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adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a masterpiece. It’s like reading several books in one, and each is superb. Stephen King can truly write anything, any genre; I know this does fall under the “horror” genre, but not for a lot of the book. It’s a story about a young boy, Jamie, and his nuclear family in small town Maine in the 1960’s. God fearing, church going, hard working, etc. When the new Methodist minister, Charlie Jacobs, comes to town ahead of his wife and young son, Jamie is the first kid he meets. He helps Jamie’s brother Conrad after an accident takes his voice. He’s a little obsessed with electricity, but he keeps the Bible and Jesus interesting for the young folk. But then something tragic happens, and he leaves the area. Jamie grows up and does too though, playing rhythm guitar for a handful of bands, ending up all over the country. And one fateful night in Oklahoma he runs into ol’ Charlie Jacobs at the state fair. Charlie helps him get through some shit, with his electrical experiments, and then finds him the perfect job out in Colorado working at a recording studio. All is well, until some more years later in pops Charlie. And shit is getting weird.
I loved watching Jamie grow up, though there are of course some big time jumps, and I enjoyed watching him figure Charlie out. He was slow on the uptake for some of it, but so was I. I loved seeing him overcome his addiction, no matter the method. It’s just that the method left him feeling somewhat indebted to Crazy Charlie. And the Final Showdown fucked me up man. I shan’t mention a word about it though, but it fucked me up. In the same vein as A Short Stay In Hell it makes me giggle to picture the ultra-religious passing away and ending up either of the Afterworlds from this one or ASSIH, so drastically different from anything their religion taught them. But this one is infinitely scarier.
The book as whole is not scary. There are some sad parts, some difficult parts, and the creep factor does begin picking up after running into Charlie in Colorado, and then New York, and then Maine again, except once we’re back in Maine it’s pretty much nothing but fucking creepy. I’m glad I stopped reading last night because I don’t think I’d have fallen asleep easily. But the ending is also sad; all the reactions by the various “success cases.”
Anyway. If you haven’t read a lot of King and you read this, you may be surprised by some of his other works later on, or on the other hand if you think King isn’t for you because of this, try his other works. I think I could put this in my top 10 King list, if counting The Dark Tower series as one entry. Excellent fucking book.
I loved watching Jamie grow up, though there are of course some big time jumps, and I enjoyed watching him figure Charlie out. He was slow on the uptake for some of it, but so was I. I loved seeing him overcome his addiction, no matter the method. It’s just that the method left him feeling somewhat indebted to Crazy Charlie. And the Final Showdown fucked me up man. I shan’t mention a word about it though, but it fucked me up. In the same vein as A Short Stay In Hell it makes me giggle to picture the ultra-religious passing away and ending up either of the Afterworlds from this one or ASSIH, so drastically different from anything their religion taught them. But this one is infinitely scarier.
The book as whole is not scary. There are some sad parts, some difficult parts, and the creep factor does begin picking up after running into Charlie in Colorado, and then New York, and then Maine again, except once we’re back in Maine it’s pretty much nothing but fucking creepy. I’m glad I stopped reading last night because I don’t think I’d have fallen asleep easily. But the ending is also sad; all the reactions by the various “success cases.”
Anyway. If you haven’t read a lot of King and you read this, you may be surprised by some of his other works later on, or on the other hand if you think King isn’t for you because of this, try his other works. I think I could put this in my top 10 King list, if counting The Dark Tower series as one entry. Excellent fucking book.