NOS4A2 4 ME?
Hey, have any of you read Joe Hill's new book NOS4A2? (Titled NOS4R2 in Britain.) I'm interested in hearing personal recommendations or disrecommendations, if you have any.
I read Hill's book of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts; I liked it fine, as far as I remember, but I don't remember it very well (even when going through the titles/synopses on Wikipedia just now) and have never felt the urge to check it out again to re-read any of them.
In a fit of optimism, I bought Heart-Shaped Box, and to my surprise and regret I really for-reals did not like it. In fact, I stopped reading it maybe 3/4 or a bit more of the way along. Not out of hatred or revulsion or anything... partly because I just never got to like the book, which created a steady, irritating boredom. The main character feels like a rootless cipher to me, a lot of signifiers of "rock star" that don't coalesce (is he a Mick-Jagger style historic rock and roll god from the 60s who's still always in the public memory? An old-fashioned 1970s country-rock-hippie gone recluse? An '80s rock and roll Bob Seger-style throwback? A '90s goth scare-meister Marilyn Manson? An industrial/machine-music Trent Reznor-type? WHO KNOWS, and I don't feel like the book does, either.). His string of super-power-imbalanced relationships with troubled young girls is like the last thing I have any sympathy for, and yet the book seems entirely on board with this. The tedious figuring-out of the "rules" of the supernatural wotsis going on is not an interesting means of propelling the story. I don't even care about the dogs, and when I do not care about the dogs, your novel has lost me, bro. (I also have figured out by now that the climax will involve the dogs, and since I don't care about them, I feel certain the book has no surprises to offer me to get me emotionally involved at this 11th hour.)
So, that was a total downer, because I had blithely expected to like it. It gets good reviews, as far as I've seen! People speak highly of it! Sigh.
I haven't read the next one yet, Horns--the premise is kind of offputting and doesn't grab me, although if a reliable someone were to recommend it, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. Full disclosure, though: I'm pretty spoiled for what happens in it (because it didn't grab me, at some point I did skim the Wikipedia synopsis), and just judging from the synopsis, it seems like the "solution" of the premise ends up pretty labored and byzantine and not a draw. (Not fair to judge a book by its Wikipedia article, though, I know.)
NOS4A2 just sounds more interesting to me all round, and potentially more creepy. But I haven't read a lot about it, in order to avoid plot spoilers. So, if anyone out there has read it and has an opinion, I am very interested in your thoughts!
I read Hill's book of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts; I liked it fine, as far as I remember, but I don't remember it very well (even when going through the titles/synopses on Wikipedia just now) and have never felt the urge to check it out again to re-read any of them.
In a fit of optimism, I bought Heart-Shaped Box, and to my surprise and regret I really for-reals did not like it. In fact, I stopped reading it maybe 3/4 or a bit more of the way along. Not out of hatred or revulsion or anything... partly because I just never got to like the book, which created a steady, irritating boredom. The main character feels like a rootless cipher to me, a lot of signifiers of "rock star" that don't coalesce (is he a Mick-Jagger style historic rock and roll god from the 60s who's still always in the public memory? An old-fashioned 1970s country-rock-hippie gone recluse? An '80s rock and roll Bob Seger-style throwback? A '90s goth scare-meister Marilyn Manson? An industrial/machine-music Trent Reznor-type? WHO KNOWS, and I don't feel like the book does, either.). His string of super-power-imbalanced relationships with troubled young girls is like the last thing I have any sympathy for, and yet the book seems entirely on board with this. The tedious figuring-out of the "rules" of the supernatural wotsis going on is not an interesting means of propelling the story. I don't even care about the dogs, and when I do not care about the dogs, your novel has lost me, bro. (I also have figured out by now that the climax will involve the dogs, and since I don't care about them, I feel certain the book has no surprises to offer me to get me emotionally involved at this 11th hour.)
So, that was a total downer, because I had blithely expected to like it. It gets good reviews, as far as I've seen! People speak highly of it! Sigh.
I haven't read the next one yet, Horns--the premise is kind of offputting and doesn't grab me, although if a reliable someone were to recommend it, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. Full disclosure, though: I'm pretty spoiled for what happens in it (because it didn't grab me, at some point I did skim the Wikipedia synopsis), and just judging from the synopsis, it seems like the "solution" of the premise ends up pretty labored and byzantine and not a draw. (Not fair to judge a book by its Wikipedia article, though, I know.)
NOS4A2 just sounds more interesting to me all round, and potentially more creepy. But I haven't read a lot about it, in order to avoid plot spoilers. So, if anyone out there has read it and has an opinion, I am very interested in your thoughts!