Reviews - NOS4A2 | The StoryGraph

4.56k reviews for:

NOS4A2

Joe Hill

4.04 AVERAGE

j3ss3ca's review against another edition

4.0

Good lightweight thriller. Not scary, a little creepy. A few parts very creepy. Quick easy read.

wheebee27's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Loved Kate Mulgrew’s narration. She really brought the characters alive. Great, scary story. Loved how the author sets up all the dominos for the story’s climax. It was a little predictable, but still enjoyable.

Content Warnings

borteez's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

This was really fun. Stylistically I think this book is totally immaculate. Joe can write his ass off. I do think it's long in the tooth, especially the climactic battle, and there are some.... I'm loathe to use the term 'plot holes,' but I think there are a couple of key inconsistencies that bug me a little bit, but nothing crazy.

I'm not particularly blown away by the plot and I think it basically sums up to A Good One Of These. There are assumptions about race, body type, and sexuality in Hill's imaginary that are not malicious, but they are annoying, and I think they detract from the overall clarity of the thematic apparatus here.

crofteereader's review against another edition

3.0

Color me a Joe Hill fan because this book was so well written; the prose was gorgeous and descriptive and did so much to establish the characters and make them deeper and deeper and all but endless. There was a goodly bit of casual humor that wasn't too much - indeed, it served to establish the characters even further. And props to the audiobook reader for really bringing each of the characters to life.

At this point, anyone reading this review is wondering: why only 3⭐️? I went into this book expecting to be scared (or even moderately creeped out) but both villains were bland, their reasons never fully explained. The Christmas theme made it feel so juvenile to me.

By the time we got our first big confrontation, I knew I was reading for Vic and nothing else. I didn't care about Charlie or Bing, about the kids being abducted, about Christmas Land. I was just absolutely fascinated by Vic and Maggie and the inscape theory - so I gave up on the "horror" aspect of the book entirely. Therefore, when the plot slowed down to focus on Charlie's big return, I was only reading to find out what Vic was going to do about it.

That being said, this is definitely not going to be my last Joe Hill. I only hope the next one is actually scary.

jess_ivette23's review against another edition

5.0

I am a fan of Joe Hill's work, especially since I love Stephen King. So I was excited when I saw this book. It was creepy and engaging. If I could have just dedicated a whole day to reading this book I would have! I stayed up until three in morning reading the last 300 pages. At times I felt the book kind of dragging, but it always picked up the pace soon after. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a good creepy book.