bibliophilelinda 's review for:

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

3.0

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Admittedly not my favorite King novel. While the story was good, as are all of King's brainchilds, this one wasn't as riveting. I guess, even for King, there was too much backstory that clogged up the story's pacing. I found myself actually a bit bored reading it. This is the story of four friends, Jonesy, Henry, Beaver and Pete, who meet with an unlucky fate on their annual deer hunting/camping vacation. Aliens invade the woods where they hold their expedition and use a combination of wormlike creatures and a fungus to kill their hosts. In the process of their invasion, humans become telepatheic but the boys already have a higher-than-average-ESP and the extra telepathy proves to be the marauding alien's undoing. The pivotal link to destroying the dreamlike quality of the alien's invasion is their friend Duddits (Douglas), a child with downs syndrome who original gifted the boys with special communication abilities. While trying to rid the world of this menace, they have to deal with psychotic paramilitary officials, people already infected with the "virus" and come to grips with their own pasts. Gory and full of action, but weighed down with excessive backstory.