Young Victoria McQueen, Vic to most people, Brat to her father (a demolitions expert), is a young girl in 1986 when she receives a bicycle (specifically a Raleigh Tuff Burner) for her birthday. Her parents, mostly her father, forbid her from crossing an old rickety bridge in town called the Shorter Way Bridge. Being a kid, Vic of course ignores her parents’ warnings and crosses the bridge on her prized bicycle. Where the bridge leads; however, is not simply the other side of the river. It leads to the place (wherever it may be at the time) Vic needs to go to find missing items. For example, an eatery where her mother left her bracelet, or later, it takes Vic to a place where missing children might be found. Over the years and journeys across the Shorter Way Bridge, these self-appointed missions of discovery take a severe toll on the young girl, giving her the physical appearance of being unwell. On one of her trips, Vic meets a young girl named Maggie with similar powers. Maggie’s abilities come through Scrabble tiles that spell out the answers to questions she asks. When Vic first meets Maggie, the Scrabble-girl warns her of Charles Manx who abducts children and has a power similar to Vic, except he travels to a place called Christmasland in his Rolls Royce Wraith which bears the titular license plate NOS4A2.
Much of the above is explained on the book jacket so very little is spoiler. I’ll try to keep away from major spoilers below, but some story elements will be revealed.
In Vic, Joe Hill has given readers a very believable, flawed, and pained character. Her ‘gift’ comes at a great price. Her family life is fractured and Charles Manx has forever tainted any chance of good coming into her life, for Vic was once taken in by Manx when she ran away from her mother, who recently divorced her father. Vic becomes the first person to escape Manx and as a result, Manx is arrested and Vic is rescued by Lou Carmody, an overweight mechanic and comic book fan. The novel jumps several years to Vic and Lou, living together with their child, Bruce Wayne Carmody. Unfortunately for them, Manx manages to escape a mortuary just when many thought he was dead.
For lack of a better term, Vic and Lou could be described as white trash. They live from paycheck to paycheck, have barely enough money to scrape by each month. When Vic is young, her parents often argue, though her family life is fairly regular until her parent’s divorce. As she gets older, the effect of her time with Manx is profound; she becomes a drug abuser and finds herself in mental hospitals. However, Vic realizes she can funnel some of her experience and talent into children’s books and after dabbling a bit, she publishes a string of popular children’s books. She also receives strange phone calls from some of Manx’s children despite doing everything she can to escape the memories and experience with Manx, the Wraith and his partner/sidekick/Renfield Bing.
For my tastes, a villain is much more terrifying if he is calm and calculated rather than a slavering creature who shouts. On this count, Joe Hill’s creation of Charles Talent Manx is one of the creepiest individuals in modern Horror literature. In interviews with Joe Hill (particularly this great one which first aired on The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast), he’s mentioned getting Manx’s voice right was a challenge. The hard work paid off because the character, conversely, seems effortless and a fully-formed creation. The man speaks as if he is of a different era, does not use contractions (is not v. isn’t; do not v. don’t) and abhors curse words, is quite concerned about what is proper, and loves Christmas. Well, concerned about what is proper aside from abducting kids, turning them into monsters, and feeding off their life force. In other words, Charles Talent Manx is a prime example of the Affably Evil character.
The place where Manx brings his children (because once Charles abducts a child, the child is his) is, as I’ve indicated is Christmasland. Entry to Christmasland is through Manx’s Rolls Royce Wraith, a car that is very much an extension of Manx himself. When people try to escape by leaping into the front seat, they find themselves in the back seat. The Wraith hides many things, as well, and at times, acts of its own volition in service to Manx. Manx tells his assistant Bing and all who would listen that Christmasland is a place without worries, where children can always be happy and smile. Of course giving up your free will in soul are the cost of entry, but Charles doesn’t tell anybody that. What makes the idea of Christmasland so powerful is the build-up to it in the novel. Manx refers to it often, Bing yearns for entry through its gates, but Hill smartly does not fully reveal this ‘magical land’ until the final quarter of the novel. Even at that stage, the reveal is slow and methodical, very much akin to the ticking ascent of a roller coaster climbing that first big hill leading to the enormous drop.
With Manx as the big bad of the book, his sidekick/Renfield is Bing, a sick (on just about every level) individual who works at a chemical factory. Bing’s ‘daytime’ job is very helpful to Manx for Bing can procure sevoflurane (with a gingerbread aroma), the popular medical anesthesia. The first and only comparison I’ll make to Joe’s father (because part of the fun of the novel is discovering such connections/comparisons as you read) enters here as Bing reminds me of a more malevolent and evil Trashcan Man (Flagg’s fire-loving crony from The Stand). When Bing puts on a gasmask to administer the sevoflurane, he becomes The Gasmask Man. At least, this is what his victims call him. The Gasmask Man disposes of parents (after having some fun with them) who are in the way when Charles abducts children and comes across as a much more sinister, unfeeling creature devoid of humanity.
Consequences are a major theme of the novel and nobody is the victim of her own consequences as much as Vic is. Because she escaped Manx and that escape led to his capture, he wishes to extract revenge upon her. The focus of this revenge, is Wayne, Vic and Lou’s son.
The structure of this novel is quite powerful and epic. We are introduced to Manx (the villain), we then meet Vic. They have an encounter that leaves them both scarred, which is only a precursor to their return match-up. In many ways, this reminded me of an Epic or Heroic Fantasy where the hero gets a measure of their enemy and defeats that enemy at great cost with a knowledge that a final encounter looms. Throughout the novel, this tension (added by the build-up to the Christmasland reveal) is so thick and absorbing that not reading NOS4A2 was a painful thing for me.
A lot of what informed Joe Hill on this novel parallels a great deal of the things I’ve consumed as entertainment (reading, fandom) in my life – horror, comics, and lots and lots of genre reading. The character of Louis “Lou” Carmody could be seen as a stand-in for fans of genre, he’s got the genre-savvy down pat. He quotes comics, believes Vic about the Shorter Way Bridge immediately with a response that amounts to, “Look at the stuff I like and read, how could I not believe you.” In short, he’s a secondary hero in the novel and is perhaps the most lovable character in it.
I’ve gone on about how this is an epic novel, yet I’ve only mentioned a few characters. The novel is epic in terms of how far ranging the effects of its villain are, the swath of time it covers, and the many worlds which are possibilities brought forth by the narrative elements. On the flip side, because Hill focuses primarily on Vic throughout much of the narrative, it is also a very intimate tale; Vic becomes very familiar throughout the novel. Her fears, her needs, her insecurities and love are all internal intimacies that drive her to thwart the Dark Lord of the novel, Charles Manx.
NOS4A2 is a nearly perfect novel; at times it brought me to the brink of tears, put great big smiles on my face, creeped me out with the despicable acts of its villains, and brought me sorrow at the hardship and pain its characters experienced. Joe Hill has embraced everything that he is as a storyteller from his creative well and funneled all of it into this epic novel that should make his old man proud and one that will stand on my shelves as a singular literary achievement of wonder and power.
In a year where many of the books I’ve read thus far have been excellent (My in progress Best of 2013 at goodreads), Joe Hill’s NOS4A2 has managed to top them all.
Highly, highly recommended
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