NOS4A2: A Novel
*Starred Review* In Heart-Shaped Box (2007) and Horns (2010), Hill showed hints of an enlarging literary toolbox. With this 700-page opus, the tool set is complete, and Hill has indeed built something very big. The story follows Vic, from 8-year-old girl to troubled teen to embattled mother, as she struggles to survive as a &#x201C;strong creative&#x201D;&#x2014;one who has access (in her case, via a ramshackle bridge) to an alternate universe constructed from imagination. Problem is, a chief attraction of this other America is Christmasland, a snowy Neverland carnival controlled by cheery, ageless child-abductor Charlie Manx (think Bentley Little&#x2019;s Mailman or Stephen King&#x2019;s Pennywise). Manx tries to take Vic to Christmasland as a kid, and years later, in the book&#x2019;s central conflict, he tries to take her son. Hill doesn&#x2019;t spend much time in reality before careening deliriously off into a la-la land of horrifying absurdism (a bottomless Scrabble bag, a mouth full of fish-hook teeth). This engenders inelegance; at times, the parts are more than the whole. But Hill is omnivorous in his appetite for story and character, and here he has created his best: Lou, Vic&#x2019;s obese, warm-hearted lover; Bing, Manx&#x2019;s demented chief elf; and gutsy, heartbreaking Vic. Occasional drawings by Hill&#x2019;s Locke &amp; Key conspirator, Gabriel Rodriguez, add one more element to this vast and gangly but undeniably readable work.      HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: What isn&#x2019;t being done for horror fiction&#x2019;s heir apparent? Big advertising, big author tour, big e-book teasers, big videos&#x2014;even the advance reading copies are gorgeously produced. --Daniel Kraus--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.