A world of evil has lain in wait for Victoria McQueen since she helped police capture serial child abductor Charles Talent Manx. While Manx lies in a coma, Vic keeps getting phone calls from his dead victims. Those children were never found, but when they call Vic, they tell her they're not dead--they're flourishing happily in Christmasland. Still, Vic remembers the boy she discovered in the back seat of Manx's Rolls-Royce Wraith--a chilling, vampiric creature with hooks for teeth.
An epic novel that spans three decades, NOS4A2--a pun that comes from the vanity license plate on Manx's car--is Joe Hill's first foray into a traditional horror style reminiscent of (his father) Stephen King. NOS4A2 will delight horror fans with its unsettling imagery and pervasive dread.
While Manx is a charismatic villain, possibly more terrifying is his mentally feeble henchman, Bing, the Gasmask Man, whose task is to entrap the mothers of Manx's victims. Bing's modus operandi--gassing his victims into submission in the House of Sleep--conjures a nightmare tableau that is impossible to forget.
In Vic, Hill creates a tough and complex character with wounds, tattoos and a restless spirit that gives NOS4A2 its most animated force. Considering the classical horror structure, savvy readers may not always be surprised by the novel's violent turns of events. Vic and the cast of supporting characters--from her geeky and kind boyfriend, Lou Carmody, and her tormented son, Wayne, to the various people unfortunate enough to encounter the Wraith--lend dimension to an otherwise familiar tale. --Ilana Teitelbaum, book reviewer at the Huffington Post