Rashmi bookmarks “N0S4A2”

Nurse Thornton walks in to her regular job at the hospital and checks in on her regular comatose patients; and as she passes by one of the regulars, Charles Manx grabs her violently and tells her her son would be much happier in Christmasland. And right there we know that nothing is what it seems!

N0S4A2 (Nosferatu) is the second Joe Hill novel that I have picked up, and it has been a really enjoyable read. Travelling back and forth between the 1980s and the 2000s, and told mainly through the perspectives of Charles Talent Manx and Victoria "Vic" McQueen, this is a story that bridges together the real and the imagined, the physical world and an "inscape" in a very interesting manner. A manner, I must add, heightened by the unique narrative style whereby most chapters end mid-sentence, with the remainder of the sentence continuing as the title of the following chapter.

A 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith journeys to "Christmasland". A Raleigh Tuff Burner bikes across the "Shorter Way Bridge" to reach faraway places within moments ... and all the while Margaret (Maggie) Leigh, the librarian, uses her Scrabble tiles to race alongside and interpret events as they occur, in a desperate attempt to finally solve the multiple disappearing and murders that have been going on for years.

Given the events that occur, this could have easily settled comfortably into a generic horror story, but I liked how it was primarily crime / mystery. That said, there are certainly some horrific parts, mainly, the inhabitants of Charlie Manx' Sleigh House, the events at Bing Partridge's House of Sleep, and of course the final showdown at Christmasland (dead children can be so creepy, isn't it?!)

While every character in the story was truly memorable, I especially liked Louis "Lou" Carmody a lot. Till the very end he was "the kid on the motorcycle again, hauling skinny Vic McQueen up on to the seat behind him." He combines the likeability of a regular guy with that fierce loyalty and bravery that makes him an awesome person to know.

In one of the final scenes Maggie, explaining to Vic how Manx has remade children into his idea of perfect innocence, says, "Innocence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be ... Innocent little kids rip the wings off flies, because they don't know any better. That's innocence". It really made me think.