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A review by the_sunken_library
NOS4R2 by Joe Hill
3.0
This started off so well. Joe Hill has inherited his father's canny and sensitive exploration and understanding of human interaction; he builds his characters beautifully and they are incredibly believable.
Its an interesting concept and a clever horror story. Vic McQueen is a plucky female protagonist who discovers she has gift. A gift that allows her to find lost items by riding over a bridge formed partly in reality and partly in her imagination. But these journeys have a cost. The bridge is the gateway to her mind, and her sanity is represented by thousands of bats. Each time she uses the bridge a few of those bats escape and she slowly starts to sink into madness. One unfortunate day her bridge leads her into the lair of a man with a similar ability; except he escapes into his own mind rather than using his imagination to reduce the distance between two real places. He kidnaps and traps children in this place, feeding off them like a vampire, keeping himself young. I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil it!
While I liked the concept and enjoyed the writing style, i felt it was far too long. By telling the story from multiple angles you gain a wonderful, in depth view of what's going on but it slows the pace. After 500 pages I was bored and after 600 I wanted to be done with it.
It loses a star for being too long and another star because by the end I didn't care what happened.
Its an interesting concept and a clever horror story. Vic McQueen is a plucky female protagonist who discovers she has gift. A gift that allows her to find lost items by riding over a bridge formed partly in reality and partly in her imagination. But these journeys have a cost. The bridge is the gateway to her mind, and her sanity is represented by thousands of bats. Each time she uses the bridge a few of those bats escape and she slowly starts to sink into madness. One unfortunate day her bridge leads her into the lair of a man with a similar ability; except he escapes into his own mind rather than using his imagination to reduce the distance between two real places. He kidnaps and traps children in this place, feeding off them like a vampire, keeping himself young. I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil it!
While I liked the concept and enjoyed the writing style, i felt it was far too long. By telling the story from multiple angles you gain a wonderful, in depth view of what's going on but it slows the pace. After 500 pages I was bored and after 600 I wanted to be done with it.
It loses a star for being too long and another star because by the end I didn't care what happened.