stephenking

Book Review: ‘Fairy Tale’ by Stephen King

28th Mar 2024Leave a comment

For book five of 2024, I read Stephen King’s ‘Fairy Tale’.

My wife bought me this for Christmas, and I’ve been making my way through it at an unhurried pace. I’ve been enjoying the ride, soaking in the magic. But, having had nasal surgery last week (it all went fine), I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. Thus, I’ve ploughed through the remaining pages of ‘Fairy Tale’. Alas, my time in Empis has come to an end.

The novel follows Charlie Reade, a high school kid who rescues an injured older man. The old man is grumpy and reclusive, but he has a great dog and a secret that leads to another world.

All I can say is: goddamnit, Steve. Seventy-six years young and still knocking out classics with the ease of a man a third of his age. To call it action-packed is an understatement. In less experienced hands, ‘Fairy Tale’ would have been a trilogy. But for Mr King, it’s another day at the office. The book is under 600 pages, but it could have been triple that with all the events crammed between the covers. There is so much life in this book that it’s bursting from the pages. I wanted more of the characters – both good and evil. I wanted more of the world of Empis. And, of course, I wanted more of Radar.

I adored this book.

If you like King or fantasy, you will have a good time too.

Book Review: ‘NOS4A2’ by Joe Hill

19th Dec 2023Leave a comment

I tackled Joe Hill’s ‘NOS4A2’ for my forty-third read of the year.

This book is epic with a capital ‘E’. It comes in shy of 1,000 pages. I started this a month ago, so it took me a while to get through it. With a reading goal of forty-five books this year, it wasn’t the smartest choice to tackle a few epics like this. But I couldn’t help it; they looked like fun reads! And they proved me right.

‘NOS4A2’ deals with a vampire who takes children to a place he calls ‘Christmasland’. You can see why I chose this time of year to tackle this behemoth. The title comes from the creature’s license plate on his old-fashioned Rolls Royce. Our protagonist, Vic, encounters the vampire as a child and survives. But later, when she is grown and has a child, the monster awakens from its slumber.

I adored this book. It reminded me of Stephen King’s epics, such as ‘It’. That makes sense, considering that Hill is King’s son. There are a few nods to his father’s works, but this is no mimicry or cheap copy. Joe Hill is himself, and ‘NOS4A2’ is a shining example of his creative powers. Considering the book is roughly 1,000 pages, it felt shorter. I read and liked Hill’s debut, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ a few years back. As a writer, Hill has come on leaps and bounds since then.

I will look out for more of Hill’s work; this was a modern-day masterpiece.

Book Review: ‘The Mist’ by Stephen King

30th Sep 2023Leave a comment

After my previous read, I reread Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ as a palette cleanser for my next book of the year.

‘The Mist’ is a shorter book, perfect for my current mood. I needed something to remind me that I can enjoy reading when the writing style matches my reading style. Some things click with you; some things don’t.

And King very much clicks with me.

The story follows Dave and his son, “Big” Bill, in the wake of a storm for the ages. Trees have fallen, and wooden piers have sunk. Cars and garages have suffered damage. And an odd mist is creeping in over the lake. Dave heads a small group into town to pick up supplies for the next few days without power. They leave Dave’s wife and Bill’s mother alone at the house, which has suffered a smashed-in window. But whilst in the local supermarket, the mist closes in and traps them inside.

And there’s something awful in the mist.

I will keep the details of the story secret. You should read it (or watch the movie—it’s fantastic) and find out for yourself. But I recommend starting with the book and moving on to the film. I will say this for the film: it surpasses King’s ending on paper here. (Although that’s not to say that King stumbles on the landing.)

King’s style makes the short novella—a little under 200 pages—feel like a pamphlet. The pages fly by, making you wish he’d turned it into a full-length novel. He has the gift, after all. But, then again, King might have chosen this format for a reason.

‘The Mist’ is a short, sharp jab to the dome; it packs a punch.

Book Review: ‘Sleeping Beauties’ by Stephen and Owen King

31st Jul 2023Leave a comment

Stephen and Owen King’s ‘Sleeping Beauties’ is—checks notes—book twenty-eight of 2023.

This massive book slab took me quite a while to get through; I started it on one of the last days of my honeymoon. That does not mean the novel is slow or tedious. I wanted to give it the space to breathe. I’ve had a great time immersing myself in this dystopian world.

Reminiscent of his heyday (‘The Stand’, ‘It’), ‘Sleeping Beauties’ is classic King. It’s his old-school, multi-character, small-town America story. The setup is unique—all women, all over the world, are falling asleep. Once unconscious, the women grow a cocoon. If a foolhardy person disturbs the webbing, the women explode in a rabid attack.

For an older, straight, white, rich American, King is far more liberal than you’d expect him to be. Sure, some points could be a smidge more progressive, but at no point does King fumble the ball. The ‘Sleeping Beauties’ themes are on-point and relevant when taken alone. The story becomes even more extraordinary when considering the man who wrote it.

Each character is well-drawn and believable and contains the depth for which we all know King. Even insignificant side characters are multidimensional, and their motives are understandable. The story builds and escalates until it all collapses in a thrilling finale. Nobody does that ‘fate spiralling down towards its inevitable conclusion’ thing like him.

Oh, and the idea of father and son working together on a novel? It’s so wholesome, despite the bleak apocalyptic tale.

King is king.

Or should that be, the Kings are king?

Book Review: ‘Thinner’ by Stephen King

4th Jul 2023Leave a comment

So, I read Stephen King’s ‘Thinner’ for book four of our Santorini trip.

I’ve always had a copy of ‘Thinner’ but never got around to reading it. Other King premises, such as killer clowns, vampires, and apocalypses, drew me in better. Part of me reasoned that he wrote it under his Bachman pseudonym so that it would be worse than his ‘real’ novels. And the book follows a man with a gypsy curse to make him thinner. How scary can that be?

It turns out: very.

‘Thinner’ gets downright nasty at points, and quite a few plot developments shocked me. The story caught me off-guard in many places. And the ending? Beautiful in its ugliness. I cannot imagine how anyone read this—before the truth about Bachman came out—and didn’t know King had penned it. It’s got his fingerprints all over it.

Please don’t make the same mistake I made.

‘Thinner’ is a classic King novel that deserves your time.

Book Review: ‘The Dead Zone’ by Stephen King

22nd Jun 2023Leave a comment

I read Stephen King’s ‘The Dead Zone’ as book two of my honeymoon.

As you all know, I’m a massive King fanboy. I went through a phase in my teens/early twenties where I read nothing but King. Somehow, I managed to read every classic book of his except for ‘The Dead Zone’—I guess it slipped under the radar!

Anyway, I tore through this pretty hefty novel in no time. The old-school King style wrapped me in a warm blanket of nostalgia. I love all stages of King’s career, but—man—for a time in the seventies and eighties, he was untouchable.

The story follows John Smith, who has had a life plagued with bad luck. The poor chap conks his noggin as a kid and again as an adult. As a result, when he touches people, he gets a hint of their future. Of course, this labels Johnny as a pariah. I had no idea where the story would end up, and I won’t spoil it here. But let me say this: it’s unsettling how prescient King’s view of the future of America was.

If you still need to read ‘The Dead Zone’, go out and get a copy; it’s King at the height of his powers.

Book Review: “If It Bleeds” by Stephen King

30th May 202330th May 2023Leave a comment

Stephen King’s “If It Bleeds” is my nineteenth read of the year.

“If It Bleeds” is a collection of four short stories—King’s most recent collection. And, to get right to the point, I loved it. Of course, with short story collections, there’s always the tendency for the stories to end up hit or miss. But there’s not a single miss in “If It Bleeds”; every piece fires on all cylinders. I’ve not read a short story collection this strong since King’s own “Full Dark, No Stars”.

“Mr Harrigan’s Phone” (now a movie?), “The Life of Chuck” and “Rat” are fantastic short stories. But the book hits its stride with the titular “If It Bleeds”. It’s clear why King chose this to be the collection’s namesake. The story follows Holly Gibney. Holly has starred in “Mr Mercedes”, “The Outsider”, “Finders Keepers”, and “End of Watch”. I have yet to read the last two novels, but I’ll get around to them soon. I aim to do so before Holly’s solo book “Holly” comes out in September.

Without spoiling too much, “If It Bleeds” follows similar lines to “Mr Mercedes” and “The Outsider”. Reading this before I read “Finders Keepers” and “End of Watch” worked fine. Although, it did spoil one thing about those two novels, with which I’m completely okay. It has King’s classic multithread approach, culminating in a thrilling finale. So I’ll summarise it with a single word: brilliant.

If you like King, you’ll like “If It Bleeds”.

And if, like me, you love the man, you’ll feel the same way I do about this short story collection.

Book Review: “The Institute” by Stephen King

10th May 2023Leave a comment

I chose a book that waited a while on my shelf for my next read of 2023, Stephen King’s “The Institute”.

I’m a King fanboy; everyone who knows me knows that. So let me cut right to the chase: this book is brilliant. It is absurd that the man is still pumping out books of this calibre at this stage in his career. King has written so many classics that he could get away with phoning it in at 75. But that’s not King’s style. Instead, he has added another masterpiece to his long list of masterpieces.

The book follows two characters. The first is a shamed policeman on the search for something new. The second—and most important—is a boy, kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken to a detention centre in Maine. Where else would King set it?

It’s, of course, less horror than some of King’s other works. But it recalls his other pieces, such as “Firestarter”. If you’re a fan of his kids-with-psychic-powers books, you’ll adore “The Institute”. Hell, even if you’re not, I’d still recommend it. It’s that good.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it, King is king.