Devouring Stephen King: Revival

Blarrrrgh, I did not enjoy this book at all. I haven't said that for a LONG time about Stephen King, so I trust that you'll allow me to just not like this one. I'm not ok with it, and it's not an ok book. Is it as bad as, say, The Tommyknockers, or Dreamcatcher, or... (OK there must be some other bad ones, isn't there a stretch of bad 80s books?) Anyway, the point is, I don't really know the answer to that question, but the point is that I really didn't enjoy it, and it was kind of a bummer to get through.

But wait, I hear you cry. Don't you always find some good in Stephen King books, Laura? Well, maybe (except The Tommyknockers which is SO BAD you guys, don't even touch it, I swear- I've read it for you and that should be enough). I will say for Revival that it's consistent, it follows its main point through to the end, and the end itself, like when the book finally gets down to what it has to say (the main message being, 'Stephen King is afraid of death, or more specifically what the afterlife could be like') is wonderfully chilling and terrifying and omg please no. But also yes, can you go back and rewrite the book and make it more like this?!

Let's get a little more specific. The book starts with a promising sort of passage that suggests that sometimes the people who are important to your life are there the whole time, whereas other times they drop in and out of your life, sometimes at the most inopportune moments. This book describes the latter of these relationships where the main character* meets a priest at age 5 or 6, who then becomes integral to many parts of his life (and also, maybe a tiny spoiler, not a priest anymore). All of that is fine, and actually I pretty much liked the parts that involved the priest. These parts were all actiony, and you know they're building up to something, but just what that is is pretty obscure until the novel gets right down to it in the last, like, 50 pages or so.

So that's fine, but the problem is ALL OF THE REST OF THE BOOK. As I say, the whole point is that these meetings are infrequent but important, and that's how they feel in the narrative too. All of the rest of it is the story of the main character's life, and omg it is so boring. It's not that his life is boring necessarily, but it's more like 'so I grew up and discovered guitar and had sex with a woman and then was in some bands and then INTERESTING BIT and then I worked in the music business and played more guitar and ANOTHER INTERESTING BIT' and do you see what I mean? The actual action seems to happen way less frequently than all the bits in between, and although I normally like those bits (I really do!) I just really wasn't interested about them in this book. GIVE ME A BETTER NARRATOR NEXT TIME, KING!

So yeah, not one of his finest IMHO. I found it interesting to see where his mind was at (death death death is scary) and how (I think) it relates pretty much just to him aging, but other than that I can't see it being one I would ever want to read again. The fact that I haven't been able to say that for a long time I think reveals how excellent his work has been lately, so I'm willing to let him off with a warning for this slip up. D-, must do better.

*of course I can't remember his name

Devouring Stephen King: Mr Mercedes

I had a lot of fun reading Mr Mercedes. Even though I (naturally) relate King to alllll of the supernatural goodness that he brings to us all, when he writes a 'straight' novel (with the teeniest hint of a slightly above average intuition) he still kills it. Mr Mercedes is more along the lines of his True Crime books, in that it is about, well, a true crime, only it's fictional... Ok I'm rambling.

HERE'S HOW IT GOES: The story begins with a horrifying crime when a Mercedes plows into a group of people who have (wait for the heartbreak) been waiting outside all night for the possibility of getting jobs. Many people are killed and the killer gets away scot free. Flash forward a few years later (don't ask me how many because I read this quite a while ago now) and the detective who worked on the case is retired and watches a lot of tv and is getting a little too friendly with his father's gun, if you know what I mean. He gets sucked out of his retirement blues by receiving a letter from the Mercedes killer, which drags him back onto a case and out of retirement, which is really exactly what he needed.

Here's a thing that I think is special about this book- we, the reader, knows who the killer is almost from the beginning. This is not a whodunnit, there's no straining the brain to try and figure out which minor character is a big murderer, because we already know that. The question with this book is really, 'what is he going to do next'? I really enjoyed this, because firstly, I find it really stressful to try and work out whodunnit, and it really makes me question my, like, intelligence skills, and secondly, doing it this way meant that we got to see into the fucked up brain of someone who murders for no reason. It was really a wild ride though the head of the murderer (I'm not being coy, I just genuinely can't remember his name...) and although the novel provides some tentative evidence for the growth of his psychopathy, it also doesn't use those reasons to let him off the hook, which I enjoy.

Let's also talk about the detective because he was pretty great. I'm sure the novel says how old he is, but I totally can't remember, so let's say... 60? And for a 60 year old, let me tell you, he's pretty foxy in my head. I'm not sure how, cause the book also says that he's totally gotten fat, but I guess his seeking out of justice just makes me super into him. Attractiveness aside, he's just a pretty good character- reckless and impulsive but generally good meaning, and with a couple of mismatched sidekicks who end up being very excellent. I think the novel holds back on explaining too much about any of the main three 'good' characters because- wait for it- there are two more books in this little series and I am VERY EXCITED about that (especially cause my next two King reads are those too books and yes I am behind in reviewing and yes those are basically the last two books omg I know right?)

But anyway. Yes. Mr Mercedes gets two thumbs up, I am a fan. I totally give you my permission to read it, and it'll even work for you if you get scared by horror, just not if you're scared of being senselessly and randomly murdered one day... And if you're not, then WHY not?! A topic for another time, I guess.

Devouring Stephen King: Doctor Sleep

Of all the King books that have been released after starting my long voyage, Doctor Sleep is the one I was most apprehensive about. The Shining is a pretty iconic book (don't talk to me about the movie, but the book, yes) and if there was something I didn't think I needed, it was a sequel to it. I'm not sure that this book exactly convinced me that I needed a sequel, but I still really enjoyed it all the same.

Let's see. This book starts by taking us to Danny about 3 years after the events in The Overlook, where he is being haunted again by some of the gross things he saw there. Dick Halloran tells him how to get rid of them, and we are then transported through time (that happens a lot in this book which is one of its strengths- we'll get onto that later) to see Danny- now Dan- as an adult alcoholic, drinking almost all the time to try and dull the memories and the shining- less intense as an adult than as a child, but still irreducibly there. We actually get to see him hit rock bottom, stealing from a woman who quite clearly has nothing, and leaving a child in a dangerous situation.

It was at this point that I was worried about this book. I didn't want to see the destruction of Danny from The Shining, and I didn't know enough about the book to be sure that he wasn't going to go down a Jack Torrence path of destruction rather than going to AA. Spoiler, but reassurance- he goes to AA rather than on a killing spree so you are totally going to be able to read this book, don't panic.

Danny (Dan) is not even really the main point of this book, however. This is his story, but it's also the story of a long-living group of almost vampires, who live not off blood but off of whatever is produced by children who shine. It's also also the story of Abra, a little girl who does shine, and who shines extremely bright. These three elements combine together over time gaps and physical distances to make a story that's really intriguing and exciting and oddly road trip-ish, but you know. In a bad way.

In a lot of ways, I think the best thing about this book is the time gaps. What it allows is for us to see large cross sections of Danny's life, from rock bottom, to finally finding help, to then being able to help others. As much as The Shining was incredibly insular and takes place over a few weeks/months, Doctor Sleep takes place over decades, making it much more roaming and a whole overview of a person's life, rather than giving us a small snapshot of what Dan's life is like afterwards. King pretty much says that he wrote this book cause people always asked him what happened to the kid from The Shining, and so he got to wondering that himself. Here he answers the question not with a single event but with many, and you know what? It ain't such a bad life at all.

And so. The completely unnecessary sequel turned out to be pretty great, and definitely worth your time and attention. I like and root for Dan as much as I liked and rooted for him as a child, and I'm really glad that this book didn't do anything bad to the legacy of The Shining, even though I feared it would. It's good book, people. Good book indeed.

Devouring Stephen King: Joyland

Joyland was, quite genuinely, a joy to read (groaaaaaan). It's another one of King's Hard Case Crime books (the last being The Colorado Kid) and it's just so great. Although, because it's King, there are a couple of supernatural elements to proceedings (a fortune teller! A psychic child! A ghost!) at it's core this is really just a good old fashioned whodunnit and, well, I can hardly resist one of those.

I'm finding it hard to think coherently about Joyland, because my brain just keeps going 'God, that book was GREAT!' and that's about all I can handle. So let's try and do some plot. Devin is a college student who has just been dumped by his girlfriend and has found a summer job at a carnival. Firstly, the carnival seems like an awesome place to work, and don't think for one second that I didn't want to run off and be a carny for most of this book because shit, those parts seemed like so much fun. This particular theme park, however, has a grisly past as a woman was murdered in (of course) the haunted house a number of years before, and it is solving this crime that is the basis of the book.

Except that, it also kind of isn't. I know I said this is a good old fashioned whodunnit, and certainly I got that rush of satisfaction when I found out who the killer was because, you know, it's very pleasing to have solved the mystery.* In many ways though, the mystery, just like the supernatural elements, are secondary to the main story, which is basically just the story of Devin himself. That's right, King has done it again, and made you believe you're reading a scary book, when actually you're really just reading a character piece. This book is all about getting over heartbreak, making grown up choices, and finding out who you are and who you want to be in life. All of these things are things I can get behind, and shit, I really loved this book.

Don't get me wrong though, it is still pretty scary. There were definite moments of peril where I couldn't quite breathe right, and I was also so engrossed by it that I made my boyfriend and I miss a train because shit, I just wanted to finish it, ok?! I gulped this book down in a couple of days, not only because it's short and I had some travelling time to read (both true) but also because, fuck, I really did  not want to put it down (see above re: missing train).

So to conclude. This book was aces and frankly I could read it again right now without any complaints. I don't even just recommend this book to you, I URGE you to read it, especially if you like crime fiction in any sense. I don't know what it is about these later King books, but to me it seems like he's gotten really really good over the last few I've read. All killer, no filler, all that kind of stuff. This makes me really excited for whatever comes next, and also slightly mournful that in just a few books, I'll have to wait for the next King book to be published like a total sucker. Alas, alas, woe is me etc. But also, not really cause I get to read more Stephen King!

*For the record, I did not solve the mystery, and definitely allowed myself to be led down the wrong path just as King intended. I like detective/crime stories, I would just be really bad if I lived in one.

Devouring Stephen King: 11/22/63

People have been telling me for the longest time that 11.22.63 is the best. Whether it's their favourite Stephen King book, or merely the one they've just read and LOVED, it's maybe the book I've heard about most during my long, long King pilgrimage. 'I'm reading all of Stephen King's books!' 'OMG have you read 11/22/63?' 'No, but I've heard it's GREAT! I can't wait!'

But oh man, have I waited. 11/22/63 was published in the November of the same year I started reading all of the Stephen King in, I think, March. While I was back in his works of the 70s and early 80s, everyone was reading this book and LOVING it, while I tried not to whimper too hard or think about how long it would be before I could read this book. About 5 and a half years later, here we are, and guess what?

I LOVED it.

If I'm going to be entirely honest, I thought the start was slightly slow (and that is, quite literally, my only criticism of this whole damn book) and at that point I'll admit I panicked slightly. Not so much because I was worried that I was about to be crushed by the weight of my own expectations (always a concern, admittedly) but more because it is such a long book not to love, and I have imposed a weirdly strict deadline on myself for finishing all of the King and I'm just. So. Close. you guys. But as you can probably tell, I FINISHED THE BOOK cause, you know, review and everything. If this ever turns into anything resembling a review, that is. Ahem.

So. The plot of this book goes as follows: a man is called by his favourite diner owner one day who is mysteriously dying of lung cancer when he was fine the day before. It emerges that said diner owner has discovered a portal to 1958 in his stockroom and, having lived in the past for 4 years has contracted the terminal cancer now killing him. He asks Jake, our hero, to go back into the past for him (where, interestingly, every visit is a reset) and to wait from September 1958 until (amazingly) 11/22/63 (22nd November 1963 for, y'know, British people) to save JFK from assassination. It is an awesome premise, but where it goes from there is just so much better.

Because it's not really about JFK. It's not even really about time travel, even though I think King has a really interesting version of time travel that I don't think I've ever seen before, and that I would have liked teased out a little bit more. What it's really about is Jake, about overcoming impossible circumstances, about finding love in the weirdest places (and, let's face it, times), about heartbreaking decisions and impossible consequences and so many more things that you're really going to have to read to find out about. I have to give a bonus shout out to Jake's 1960's girlfriend Sadie, who honestly is one of my favourite King women now- so well fleshed out and interesting and feisty and oh god I loved her so much can I just read this book again right now?

I think this book gets extra points with me purely because it returns to Derry and It remains my favourite Stephen King book. King returns to so many places and scenarios in his books, and although Derry is mentioned fairly often, I believe this is the only time it has been returned to in a significant way. Jake visits just after the events of It, meets Beverly and Richie, and just generally describes the atmosphere of the place from an outsider's perspective that couldn't really be done in It (where everyone is inside). I ate it right up, and it tasted great. It turned out to not even be my favourite part of the book (ok, all the parts are my favourite) but it gave me certain excited thrills that's really all I look for when I'm reading, you know, anything.

So here it is. I can confirm, once and for all, that 11/22/63 is exactly as good as everyone has been saying it is. I would read it again in a heartbeat (if I didn't have so damn many other books to read, dammit), and I really just can't get over how good it was. There are no scary monsters, except for the past itself, (and of course the usual human ones) but that doesn't stop it from being one of King's finest.

In my most humble opinion, of course. Ahem.

Devouring Stephen King: Full Dark, No Stars

I usually find with Stephen King that, even though there are scary things going on and things are kind of terrible, there are moments of brevity and lightness that give you some kind of hope about the world. Full Dark, No Stars does not offer this kind of relief to its reader. It really lives up to its title in that, in each of the four stories that comprise it, the characters really put themselves or find themselves in situations where not even the smallest bit of light shines through.

It's a bit much, is what I'm trying to say, but it's also a bit excellent.

There are essentially 4 novellas in this book, although I would argue that the third story is really just a short story at about 30 pages. Still, let's call it a novella for the sake of ease, and go through each story one by one, shall we?

1922- A man wants to keep his farm and his general way of life. His wife wants to sell the farm and move to the big city (pretty sure the big city here is Nebraska, but there you go). In order to get what he wants, man convinces his son that the best thing to do is to kill his wife, and from there everything turns (quite predictably) to shit. This was definitely not my favourite story in the collection because mehhhhh historical fiction can you just not, but it was extremely dark- there are no moments of light (as discussed) even before he murders his wife, but its after that that everything becomes fully terrible. It's maybe the most graphic of the novellas, and it's also very good.

Big Driver- This maybe was my favourite story in the book, even though it was incredibly difficult to read at times. A semi-famous novelist takes a shortcut home after a reading and ends up being subjected to a horrifying rape and being left for dead. I did not so much enjoy reading her anguish (like I say, so. Much. Darkness.) but everything that happens after this is jaw dropping and exciting and kind of made me want to punch the air with righteous retribution (cause that's a thing...) This is, in a way, a detective story as the novelist explores her own attack, and is so twisty and turny that I think I genuinely gasped at points. It's all very good, and very disturbing stuff, so obviously I highly recommend it.

Fair Extension- In many ways I feel as though this was the story that I found the darkest, or maybe just the one which upset me the most. A man who is dying of cancer essentially makes a deal with the devil (-ish) to take the bad stuff away from him and give it to someone he hates- and the person he names is literally his best friend. This deal being established, the rest of the story is essentially a recitation of all the good things that happen to the man who made the deal, and all the bad things that happen to his best friend in return. It's not so much the things that happen that disturb me (although they are genuinely horrible) but more that the man who made the deal feels no remorse. He doesn't try to take it back, he doesn't care that his (supposed best friend) has all these troubles, and at the end of the story, he basically has everything but is still quite literally wishing for more. It was just a way of thinking that I found really disturbing, and even though this book deals with SO MANY upsetting things (see the next story for evidence) it was this that really struck me, I guess because it's kind of how I believe a lot of people view the world. Disturbingly human, and also just plain disturbing.

A Good Marriage- A Good Marriage is, probably unsurprisingly, a really very dark story. It's essentially based around the idea that you can live with someone, marry someone, believe you know someone and then realise that, actually, you kind of don't and can't. Tale as old as time, I hear you cry, but in this instance, it involves a wife's discovery that her husband is actually a terrible, and terrifying criminal. The real strength in this story lies in the struggle of the wife between discovering these terrible things about her husband and trying to reconcile them with the man she (thinks she) knows. This is done so well, for instance, when she has just found out the terrible thing and her husband phones and she kind of hates him and is disgusted by him but he is also just the sweet guy who cares about her. It forces you to face the uncomfortable truth that, if you found out something similar about someone you loved, they would remain the person you loved AND the person who did the bad thing, and how does a person reconcile that? This story doesn't necessarily have an answer, just an exploration.

Just to reiterate, this story collection is not for the sad or pessimistic reader. I consider myself a fairly optimistic person and by the end of these I pretty much needed a giant hug and a drink. This doesn't mean that they're not worth reading and actually I feel like I've come to a really good patch of King-writing, it's just a bit intense and sometimes a bit much. Maybe don't read them all in one day like me, and break them up with some happy reading, but please definitely read them.

Devouring Stephen King: Under the Dome

I started reading Under the Dome quite lacklustrely. It's a BIG book, which meant I didn't want to carry it round with me, you know, anywhere, and I found that my reading time at home kept being eaten up by other things I needed/wanted to do. After dedicating myself to it one particular evening, however, I found I couldn't stop reading it. I started reading before bed, in the half an hour I give myself to wake up in the mornings (mornings are so hard, you guys), and I even started carrying it to work with me because I NEEDED to know what happened.

So it's a little bit good, is what I'm trying to say here. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Annoyingly, though, I'm going to start with a criticism because that's just the kind of person I am. I loved this book and couldn't get enough of it, but upon finishing, I realised that I kind of hadn't gotten to know any of the characters at all well. In, say, The Stand, there are a few characters who are really the main focus and you get to know them pretty well, and you would live and die for them, essentially. Under the Dome has its main characters, but I feel almost as though I didn't know them well enough to care about them as much as I would have liked to. I wanted to care, but I realised after I had finished that I had been gripped by so many other things, but not so much by a love and concern for the characters.

But that's ok because there were so many other things about this book that were SO GOOD. It is structurally so excellent, and each section ends with a shocking thing that happens, and when you think that was the most shocking thing, you come to the end of the next section and there is an even more shocking thing. It's the kind of thing that keeps me reading so hard, but it didn't feel like it was being forced upon me so much as it seemed like these were exactly the kinds of things that would happen in a town enclosed by an invisible dome, run by a complete psychopath (oh yeah, that's basically the jumping off point of the plot).

Let's talk about that psychopath though- Under the Dome is set in Chester's Mill, and Chester's Mill is run by Big Jim Rennie. Big Jim is one of the worst characters I've ever encountered, and by the worst, I actually mean the best worst. I became so frustrated with him that I can only compare my hatred to that I have for Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter- he is incapable of listening to, not only criticism, but actual common sense that says being trapped under a dome is maybe not the best time to make a giant power grab, but maybe just to try and fucking help people. He is a tiny Hitler (tiny in terms of the amount of people he has to control, not his physical size) and he cares for nothing other than trying to control his (literal) captive township.

I feel like a lot of King's stock characters you would traditionally root for die really early on, and these deaths are always shocking because these are his people! These are the guys who should be fixing things, but by taking them out of the way, King ensures that Rennie's power grab goes much, much further than it should be allowed to. He fills the police force with mean, untrained teenagers, incites riots to make the town believe that they need strong leadership, and relishes all the opportunities that a fucking disaster bring. I feel like I need to stop talking now before I spoil some things, but rest assured that this book is darker than a lot of King's work, and it's because, apart from the dome itself, everything that happens in this book is as a result of human behaviour, rather than supernatural influence.

Scary stuff, huh?

So basically, in case you couldn't tell, I bloody loved this book. It was intricate and well thought out, and if I found 'the good guys' a little underwhelming, that was maybe only because they didn't even have the opportunity to be heroes like King's good guys usually do, but instead had to muddle their way through Rennie's tawdry wet dream. There are way too many things in this book to adequately cover in this one review, so I'm going to have to go ahead and recommend that you all read it, and then tell me all your feels.

Devouring Stephen King: Just After Sunset

I finished Just After Sunset all the way back in (early) February, so I wouldn't expect this review to have anything substantial or interesting to it at all, if I was you. I know, I know, I'm being overwhelmingly positive here, but I'm just warning you, this is going to be a collection of vaguely remembered thoughts rather than anything else.

As if I have ever written in any other way...

Anyway! Just After Sunset is a collection of Stephen King short stories, and yay! We like those! I don't know if it was just because I hadn't read any for a while and had forgotten the quality of King's shorter work, but this collection really seemed especially good, with the exception of A Very Tight Place*, the final and most seriously disgusting story in the collection. And not even scary disgusting just, you know, disgusting.

Apart from that though, there's really just some stellar work going on here. There's a longer short story (but not quite a novella!) called N in this collection that kind of links mental illness and demonic happenings and it all seems very symbolic as well as genuinely freaking me the hell out. The first story in the book, Willa, is the one King credits with getting him back into short story writing again, and he praises it for that fact whilst also suggesting that it's not-so-great. Predictably, because I always disagree when he says stuff like this, I feel differently. Willa perfectly touched all of my happy places (ooer!)- a mysterious beginning, creepy happenings, all building to the only possible explanation, that's still one you're kind of surprised by. I liked it a lot, is what I'm saying.

This collection also sees King's first engagement with 9/11, and he takes the interesting angle of not even trying to imagine the human terror, but the potential supernatural power of The Things They Left Behind (which is also, clearly, the title of the story). It's not one of my favourites of the collection, but it is interesting to see King engage with one of the most important events of recent times and try and make something out of it that has a kind of renewing quality (as the end of this story does).

There are quite a few really short stories in this book, and they have at least as much of an impact, if not more, than some of the longer ones. I think talking about these in any sense is slightly redundant, in that if you talk about it a little, you've really given away the entire story, but the one that stands out in my mind concerns a girl who is just about to graduate from high school, ruminating about her future, but then sees her future being wiped out in a matter of seconds. If that one's not a little bit about 9/11 too, then I don't even know how to read anymore.** But for it to have stuck with me for longer than any of the other stories in the book says something about it's impact when compared to the longer works.

So there you have it. I still have no idea if this was actually any better than his other short story collections, but I definitely enjoyed it a lot either way. There are 13 stories in this book, and I can only think of one that I really didn't like, and two others that were kind of meh. I will take a 75% success rate for a book of short stories, and I will take it with pleasure. You probably should too.

*Wikipedia is saving my life here, you guys.
** And, believe me, I still know how to read.

Devouring Stephen King: From A Buick 8

Oh man. This book. Before I tell you anything about it, I should tell you that it took me about a month to read. This was not a month where I didn't have much reading time, because, let's face it, the days have been sunny and I have two extra ones off work now. I found myself actively avoiding reading because I wasn't especially grabbed by this book, but I also wanted to finish it badly because I'm desperate to read the last three Dark Tower books this summer, and they're next. And so, finish it I have. Reluctantly.

I'm being a little bit harsh, I think. There's nothing actively wrong with this book (or... well... there actually is, but we'll get to that later) and it's definitely not in league with, say, The Tommyknockers for  sucking. It does a couple of things really well, mainly in making you really care about the characters (King's speciality, really) and including some truly upsetting and, you know, disgusting descriptions. A lot of the characters throw up a lot in these books, and it's always for a truly legitimate reason. There is really some grossness in this book.

A synopsis: a young boy whose dad, a Pennsylvania Police Officer, has just been killed on the job, is hanging around the police barracks, trying to feel closer to his dad and work through his grief. Along the way, he discovers an old Buick in one of the sheds, a Buick with a sinister history and some creepy, creepy shit going on around it. Through a lot of reminiscence from the police officers who worked with his dad, the full history of the car is revealed, and a lot of gross stories are told.

My main issue with the story is pretty much all about its structure. Because so much of it is told through memories (obviously it starts in the present, but not much dramatic is happening there) there isn't much immediacy to the story (or stories, I guess, it feels pretty piecemeal)- you know that, anyone in danger is probably going to be ok, since they're telling the story, or you know they won't be ok, because they're not. Not just that, the stories themselves get pretty repetitive, pretty quickly- even though each incident is its own kind of disgusting, they all go along the same lines and once you've read one part of it, you've kind of read it all.

However- and I think this is the thing that saves this book from actually being awful- there is a certain awareness from King and even one of his characters that this method of storytelling isn't necessarily the most effective. Or, more than that, it's that this telling of the most dramatic moments of a whole history doesn't really tell the full story at all. It doesn't tell you about the times where nothing much happened for a long time- where people got married and had children and got divorced and just generally lived their everyday lives without much extraordinary to break up the days. This reflection on a storytelling method itself, is actually one of the most interesting things about the book, and kept me actually interested in any of the book.

Well, that and the way in which the police officers constantly describe each other as a family. I'm a big fan of family, whether or not that's the one you're born into, one you build yourself, or one that is formed when you work together in extraordinary circumstances. The latter two of these tend to be more interesting to read about, and when it comes to the police, it was fascinating to see how even this fictional family ticked. Close to the central characters or not, the loyalty and shared secrecy of all the police officers was interesting, as was their genuine affection for each other, and friends lost along the way. It all felt very true to how I'd imagine the police would be, and the afterword tells me that King actually did a lot of research with police in Pennsylvania, so I guess it kind of is. Or at least should be.

So. It's definitely not one of King's best, and it did take me a really long time to get through it, but it did have some redeeming factors. At this point of reading Stephen King, I honestly feel like a teacher, who knows that their student can do and has done better, but can't be that mad cause it wasn't that bad. It just isn't that great, either.

Devouring Stephen King (and Peter Straub): Black House

"She's beautiful, but he senses that beauty is one of the least important things about her."

Black House is the sequel to The Talisman that nobody asked for. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that- the sequel to The Talisman that I didn't ask for, and I didn't want. This is an extraordinarily grumpy start to a post, I realise, but good lord did I dislike The Talisman; and so Black House wasn't exactly a Stephen King book I was looking forward to getting to. But, it is here, it is done with, and you know what? It wasn't half bad.

Before we even talk about the book, shall we talk about the title? Black House sounds an awful lot like Bleak House, WHICH I JUST READ (weird!) and I thought this was just a coincidence and nothing would come of it. BUT in this book, two of the characters read Bleak House, and while I think it's still pretty much a coincidence, it's pretty cool that the similarity of the titles is at least acknowledged and mentioned and whatnot. 

Now. The story. We left Jack Sawyer after his really long boring journey and something about some kind of talisman and saving his mother and blah blah blah, as a twelve year old boy on the East Coast. Now living in Wisconsin, Jack is a retired LAPD homicide detective, and in my brain, he is now SMOKING hot. I don't know why, there's definitely nothing to suggest that he's especially the most handsome man in the world, but in my particular world of the story, he's pretty fine. And I would marry him. That's your first indication that I maybe didn't hate this book that much.

So. Jack is retired from police work, but children keep being murdered near him and he's coerced into helping with the investigation into that. OF COURSE it's not just a case of simple child murder, since Jack's all special and there's this whole other world (The Territories) that he hardly remembers but to which he is still important, and both of these things tie in together and make it so that Jack is the only one who can solve the case. On the whole, I BY FAR enjoyed all the police-work-biker-gang-reality stuff more than the fantasy-talking-there has to be a supernatural element to all this cause I say so stuff. Which is fairly rare for me, but the latter stuff reminded me that The Talisman existed, and that just pissed me off.

HOWEVER. The stuff in The Territories in this book related A LOT to The Dark Tower series, and so I was kind of in hog heaven over it. Seriously- I may have mentioned before that I kind of like those books, you know, no big deal, they're just King's magnum opus, whatevs, and so any extra information I can get about that world, I am all over. I'm always impressed with how carefully it's crafted, too- it's just enough about The Dark Tower so you stay interested in it, but not so much that it cuts off any storylines that might be about to happen in that universe. It's very well done, basically, and I'm hugely impressed that King made Straub agree to include those connections. Because hey, it's Straub's book too.*

So there's that. I read quite large chunks of this book in single sittings because it was both well written and compelling, but (but, but, but) just like in The Talisman, there was so much build up (TOO much build up) for the inevitable rushed and disappointing damp squib of an ending. The entire book feels like it's building up for something incredible to happen, but... It doesn't. Not really. STUFF happens, and it's alright, but it's over in about 3 pages and then there's just the explaining what happened to the townsfolk who don't understand the supernatural. You know what I would have liked? More of the supernatural to explain. It definitely did a lot to how I feel about the book as a whole, but there's still a lot I like about it in the end. 

Like, the characters. The characters are so much better than in The Talisman, even Jack is better than in The Talisman, and I cared about each and every one of them. There's the kindly and surprisingly well educated biker gang, Jack's blind but brilliant best friend, the put upon police chief, the extraordinary boy and his equally as extraordinary mother... There are a lot of characters to care about here, and even a few to love, and on the other side, there are just as many who are fun to hate (the bastard newspaper reporter comes to mind here, plus, you know, the child murderer...). It's all good where they're concerned, really.

One final thing though. This is not ok:

"Esther Summerson begins to chirp away in the first person. Our friends decide that the appearance of Esther demands a small libation, if they are to get through much more chirping."

*Although maybe there are connections in it that relate to some of Straub's work too. I dunno, what, do have to read all his books now, too?!

Devouring Books: NOS4R2 by Joe Hill

"He had long accepted that everyone had his own world inside, each as real as the communal world shared by all but impossible for others to access."

I'm having a really hard time even knowing where to begin writing about NOS4R2 (or, NOS4A2, if you're an American) because I liked it very very much, even though it took me about 4 months to read (or, I at least read it over 4 months), and that's always difficult to write about; but ALSO I want to go through the whole review without mentioning the Stephen King connection but how is that going to be possible? HAVE WE MET?*

In fact, I'm going to bring up the Stephen King thing now so we get it out of the way and no one feels awkward. SO- in case you didn't know, Joe Hill is Stephen King's son (SURPRISE! Time to leave that rock, kids). Also in case you didn't know, I kind of have a vague interest in Stephen King's work, and that meant that, at least to begin with, it was almost impossible for me to read this without comparing it to King. I hated myself for doing it, and I constantly reminded myself that THEY ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON and also SHHHH, brain. 

But then something weird happened, and my brain stopped going 'Stephen King is his DAD!' every 5 minutes, and the entire credit for that goes to the book itself. It's just so. Good. Literally, the better it got, the less I thought of anything in the outside world and just got completely sucked into the world of Vic and Lou and Charles Manx, where bad things often happen, and sometimes the demons win, however much you don't want them to. But we'll get to that.**

So, NOS4R2. There's a LOT of story here, as you might expect for a book with nearly 700 pages, and it's definitely impossible to sum up in a paragraph or two. But here goes: It's basically the story of Vic McQueen and her ability to find lost things, about the way she grows up and the challenges she faces as an adult. It's also the story of Charles Manx, a genuinely chilling villain who genuinely believes that he's doing the right thing when he kidnaps children and forces lets them live in a place where it's eternally Christmas. Only, really really scary Christmas.

That's kind of what the book's about, but it's also about having amazing action sequences, combined with just the right amount of emotion and character development and genuinely scary stuff. In Hanna's review, she says that it's probably better to read in the summer rather than actually AT Christmas (in spite of Waterstones trying to trick us by putting a sticker on the front that says 'A Christmas horror story!') because the whole point of the Christmas thing is that it's REALLY unnerving to hear Christmas songs when it isn't Christmas, and that's even more apparent when you're reading it and it's March all of a sudden (Seriously. Four months. Entirely my fault.)

This book though. I definitely have a few tiny issues with it, but they're pretty much engulfed by how much I just purely enjoyed it. I feel like I sometimes miss out on books that are a lot of fun (even if it's scary fun) because I read a lot of 'Literary Fiction' because I can't quite bear reading books that aren't well written. But THIS! This is both well written and completely absorbing, and this is my favourite combination of book, I think. *Whispers* It's why I like Stephen King so much... But anyway, this. So much action, combined with so much good writing makes it so much my kind of book.

And and, as Alley said in her review (because apparently, the way to write posts that are difficult to write is to steal borrow some inspiration!) the secondary characters are SO. GOOD. I don't know how a person could read this and not love Maggie, and the Gas Mask Man is extremely creepy, and there's this one character who's in it extremely peripherally, but who still managed to make me cry with a note and that is kind of an amazing thing. Even though this book has nearly 700 pages, it never loses its way, and doesn't include any characters that don't feel like living, breathing people, and that's pretty much the best compliment I can pay a book.

In case it doesn't go without saying, I highly recommend that you read this book, RIGHT NOW if not sooner. Just to wrap things up, I want to bring up Stephen King again, but in a non-comparing manner. In NOS4R2, there are a few tiny moments where SK books are referenced*** and every time it was SO EXCITING to me. I just... I can't even explain how pleasing it is to me when I know things that aren't necessarily made explicit, and even more pleasing when they're Stephen King related and yes. BUT NOS4R2 is definitely worth reading even without an encyclopaedic knowledge of the author's father's work.

*I know the answer is technically no, but we've met on the internet and that's basically the same thing. 

**Or not, because it seems to spoilery. We'll see.

***In a similar way to what King does in his own books

Devouring Stephen King: Dreamcatcher

"And oh man, why was the world so hard? Why were there so many spokes hungry for your fingers, so many gears eager to grab for your guts?"

The first time I read Dreamcatcher many many moons ago*, I haaaaated it. I don't know if I hated it to the extent that I ended up hating it in the following years, when the memory of the plot and characters and everything had faded so that all I could remember was a feeling of hatred towards the book, which intensified and got nice and hatey, but you know. I definitely hated it.

You could say, then, that I was dreading reading it again. Or, not so much dreading as, wanting to either avoid it forever or read it as quickly as possible so it was DONE. And I didn't have to read it, you know, ever again. However. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, if only because I had a thing where, in my state of misery, I really wanted some comforting reading, and apparently, having read 40-odd of his books makes Stephen King comforting rather than terrifying. Just the way he intended it, I'm sure.

Ahem.

And yet. Just because I didn't hate this book as much as I thought, doesn't mean I'm going to be really nice about it. Because I just can't. Admittedly, there are things I appreciate now more than I did when I first read it (where I appreciated nothing), and there are some really King-ian elements that I want to talk about, but on the whole... No. This is a novel based around an invading alien species who spread through shit-weasels. What this boils down to, really, is SO MUCH description of farts and shitting and burping and oh god, the bodily functions, I just cannot.

It's not that I'm being a prude! It's just that, the constant description of bodily functions takes what should be a terrifying situation (vaguely antagonistic alien invaders) and makes it ridiculous.** There comes a point in one's life when they're reading Dreamcatcher when you have to say no. No more. I can't read about anymore farts and stuff. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, STEPHEN?

And it's not just that. The major problem Dreamcatcher has, I think, is that there's very little story for the number of pages you have to read. I mean, there are kind of two narratives that split into three somewhere in the second half of the book, but the first half is pretty much just figuring out how they got to this point, and the second half is pretty much just a big chase scene. It's difficult to explain how many fewer pages there could be unless you've read it, but trust me, there could be a LOT fewer pages.

But. There are some redeeming features of this book. Firstly, I find it interesting that King wrote this not too long after he was hit by a car, after which he had an excruciating recovery, because there are so many descriptions of pain and its effects on the mind and all that other good stuff. That was an interesting little glimpse into the interesting part of the King psyche, the other parts, I assume, being mostly interested in farts and shit and stuff.

And then. The part that really makes it worth reading, the part that, in general, is the best part of a Stephen King book, is the friendship part. Even though it's kind of shoddily done, even though deaths aren't properly grieved at any point and friends seem to be sacrificed willy-nilly, the parts where King describes the main group as children are the parts where Dreamcatcher comes anywhere close to his usual magic. There's something Stephen King does with childhood friendships that I would match against anyone who's done the same thing, probably ever, and that's the saving grace here.

But it's not really enough. For me, there's too much army crap, too much blah blah blah and not enough story, and far, far too many shit weasels.*** It's troubling to me that people could read this without an extensive King background and think 'fuuuck, this dude sucks', and it's troubling to me that THIS is what he came up with after he nearly died. Not something incredibly profound (even though it tries to be at times). Shit and farts and burps. I just can't, really, in the end. 

*Which I say because, you know, I can't remember when I read it.
**I would say hilarious, but it's not even funny toilet humour.
***Note: ONE is too many.

Devouring Stephen King: The Plant

"How foolish it is to write, what a pitiful bulwark against the world's hard realities and bitter home truths. How terrible to say 'This is all I have.'"

I've been working my way through Stephen King's complete works for nearly 3 years now (I know. I know) and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I'm not trying to say this to impress you (although, that is a total of 43 books so far, so BE IMPRESSED) but to try and show you how ridiculous it is that I read The Plant. This book actually didn't make it onto my original list because Wikipedia told me that it was unfinished (which is true) and so I figured it could be skipped and forgot about it. THEN my internet friend who is also reading All The King (because we're cool like that) asked if I was going to read The Plant or Dreamcatcher next.

And, because I have really unfond memories of Dreamcatcher (I can't be specific about it, because I don't really remember much about it, but I do remember that I hate it) I grasped at any opportunity to put off reading it whilst still moving forward with the King thing.

So, The Plant. Wikipedia was correct about it being unfinished, but there's still a fair bit to read and it has quite a few merits that I think make it worth a read. It was originally published on Stephen King's website, in six separate instalments, where people were asked to pay $1 per part via the honour system (the whole thing can now be downloaded for free on Stephen King's website here) but was never finished, possibly because King said he'd stop writing it if the amount of paying customers fell below 75% (which they did) or possibly for some other reason I can't even be bothered to make up right now. Maybe bunnies.*

ANYWAY. The Plant. It's an epistolatory start-of-a-novel** set in New York City- a place I'm not convinced King is very fond of based on previous experience and this book especially. A small publishing company that's failing has gotten on the wrong side of an INSANE cult member/terrible writer, and for his revenge he sends a plant (THE Plant) that has all kinds of powers that are pretty complicated. To wit- the plant actually does good things for you, UNTIL certain things happen to it, when it turns on you pretty fast/possibly eats you (the story, as it is so far, ends before the plant turns bad, which was obviously going to happen, so I can't really tell you exactly what it does. But I'm sure it was nasty.)

If I'm honest, The Plant takes a long time to get going, which is especially frustrating when you know there isn't that much of it. Probably the first three instalments aren't that great (although, each section does have a cliffhanger at the end of it, as all serial novels should) or at least aren't very action filled or thrilling. But, to be fair, that's not something I would have noticed if there had been more story, or it at least wouldn't annoy me so much.

The second half, though, is where things really pick up, and there are so many things hinted at and just begging to be developed that it makes me want to go over to Maine and shake King a tiny bit and make him WRITE THE REST. DO IT NOW. The end of the sixth part is especially intriguing because there's a big shift in... things, and I can think of a few different ways it could go from that point, all of them good and one of them especially interesting. Basically I'm writing the rest of the story in my head because I can't really leave it where it is. Too too much to think about.

The Plant is free, takes only a few to read, and is much better than I remember Dreamcatcher being. It's obviously the only choice if you're reading all of his stuff and you don't want to read Dreamcatcher, but I think it's also worth your time and attention even if not. Unless you're someone who CAN'T leave a book unfinished (because this will drive you crazy), it's an interesting, fairly scary tale of ambition and botany and publishing that you can carry in your brain and attempt to continue in your own time. 

Or we can all do that thing where we harass Stephen King in Maine/on twitter. You decide which.

*I got basically alllll this information from Wikipedia. Just covering my arse here, plagiarism-wise. 

**Half-novel? I don't know how long the whole thing would have been...

Devouring Stephen King: On Writing

"Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around."

I've been really excited to read On Writing on my Stephen King journey ever since Alley reviewed it (TWO YEARS AGO. That is how long it takes me to get to Stephen King books, people) and has basically brought it up at every opportunity ever since. I mean, I loved this book, but Alley? She really loves it. And when someone I like a whole lot likes something that much, attention must be paid, and anticipation builds up a lot. Over TWO YEARS (did I mention how long that is? It's really really long).

So. Anyway. On Writing. As the subtitle says, it's A Memoir of the Craft, and ohhh boy, is it! It's basically split into two parts- the first of a selection of snapshot memories from King's childhood, and the second of actual writing advice or, not so much advice, even, but just a whole load of things that King does or doesn't do, and which he does or doesn't enjoy reading. I feel like, just from that premise, it sounds very dry and instructiony and just the kind of thing that would generally make me want to go 'noooo shut up, you can't tell me what to do! And hey, I like adverbs'* but it's not like that at all.

The reason it isn't like that, I think, is because it's Stephen King. Hey, did you guys know I like Stephen King a lot? I do. I do feel that way. Possibly one of the things that I like most about Stephen King is that he's utterly free of pretension- he accepts that he's not the ultimate greatest writer (although, I think he's better than he thinks he is, but that's another issue) and it's precisely because of that that you don't mind listening to him because hey! These things have improved his writing, why couldn't they improve yours?

Nowhere is this brought home to me better than in one of the appendices, where King shows an unedited opening of a short story (1408, if you're interested), and then the edited version, and reading both it's like you can literally see the place where the magic happens. This was especially eye opening to me because, when I read the first draft, I genuinely literally thought 'yeah, I could probably write that' (more or less...) but it's within the editing where everything really gets going, and where a story is formed. This was personally fairly illuminating because if ever I write (which, let's face it, doesn't happen that often) it doesn't go beyond the first draft because I'm too busy being mean to myself and/or not wanting to read back what I've written at all. If anything, then, On Writing may have given me the courage to actually go back, and reread some of the things I've written, because maybe I'm not as bad as I think I am? I don't know.

I realise I haven't really said much about the straightforward memoiry part of the book, and that's not because it's bad in any way, just that it's filled with much less practical advice than the rest of it. Regardless, it is still good AND interesting- each of the chapters forms a part of his life that's either related to writing, or has possibly influenced what he writes about in one way or another (having his eardrum repeatedly pierced by a needle, for example, was a particularly horrifying memory) and I learnt some things about King and his books that I didn't know before (I knew some of it because, let's face it, I like Stephen King, yeah?) So that was all good and interesting, albeit less applicable to ones own life. Possibly.

Basically, I read this book in about 2 days, even though I wanted to make it last longer so I could actually take in some of the advice and, you know, consider putting it to use in some way, maybe. But it's too good to read slowly, at least for the first time, and definitely makes me even more excited about the Stephen King books coming up that I haven't read because, you know, he's still got it! (or he did have it in, like 2000. I'm that far behind, yes.)

Unfortunately, Dreamcatcher is coming up next and I have read that one. It's not his best. Expect me to be scathing, when I can be bothered to read it.

*Injoke for anyone who's read On Writing. Or... Not even a joke, really, just a comment. Or a really really bad joke...

Sunday Sundries: Stuff With Friends

Before I can even think about recounting things that happened this week, first I must say this:
STEPHEN KING IS ON TWITTER, EVERYONE FREAK THE FUCK OUT!
Or... Maybe that was just me on Friday night. But SERIOUSLY, he's really on there and, you know, GO FOLLOW HIM.

Now that's out of the way... Hi everyone, how has your week been? Any of your ultimate humans joined twitter or anything? No really, I want to know.

Anyway. Onto things that didn't happen on the internet this week... I did things! Most days! It's alarming, I know, but try to contain yourselves, this won't happen every week. Realistically I didn't do that much- but I did stuff before work some days, and after work other days, and since I sometimes struggle to do either of those things, I'm calling this week a win. On Tuesday morning I did a little bit of Christmas shopping (and I mean a little bit. Like, tiny. Like, why am I even out shopping? small), and on Wednesday night I went to see Catching Fire (I already reviewed it, too! Kinda...) and on Friday night I went to the theatre with my friend Christina to see Let The Right One In, and it kind of exceeded all my expectations of it.

My expectations of Let The Right One In: I watched the Swedish film in preparation for the play, and I got so bored that I kind of, well, closed my eyes through parts of it. And it has subtitles, so I think it's fair to say I missed some stuff, but seriously. Bored. But, I watched the film after already agreeing to go to the play, so I couldn't really back out, and I'm really glad I didn't. What the play did was, take some of the most visually striking moments from the film, combined with the basic plot of the film BUT more of the book included too, and really just knocked it out of the park.

The set. I definitely got told off for taking this photo.

I was engrossed and enchanted and at one point VERY VERY FREAKED OUT (I honestly nearly fell out of my seat with fear so NICE WORK everyone) and the set! It's so beautiful, and looks like it wouldn't be nearly as effective as it actually was. Interesting fact: fake snow looks kind of like carpet in the right light. There were some parts I remembered from the book (and film) that I was thinking 'how are they going to do that..?' and they managed them beautifully and actually kind of excitingly. And then scarily (seriously, SO TERRIFIED.)

So basically, yes, it was excellent, and had I not seen To Kill A Mockingbird at the Open Air Theatre this year, I would have probably called it the best thing I've seen at the theatre all year. But seriously, To Kill A Mockingbird was the best thing ever, so. If you'd like to read a proper review of Let The Right One In, there's one here and I like it. It was such a good show, in fact, that I'm almost willing to forgive the two hours it took me to get home in the end (I honestly live half an hour's train ride from London at the most). In fact, I forgive the play entirely, but I will never forgive Waterloo Station for being IDIOTS.

And then yesterday (I know, so many things!) I saw my lovely friend Justine, who abandoned me to move to Bristol in September but was home for the weekend and yaaaaaay! I was SO tired that I'm not sure how good company I was, but the important part is YAY FRIENDS and also she bought me a MAGNIFICENT Christmas present so I love her forever and ever:

Technically taken weeks ago, but the point is, isn't it AMAZING?

Not, of course, that I didn't already. The present came at a tactically good time, too, cause after my sprightly burst of Christmassy feeling of last week, I haven't been that into it the rest of this week, BUT now I can wear my Christmas pudding hoody at any time and really feel it. Probably, that's how clothes work, right? Either way, hopefully by next week I'll be feeling like this again:

TWO WEEKS AND A BIT TIL CHRISTMAS, GUYS!

Devouring Stephen King: Hearts in Atlantis

"The world of the story had become so vivid to him that this real one now seemed false and drab."

Hearts in Atlantis is, almost unbelievably, the first new-to-me Stephen King book I've read all year.* It's also only the eighth Stephen King book I've finished this year, which is why that fact makes more sense, but still. It's crazy. What it taught me was this: I can still be scared, or at least a little freaked out, by Stephen King books, as long as the story is completely unknown to me and is, you know, sort of freaky. I'm going to go right ahead and assume that not having my mum in close proximity might have had a tiny bit to do with this too, because, strong, independent woman though I am, when shit gets scary, it's just better to have your mum nearby.

Anyway. Hearts in Atlantis. It has, and I don't think I'm exaggerating here, the weirdest structure of any book I've maybe ever read. It contains 5 stories, all of them linked (however loosely) two of which (Low Men in Yellow Coats and Hearts in Atlantis) are roughly the same length and kind of the 'main' stories, and three of which (Blind Willie, Why We're in Vietnam and Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling) are pretty much short stories that still fit into the longer stories that come before them. I say it's a weird structure, and it truly is, but that didn't make it bad, just strange- they all still fit together well, and you can see the point of all the stories. 

My favourite, and really the main story, is Low Men in Yellow Coats. Not only does it have a connection to The Dark Tower (and I know it does, only I can't fully remember how) but it really just covers what King does best- the confusing and sometimes dark nature of childhood combined with all its wonderful aspects, too. It's also, essentially, the story of an old man's friendship with a young boy in a time where that was still an ok thing, and the relationship between Ted and Bobby is really lovely to read about (Ted gives Bobby the gift of reading! It's the best), and almost as good only in the opposite way is the ultimately destructive relationship between Bobby and his awful, awful mother. 

And then there are the Low Men themselves, extremely creepy and written in a way that actually, genuinely, had my heart beating a little bit faster, and my stomach crawling just a tiny bit. These guys are really sinister and frightening- it's not just the men themselves, but their giant, other worldly cars that give them away, and even writing about this is making me want to break out in a light sweat so I should probably stop. But trust me- they're very creepy, and introduced in a way that makes them seem dangerous, and power gaining, and just, noooooo. Scary. But EXCELLENT.

Hearts in Atlantis comes straight after LMIYC, and it really couldn't be more different. It has a couple of characters from the previous story, which allows them to be linked, but other than that, it's a fairly straightforward (by which I mean, nothing supernatural happens) story about being a college student in the late 1960s, and all of the growing awareness of the Vietnam War that that entailed. If I was comparing this to LMIYC, it wouldn't be a favourable one, but since it's really easy to view it as a wholly separate story (because it is one...) I actually found it really interesting in terms of what it might have been like to have been a college student at that time.

What it might have been like: a few students were maybe very politically active and involved in Vietnam protests from the very beginning, whereas a lot of other people maybe didn't care so much, until it felt impossible to them not to care anymore. There's also the other perspective of male college students having to care, because being in college was basically the only thing keeping them out of the military, and so good grades? Kind of a big deal. It was an interesting take on the whole Vietnam thing, and that's something which I can really say for the whole book.

I don't really have much to say about the three short stories- Blind Willie was probably the best of them, but only in how actually shocking and breathtakingly exploitative the titular character was, and Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling sort of wrapped up a couple of points from the other stories but wasn't much in itself. Blind Willie and Why We're in Vietnam both deal with more of the fallout from the Vietnam War, and to me, it felt like these were things King had wanted to write about for years, but maybe never really knew how, or when. With these stories, I think he does something really interesting, and something definitely worth reading. 

So basically- I don't know if I liked this so much simply because I was just so happy to get my hands on some new-to-me King, or if it's a genuinely good book, but either way I really enjoyed it and I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't too. If nothing else, Low Men In Yellow Coats is well worth your attention, and after it, you're going to want to know what happens to its characters, so you will read on. And hopefully you'll get a tiny bit scared too. It's the Stephen King way.

*Technically, I finished Rose Madder this year, but that was literally on the 1st of January and I read most of it last year. Just to be, you know, accurate.

Devouring Stephen King: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

"The world had teeth, and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted."

Ah, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. When you decide to do something stupid like read every single Stephen King book ever, when you've already read quite a few of them, there are bound to be some that you're not really bothered about encountering ever again. Whilst I didn't dread The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon like I do, say, Dreamcatcher (I hate it. I hate it so much. And it's a mere 2 books away.) I still wasn't desperate to read it again, like I am, say, the last three books of The Dark Tower.

Anyway. Enough about me. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is about a girl. Who loves Tom Gordon.

(Tom Gordon being apparently a real life baseball player and zzzzzzz) And who also happens to be walking in the woods with her mum and brother when she goes off the path to pee and gets completely and horribly lost. And she wanders around in the woods for days and stuff happens and there's a really stupid supernatural element aaaaand that's about the whole book.

The thing about The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is, even if you hate it (which I don't! I just don't particularly like it) it's at least short, so you don't feel like you're about to die of boredom while you're reading it. Having said that, though, it also almost felt too long for what it was- there's only so much you can read about one girl's struggle to survive in the wilderness before you almost don't care anymore. In some ways this book reminded me of The Body (which was also Stand by Me) only with more peril, and I felt like it would also have benefitted from being novella-length, rather than a full sized novel.

But. The main character is a girl!

Now, I actually think King has a fairly good track record with his representation of women (if I didn't think that, I don't think I would have been able to keep reading him for so long) but it's a rare thing where his main character (and in this book, Trisha is basically the only character) is a girl, and even rarer when that girl isn't a victim of some kind of abuse. Better than that though, Trisha is sort of awesome- she's a nine year old who manages to forage in the woods for food, escape insect attacks, and walk into a whole other State to try and find her own way out. Not bad for a girl, huh?

She's also a girl who loves baseball, which makes me partially want to go 'Yessssss, girls like sports too!' but in reality it was more like 'ughhhhh, baseball' because I don't really enjoy reading about a sport that firstly, I don't really understand because it's not something we have in the UK, but also that what I do understand I find kind of boring? The point is, this is something King often includes in his books, and it's never going to be something I find very interesting, although I understand why he does it and I'm not going to scold him for it. I'll just continue to yawn my way through those parts.

So, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. It's fine, but it doesn't set my world on fire. If you were the kind of child whose nightmares were centred on being lost in the woods, then this will probably scare the bejeesus out of you, but I'm from England and there probably aren't even any woods here you couldn't find your way out of in, say, a day. Which, incidentally, is about as long as it'll take to finish this book, ensuring that you don't waste too much of your time on it. Which isn't something I'd recommend.

A to Z Bookish Survey

Subtitle: That post other people have done that I'm copying because I'm too tired/lazy to write a review of anything. I've stolen this from both Sarah and Alley and you should probably read theirs too, because, I don't know, reasons.

HERE I AM DOING THIS:

Authors you've read the most books from: Have you ever been here before? Because it's obviously Stephen King. I mean, even in the past 2 and a half years I've read 39 of his books and I've read more than that and WOAH that is a lot of books.

Best sequel ever: I don't know, man, I don't read books that are in a series. Let's say... All the Harry Potter books EXCEPT the Chamber of Secrets, which is TECHnically the sequel... Dammit.

Currently reading: Oh God... *Deep breath* Middlemarch, The Lost Continent, Tell The Wolves I'm Home, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Friday Reads on twitter is like a NIGHTMARE for me every week

Drink of choice when reading: I really don't drink or eat anything (or only rarely) when I'm reading because I'm not even in the room, anymore, so I don't have bodily appetites, yeah?

Ereader or physical book: I loves a good physical book, but I'm also very fond of my Kindle- I haven't read that many books on it because SO MANY UNREAD BOOKS, but I don't dislike the experience at all. And I haven't taken it on holiday yet, but when I do finally go away, I am going to love it so much.

Fictional character that you probably would have dated in High School: I didn't go to High School because we don't have those over here. But I can't think of any hot teenage characters (because I'm OLD) so let's pretend Eric Northman (HE'S A BOOK CHARACTER TOO) and I would have been schoolish contemporaries and THAT would have happened because yum.

Glad you gave this book a chance: Um um ummmm... Oooh, OK, Ready Player One because it was exactly the book I wanted to read even though I didn't even know that. ALSO The Sisters Brothers. It was awesome.

Hidden gem book: What is this, like books that are awesome but nobody knows about? Everyone knows about Rainbow Rowell at this point, yeah?

Important moment in your reading life: I suppose my first Stephen King book was probably quite an important moment but I can't even remember what it was (it might have been Carrie because I'm like that.) BUT ALSO I'm going to copy Alley because starting this blog was a totally important thing because it took my book thoughts out of my brain and translated them into words I could share with other people and that's just AWESOME.

Just finished: The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger. It was fine... But I kind of want to say the cover was better than the book (the cover is AWESOME)

Kind of books you won't read: I kind of want to say YA only I DO read it, I just rarely enjoy it. HAVING SAID THAT, I believe Tell The Wolves I'm Home is YA and I am enjoying it muchly so you can just ignore me.

Longest book you read: Is it Les Miserables? I'm going to say Les Miserables. It's actually technically the uncut version of The Stand, BUT 1400 Stephen King pages is not the same as 1200 Victor Hugo pages.

Major book hangover because of: I kind of had a continual book hangover while I was reading Harry Potter because I didn't want to read anything else alongside it.

GIF BREAK:

Applies to most of these. Also this isn't even a gif.

This is just getting gratuitous now.

Number of bookcases you own: I technically only own one, which is why my books live in weird places like 'the gap next to my bed' and also 'the bottom of my wardrobe'. 

One book you've read multiple times: To Kill A Mockingbird, and I will read it forever.

Preferred place to read: It's my bed. Always, always my bed.

Quote that inspires you: I actually have two quote notebooks (I filled one up. I am all about the quotes.)  so let's look in the one that I can reach without moving... "Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to be acquainted with the butterflies." From The Little Prince (I didn't read far into my quote notebook... BUT this is pretty and also it's french and papillon is possibly my favourite word in french/any language. This is random information I'm giving you...)

Reading regret: I dunno. The fact that I can't do it for a living? That's not really a regret, is it..?

Series that you started and need to finish: Seriously, I don't read series! And I ALWAYS finish them. NEXT.

Three of your all-time favourite books: It by Stephen King, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and and *dies from the pressure of having to choose only one more* Let's say East of Eden by John Steinbeck? But SO MANY.

Unapologetic fangirl for: Stephen King (obvs), Nora Ephron, Caitlin Moran, Rainbow Rowell, Bill Bryson, John Steinbeck, WILKIE, Murakamiiiiiiiiii.

Very excited for this release: In general, I don't really know about any new releases, but I am excited for the new Donna Tartt (so excited that I can't even remember its name) AND Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood, which I've already reserved at the library even though it isn't even out yet. Oh ACTUALLY that's part of a series that I must finish. 

Worst bookish habit: Buying books when I definitely don't need any more books. It's an addiction, people.

X marks the spot! Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book: Why the 27th though? This one is stupid. Ok, *moves* The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I didn't do anything with it though...

Your last bookish purchase: I may or may not have bought three books on Saturday, ONE OF WHICH I already had out of the library and which I have now read and decided that I don't want to keep. This is not one of those stories with a happy ending (although I do now have another Richard Yates book which is cool because I like Revolutionary Road quite a lot).

Zzz snatcher- Which book kept you up way late?: SO MANY. But the most ironic was Insomnia by Stephen King, and possibly the best was 1Q84 by Murakamiiiiii, which I literally didn't know how to put down. 

I think we've all learnt a lot. My work here is done. 

Devouring Stephen King: Bag of Bones

"The aspiring novelist should understand from the outset that fiction's goals were forever beyond his reach, that the job was an exercise in futility. 'Compared to the dullest human being actively walking about on the face of the earth and casting his shadow there,' Hardy supposedly said, 'the most brilliantly drawn character is but a bag of bones.'"

I always find myself saying that  Bag of Bones is my favourite Stephen King novel that nobody's ever heard of. It's true, but then again, there are SO many Stephen King books that people have heard of that it doesn't really say that much. More accurately, then, at this precise moment it's my second favourite Stephen King book of all time (after It, of course) and I just love it, love it, love it.

I've been trying to decide exactly what I love about it, but trying to think of any specifics just gets tied up in a swirl of love for the book and then I get all dazed and am none the wiser. There are a few things that, structurally, I really appreciate- it's written in the first person, which is rare for King and which makes it SUCH a treat when he does it because he's so good at it. It's also perfect for this book because there's so much Mike (our narrator) doesn't know for so long, which means WE don't know it either which really ramps up the suspense.

I also love the fact that the supernatural is very subtle in this book, but it's also completely integral to the story, so it's there in the background for the whole book UNTIL it becomes THE thing in the last 100 pages or so, at which point you realise just how important it's been the whole time. It's all very clever, and it's also pleasing to know that the book kind of works without the supernatural elements, too.

Now, the actual story (supernatural things that make you reconsider the entirety of the book aside). It's essentially the story of Mike Noonan, a Maine writer (SO ORIGINAL. But I'll let that slide because he lives in Derry which is AWESOME and also, I like the guy) who becomes a widower at the beginning of the story. When he finds out that she was pregnant, his grief is multiplied by at least two, setting him off into a spiral of numbness and writers block that lasts for four years. Thanks to some increasingly creepy dreams, he decides to go to his house at an extremely creepy lake for the summer, where he meets a beautiful young widow (Mattie) who's tied up in a bitter custody battle with her creepy father-in-law (it's all very fairytale like) and he decides to help her because he's a nice guy. And things sort of spiral from there. 

Only, of course, that's really only what's going on on the surface, and underneath that there's the distinct possibility that Mike's house is haunted by more than one ghost, the mystery surrounding what Mike's wife was doing in her final months, the weird dreams that Mike continues to have. The thing is, though, I could tell you about everything that happens in Bag of Bones, and it would be pretty exciting, sure, but none of that explains what I really love about it, because I think that's really in the details, and in the things I've kind of made up in my head about it over the past bazoollion years (seriously, I first read this a looooong time ago). Here are a few of them:

• It's very literary- Because Mike is a writer, he has also read a lot, and that means this book is filled with references to other books. And it's not that they're really a huge part of this story, but they're definitely noticeable, and they're just thrown in casually like the whole book is basically just having a conversation with a friend who has the same cultural references as you. Which is actually a really nice feeling. Off the top of my head, I can think of references to Rebecca, Bartleby, The Moon and Sixpence and Thomas Hardy.
• The many meanings of 'Bag of Bones'- This concept is introduced in the story in the quote above, and it does a couple of things- tips a little meta nod to the fact that hey! You're reading a book!, and also describes the emptiness Mike feels after his wife's death. And I like all of that but THEN later in the book (waaay later) there's a whole other meaning to it that kind of rips my heart out. So you're going to want to read that.
• It feels very personal- This is very much a thing that I've made up in my head, but it feels right so I'm going with it. So Bag of Bones is all about a Maine writer whose wife dies and leaves him with basically just memories and writers block. I'm absolutely just choosing to believe this, but it seems that for a (Maine) writer such as King, who loves his wife very much (it's really well documented), his two biggest fears would be losing his wife and getting writer's block. And I'm not at all saying that Mike Noonan just IS Stephen King, but just that it seems like King would be able to tap into this fears fairly easily to make this book so realistic, and yeah, heartbreaking. And also it makes me feel closer to Stephen King as a human but I know that's only in my brain so shh.
• Connections to his other works- Ok, I always love these, but this was the first time I've read Bag of Bones having ALSO read the books referenced in it, so it was like reading a whole new book and it was EXCITING! (For the record: Mike has a chat with Ralph Roberts from Insomnia, asks after Sheriff Pangbourne from Needful Things and mentions the grisly end of Thad Beaumont from The Dark Half). Eve more excitingly, I feel like I found a connection to a book he hadn't even written yet- there's this bit during a dream-that-isn't-a-dream where there's clearly an allusion to the aftermath of JFK's shooting, which could just be, y'know, a reference to a historical event BUT King had been trying to write 11.22.63 since the 70s, so. The Jury's out on that one.

And I've managed to reach the end of the review without even mentioning mother-daughter relationships, and just how much I like Mattie (she transcends ALL stereotypes of single-teen-mothers, as well she should) and probably a million other things, but that's fine- you can find all these things out for yourself. To me, Bag of Bones feels in almost no way like a typical Stephen King novel (IF such a thing even exists, which I'm doubting more and more every time I read one) but what this means is, if you've read Stephen King and vetoed him, maybe give this a try, and if you're too scared to read him then this could be your one- it's not NON-scary, but it's definitely a lot more creepy than out and out horrible (unless you're really really scared of ghosts, in which case don't read this one...) And if you're already a Stephen King fan, then what are you even waiting for? Get on that!*

*Yeah, I basically just said 'this book is for everyone!' But seriously, read it read it read it, I love it so much!