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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Read for the 2015 Reading Challenge: A book that scares you.
The Langoliers.
“The Langoliers” is probably my favourite story of the book. I loved his interpretation of time, and time travel and everything. As a Doctor Who fan, I kept making connections between the book and the TV series,
The second one would be the characters. Especially Nick Hopewell. He was by far my favourite character in the entire story. I’m pretty sure I fell in love with him
Toomy deserves his own paragraph because yes. He’s not my favourite character of the book. In fact, I’d say he’s the one I disliked the most. But he still deserves his own paragraph, albeit it will probably be rather short. He was interesting, from a psychological point of view, and I can’t exactly blame him for what he was — I suppose many people would turn out the way he did if they lived through the same troubled childhood he had.
The ending was brilliant. I was scared the entire way, and pretty much expected everyone to die, to be honest. I mean, it’s Stephen King. What was I supposed to expect? I’d definitely recommend it, to anyone, really.
Secret Window, Secret Garden.
“Secret Window, Secret Garden” is fascinating. I already knew who John Shooter was halfway through the book,
Just like with “The Langoliers”, this story was packed with suspense, and kept me wanting to keep reading, just to find out the truth. I found it a little harder to read than the first story, though, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it less. I like the idea of the writer that has to face “his worse nightmare”
The interactions between the characters were well-done. I like how the divorce is handled in it, too. There are too many divorces out there that don’t end well, and these are the ones that are often depicted in stories. So we fail to remember that there are divorces that don’t necessarily end horribly, and you can still be on good terms with the other, despite some obvious tensions that will arise, like pretty much every moment where Amy, Mort and Ted are together.
And don’t get me started on the names. Let’s just start with Mort’s, okay? Mort, in French, means death. Ever since I saw what his nickname was, I had a feeling he would die — else he wouldn’t have been named that way. The names of characters in fiction don’t always mean anything related to the story, but in this case, it definitely did. Else, why “Mort”, which turns out to be death in another language? Yes, this definitely creeped me out, and I wasn’t surprised by his death at the end, even though I didn’t really expect him to die.
The entire story made me think of the film The Uninvited, which, granted, came out in 2009 (and is the remake of a film released in 2003). The film and the story share some central themes, like jealousy and, most importantly, a mental illness that ends with many deaths. If you haven’t seen the film, sorry for the spoiler.
This story was brilliant, which is why I’ll give it four stars out of five. Why not the five? I suppose because, even though I liked it very much, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting — but then again, what I was expecting was very weird. That and, well, I found it too predictable for me, although it might not be for others. Nevertheless, it’s still a very good story, and I recommend it to people who like Stephen King’s books, or simply fans of thriller stories
The Library Policeman.
I laughed with the very first sentence of “The Library Policeman”. Stephen King writes very funny first sentences. I think I’ve never laughed so much at the start of anyone’s books. In fact, I’ve laughed a lot with this story, perhaps more than with “Secret Window, Secret Garden”. Setting the comic aspect of this story aside, I don’t think I’ll ever view Libraries in the same way ever again. Which is actually quite horrible for me, because I love books, and libraries. Damn you, Stephen King.
I liked many things about it. One, the characters are perfectly ordinary. I mean, in “The Langoliers”, you had some special people
The other thing I absolutely loved about it was its creepiness. That might sound strange, but I was stressed out — hell, I was afraid during the entire story, wanting to see how it ended.
This story was amazing. I’d give it five stars out of five, because it’s bloody brilliant. It’s certainly my second-favourite story in this entire book — almost the first, almost — and probably the scariest one in it. I’m writing his review (‘cos I wrote them as I finished each story), and I still feel that uneasy feeling in my stomach. I’d definitely recommend it if you like this sort of thing. I promise you one thing, though: you’ll never see a Library in the same way ever again.
The Sun Dog.
“The Sun Dog” was my least favourite story out of the four. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t read it like the other ones: I had to make a lot of pauses and practically force myself to read again — after all, I still have 20 books to read for the Reading Challenge before the year ends. The story is good, the characters are well-done, and the idea is brilliant. I suppose I just didn’t like the way it was carried out.
Sure, I could recognise Stephen King’s writing in any sentence, and I think that’s what made it rather enjoyable, but still. I found it was too descriptive at times, or focused on parts of the story that, to me, were rather uninteresting. I did like the ending, though. And I like that we’re able to see the contrast between the beginning of the book and the end.
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this story, but if you want to read it, knock yourself out. If you enjoyed it, good for you. I’m glad somebody else liked it, even if it wasn’t me. Because it wasn’t necessarily a bad story, I’d give this three stars out of five.
‘Bout to give up, to be honest.
Grouping this with “It,” and other wastes of time.
I would definitely recommend this along with Different Seasons for anyone who is starting of with Stephen King. This collection is definitely all horror, but covers a variety of other genres as well (sci-fi, paranormal etc). The stories were all quite creepy especially book #4 The Sundog, which made something as innocuous as a camera disturbing. I also enjoyed hearing about familiar characters and happenings from other stories that were referenced in here (The Dark Half, Needful Things, Cujo) and also seeing a familiar type of villain in The Library Policeman (It, The Dark Tower).
I really like the stories The Langoliers as I love the classic The Mist, Library Policeman was also creepy to me. Secret Window, Secret Garden was okay. And the last story wasn’t the best to me.
Not my favourite collection but still great and well-written!
Secret Window, Secret Garden - 4 stars (cw pet violence)
The Library Policeman - 4 stars (cw molestation on page)
The Sun Dog - 3 stars (Cujo spoilers included, and this is the 2nd installment in a loose Castle Rock trilogy)
Rounding down to 3 overall because I had issues with the writing for various reasons in all stories, with the exception of SWSG whose downfall was only being extremely dated. (There is also some sexism/misogyny involved but the perspective allows it to feel like a reflection of the character rather than the writer, which I found more tolerable.) But those are pretty normal issues for SK, especially in his older works, and actually I had a pretty great time reading all of these. They're a great length, the concepts are really intriguing, the level of suspense and pacing is handled so well in all but The Langoliers. This a really consistent collection. I'd probably recommend it to people who've read SK's most popular works and aren't sure where to start with his lesser known stuff, as long as you go in knowing there are (as usual) some unsavory details.