joe hill NOS4R2

[lunababymoonchild]

I think that everybody knows by now that Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King. I love a good horror book and this is one of them. It's long, some 692 pages my copy (I read the Acknowledgements and the Note on The Type, cos I'm like that)

 

The central character is a girl called Vic McQueen and NOS4R2 is the registration plate (Joe calls it the Vanity plate) of a 1938 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith that is driven by Charles Manx whom she meets when she is 17. Vic is the only child to survive an encounter with Charles, a serial killer and child abductor. But then, years later, he abducts Vic's son and she has to get him back. Naturally it's not a simple thing to do. 

 

This is an old-fashioned horror story but unlike anything I've ever read before (and I've read a lot of horror). It's well written, the plot is logical if nowhere near possible, the characters are believable and for a long book it manages to keep up the pace right until the end. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend it to those who enjoy horror.

[Hayley]

On 07/04/2022 at 10:28 AM, lunababymoonchild said:

I think that everybody knows by now that Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King.

Um... I didn't 

 

On 07/04/2022 at 10:28 AM, lunababymoonchild said:

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend it to those who enjoy horror.

I very rarely read horror but I am really intrigued by this one. I'm imagining it's quite psychological, supernatural horror, rather than being particularly gruesome? 

[lunababymoonchild]

24 minutes ago, Hayley said:

Um... I didn't 

 

Sorry, I thought that everybody knew. 

 

25 minutes ago, Hayley said:

I very rarely read horror but I am really intrigued by this one. I'm imagining it's quite psychological, supernatural horror, rather than being particularly gruesome? 

 

There is a lot of violence in it, although not gratuitous, and detailed descriptions of people dying violently. There is also a lot about mental health and a detailed description of someone who is extremely mentally ill. The sick things that he does don't need to be detailed but are very serious and downright disgusting - and possible in real life. There is also much about child kidnap and violence against children. There is a lot of the supernatural which is explained as mental health issues, one of the characters has to spend time in a mental institution for instance, but it can be described as gruesome and is not for the faint-hearted. 

 

The car features a lot and the character Charlie Manx does some impossible things but it does involve child cruelty and abduction. 

 

I enjoyed it but I've read a great deal of horror, especially in my youth, most of which was Stephen King himself and there has been the odd one (of King's) where even I have read the first page and decided that I won't carry on (Misery was one. Saw the film instead and very glad that I didn't read the book!). There was a time when I was only interested in getting the new Stephen King book for Christmas and my brother, who was tasked with buying it, said that he thought that it was affecting my behaviour! 

 

It's difficult to say whether you would enjoy it and it's a very long book, perhaps your library might have a copy you could borrow to see if you liked it or Amazon will let you download a sample for their Kindle app if you want to try it.