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A review by lfields19
Mile 81 by Stephen King
2.0
I love Stephen King. I've been reading his books since I was 12 or 13, and he's the writer I judge all other writers by. Anyone who knows me knows how it pains me to give something he wrote two stars. The sad fact is, I'm pretty sure if anyone else had written this I'd only give it one star. I can't seem to bring myself to take off the 2nd star though the book doesn't really deserve it.
I bought this book for my Kindle, happy to give my old friend SK my $2.99. I was surprised when the book ended abruptly at 80%, and the other 20% was a preview of his new novel coming out in November. A cheap ploy, especially considering everyone's going to buy it already so he hardly needs to advertise.
The story opened up with a 10 year old kid, and I found myself wondering if SK has finally gotten too old to write children believably. He has written many child characters I've adored - The kids in It, Jake Chambers, Travelin' Jack, etc etc. The kid in this book, Pete, felt incongruous somehow. Not genuine. The story, about a car that's really an alien that eats people, was pretty stupid, but really, a lot of his stories sound stupid in description. I remember a short story about some plastic teeth that came to life and killed people and I liked that one. This one just felt contrived, like he didn't really care about it any more than I did as I was reading it.
But what really got me, more than anything else, was the AT&T plug. The cop was playing Words With Friends on his iPad, internet provided by AT&T. That's almost exactly how he said it. I have a very hard time forgiving blatant product placement. It's bad enough on TV; it's worse in books. I don't see how SK could possibly need the money and I'd be shocked to hear AT&T had ever inspired that kind of loyalty in anyone, to earn a mention like that. Reading it from my very favorite author of all time made me feel dirty.
All in all, I wish I'd not read this story at all.
I bought this book for my Kindle, happy to give my old friend SK my $2.99. I was surprised when the book ended abruptly at 80%, and the other 20% was a preview of his new novel coming out in November. A cheap ploy, especially considering everyone's going to buy it already so he hardly needs to advertise.
The story opened up with a 10 year old kid, and I found myself wondering if SK has finally gotten too old to write children believably. He has written many child characters I've adored - The kids in It, Jake Chambers, Travelin' Jack, etc etc. The kid in this book, Pete, felt incongruous somehow. Not genuine. The story, about a car that's really an alien that eats people, was pretty stupid, but really, a lot of his stories sound stupid in description. I remember a short story about some plastic teeth that came to life and killed people and I liked that one. This one just felt contrived, like he didn't really care about it any more than I did as I was reading it.
But what really got me, more than anything else, was the AT&T plug. The cop was playing Words With Friends on his iPad, internet provided by AT&T. That's almost exactly how he said it. I have a very hard time forgiving blatant product placement. It's bad enough on TV; it's worse in books. I don't see how SK could possibly need the money and I'd be shocked to hear AT&T had ever inspired that kind of loyalty in anyone, to earn a mention like that. Reading it from my very favorite author of all time made me feel dirty.
All in all, I wish I'd not read this story at all.