“NOS4A2” by Joe Hill – A Journey to Evil’s Heart

Joe Hill is known by some as being one of the best contemporary horror authors, especially when they have supernatural elements to them.

In NOS4A2, Joe Hill tells us a story centered around three characters: Charles Manx, Victoria McQueen, and her son. Charles is a somewhat special person who likes to take children aboard his 1938 Rolls-Royce and take them to a downright horrifying amusement park called Christmasland, after which they are never heard from again.

Victoria McQueen is the only child to ever escape Manx, and though she is trying to forget him, he still remembers her and has set his sights on her son. He has already picked him up, but Vic has a couple of tricks of her own up her sleeve and decides that it is indeed time to put an end to such an evil.

I haven’t read good horror stories in a little while, and though I will admit that NOS4A2 had a bit too much supernatural for my taste, it was still quite entertaining and kept me interested up until the end.

As wrong as it may seem, I felt that Charles Manx was the main attraction all along. We don’t know much about him, other than that he drives an old Rolls-Royce with a vanity plate spelling NOS4A2 (Nosferatu) and likes to murder children.

What is truly fascinating is the aura of evil Joe Hill managed to create around the villain; throughout the whole thing it just felt as if Manx was a physical manifestation of evil, or some kind of otherworldly demon preying on anything it can.

Does it even age? How long has it been doing this? What really is Christmasland? Naturally, answers to those questions come relatively soon, but rest assured it doesn’t detract anything from the terror.

While Manx may have stolen the show, in my opinion at least, Victoria still held her own and was from being the helpless female protagonist we generally see in horror books and movies.

She has some supernatural talents of her own and access to a certain bridge which can take her anywhere, evening the odds out a bit. She is very well structured in terms of personality, having a complete development arc, just like all the other characters as a matter of fact. Each one is carefully-crafted and serves some kind of purpose in the story, no matter how small the role is.

All in all, if you like a fair dose of supernatural with your horror stories, then I highly recommend that you check out NOS4A2 by Joe Hill; it is masterfully-written and emanates bone-chilling horror, perhaps being one of the best horror stories created in the last decade.

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Joe Hill Personal site Joe Hill , born under the name Joseph Hillstrom King, is an American writer and comic book author. He is the son of legendary horror writer Stephen King, and so far he has written three novels, Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2, as well as a short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts.