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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Excellently written as per usual for Stephen King. Yet there was something about this that prevented me from absolutely being blown away by this story. Can't really place it right now but I didn't finish the book and go, WOW, like I usually do when reading a King novel. Solid 3.5 outta 5, probably was overhyped overall however the ending did give us an amazing peak at the truly scary stuff that King has rolling around in his mind.
якщо в мене й були колись суїцидальні думки - ця книга розв'язала це питання. може, трохи жорсткувато, але прям надійно.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
You really have to play the long game with this one, but it is well worth it! This was a great book that drew you in to the story as it painted a nice picture for you. This is also great, if you love classic horror like Frankenstein or H.P. Lovecraft. Charlie and Jaime are really charismatic characters that actually feel like people. I could even say that this was a better use of characters out of most of his books. I give it 3 Necronomicon's out of Frank N Furter.
This was definitely scary - I love the more psychological/supernatural scary stuff of his more so than his thriller-y stuff, so I quite welcomed this. That said, it didn't grab me quite as much as I'd hoped - I didn't feel the need to read it straight through. Not sure why. Still, great read!
As a slice of life story it does a fine job, however for all the buildup and suspense I found the horror lacking. The scariest part to me was how death comes for all of us eventually and seemingly at random.
All the "real-life horror" is what King always excels at. I'm just less fussed when he goes full-blown "giant ant leg coming out of a dead woman's mouth" horror. I still enjoyed it, though.
“...it was as if I could almost look through the world, and there was another world right behind it. A realer world.”
“Something happened,” Astrid said. “Didn’t it, Jamie? Something happened, and Mother will be here soon.”
To enjoy this book one must not be just a King fan but a King devotee.
As a King lover and being averse to DNFing ANY book...I don't care about all the specific visual imagery that takes up the slow parts of the plot. But I'm a sucker for a slow burn.
In the book, King uses the old saying of how to boil a frog. If you start the frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog patiently welcomes its peril. The MC brings this up to compare himself to the frog and it is exactly the same thing King does to the reader in this book. Starting with cold water, the childhood and adolescence of the MC and methodically turning up the heat. That being said, the eldritch horror when everything boils over is underwhelming it serves its purpose, but it was a great thrill patiently waiting for it.
King uses the same snarky marker to color all his characters. I could feel the Dan and Jack Torrance in the MCs brain.
“Neutrons are sexy! Electricity is dull”
“I’m a little long in the tooth for the Bieb.
“I had no interest in being eye-to-eye with his elderly schlong.”
“I knew I was carrying something poisonous, and would probably carry it for the rest of my life. The last thing I wanted was to infect the people I loved.”
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes