NOS4A2 (October 2020) ~ Kylie & Katie & Rosina

[Althea ☾, Group Procrastinator (On Hiatus)]

Welcome to the NOS4A2 Buddy Read Discussion thread! This thread officially opens on October 9th and anyone can join at any time. Please keep in mind that spoilers are allowed in this thread but only up to the group's current reading place. Do not spoil the book if you've read further than the group. Any extra days can be used to catch up!

Each day we will be reading by chapters or page numbers. Page numbers are an approximation based on the hardcover or paperback that is the default on Goodreads. The suggested Buddy Read discussion schedule is as follows:

Week of 10/4
Friday - Day 1 read to page 75 The Librarian 1991
Saturday -Day 2 read to page 193 Interlude The Spirit of Ecstasy 2000-2012
Sunday -Day 3 read to page 306 Beside the Bay
Monday -Day 4 read to page 411 The St Nicholas Parkway
Tuesday -Day 5 read to page 497 Christmasland July 7-9
Wednesday -Day 6 read to page 596 Christopher McQueen's House
Thursday -Day 7 read to end


PARTICIPANTS
~ Kylie
~ Katie
~ Rosina

[Rosina]

I will look over the chapters and what kind of schedule could work....
any preference for start date?

[Kylie]

Looks like I’ll be finishing up the book I’m reading today, so anytime works for me. I think Katie said Thursday or Friday?

[Rosina]

So I looked over the chapters and i think i will aim for 80 to 100 pages a day. I have other challenges to fit books in as well. i can start friday as well.

Do you think we need to set up a daily schedule or is just doing a number of pages per day will work?

I have a kindle edition with 687 pages

[itchy]

i'll join you guys on friday

[Katie]

Usually it's easier to divide it up by chapters since each of us is probably reading a different edition. If someone with a paper/ereader copy can give a rough estimate of how many pages are in each chapter, we can divide it up that way. I've never read Joe Hill outside of the Locke and Key series, so I'm not sure how long his chapters tend to be.

[Kylie]

I’m going to be listening to the audiobook, so a chapter assignment would be easier for me to follow too. Let us know about how many chapters 80-100 pages looks like and I’m cool with that timeline

[Kylie]

I’ll be starting this today. Have we decided how many chapters per day?

[Katie]

So there are 103 chapters, according to my audiobook. Maybe around ~10-12 per day? Some of them are pretty short so it might average out.

[itchy]

starting today, too. will be reading conventionally. hope i can keep up

[Rosina]

Hi everyone
So excited to get started with this...picked up a paperback copy 689 pages

So here goes for the approximate pages per day

Friday - Day 1 read to page 75 The Librarian 1991
Saturday -Day 2 read to page 193 Interlude The Spirit of Ecstasy 2000-2012
Sunday -Day 3 read to page 306 Beside the Bay
Monday -Day 4 read to page 411 The St Nicholas Parkway
Tuesday -Day 5 read to page 497 Christmasland July 7-9
Wednesday -Day 6 read to page 596 Christopher McQueen's House
Thursday -Day 7 read to end

I will try to remember to do a daily checkin with comments/thoughts

[itchy]

checkpoint reached: a different kind of Santa was introduced

[Rosina]

itchy wrote: "checkpoint reached: a different kind of Santa was introduced"

Are you enjoying so far?

[itchy]

Rosina wrote: "Are you enjoying so far?"

let's just say that i have no problem reading on

today's material is definitely intriguing. i mean, how else can one assimilate the Shorter Way Bridge this early on?

i had intended to read Heart-Shaped Box first to get a feel for the writing style, but i guess i can't have em all. guy has big shoes to fill

[Rosina]

I started only 25 pages...so far loving it...writes very similar to his Dad.....

[Kylie]

I feel ashamed to admit that I haven’t actually read any of Stephen King’s novels (although I’ve seen many of the film adaptations); I’m finally planning on getting to The Shining for this challenge.

But this is my 3rd Joe Hill. I’ve read Heart Shaped Box, and The Fireman.

Quite a lot of background and character development in this segment. Charlie is sinister, and he couldn’t have found anyone better to help him with Christmasland than Bing Partridge; I mean, isn’t that just such a Christmas-y name?

[itchy]

Bing's introduction is what happened in his dad's The Stand in a smaller scale

[Katie]

I'm a little bit ahead of where we have listed since I was able to start on Thursday, so no spoilers! I also have never read Stephen King, but I've never really been interested in horror until this year.

One thing that I feel may be similar to King, according to what I've heard, is a lot of things are oversexualized for no reason. Every background character is a Trash Person who makes everything about (spoiler tag is for gross language even though we're all reading this book so it probably doesn't matter) (view spoiler)[ "tits and cock" (hide spoiler)] and I don't feel like the story really NEEDS that? All these people thinking about others in such a weird way, it feels so unrealistic to me. I get that horror is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, but this is making me uncomfy for the wrong reasons.

I want to continue to see what happens in the main storyline with Vic and Charlie but I'm not loving a lot of the tertiary stuff so far.

[Rosina]

Morning....I finally finished the first part this morning...I am quite enjoying the story....his writing is very descriptive and I find I get lost in the story/world much as I do when I read King Sr....
(view spoiler)[ Question....so when Charlie picks up Bing and Bing asked about the license plate...Charlie says its Nosferatu.....which from what I can find out is reference for Vampire...So Charlie is a Vampire?....I guess reference to he has been doing this for 70 years which makes him old...He must be a special kind of vampire....
The Graveyard of What Might Be.....that would freak me out to look down and see a face staring up at me....so these children are ones that are suspended until they get to enter Christmasland?/.... (hide spoiler)]

[itchy]

checkpoint #2: a bit of action

for Rosina
(view spoiler)[
yes, it does insinuate that he is a vampire of some sort--maybe a Joe Hill-branded one. i expect we'll get more info sooner or later

i suppose those children in the graveyard are Charlie's by-product, and Christmasland is just bait
(hide spoiler)]

[Kylie]

That’s interesting about The Stand, itchy. After I read The Fireman, I noticed a few reviewers were saying that it was very similar to The Stand also. Having never read it, I couldn’t make any connections though.

Katie, I understand what you mean about the overly sexual stuff. Bing in particular skeeves me out so far.

[itchy]

checkpoint #3: things were looking grim

good morning, ladies. it's 0600 sunday from where i am (gmt +8) and definitely a beautiful day to read (it was raining half the night, actually). i have a feeling the story is going be get awesome real soon

edit:
anyone knows the difference between buddy reading and group reading?

[Rosina]

Good morning
Just finished Checkpoint 2
i am really enjoying the story. At first I was turned off by how the chapters are structured but its ok now....just different...
(view spoiler)[I am interested in finding out who or what Charlie Manx is and how Vic will come into play ....I wonder if she will be the one to stop Charlie Manx or will it be Bing?
I thought the part where Vic is rescued by Lou and the scene at the country store gave me the feels of the Stand in the beginning when the car crashes into the pumps. (hide spoiler)]

I really need to read The Stand again as I read it when it first was published and that made me a King fan. I do have the audio for it as well.

Here it is Thanksgiving weekend. Yesterday we had a small dinner with my brother and played a board game called Sequence. For Sunday and Monday hubby and I are watching movies and I will be reading as I have 3 books for challenges to work on.

Hope everyone is enjoying this book so far. I am also doing BR for The Bone Witch has anyone read it? So far its captured my attention.

[Kylie]

Itchy, a group read is a book voted upon by the group and featured as a book of the month. Buddy reads are small groups interested in discussing books that aren’t featured group reads.

[Kylie]

I find the styling of the chapters interesting. Especially when Vic is trying to escape the house. The way the chapters were broken made it slightly more suspenseful. Interesting that Vic’s bike was able to make the Shorter Way Bridge disappear without Vic being on it; I assumed that she was required to make its “magic” work.

[itchy]

that styling caused me to think that my copy was broken the first time, haha

group, meaning The Procrastinators Book Club, right? not just The Hannibal Lecterns?

[Kylie]

Yea, the Book Club as a whole

[Katie]

I have a theory that it's the items, like Vic's bike and the car, were magic first, and then over time transferred some of their magic to their person. No clue why these items were magic in the first place, or maybe a special congruence of a magical person and a magical item, but I don't think that will be explained anyway. I feel like it's part of the horror if there are some mysteries left unanswered, and the logistics of how this all happened are probably going to be one of them.

[itchy]

checkpoint #4: more deliberation

happy monday everyone. my boss decided i need to take one for the team and take an unpaid leave of absence for 3 days (COVID19 is such a drag). i'm on the clock at the moment but i'm staring at 3 whole days to tackle more Joe Hill (i'm switching to Heart-Shaped Box after hitting the checkpoint)

agree wholeheartedly with unanswered mysteries adding to the horror

[itchy]

checkpoint #5: KABLOOEY

[itchy]

checkpoint #6: Hutter's play

[Rosina]

Hey everyone ....ive fallen behind in my reading....i guess too many BR and challenges at once....still plugging along...im in just starting Checkpoint 4...really enjoying the story so far...

[Kylie]

Kablooey is right! Good riddance.

I know there is a lot of content that is gross or uncomfortable in this book (Bing is just the worst), but I had the biggest issue with the dog. I can’t help it; stuff like that is almost enough for me to abandon the book altogether.

I seriously want Vic to use that bone hammer on Charlie. Like right upside the head.

[itchy]

checkpoint #7: "...f*cking Fourth of July."

kudos to Kylie for picking a splendid book. see you on the other end of the bridge, ladies. don't forget to check the tv adaptation out, if you're up to it

[Katie]

okay so here's my final thoughts

i liked the story overall, though it was certainly more of a paranormal/supernatural thriller than horror to me. there were parts that were disturbing but nothing super scary to me. i haven't even mentioned how much i love lou but i would die for him, so jot that down.

i've mentioned my issues with the gratuitous violence, and let me just add to that the inclusion of the n-word. WHY????? it wasn't even said by some terrible racist character, which is something i still don't love in books written by white people but at least it makes sense. this was just part of some stupid metaphor in the narrative, i guess also for shock value? like i said, i've never read anything from stephen king, but from what i've heard this seems like a family trait in their writing styles and i am not a fan.

overall, 3 stars, i am starting the tv show immediately to see how it compares.

[Kylie]

I loved Lou too, Katie! He was such a supportive character.

This book was definitely a trip. I wanted more horror too, but this story was definitely twisted which is what I planned on cramming into this season.