaps understandably, suspicious of Vic herself, given her past. Lou helps her to escape, but he wants her to promise to bring him along to Christmasland in order to help her get Wayne back. Vic first reaches the Gas Mask Man, and is almost captured by him for horrific sexual abuse. However, she manages to outsmart him and use his gas against him, blowing him up, literally. Eventually, she gets back together with Lou again and together, they recruit help from Vic's dad, who she has not really spoken to since childhood. He gives her explosives, and they set off to Manx's place in Colorado. There, Vic tricks Lou by handcuffing him to a tree before heading off to Christmasland by herself.

Once there, she has to contend against not only Manx to contend with, but the vampire children. Wayne is also part vampire, but he had another wherewithal not to allow the process to be completed. Without going too much into detail, she manages to rescue Wayne and blow up Christmasland. Ultimately, however, the wounds which she sustained against the Gas Mask Man and at Christmasland prove to much, and she dies. 

Lou and Wayne now are reunited, father and son. Lou has a new romantic interest - one of the agents which had been suspicious of him and Vic, as a matter of fact - yet they remain respectful of the memory of Vic. Wayne still feels like the vampire in him is not fully dead, until Lou brings him back to the home of Manx. There, they find Christmas ornaments, and Wayne finds his own. He destroys it, and other, releasing himself and the other children in the process.

Almost all of the other children. There are a few who remain, however. And we get the definite sense that they will try to revive some version of Christmasland. 

And that's it.

A solid book, and one that lives up to the horror genre. Highly recommended for fans of the genre, or of Joe Hill.