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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
This book is an unstoppable trash machine in both a good and a bad sense.
On the good side, you get a very well-written thriller full of bonkers scatological body horror, juicy alien imagery, military drama, and telepathy (so much telepathy).
On the bad side, you get a well-meaning but deeply problematic portrayal of a character with Down's syndrome. And it's not just a case of "oh, there's this one scene that bothered me" – the whole story is constructed around this and leads to some of the corniest stuff King has committed to paper.
I feel like the people who most vocally hate this book have issues with the "good side" of its trashiness, and to me that just means that these readers can't match this book's freak. This is a novel that was written while fucked up on pain killers; it is bringing exactly the correct energy to well-established sci-fi horror tropes. But it's also very, very ableist.
In fact, this book is a constant struggle of good and bad trashiness: It has fantastic gross-out horror scenes but also protracted pointless chases where you can feel the novel being veeeeeery long. Much of it takes place, very impressively, on a kind of psychic mental plane, but then internal inconsistencies and daytime-TV-level discourse about disabled people come in. There are some genuinely interesting character moments, but there are also some of the worst sentences King has ever written.
In the end, I will admit that I was largely won over by the violent and trippy candy this book packs, and if it had taken a different direction thematically (say, focusing even more on pain and broken bodies rather than on humanity, cognition and telepathy), it would be a proper fave for me. Now it's more of a guilty pleasure, but it's just such a hot mess that I do recommend it for those looking for exquisite trash.
I don’t think many people would or should enjoy this book, but it’s a must if you’re a King fan and/or a freaky literary trash goblin
On the good side, you get a very well-written thriller full of bonkers scatological body horror, juicy alien imagery, military drama, and telepathy (so much telepathy).
On the bad side, you get a well-meaning but deeply problematic portrayal of a character with Down's syndrome. And it's not just a case of "oh, there's this one scene that bothered me" – the whole story is constructed around this and leads to some of the corniest stuff King has committed to paper.
I feel like the people who most vocally hate this book have issues with the "good side" of its trashiness, and to me that just means that these readers can't match this book's freak. This is a novel that was written while fucked up on pain killers; it is bringing exactly the correct energy to well-established sci-fi horror tropes. But it's also very, very ableist.
In fact, this book is a constant struggle of good and bad trashiness: It has fantastic gross-out horror scenes but also protracted pointless chases where you can feel the novel being veeeeeery long. Much of it takes place, very impressively, on a kind of psychic mental plane, but then internal inconsistencies and daytime-TV-level discourse about disabled people come in. There are some genuinely interesting character moments, but there are also some of the worst sentences King has ever written.
In the end, I will admit that I was largely won over by the violent and trippy candy this book packs, and if it had taken a different direction thematically (say, focusing even more on pain and broken bodies rather than on humanity, cognition and telepathy), it would be a proper fave for me. Now it's more of a guilty pleasure, but it's just such a hot mess that I do recommend it for those looking for exquisite trash.
I don’t think many people would or should enjoy this book, but it’s a must if you’re a King fan and/or a freaky literary trash goblin
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
The best part of this book? That it’s finally over! Joking aside, it was okay, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that King’s editors and publishers gave him far too much leeway—perhaps out of sympathy for the fact that he wrote it after his major accident. It feels like it’s missing a strong edit; the book is unnecessarily long, with excessive repetition and a lot of filler. Honestly, I skimmed through most of the second half.
There’s an overload of stream-of-consciousness writing and references, I got tired of reading footnotes and it was pulling me out of the flow constantly. That said, I really enjoyed the overlapping perspectives—seeing events unfold through different characters’ eyes added a fun dynamic.
As expected from King, the characters are well-developed, believable, and relatable. The ending was excellent and made up for the struggle of getting there. However, the story itself isn’t something I’d want to reread.
There’s an overload of stream-of-consciousness writing and references, I got tired of reading footnotes and it was pulling me out of the flow constantly. That said, I really enjoyed the overlapping perspectives—seeing events unfold through different characters’ eyes added a fun dynamic.
As expected from King, the characters are well-developed, believable, and relatable. The ending was excellent and made up for the struggle of getting there. However, the story itself isn’t something I’d want to reread.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
dark
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
The person who recommended this to me must have hated my ass
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
A good book, one that I have a big bias towards liking as it was my first SK novel and a gift from my mother.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail
Let's keep in mind that King was going through extreme physical pain from his car accident during this time. As a result, this era of his works don't really good up well. This is a prime example of it. I will say that this book does move at a good pace and I did like the reference to the Loser's Club, but everything else just made me want to drink to forget. I hated the characters, dialogue, and just the overall story. It could be possible to see it as a short story, but not as a full novel. Hard pass.