Book Review: N0S4A2

Two quick things. I bought this book without knowing Joe Hill is actually Stephen King’s son- never been a big fan of- and I made the mistake of watching season 1 of the AMC series first. Whoops…don’t do that, folks. Ok, down to the nuts and bolts.

I didn’t think was poorly written at all. The story was interesting enough to make me buy the book, but the show ruined it for me. Aside from keeping most of the characters, the two are like Star Wars and Star Trek. What I didn’t like about the book was the long, drawn out growth of the main character. Stretching about 150 pages is the Brat’s life, from childhood to adulthood. It felt wrong for reasons only my mind is telling me. Once we get to the meat of the story we find old Charlie Manx is on the lookout for children. Total perv, right?

He steals the kids, has the mothers killed, and whisks them away to this imaginary place called Christmasland. Sounds fun, but is more of a hell on earth. The strength in this book, in my humble opinion, is none of the main characters are what we would describe as winners. They all have issues, don’t really conform well with society, and are broken in their own unique ways. I enjoyed the storylines right up til the end.

For a villain like Manx, his demise should have been horrific and reflective of his crimes. Instead it just sort of happens, almost like an afterthought. Failed to stick the landing, right? Ah well. On to the next book.