HORROR
REVIVAL by Stephen King (Hodder £20)
Revival by Stephen King
The master is back with his second novel of the year and a mental health warning — ‘I don’t want to think about this book any more,’ he said. ‘It’s too scary.’ Gulp.
Scary it certainly is — and then some — but Revival is also King at his regal best, fully in command of a terrific story, a great cast and page after page after page of top-notch writing. The story is told by Jamie Morton, who begins the novel as a sweet and innocent kid in pre-Beatles America, when he comes across Charles Jacobs.
Jacobs, in turn, starts out as a young, kindly Methodist minister, but loses his faith after his wife and young son are killed in a car accident. In one of the book’s many brilliant passages, Jacobs delivers his last ‘sermon’ — a searing denunciation of God and all religion.
The two protagonists meet again 16 years later, when Jamie is a rock musician with a life-threatening heroin habit and Jacobs is a huckster with electrifying schtick.
Thereafter, it’s a descent into madness for Jacobs, which will lead him, Jamie and the book’s terrified readers into the darkness of genuine horror. Absolutely superb. Yet again.
NOS 4R2 by Joe Hill (Gollancz £7.99)
NOS 4R2 by Joe Hill
His choice of pen-name shows that he’s done his best not to advertise the fact — but Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son.
And he has clearly inherited the thriller-chiller writing gene, with his previous three novels picking up a slew of awards in the U.S. This fourth novel has already added to his growing reputation.
Hill’s nightmarish, devilish protagonist is Charlie Manx — more demon than human — who uses his supernatural powers in his ghastly mission to kidnap and kill dozens of children . . . and to scare the living bejesus out of the readers. For many decades, Manx has been scouring the U.S. for his appallingly young victims in his vintage Rolls-Royce, whose numberplate gives the book its weird title.
You would have thought that numberplate would be a bit of a giveaway — like if Ronnie Biggs had a car registered ROBB3R. But the cops don’t seem to have noticed, so Charlie’s spree goes unchecked — until he comes across Vic McQueen.
Vic has her own magical power — access to a dream-like bridge, which can take her to places where people need her help — and it’s a bridge she will need when Charlie kidnaps her child.
This book is well-written, extremely dark and awfully gruesome. Granted, not quite in the same class as his dad — but then again, who is?
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