HOLY SMOKES! I can't believe this hasn't been on my radar from the go. Above is a picture of Zachary Quinto (best known as "new Spock") as Charlie Manx from the AMC series NOS4A2 (photo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly). Now let's dig down.
I was always a ready of Stephen King and later Dean Koontz. King always thrilled me but never seemed to know how to end a book. A lot of Koontz early stuff always seemed a little unfocused and airy to me. Then came Anne Rice, who was amazing, eventually became really watered down. I then actually drifted away from reading. Along came Joe Hill and I devoured his books and short stories. Hill is the son of Stephen King and for me, he's more focused than any of the above. For me, he just murders it.
The book that hooked me on Joe Hill was NOS4A2. First off, put the vampire Nosferatu out of your mind, that is very incidental and almost distracts from what is going on. NOS4A2 is actually the license plate on the car that carries around an ancient soul sucker. Oh yeah, the car is pretty much alive too. The villain steals children and takes them to a fantasy world called Christmasland. On the other side of the story is Vic, a girl and eventually a lady (strange how that works out) who has a knack for traveling to places where things are lost through a really neat portal. Now, all this may sound a bit too sci-fi for a horror buff, but trust me it works.
Apparently the first ten episodes of the series will be dealing only with the younger version of Vic, but should the series become a hit, it will may not only deal with the older Vic, but also characters in a shared universe....so basically, AMC is hoping to turn this show into the next Walking Dead.
For those of you who still read, pick up this book immediately, then circle back around and get "Heart-Shaped Box" and "Horns"...oh and the short story collection "Strange Weather' is amazing too. In the meantime, get ready for AMC's NOS4A2 in the summer of 2019.