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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This would probably be a 3.4 or 3.5 for me, but rounding down to a 3. It took a while for me to get into it. In my opinion, there was a bit too much of the jumping around and hinting at stuff that would be explained later. The first 100 -150 pages were actually quite hard to follow for me because of all the semi-introductions of characters and time jumps. I also thought there was a bit too much reliance and repetition of cutesy in-joke phrases. I understand it's a narrative aid, and it's something that appears in all of his books, but for the first time it seemed distracting and overwrought to me. There were echoes (sometimes very loud echoes) of my favorite book of his - Rose Madder. But I felt the pacing of this one was off, and I wished that the focus was a little more zeroed in.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death
Moderate: Self harm
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I’m a King fan but had a hard time with this one. I enjoyed the story but there was a lot of repetition and made it feel somewhat unedited.
"Booyah" another twisted tale of horror from the King himself
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Idk if I read this somewhere or made it up but I thought this was like a Stephen King like romance(ish) book he made for his wife so I was under the impression that this wouldn’t be his typical horror book and whelp I was wrong.
Typical Stephen king with his weird plot and kind of f-ed up scenes and whatnot. Not really my go to.. some of this was interesting but most of this was confusing? The whole switching back and forth all of a sudden from Scott’s past to Lisey’s current life was just confusing and not super well done in my opinion.
Not my worst SK book like it didn’t necessarily irritate me like Holly did. But now where near the top like 11.22.63 or It It or Pet Semetary
Typical Stephen king with his weird plot and kind of f-ed up scenes and whatnot. Not really my go to.. some of this was interesting but most of this was confusing? The whole switching back and forth all of a sudden from Scott’s past to Lisey’s current life was just confusing and not super well done in my opinion.
Not my worst SK book like it didn’t necessarily irritate me like Holly did. But now where near the top like 11.22.63 or It It or Pet Semetary
I read this book when it first came out, roughly 18 years ago. I remember liking it but not much beyond that. This book appears to be fairly divisive amongst King fans, with some even saying it's easily his worst book. Upon a reread, I found it to be quite good and downright creepy and scary, at times.
The flashbacks to Scott and Paul's childhood are downright terrifying and are probably my favorite part of the book (there's so much to like in this part; the messed up dad, what happens to Paul, and the end of Scott's childhood are all top-notch reading). The various trips into Boo'ya Moon are disturbing to say the least (the Long Boy and Laughers). And John Dooley is as creepy an antagonist as one could hope for.
This story is told across three different time lines (four if you also count Scott and Paul's childhood). The first is set in 1980 when Scott and Lisey first date and get married. The second is in 1996 when Scott gets shot by an obsessed fan. And finally, 2004 in the aftermath of Scott's death. These time lines cross over within the narrative over chapters or even just paragraphs.
I think some of the hate for this book stems from the fact that for the first while in this book, it can be somewhat confusing due to the time line aspect mentioned above and that events and things are referred to which the reader has not yet been told. The lexicon in this book is also a bit confusing as it is all made up stuff by Scott. However, as the story progresses, these things clear up and it reads almost like the slow resurfacing of a repressed memory, which I'm sure is what King was striving for with this approach.
I only really have two complaints about the book. One is that I hate fake swear words. I get that there are real people that talk like this (reality is Ralph) but it annoys the shit out of me. I especially hate it when its a really stupid/cutesy replacement. In this case, the characters say "smuck". It's smucking annoying is what it is. I hate it. The second thing is that every marriage has a language and it just so happens that Scott and Lisey's kinda sucks.
However, for readers that are willing to work a little for their entertainment, I think this book offers plenty. It's definitely not a typical King book but it still has so much of what makes King enjoyable to read. And as mentioned above, I think this book is genuinely scary and disturbing.
4.5 stars. Highly recommended.
The flashbacks to Scott and Paul's childhood are downright terrifying and are probably my favorite part of the book (there's so much to like in this part; the messed up dad, what happens to Paul, and the end of Scott's childhood are all top-notch reading). The various trips into Boo'ya Moon are disturbing to say the least (the Long Boy and Laughers). And John Dooley is as creepy an antagonist as one could hope for.
This story is told across three different time lines (four if you also count Scott and Paul's childhood). The first is set in 1980 when Scott and Lisey first date and get married. The second is in 1996 when Scott gets shot by an obsessed fan. And finally, 2004 in the aftermath of Scott's death. These time lines cross over within the narrative over chapters or even just paragraphs.
I think some of the hate for this book stems from the fact that for the first while in this book, it can be somewhat confusing due to the time line aspect mentioned above and that events and things are referred to which the reader has not yet been told. The lexicon in this book is also a bit confusing as it is all made up stuff by Scott. However, as the story progresses, these things clear up and it reads almost like the slow resurfacing of a repressed memory, which I'm sure is what King was striving for with this approach.
I only really have two complaints about the book. One is that I hate fake swear words. I get that there are real people that talk like this (reality is Ralph) but it annoys the shit out of me. I especially hate it when its a really stupid/cutesy replacement. In this case, the characters say "smuck". It's smucking annoying is what it is. I hate it. The second thing is that every marriage has a language and it just so happens that Scott and Lisey's kinda sucks.
However, for readers that are willing to work a little for their entertainment, I think this book offers plenty. It's definitely not a typical King book but it still has so much of what makes King enjoyable to read. And as mentioned above, I think this book is genuinely scary and disturbing.
4.5 stars. Highly recommended.
Not one of my favorites by King, but I'm still a fan.