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onetrackmind77's reviews
639 reviews
A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
2.0
I don't know how to feel about this book. The story of discovery between James and Emelia was well done, and give any sense of belief it was magical...however, the ending had me at all levels of WTF. I don't even know what the hell happened.
The Talisman by Peter Straub, Stephen King
3.0
Second read. I remember reading this one as a kid and being utterly confused with what was happening. I didn't remember any of the details, I just know that I was lost. Revisiting it now, I can understand my confusion...I get it now, but there is a lot thrown at you to start things off. Overall, this book was just okay. There were some flashes of greatness (Sunlight Gardiner's Home), and I loved that this had the feeling of a Gunslinger novel, but there were just too many sections where I struggled to stay engaged with the story....a villain nicknamed Bloat is incredibly appropriate with The Talisman.
The Town by Bentley Little
4.0
This book was more fun than I expected. Great story of a possessed town with some truly off the wall experiences that people go through with this haunting...a few really WTF moments that really made me appreciate the author's imagination in storytelling. I need more Bentley Little. Very entertaining.
Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz
3.0
I remembered Twilight Eyes being a favorite book of mine when I was a kid, and yet as I sat there 30 years later, I couldn't remember a damn thing about it. I was excited to revisit this book and see what captured my imagination as a teen, but ultimately it failed to come close to those memories from childhood. I mean, with the protagonist being a 17 year old boy that has hit the road with a mission to strike and kill the evil "goblins" that inhabit our world cloaked in their human disguise, and with a hot love interest at his side, I can see why this one spoke to me at the time...but now, the whole thing just feels so bloated, as we take pages and pages to describe events that should be intense and immediate, but in the end they just feel tedious. It was fun to revisit it and refresh my memory, but in the end it fell far short of the nostalgic expectations.
Flight or Fright by Bev Vincent, Stephen King
2.0
I went into this with low expectations, and this still managed to disappoint. Richard Mattheson and Joe Hill deliver great stories, but for the most part, everything else was a slog to get through...even the Stephen King story seemed like something he might have scribbled down in a half-hearted effort to get a story to fit the flight theme here.
The Institute by Stephen King
4.0
I've struggled with where I wanted to rate this book. The first couple hundred pages were fantastic, and it was great to see King write child characters again...but then we got to a point where a couple of things didn't go the way that I was hoping/expecting and I thought that things were a bit too convenient, and I started to drop my rating...then we get the ending, and it all comes together. It wasn't a perfect story, but sometimes you just have to follow where the author is taking you, whether you like it or not, and in the end, The Institute was worth the ride.