NOS4A2

NOS4A2

Author	Joe Hill
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Horror
Publisher	William Morrow and Company
Published in English	April 30, 2013
Pages	720 pages
ISBN

NOS4A2 (pronounced Nosferatu) is the third novel by American author Joe Hill. The book was published on April 30, 2013 through William Morrow and Company and focuses on a woman trying to save her son from a vicious, supernatural killer who has set his sights on him. The novel is called NOS4R2 in the United Kingdom.

A limited edition version of the book was released through Subterranean Press, featuring the novella Wraith that was cut from the manuscript as well an alternate ending. A comic book tie-in miniseries from IDW Publishing entitled Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland was announced. The miniseries takes place in Christmasland and features characters from the novel.

NOS4A2 was nominated for the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

The book opens in a hospital in 2008. Charles Manx, a convicted child abductor, briefly wakes from a coma to threaten a nurse. Her coworkers don't believe her claim, because he exhibits only limited brain function.

The book flashes back to 1986. Young Vic McQueen discovers that she can find lost things by riding her bicycle through the Shorter Way Bridge. The Bridge always takes her to the location of whatever she is seeking. Traveling this way takes a mental and physical toll on her. She has to lie about how she finds things, because the truth would not be believed. On one such trip, she travels to an Iowa library where she meets Maggie, a librarian that can use Scrabble tiles to determine the location of missing items or information. Similar to using the Bridge, this divination process takes a toll on Maggie, causing a severe stutter. She warns Vic against Manx, whom she calls "the Wraith" after the model of car he drives because she is unable to divine his real name. Vic travels home, but loses her bike and develops a terrible fever. Manx enlists chemical plant worker Bing to acquire a gingerbread-flavored sevoflurane that the factory produces. Bing believes that Manx is taking the children to a place called "Christmasland" where they can be happy forever, and uses the sevoflurane to incapacitate the parents of the children Manx targets.