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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
King has tried to say goodbye to Castle Rock on several occasions, but we aren’t always ready to let a good thing go. Hey, I’m still not, this town is almost as fun as Derry (but not quite!), so being in the town again with its character references was thrilling enough. A nod to the underappreciated Cujo was especially liked, but there’s also some mentions of stories from The Dark Half, The Body, Sun Dog, and probably a few more buried memories in the town.
Layered and complicated, creative and well-rounded characters, well-written with a wicked ending -- one of King's better books, but it suffered from too-long-itis. It would have been a much better story if a few hundred pages were trimmed for my impatient mind. The first three hundred pages and the ending were the strongest. The book starts slowly but somehow stays gripping despite the inching plot, I think it’s the middle that started wearing me out, mainly due to such a huge rush of head-hopping that it becomes tedious and somewhat confusing.
Leland Gaunt has become a well-liked King character despite whether you enjoy the movie or the book. I didn’t find him particularly special compared to some of the other villains he’s created, but he works well for the story. The sudden shifts of an almost cheesy nature work well with the underlying comedic tone that sometimes hits the book, which the movie ended up playing up. He did come across a little more flat and character-cheesy in the end of it all, but I have to admit there’s a certain sense of style with his ride and his style.
It’s always a delight to see the Sheriff again. He’s one of my favorites of King’s characters.
I'm happy I read it, but it wasn't a perfect sale.
Layered and complicated, creative and well-rounded characters, well-written with a wicked ending -- one of King's better books, but it suffered from too-long-itis. It would have been a much better story if a few hundred pages were trimmed for my impatient mind. The first three hundred pages and the ending were the strongest. The book starts slowly but somehow stays gripping despite the inching plot, I think it’s the middle that started wearing me out, mainly due to such a huge rush of head-hopping that it becomes tedious and somewhat confusing.
Leland Gaunt has become a well-liked King character despite whether you enjoy the movie or the book. I didn’t find him particularly special compared to some of the other villains he’s created, but he works well for the story. The sudden shifts of an almost cheesy nature work well with the underlying comedic tone that sometimes hits the book, which the movie ended up playing up. He did come across a little more flat and character-cheesy in the end of it all, but I have to admit there’s a certain sense of style with his ride and his style.
It’s always a delight to see the Sheriff again. He’s one of my favorites of King’s characters.
I'm happy I read it, but it wasn't a perfect sale.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gruesome story of greed, paranoia, anger, accusations, violence, and death. I listened to the audio and I'm so glad I did. Stephen King narrated and with the addition of the music, it was pure perfection! I'm in a serious book hangover now.
I picked this up because I wanted to try something new, even though I knew I wouldn’t like it.
I was correct, this wasn’t that enjoyable for me, but the premise seemed nice.
I skipped majority of the book, but I still found the whole story quite interesting.
I was correct, this wasn’t that enjoyable for me, but the premise seemed nice.
I skipped majority of the book, but I still found the whole story quite interesting.
This book was odd, in the end I can definitely say I enjoyed it . The layers upon layers of characters got a little tedious at times even though everyone played a part. I was very pleased with the final outcome but the story as a whole didn't 'Wow' me.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Admittedly not the most enjoyable King book for me, but definitely not the worst either. The opening itself was awesome; probably one of the best I've read for a while. And the plot itself was pretty sound + had some great scenes. HOWEVER, some of it did feel like it dragged on. I imagine it could easily have been condensed down somewhat. Also the ending didn't really 'do it' for me (no spoilers though). So on balance it was a solid 3 star read: not great, not terrible
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this novel. Aside from the weird music on the Audible version, it was a really thrilling read. The consistent characters (Leland Gaunt and Alan Pangborn) were enough to give the plot stability in a novel where there was a lot of characters and lots of sub-plots all feeding into the actual story. At first I found the jumping between characters and use of a third person narrative a little bit tricky. I was super concerned that it may have been trying to do too much all at once but all too soon I was engrossed in the world manipulated by Gaunt.
In terms of the fear factor this was MUCH creepier than "It" and probably on par with "The Shining" for me. Leland Gaunt's character really, truly got under my skin. There were sections of character description so vivid that I felt like Gaunt could walk off the pages and appear in front of me. This is one that I will probably go back to read again in the future because I feel like there were chunks of the story that were revisited at the end that I had not given a lot of thought or consideration to but that would help the story make more sense towards the end. This book truly left me with the chills from start to finish.
In terms of the fear factor this was MUCH creepier than "It" and probably on par with "The Shining" for me. Leland Gaunt's character really, truly got under my skin. There were sections of character description so vivid that I felt like Gaunt could walk off the pages and appear in front of me. This is one that I will probably go back to read again in the future because I feel like there were chunks of the story that were revisited at the end that I had not given a lot of thought or consideration to but that would help the story make more sense towards the end. This book truly left me with the chills from start to finish.