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Stephen King has been on a roll recently. I read a lot of his books when i was younger, and still love The Stand, Salem's Lot, The Shining and, especially, IT, but the late 80s and the 90s were, to me anyway, a lean time for King and we grew apart. Since his serious accident his work appears to be growing stronger. I loved Under the Dome despite the weak ending, thought 11.22.63 was as strong as anything since IT and, while Doctor Sleep was no Shining, it was enjoyable.
Revival shares a lot of the nostalgia of his recent Joyland, a really good pulp novel, and the first person narration of Mr Mercedes, a solid crime novel, but the tone, especially as it builds towards the climax, reminds me of something like Pet Semetary. It is bleak. It is scary. It owes a lot to Lovecraft, as King acknowledges in his epigram and directly in the novel. The story is nasty, in the right way, and haunting. Whether it will remain so in the mind with time, as those early novels do, remains to be seen but I now look forward to the new Stephen King in a way I haven't done for years and that has got to be a good thing. I can't wait to see what he and Peter Straub come up with if and when their third collaboration arrives.
Revival shares a lot of the nostalgia of his recent Joyland, a really good pulp novel, and the first person narration of Mr Mercedes, a solid crime novel, but the tone, especially as it builds towards the climax, reminds me of something like Pet Semetary. It is bleak. It is scary. It owes a lot to Lovecraft, as King acknowledges in his epigram and directly in the novel. The story is nasty, in the right way, and haunting. Whether it will remain so in the mind with time, as those early novels do, remains to be seen but I now look forward to the new Stephen King in a way I haven't done for years and that has got to be a good thing. I can't wait to see what he and Peter Straub come up with if and when their third collaboration arrives.