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trudilibrarian's review
4.0
I usually like to end my year (or start) with Stephen King, so I decided upon this feisty freebie available online here. I first read this back in October as a short story included in the Stephen Jones anthology [b:A Book of Horrors|12711120|A Book of Horrors|Stephen Jones|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327598597s/12711120.jpg|17844816]. I enjoyed it then very much, but I really dig it as a graphic novel.
I love the coloring used - almost a sickly underwater green, black and bruised shades of blue - and I love the facial expressions. I'm not a graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I found the close-ups of the eyes very effective.
This is also a very text heavy adaptation, so if you don't like your comics to be swimming in words, that will probably be a turn off. I didn't mind it though. I love how King's words build mood and atmosphere and a slow, inevitable creep towards something sinister.
In my original review of the short story I made comparisons to those great speculative machines of the past famous for churning out stories of the weird and the macabre -- Tales from the Crypt, Twilight Zone and Night Gallery to name the holy trinity. King himself has described his adolescent obsession with horror comics (before such comics were disbanded as lewd and contributing to the delinquency and illiteracy of juveniles). Good call guys. Job well done.
King's love for the genre eventually culminated in his collaboration with George Romero producing the cult classic Creepshow, a cheesy romp of delight and a fitting homage to the great horror comics of the past from two rabid fanboys. This story - "The Little Green God of Agony" - could have been slipped in there and filmed with all the others without missing a beat.
King is no stranger to excruciating pain. His long road to recovery after his near fatal accident has definitely influenced his approach to the subject. Fans won't be surprised to see him turn his writer's eye to a pain so intolerable one can only imagine the body itself has been possessed by an evil entity that feeds off the agony. While the ending is not that surprising, it sure is sweet getting there.
bibliobethreads's review
4.0
As regular readers of my blog will know, I am a huge Stephen King fan and jumped at the chance to include this short story by him, which has not been published in any of his other collections. As usual, for me, King does not disappoint. The story opens with a man who is lying in bed in a great deal of pain and talking about the accident that left him in this manner to an as yet unnamed gentleman. Meanwhile his therapist Kat is trying to relieve his pain by a number of different methods. Kat is our narrator, and while treating Andrew, she whispers aside to the reader that she is able to predict exactly what he is going to say next. It is obvious she has heard this story many times before and is finding it slightly tiresome. She does believe her client when he says he is in pain, however she is somewhat unsympathetic as he does not seem to be making an active effort to get better, in her opinion. It turns out that the gentleman Andrew is regaling with his unfortunate (and from what he seems to think, heroic) accident is a healer, that he has employed to rid him of his pain once and for all. Kat is incredibly sceptical, assuming the healer – Reverend Rideout, is a sham, and capitalising on Andrew’s desperation for relief. However, the process of healing for Andrew turns out to be less “mumbo jumbo,” and more terrifyingly real.
I really enjoyed this story, it was absolutely perfect in length, just long enough to reel you in, and short enough to leave you begging for more. I loved seeing the scene from Kat’s perspective, and also sympathising with Andrew, having some personal experience of chronic pain myself. The Reverend Rideout is a fantastic character, mysterious and yet strangely entertaining. He asks Andrew to visualise his pain – what form does it take? What colour is it? Hence The Little Green God of Agony. I’m sure when King wrote this he was reminiscing on his own painful road to recovery after the accident that nearly killed him. And the ending? Well, thank you Mr King, you completely creeped me out. I had to walk home in the dark after this….
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
I really enjoyed this story, it was absolutely perfect in length, just long enough to reel you in, and short enough to leave you begging for more. I loved seeing the scene from Kat’s perspective, and also sympathising with Andrew, having some personal experience of chronic pain myself. The Reverend Rideout is a fantastic character, mysterious and yet strangely entertaining. He asks Andrew to visualise his pain – what form does it take? What colour is it? Hence The Little Green God of Agony. I’m sure when King wrote this he was reminiscing on his own painful road to recovery after the accident that nearly killed him. And the ending? Well, thank you Mr King, you completely creeped me out. I had to walk home in the dark after this….
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
david611's review
4.0
This was an interesting story of something equivalent to exorcism, but not precisely. A story not about pain, but agony. About how (perhaps), a person has the capability to recover from pain, but not from agony. Agony here being the result of a little evil demon god feeding over pain, within, that needs to be exorcised!!
The story was indeed well-written and great to read. The characters were interesting enough. A skeptical nurse, a paraplegic millionaire, and a 'healer'.
The story was indeed well-written and great to read. The characters were interesting enough. A skeptical nurse, a paraplegic millionaire, and a 'healer'.
art_cart_ron's review
2.0
Why do we always give Stephen King a pass on bad endings?
I know he's a great writer. I'm a Constant Reader®. But, we also know that he ends stories unsatisfactorily a lot of the time. In a longer form, this is not as bad - we enjoyed the journey.
In a short story - nope. Not cool.
I know he's a great writer. I'm a Constant Reader®. But, we also know that he ends stories unsatisfactorily a lot of the time. In a longer form, this is not as bad - we enjoyed the journey.
In a short story - nope. Not cool.
calistareads's review
4.0
What do you know, Stephen King mentions my childhood hometown. The reverend who is in the story is from Jonesboro Arkansas. I wouldn’t think that little place would show up in a story. Anyway.
This was a great story, one of the best in the Bazaar of Bad Dreams. We meet an old rich white man who had an accident and is in constant pain. He is being taken care of my his nurse, Kat. There are a few more people in the room, one of them being the reverend who is here to heal the old man. Kat is against it and knows this man is a charlatan and wants the old man to do the hard work of physical therapy instead of looking for shortcuts.
The piece gets good from here and this is a supernatural story. It’s one of my favorite of the collection. The ending has a creepy factor.
This was a great story, one of the best in the Bazaar of Bad Dreams. We meet an old rich white man who had an accident and is in constant pain. He is being taken care of my his nurse, Kat. There are a few more people in the room, one of them being the reverend who is here to heal the old man. Kat is against it and knows this man is a charlatan and wants the old man to do the hard work of physical therapy instead of looking for shortcuts.
The piece gets good from here and this is a supernatural story. It’s one of my favorite of the collection. The ending has a creepy factor.
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