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seershlen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Drug use
Minor: Addiction, Pedophilia, and Abandonment
aiden_mr2's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Pedophilia and Rape
jaedia's review against another edition
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
spookybenji's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Torture, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
louiepotterbook's review against another edition
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
scvalentine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
As a young girl, Vic escapes the tension of her family one night on her brand new bicycle, but it doesn’t just take her down the road, it takes her over a bridge that doesn’t exist to places where she finds lost things. At the same time, a chemical plant worker named Bing, is found by a man named Charlie Manx who drives a 1930s Rolls Royce. Manx offers him a job he has been dreaming of for years, one that is the worst nightmare of most people.
Vic and Manx cross paths and it ends in his arrest and her trauma. As she grows up, she’s haunted by what she has seen. But everything gets even worse when Vic has her own son and mysteriously, Manx dies in prison.
It’s hard to give a good description without giving stuff away, but if you’re looking for a creepy and disturbing book about the crossover between internal and external worlds, I recommend this. I did think the first half had some slow parts, but once I got halfway, it flew by. Lots of trigger warnings for this, so look those up before reading if you need to.
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Pedophilia
weirdow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Pedophilia
joshkiba13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Who knew Christmas could be so creepy?? I'm honestly left quite stunned by this book. Its creep factor was dialed up to 11-- by far the creepiest story I've ever read. And at the same time it had such heart to it.
I felt that the story was utterly unique. The opening passages are frightening and foreboding, and I love how we jumped back in time from that point and resumed there later on.
Charlie Manx was a scary bad guy for sure, but his right-hand man, Bing Partridge (aka the Gas Mask Man) was even creepier in my opinion. The first chapters where we're introduced to Bing were among the most off-putting sections of the novel.
I loooved our protagonist Vic McQueen. We follow her from childhood and into adulthood. She is probably the most nuanced and heavily flawed character I've read of. In the Author's Note following the audiobook, Joe Hill explained his dislike for stories where the heroes are double-do-gooders, or something like that, and how he sought to write realistic and flawed "good guys." He absolutely succeeded in my opinion, with Vic and the cast of side characters like Maggie Leigh and Lou Carmody. We are able to cheer them on as they succeed in things, and mourn as they make awful (but real) decisions.
I loved how absolutely off the concept of Christmas became as the book developed--kind of like if The Nightmare Before Christmas was rated R. Beyond the horrifying effects of Charlie Manx's powers, even something as simple as hearing Christmas music beyond the bounds of winter (a common occurrence during the story) became scary. I loved this line: "There was something awful about Christmas music when it was nearly summer. It was like a clown in the rain, with his makeup running."
Hill's dialogue was snappy and clever; his prose and descriptions were unique and often (positively) unconventional. And I absolutely loved his takes on imagination and the mind, as seen in the snippet I opened with, as well as this one:
"Everyone lives in two worlds . . . There's the real world . . . But everyone also lives in the world inside their own head: An in-scape, a world of thought . . . Creative people . . . spend a lot of their time hanging out in their thought-world. Strong creatives though can use a knife to cut the stitches between the two worlds, can bring them together."
The book can definitely get a little out there in some places, but I honestly think the weird served to its benefit. The only part that made me wince in a truly uncomfortable way was Hill referencing a few real-life tragedies to serve a scene where a character was becoming demented. I love a good corruption arc (such as in "Apt Pupil" by Stephen King), but I found the allusions to real tragedies a tad distasteful. Didn't ruin it for me at all, just something I didn't care for.
Overall one of the best audiobooks I've listened to, I absolutely have to hand it to Kate Mulgrew for knocking it OUT of the park with her narration. Manx's voice was gritty and cold, Bing's was off-putting and creepily child-like, and she did Maggie Leigh's stutter so well. Her children voices were well done too, and successfully creepy when necessary. Above all I have to appreciate how when a character was yelling, she yelled and didn't just whisper-yell like some narrators do.
Solid book and sooolid audio 👌
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment
Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
katiearcher's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was an emotional rollercoaster. Did it need to be 984 pages? No! Did I love it anyway? Yes! Despite the intimidating length of the book and some particularly (gratuitous at times) graphic moments, I loved this book.
When I first started the book I questioned how much I was really going to care about Vic “the Brat” McQueen. But by the end I didn’t want to say goodbye to her and her family. Hill does a good job building the heros and the villains of this story. While I have no sympathy for the sadistic villains in NOS4A2 they are more complex than your average vampire villain.
If the length of the book intimidates you, I highly recommend the audio book as well which is narrated by Kate Mulgrew!
I highly recommend checking TW for this book as there are a lot of upsetting and disturbing topics covered.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Pedophilia
dozyfirbolg's review against another edition
3.75
pair this with Joe hills ability to make questionable choices In his writing regarding certain characters - Lou chief among them, and how his fatness is used as a plot device, and the way in which he writes Bing and expands on Bings thoughts that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Do not get me wrong, I knew what I was signing up for here, I read horror a lot but there's a lack of finesse and care to this book that distracts from what he was trying to accomplish here.
Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Pedophilia