“Gold don’t come off. What’s good stays good no matter how much of a beating it takes.”

Rating: 4.5 stars.

I read this as part of my attempt to read some more horror/thriller type novels. I’m attempting to make myself less of a scaredy cat. My biggest complaint about this book is the fact that the library sent me a HUGE hardback copy of this book with a slippy dustcover that I couldn’t take off, and the behemoth was a pain in the arse to read. I hate hardback books, even if they’re usually prettier than paperbacks.

NOS4R2 is such an engaging read. NOS4R2 is the vanity plate on Charlie Manx’s car. Manx is a hero, saving children from abusive homes and a terrible fate and taking them to Christmasland where everything is happy forever! Or so he thinks. Vic McQueen can find things that are lost, through the use of a magic bridge that comes to her when she needs it to the most, and she finds Manx first and manages to escape – the only child ever to escape Christmasland. Later, she has to use the bridge she tried to forget to find her lost son when Manx comes back with a vengeance to take him away too. 

This book is so good, the perfect balance of creepy and fun and paced so well that 700 pages just absolutely flew by. The inscapes idea was built out so well, and made me wanna know more about the people we never met who could also manipulate this crazy thought world, especially because every character in the book was so vivid and well fleshed out. There was a little slow patch just before the climax of the novel, but honestly that might just be because I was desperate to get a look at Christmasland and didn’t wanna hang around in the middle section waiting! 

I will definitely read more of Hill’s novels, because his writing style is engaging and I found the ending of this so satisfying. On googling, I found out that the first episode of the TV show premiered today (spooky) and I can’t wait til it’s available in the UK because this book is PERFECT for a TV show, and the way it’s written is made to be cut like that. I have a strange fondness too for the way that it would cut to a new chapter mid-sentence to set the scene. It stood out to me as something different and fun.

Note: This review was copied verbatim from my Goodreads account dated June 2nd 2019.