Weird Review: NOS4A2 by, Joe Hill
Title: NOS4A2
Author: Joe Hill
Publisher: William Morrow (An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) 2013
Number of Pages: 704
Format: Print (Hardcover)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars aligned
COME TO CHRISTMASLAND
What would you do for a lifetime pass to a place where every morning is Christmas and unhappiness is against the law?
Don’t give up on wonder! Don’t give up on dreams!
We’re looking for go-getters who love children and aren’t afraid of adventure!
“NOS4A2 is a fast-paced, wind through your hair, stomach-flipping roller-coaster ride that will make you white-knuckle the binding and refuse to let go. We follow Victoria McQueen, a Brat (as her father lovingly calls her) with enough snotty attitude to earn the name. However, Vic has a quality that will make you fall in love with her: imagination. Through the power of her mind and her Raleigh Tuff Burner bicycle, she is able to dream up ‘bridges’ that allow her to find things. Whether it be a family heirloom, a photograph, or just looking for trouble, Vic is able to find it with the help of her Shorter Way Bridge – a long-destroyed covered bridge that fell into the water. Unfortunately it is this same bridge, and Vic’s adolescent rebellion, that inevitably send her to Charles Talent Manx.”
That is an excerpt from my review of NOS4A2
Hill utilizes an excellent tool within this horror/fantasy and that is the use of a portal. Both Manx, and Vic find there way through Hill’s “inscape’s” that he has mentioned in his other great novel, Horns. Through these inscapes, Vic, with the help of her Shorter Way Bridge, finds Maggie, a junkie who loves scrabble. She helps explain to Vic how her bike and bridge are part of these inscapes; “Big old hole in reality… I am reaching into my inscape to get the tiles I need. Not into a bag. when I say your bike or my tiles are a knife to open a s-s-slit in reality, I’m not being like, metaphorical.”
These inscapes are an excellent adaptation to the use of the portal tool. Hill has begun to create and expand a new universe that I wish I could join. Whether it be ‘The Treehouse of the Mind,” the Crooked Alley, a sack of scrabble tiles, or a bike, these “knives,” as Maggie calls them, are used to poke a hole in reality allowing the user to manipulate or alter it to there choosing. This opens up so many opportunities for Hill’s characters, and increases anticipation and cravings to see him continue to play around in this realm of thought.
This is a novel that every reader, casual or avid, horror fan or not, should have on their book shelf!
Check out the whole review HERE!
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If you have checked out NOS4A2
Unspeakable Holiday Gift Ideas
The holidays are upon us folks! And if your like me your spending too much time on the computer and not out shopping for your loved ones special holiday gift. Time is running short no matter how you stick it, but if you act now, there is still time shop online and find a “unique” gift for the “unique” person in your life… and by unique I mean weird.
Below is a quick list I whipped up that showcases some interesting ideas. From Christmas cards to Tentacle door stops, I hope this helps in your search to make someones holiday fun and maybe a little bit crazy.
Send someone a special Christmas card personally drawn by Adam Bolton, author of “Where’s My Shoggoth?” or an awesome wall hanging of your favorite urban legend, Slender Man, by our buddy Steve Santiago?! Click on each image to get some info but do it quick, there’s only a limited amount of time till these things will show up on your doorstep before christmas:
December 21, 2012 is supposed to bring about the end of the world, right?. That may or may not happen, but incase it’s a zombie apocalypse, here are a few items that may help you beat em’ or join em’. The Truckers Friend a.k.a The Zombinator
Need a new holiday tale to sit the family down and start a new tradition too? Here are a few moldering tomes to send the little ones off to dreams of Krampus and flying polyps dancing through their heads. Click on each cover to see how you can get these books. Horror for the Holidays, Dead but Dreaming, For When the Veil Drops:
Gift your favorite elder god worshiping cultist with a variety of tentacled trinkets and tools, just click on the pictures below to see where you can pick them up. Some of the pics wouldn’t line up right but here are some names to click as well; Tentacle Attack Metal Art Bookends, Scary Solstice Combo By HPLHS, Tentacle USB Drive, Tentacle Door Stop, Tentacle Bottle Opener, Cthulhu Hot Dog Roaster:
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Happy Holidays!
With December comes winter, and with winter comes snow. A little change of theme for the Holiday season is in order. Thanks again to Steve Santiago for slapping some yuletide makeup on the Unspeakable Gibberer banner. The video below is called The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. It aired December 24th, 1982. It has always been a favorite holiday movie to put me in the mood. I hope you enjoy.
If you like all the tasty bits we gibber about here, become a follower or submit to receive email updates with every new post! Don’t forget to check us out on Twitter @UnspkbleGibberr, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UnspeakableGibberer.
The Drabblecast ~ #228 ~ A Fairy Tale of Oakland, By Tim Pratt
Art by Bo Kaier
And Merry Christmas again! I feel I should have used my Christmas rant from the last Drabblecast post here, but instead I think I will talk about how awesome this episode is. Once again we are blessed to have Tim Pratt as our feature author this week. Tim is one of The Drabblecast’s favorite authors, and It shows too, because if being published by the same audio fiction outlet 11 times doesn’t mean something then I don’t know what’s going on. This weeks story carries on the Christmassy theme that was sparked in last weeks episode, “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke, but goes the next step to show what happens to balance out those miracles that the Hanukah, Kwanza, or Boxing day season brings us.
Drabble and twabble this week hit it on the nose. “Last Christmas”, by Greg Winkler, was terrifyingly hilarious. Hope my mom doesn’t start “stuffing the turkey” without supervision. The twabble by Steve D. Lidster, aka ROU Killing Time on the DC forums, with this baby: “The sky grew dark and Quetzalcoatl beat leather wings against the sky. We were wrong about Y2K, but right about maYan2K.” Scary.
Like I was saying before Tim Pratt is a favorite at The Drabblecast, as well as one of my favorite authors too. He has a way with words, a way with wrapping someones mind in the elements he creates with his stories. I rarely find myself day dreaming or simply not paying attention when reading/listening to one of Pratt’s stories. He is the author of the urban-fantasy series based around his bad-ass character, Marla Mason, that he publishes under the name T.A. Pratt. Be sure to swing over to www.marlamason.net where he will soon be serializing, Grim Tides, a new addition to the Marla Mason series. I highly recommend any of those novels, or any of his short story collections; Hart & Boot & Other Stories
“A Fairy Tale of Oakland” is the second christmas story that Mr. Pratt has been commissioned to write for The Drabblecast and I must say that seems like a tradition worth keeping. Last years story was “Rangifer Volans“. In this episode we learn that there is a balance that needs to be kept. With light there must be dark, and with good there must be evil. That’s were the Krampus comes in. I had never heard of this before this episode. I mean don’t get me wrong, I had heard of the word, Krampus, but I just thought it was some silly reference to a Seinfeld joke. I’m glad it’s not.
With this whole new idea in my head I will be warning my kids about the Krampus for years to come. Just makes christmas more fun than it already is. Besides it’s just as creepy knowing that there is a creature that will stuff you in his sack and possibly eat you if your naughty, as an “elf on a shelf ” statue that is designed to sit in your living room and watch your kids only to report to santa if they’re naughty. Hmm, Maybe there should be a tiny Krampus elf that does the same thing. Just a satyrish goblin that watches ominously from a dark corner. Or hell go one step further and put that tiny monster in your kids room and tell them it watches them sleep. I can see the naughtiness slipping away already.
Anyway, good stuff as usual from Tim Pratt. This story, like the one last week, made me think about justice and how it’s meaning has changed over the years. The tales of the Krampus were probably abolished for the same reason you can’t spank your kids these days. If your kid cries to someone that Mommy and Daddy are terrorizing them with a tiny monster that will come and eat them if they’re bad, well, then that someone will probably turn you in and then the real Krampus (aka the government) comes , and your kids get eaten by a system that is unstable and has cracks the size of the Grand Canyon. Just saying, something to think about.
Good fiction usually gets my vote, but throw Mr. Pratt in the salad and I really like what I see/hear. I give this episode 5 out of 5 stars in alignment, mainly though for Norm’s line, “Like you really want to piss of a bad kid and then give him some coal. terrible idea.”
Oh and be sure to jump over and take a look at Tim Pratt’s new novel, Briarpatch
Oh No There Goes Tokyo, HO HO Godzilla!
Nothing brings more joy to residents of Japan than venerating a radioactive monster that has repeatedly destroyed their cities, and terrorized them since 1954. Since 2000, there have been sightings and photos of Christmassy Godzilla constructions. The above picture was taken in the Odaiba Aqua City shopping mall during the November 2000 Godzilla Festival. This is the usual photo that people come across while searching for the Godzilla Christmas Tree, but along my searchings I came across a few more jolly ol’ photos depicting the holiday spirit for destruction.
This big guy was created and has been on display every so often during the yule tide in Takashimaya Times Square.
This one, like its original predecessor, was set up right outside of Odaiba’s Aqua City mall in 2007. Looks like he’s really showing his joy for Christmas.
And last but not least, I found out this bulkier Godzilla was presented back in 2004 at the Osaka Business Park
Well there you have it. I wish the states would be a little more creative, but I don’t think we will be seeing the Rockefeller Center Godzilla Christmas Tree Lighting Special anytime soon. Bummer.
Unspeakable Gibberer 