The Book: It, by Stephen King

The Story: In 1958, a group of seven friends came together to fight off a terrible evil that was haunting their town.

In 1985, the evil is back and the friends had made a pact to return and fight again if It ever came back.

Things have changed and they are all different people than they were back then, but they are the only chance that Derry has. Loser Club to the rescue!

What I Thought: This was a re-read for me. I remember reading it when I was younger and then again maybe 3 or 4 years ago. My book club is discussing this book on Halloween, and while I think I probably could have discussed without re-reading, I jut wanted to.

I’m so glad I did. There is something so comfortable and wonderful about revisiting an old favorite.

Here’s the thing: Stephen King can write about kids in a way that other authors just can’t. He respects kids and knows what they are capable of. A big theme of It is that just believing, just KNOWING that something is going to work often does the trick. These kids are, like all kids, rambunctious and messy and crazy. Most authors stop there. Not Stephen King. He added layers and layers to these kids: they are witty and smart and loving and loyal and scared and fearless. They are vulnerable and tough…. and all these other things that kids just are without meaning to be. I love it.

Childhood fears are just so real and vibrant and lasting. The book talks a little about the persistence of memory. It is persistent. I still peek behind the shower curtain before I use the restroom in the middle of the night. I still squeal when a spider sneaks up on me. These are just these really normal childhood fears that fade but leave a lasting impression. Because of the nature of It, all of these fears (and about a zillion others) are brought to light in these 1,100 pages. It even made me think about things that I had never even CONSIDERED being scared of. Good work, ol’ Steve.

I feel like Stephen King’s real strength is writing full bodied characters. The seven childhood friends are, of course, fleshed out until they are real people, but the real magic is that their families, the bullies, even the pharmacist at the drug store become these real people. Derry, Maine was also a pretty prevalent character here and sometimes I have to remind myself that Derry isn’t real…. (Wait… is Derry real?)

In perfect Stephen King fashion, there were several small nods to his other books which made this fangirl squeal with happiness. These little nuggets are maybe my favorite thing ever.

I could go on and on. I think that this is one of the more well crafted, well thought out and most meaningful books that has been written recently. I know that isn’t literary and that a lot of people will crack up when they read that, but seriously. There is a lot of truth here. And a lot of screams. Seriously, I freaked myself out more than once reading this bad boy. I will not even bother telling you about when I was reading this in bed and my book light flickered off. I MAY have screamed a little. Just a little.

Conclusion: This book is amazing from page one on. I love it. I neglected my other duties to read it. You should too.

The Book: Desperation, by Stephen King

The Story: This is the companion novel that goes with The Regulators. They aren’t a “series” exactly and can be read in any order, but the do have some characters that overlap and a similar storyline. Just so ya know.

Desperation is a town in in-the-middle-of-nowhere Nevada. Their main business is the mines out the outside of town. One day, people just keep… ending up… in Desperation. They are passing through and one thing or another makes them stop…. and they can’t leave. There is something crazy happening in the town and a group of strangers have to band together to fight it before it takes their lives.

What I Thought: I really, really love how Stephen King slips things from his other books into a lot of his books. It is like being in on a little “inside joke” that only Constant Readers get. I love the idea of books being related but not in a series or anything. The idea of Tak comes up a lot in this book, and if you have read the Dark Tower series, you’ll know why this was a little bit exciting for me. The characters that are reoccurring in Desperation and The Regulators was pretty fun too, but mostly I loved the Dark Tower nod.

The thing that keeps me coming back to Stephen King is well written, thoroughly explored characters. There were maybe 7 or 8 main characters here, and each one of them was written spot-on. I could see them, related to them and pick out people in my life who they reminded me of. This was a huge, fat book and it took place over just a couple of days. The rest of this was getting into the lives of these characters, and it was never dull or tedious. That was the highlight of this book for me, meeting these wonderfully written characters.

Other than that? Not much here. The story was a little bit dull, to be real honest. Maybe because I’ve read a lot of Stephen King, but I could see where this was going from a mile away. I never felt like there was a time when I was really surprised or blown away by what was going on. This has all been done before, ya know what I mean? It kind of felt like a throw away story that he “had” to write to partner with The Regulators. It was almost brain candy, in the not-chic-flick way.

So, that’s that. I can’t say that I hated it, because there were a couple of characters (Johnny and David) that I really liked, but mostly this was a dud.

Conclusion: I’m drawing the exact same conclusion that I did with The Regulators, which is this: ” If you haven’t read Richard Bachman/Stephen King, please promise me that you won’t start on this one. It probably doesn’t even make my top ten. For a quick, fun read though, this will get the job done.”

Anyway! On to the hop!

If you aren’t familiar, the Book Blog Hop is hosted by Jenn over at Crazy for Books and is just a chance to get new visitors to your blog and, in turn, check out a bunch of great new blogs.  I’ve found some of my favorite book blogs this way and get so exited every week to find new ones.

The question for this week is: Who is your all-time favorite book villain?

I think that one of the best-writ villains I have ever encountered was Big Jim in Under the Dome by Stephen King.  I would visibly cringe when he came into a scene and I could feel my heart rate go up.  He was TERRIBLE.  He could not have met a good enough death for me- I wanted to watch him die slowly and painfully.  I don’t want to give too much of the book away, but the things that he did to the whole town, but specifically to his son, were enough to get my blood boiling.  He. Was. Awful.

I’ve talked to several other people after reading this and the consensus is about the same.  Dude is terrible.  Have you read it?  Did he make you as mad as he made me?

Again, if you’re here from the Hop, thanks for stopping by!  Leave a comment with a link to your blog and I’ll be sure to repay the visit!

The Book: The Sun Dog, by Stephen King

The Story: Kevin gets a Polaroid Sun instant camera for his 13th birthday, but right away he and his family realize that something is wrong.  The camera doesn’t take pictures of what it is pointed at.  It only takes pictures of a fierce looking dog that’s getting closer and closer and closer and looking much, much more angry. Eek.

What I Thought: So I FINALLY got to the end of Four Past Midnight.  I read all the stories at separate times so it feels like I’ve been reviewing them forever, but now I’ve made it to the end. Woohoo!

I had read this before and I remembered the premise but had no idea how it ended, so I still read this one on the edge of my seat.

While I thought that this was the weakest story in the collection, I did enjoy it. The thing that I loved was that we were introduced (or re-introduced, depending on the order you read Stephen King’s books in) to Pop Merrill.  I love how there are all these reoccurring characters in Stephen King books.  Pop was talked about in Cujo and Ace, his grandson, was a main character in The Body. So that was fun.

For me, what was off was the pacing.  I thought that it really drug in the middle, which seems weird to say about a 150 page story.  I just kind of got bored in the middle and wanted to flip ahead to see where it was headed.

This is one of Stephen King’s stories that is not as scary as it is suspenseful, so if you shy away from the creepy stuff, you may want to give this one a go.

Conclusion: Don’t make this your first Stephen King book or novella, but if you’ve already been initiated, go for it.  This is classic Stephen King and wroth the read, for sure.

The Book: Bag of Bones, by Stephen King

The Story: Mike Noonan is a best-selling author.  He’s kind of goy everything going for him: he’s got a wife that he’s crazy about, tons of money, he loves his job, he has an incredible vacation home on a lake, and life just seems rosy.  One day, his wife leaves for the drug store and it all falls apart.  She is walking into the parking lot and has an aneurism and dies immediately.  It seriously destroys Mike.  While he is grieving he gets hit with a pretty serious case of writer’s block.  As he runs out of pre-written novels to give his publisher, he gets more and more frantic.  As a last ditch effort, he heads out to his lake house to try to write in solitude.

As soon as he gets there, he knows something’s up.  What follows is a perfectly Stephen King ghost story that is tied in with the history of the lake house and a custody battle going on in town.

What I Thought: This was a re-read for me, but I only remembered a few little parts.  One of the parts that stuck with me on my first read and seemed even creepier this time around was the refrigerator magnets moving around.  If you’ve read this you know what I’m talking about.  For some reason that is such a creepy, creepy image to me.  Spooky.

Anyway, overall I think that this is one of Stephen King’s stronger books even though it’s usually overlooked.  I think that the writing and the characters are strong, although I always think that with Stephen King.  I also think that the past story and the present story are told at just the right pace.  There are little “clues” and bits revealed at just the right pace to keep you reading.

Something that I caught on to much more this time was that Mike was haunted before he went to his lake house.  It had been years, but he still lived like Jo was coming back.  He was haunted by all of these memories and he lived with them every single day.  Heading to the lake house just gave him an outlet for all of that.  I couldn’t help but think of Lisey’s Song.  I feel like in a lot of ways this is the same story told from a different perspective.  In Lisey’s Song, the famous author died and his wife was left to sort it out.  In Bag of Bones, the author’s wife dies and he struggles with getting it together.  In both cases the spouse has to reach “from beyond” to help and in both cases the wife is pretty much incredible.  It makes me think that as he gets a little older, Stephen King is really thinking hard about what he’ll do after Tabby dies or what Tabby will do when he dies.  Sad stuff.

The only thing I didn’t love about this book was the end.  For some reason it seemed like the last 100 pages drug on and on even though that is where a lot of the action happened and where everything was explained.  I always do that with Stephen King though, I love the story but feel kind of blah about the climax and ending.  This is no different.  Oh well.

But seriously, this is one of the best haunted house stories you’ll find.

Conclusion: Read this snuggled up on a fall or winter night.  Creepy and wonderful.

Cujo, by Stephen King

This is one of the first times that I noticed that not everyone was hugely into reading like yours truly.  I know I’ve bragged on my mom before but she really is the reason I’m a big reader.  She was always reading to me and around me and providing me with great books to read.

When I was in 6th grade, I had made the leap to Stephen King and I was pretty much enamored. This was also the same time that my mom started dating my now-step-dad.  One weekend, he invited my mom and my brothers and I on a canoeing trip with a big group of his friends.  I was so excited.  I knew that since I was young I’d end up sitting in the middle of someone’s boat for the whole day.  Of course, I saw it as perfect reading time. I packed myself a little backpack of supplies that included Cujo in a ziploc bag.   After we were in the water and the novelty had died off a little, I got into my bag, pulled out my book and started reading.  My step-dad and all his friends kind of teased me about brining a book on a canoeing trip, but it hadn’t even crossed my mind to leave for a relaxing day without a book.  It’s logical, right?

Of course eventually the canoe that I was in got tipped and my book (of course) got soaked.  I was heartbroken… mostly because that meant that the whole car ride home I’d be bookless… and I NEEDED to know if the dog devours everyone or if they make it out alive.  I guess that’s the risk you take when you read in a boat or in the bath or whatever… I am one that always considers it worth the risk

To participate in Flashback Friday, head over here to get the info on what’s going on.  After posting your flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can enjoy!

The Book: Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King

Yes, I read yet another short story collection by Stephen King.  It has kind of been my thing lately, huh?  Well this one was new and I couldn’t resist.  We even had some money left over from an Amazon gift card so I got this for free and delivered to my door on the release date.  Bliss.

Anyway, there are four stories here, so I’m going to review them each individually.  Here goes:

1922

The Story: Wilford James lives and works on his farm in Hemingford Home (Constant Readers- ya get the reference?! Squee!).  His wife has just inherited 100 acres from her father.  They connect to the 80 acres that Wilford already farms, so he is excited to be able to farm it and make more money.  His wife, Arlette, has other ideas.  She wants to sell the land to a slaughterhouse that is looking for land in the area, take the money and move the family to the city so she can open a dress shop.  For months and months they bicker about this and neither of them is giving.  Wilford decides that Arlette is never going to relent and will, in fact, ruin their family trying to get her way- so he decides to get his way, no matter the cost.

What I Thought: Spooky as heck.  There is imagery here that really got to me, and if you already have a little rat phobia, probably skip this one.  The thing that was the spookiest though is that when the story starts, Wilford just seems like this normal, down-home guy.  He has a little family, he farms and tends to animals, he knows everyone in his town… just a normal dude.  The whole story is written as a letter from him, confessing to what he’s done, and you just kind of get to witness his decline into total, total madness.  The fact that he brought his son into his madness and kind of destroyed his life too makes it all the more tragic.  This is super dark, even for Stephen King.

Big Driver

The Story: Tess is the author of a semi-sucessful book series about some old lady knitters who are also detectives.  She agrees to do a book talk & signing at a library not too far away.  For the trip home, she takes the librarian’s advice and takes a short cut to avoid the highway.  On a long stretch of deserted road she runs over some debris and her tire blows.  When a giant of a man comes along to help, Tess is thankful but kind of freaked out…. and with good reason.  The guy ends up raping her and leaving her for dead.  Somehow, Tess survives and makes it back to her house.  The next morning, she considers calling the police but starts freaking out and second guessing herself.  After renting a couple movies about revenge, she decides to take care of this herself.

What I Thought: Wow.  I know that some people have issues with how Stephen King portrays women in his books.  If you are one of those people, this may not be the best Stephen King story for you.  The rape scene and all the stuff surrounding it are seriously twisted.  I don’t generally get upset about scenes like this in books, but for some reason this just seemed so harsh that it was almost hard to read.  As the story unravels and Tess starts plotting, then going through with her revenge, I seriously found myself on the edge of my seat.  Super suspenseful and perfectly paced.  This would make a great movie.

Fair Extension

The Story: Streeter is dying of cancer.  He’s getting weak.  He can’t eat.  He’s doing chemo and losing his hair.  One day, he’s driving home and sees a guy at a roadside stand with a sign up that says “Fair Extension.”  Wondering what it is, Streeter stops.  There he meets George Elvid (move some letters around and you’ll see where this is going).  Elvid tells him that he is in the business of selling extensions, including life extensions- for the right price.  Streeter agrees to mail him 15% of his earnings for the rest of his life and to bring him something from the house of someone he hates.  Strangely enough, the person he hates is his best friend who seems to have it all going for him.  Within days his cancer is not showing up on scans.  He’s considered a medical miracle.  Not only does he get his life back, he also gets to watch the life of his best friend start to slowly unravel.

What I Thought: This one didn’t do it for me.  I could tell that there was supposed to be a touch of humor involved here, but I just thought it fell flat.  Streeter didn’t really resonate with me at all.  I thought that he was wimpy and selfish and just kind of boring.  I thought that the whole story was just kind of cheesy.  I don’t know.  It was short though- maybe only 30 pages or so.  The rest of the stories in this collection are really dark and creepy, so maybe this was just thrown in to lighten things up, but for me it just seemed boring.

A Good Marriage

The Story: Darcy is home alone while her husband Bob is out on business.  On a quest for batteries for the remote, she heads to the garage.  While she’s looking for batteries she finds something quite a bit more disturbing:  evidence that her husband is a serial killer.

What I Thought: I loved this.  Absolutely classic Stephen King.  It just brings to mind all these questions:  how did she not know!?  Stephen King talks about in the afterword that where he got the idea for this was from the BTK killer.  When he was caught, his wife was totally shocked.  He had been killing for years and she had no idea.  People speculated that she knew but just didn’t want to admit it, but what if she really didn’t?  And if she had found out before the police, what would she have done?  Darcy is put in just that situation and watching her wiggle out of it was suspenseful and wonderful.  I sort of wish that he would have fleshed this out into a full length novel.  Another one that would make a great movie.

Overall Thoughts: I think that this was a great collection overall.  There are little pieces and thoughts and ideas that tie all four stories together.  It’s kind of this idea of “what are you going to do when the things that you know go up in smoke?”  While I didn’t love Fair Extension, I see how it fits into that mold and I think that it really did break up some pretty hard-to-stomach stories. There are great little tidbits from Stephen King’s other novels and stories mixed in for all the Constant Readers, which is way fun.  At one point someone even says, “long days and pleasant nights.”  Love it \

Conclusion: While I loved this, if you haven’t read Stephen King, don’t start here.  This is good, but it’s not the best.  Four Past Midnight and Different Seasons are both set up the same way:  four novellas in one fat book, and I think that they are both probably better collections than this one.  If you have read Stephen King before though and know already that he’s for you, this is good stuff.  Don’t miss it.

I interviewed Kristen a couple of weeks ago.  Go check it out, then go buy the book!

Also coming out today:

I’m watching the driveway patiently for my UPS guy!

The Book: The Library Policeman, by Stephen King

The Story: Yet another Stephen King novella.  Only one more in Four Past Midnight, then maybe I’ll back off for a little bit. We’ll see.

In this one, Sam Peebles goes into the library to get some good quotes for a speech he has to make.  He’s greeted by a sorta creepy lady that has way creepy signs in the children’s library.  She (kind of ) jokingly warns him that if his books don’t make it back on time, she’ll be sending the Library Policeman after him.

You can probably see where this is headed.  On the day that the books are due back, Sam can’t find them anywhere.  Looking for them and trying to escape the Library Policeman takes him all over the town.  On the way, he finds out secrets of the town’s history and realizes that it’s his job to set everything right again.

What I Thought: One of my favorite movies is Jaws. The shark is introduced in the very first scene of the movie.  He’s totally terrifying.  He kills several more times.  Creepy as heck.  About halfway through the movie, they actually show him and… well… not as scary.  I thought the same thing about Signs.  I thought it was way creepy until they showed the alien. For me, this was the same way.  When we were just imagining how scary Annie & the Policeman are, way scary… when he actually showed us what was up (her spout mouth… what?!)  it really lost a lot of the thrill for me.

Not that this was horrible, it really wasn’t.  The idea of it is spooky and fun.  Sam is totally likable and very Stephen King.  The pace keeps up.  The backstory is just as intriguing as the present-day story. Overall, good stuff.  The first half is just miles better than the second half. That’s all I’m sayin.

Conclusion: This story fits perfectly with this collection and is worth the read for sure.  Fun, fun.

If you know me, of course you know I’d start this list with a Stephen King book.  I made myself restrict my list to one so I decided to go with The Shining.  There are better Stephen King books I think, but I don’t think that there are scarier ones.  For me there are just so many images in this book that have creeped me out for years.  Creepy kids are seriously the scariest thing ever and there are so many here! The twin, of course, are creepy as heck and at the end, Danny turns into a creeper and…. ugh! So scary! I think this is the perfect Halloween book.  Scary dad, spooky hotel, ghosts, shining?  Frigging love it.

Another book with just creepy, creepy images in it.  This one is about a serial killer on the loose.  Three girls are murdered and the town is kind of shook up.  I love that, unlike a lot of scary stories, this one really takes you into the head of all of these characters.  From the get-go the author tells you how many girls die but not how they die or who killed them.  Knowing how many dies keeps you guessing and this one kept me scared and on the edge of my seat to the very end.

I picked this one up because it had a recommendation on the back from Stephen King.  I figured if it scared him, it’d scare me.  This time around, totally right.  For me, this was just incredibly original.  The murderer, the murdered, and all the scary people in the book were all female.  Almost never do you get a horror book with a purely female cast.  The pacing, the characters, everything about this was just great.  The end wasn’t nice and neat and I’ve heard that there is a sequel out.  I can’t wait to read it.

I know that some people think that this book is cheesy, but for me it will always be one that scares me.  I read it when I was younger and then watched the movie.  Just recently I re-read the book and was just as scared as the first time around.  I know that since then, parts of the book have been debunked, but going in thinking that it is true makes it so much more scary.  Even if PARTS of it are true, that is scary, scary stuff.  I know that it’s not the best written book in the world.  When I read it this last time, I was way annoyed by the number of exclamation marks the author used… but if you can look past that and just read the story for scary-story sake, this is a spooky Halloween read.

When I was younger, I had a think for Goosebumps.  Who didn’t, right?! Anyway, this one is the one that drew me in and I kept coming back over and over.  So did M. Night Shyamalan obviously.  The twist ending at the end of this was so, so scary to me at the time.  When I saw it again in The Sixth Sense, I just had to roll my eyes.  Like he thought that up on his own?  No way, dude stole the “main characters were ghosts all along” deal straight from a Goosebumps book…