Just so we’re all clear about this, NOS4A2 is a license plate version of Nosferatu (yes, this Nosferatu). It’s also the title of Joe Hill’s latest novel. Hill’s made himself known with his short stories, a couple of good novels and a well-regarded comic book series. But this is his first novel with an epic feel. And he succeeds somewhat, even though there are some bumps along the way. So, let’s go check it out.

Victoria (aka Vic, aka The Brat) is a young girl with a special TuffBurner bike. This bike allows her to travel over the Shorter Way bridge. Traveling over the bridge helps Vic find lost items, although at a physical cost if she does it too often or for too long. Once she travels over the bridge and finds a librarian who is expecting her. The librarian, Maggie, has a bag of scrabble tiles which she can use to get questions answered. The use of the tiles causes Maggie to stutter (and later do much worse), but Maggie has to warn Vic about Charlie Manx. Bing Partridge is a bit of a simpleton who finds himself working for Charlie Manx as a collector with an expected reward of going to Manx’s special place, Christmasland, after he helps Manx collect 10 kids. Manx goes around collecting children in his vintage Rolls Royce Wraith (with the NOS4A2 license plate). Driving the kids around transfers some of their life force to Manx and allows him to live a lot longer. It’s almost a psychic vampire ability.

Vic, who doesn’t listen to anyone, uses the bridge again and finds herself in Christmasland (or its real-world analogue The Sleigh House). She manages to break free and gets rescued by a man-boy named Lou. Manx ends up in jail and Bing goes back to being Bing. Skip forward several years and Vic has made a mess of her life (at least the parts her parents didn’t make a mess of). She’s together with Lou and has a son named Bruce Wayne. She’s also been driven insane by the memories (which she doesn’t consciously remember or believe) of the Shorter Way bridge. Then Manx dies and Vic might need to save herself from him again.

The ending is a bit of a mess and the book drags a bit in the middle (a couple hundred pages could have been chopped easily to make the book flow better), but overall it’s a great thrill ride of a read. Hill gets into his characters well and makes sure the readers know what they are doing and, more importantly, why they are doing it. It build inevitably to a collision between Manx and Vic with all the other characters there to help or hinder Vic. Hill builds the suspense and shows us enough of the creepy Christmasland to make sure we know it’s creepy without overwhelming us on it. The understated Manx is perfect for the book. We know some of his background, but Hill wisely doesn’t explain everything about his ability (condition?). I enjoyed this book and am eagerly looking forward to the next Joe Hill novel. Recommended.