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dabble 's review for:
Mr. Mercedes
by Stephen King
I have liked every other King novel I have read but this one was pretty bad.
1. Boring premise - a retired detective faces off against a psychotic killer in a race against time. I have read/seen this a hundred times. There was no twist, unless you count the fact that almost no one died, which is pretty unusual for King.
2. I didn't care about the characters - it wouldn't have mattered much to me if they had died, which robbed the book of its tension. Some of the dialogue made me cringe. Ultimately I was more interested in the fate of the Robinson family dog, Odell, than in any main character.
3. Computers - Stephen King's lack of familiarity with computers is ever-present. This is painfully obvious in multiple parts as he overexplains things that are already obvious to most people reading his book. Similarly, people who know how to change sound settings are basically master hackers.
4. Foreshadowing - King has a tendency to foreshadow in a very unsubtle way, e.g. "Hodges underestimated Holly, which he would later come to regret." This sort of foreshadowing doesn't bother me much in horror but it really annoyed me in this mystery thriller format, where the plot details should remain a mystery as long as possible.
I will probably stick to his horror/supernatural literature. The only thing supernatural about this book was Hodges' ability to deduce everything that Brady did/would do with almost nothing to go on.
1. Boring premise - a retired detective faces off against a psychotic killer in a race against time. I have read/seen this a hundred times. There was no twist, unless you count the fact that almost no one died, which is pretty unusual for King.
2. I didn't care about the characters - it wouldn't have mattered much to me if they had died, which robbed the book of its tension. Some of the dialogue made me cringe. Ultimately I was more interested in the fate of the Robinson family dog, Odell, than in any main character.
3. Computers - Stephen King's lack of familiarity with computers is ever-present. This is painfully obvious in multiple parts as he overexplains things that are already obvious to most people reading his book. Similarly, people who know how to change sound settings are basically master hackers.
4. Foreshadowing - King has a tendency to foreshadow in a very unsubtle way, e.g. "Hodges underestimated Holly, which he would later come to regret." This sort of foreshadowing doesn't bother me much in horror but it really annoyed me in this mystery thriller format, where the plot details should remain a mystery as long as possible.
I will probably stick to his horror/supernatural literature. The only thing supernatural about this book was Hodges' ability to deduce everything that Brady did/would do with almost nothing to go on.