Throwback Thursday: 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Doubleday

Publication Date:  October 1975

Thousands of miles away from the small township of 'Salem's Lot, two terrified people, a man and a boy, still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets. They must return to 'Salem's Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town.

On Halloween, I recently watched the movie version of Salem's Lot.  It's always been a favorite of mine.  It's cheesy and creepy at the same time.  It got me thinking about the novel.  I read this book over 40 years ago when I was in middle school.  I remember it being one of the scariest books I had read at the time.  For nostalgia sake, I thought I would read it as an adult.  

It's no secret, I have not been a fan of Stephen King's books in the last 10 or so years.  Salem's Lot is a  the King that I used to know and love reading.  The atmosphere in the town is ominous and creepy.  The characters are interesting and are typical of life in small town Maine.  It was written in 1975 so some of the 1975 societal norms found here would be frowned on today. But overall, it didn't feel outdated.  Re-reading this as an adult, I wasn't really scared, but I can see why I would have been reading it when I was 10.  There are 2 scenes that I remember being so creepy and they are still creepy.  Particularly the bus scene and the scene where the little Glick boy scratches at the window. If you have seen the movie, you know which one I am talking about. It's just as creepy in the book. If you are in the mood for some horror and nostalgia, I would recommend picking this one up.

Joint Review: The Institute by Stephen King

Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: September 2019

In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

I'll be honest, I didn't ultimately care for this latest from King.  I think I'm pretty much done with this author.  Which makes me really sad because I am a HUGE fan of his earlier stuff.  The Institute was just OK.  When i finished it I thought...meh.  It felt like it was a YA version of Firestarter and Carrie.  As Autumn said to me in our discussion of the book, "Maybe he is out of ideas?". 

The characters were forgettable.  The ending was a big let down.  There was no real tension except maybe toward the end.  There was a lot of potential here, but it just fell flat for me.  I think the only character I really liked was the ex-cop, but I can't even remember his name.  It's long, so if you have the time, maybe try it, otherwise go back and read one of his earlier books.

I'm kind of on the fence with this one.  Yeah, I kinda liked it.  But I also found myself thinking that various parts reminded me of other things.  I know King likes to pull little tidbits from other books into the story, but this wasn't like that, it felt like recycling.  

I always say I'm gonna give him one last chance and I keep expecting more.  Maybe my expectations are too high?  I'm not really sure.  Will I give him another chance?  In all honesty, probably, but it better be something spectacular!

Autumn's Review: The Outsider by Stephen King

Title:  The Outsider
Author:  Stephen King
Publisher:  Scribner
Publish date:  May 22, 2018

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

All throughout my high school years and then into my early twenties I loved Stephen King.  If he had a new book out, I'd stop everything to read it.  After the last several books (excluding the Bill Hodges Trilogy) I haven't been so keen on reading his books.  They've just gotten to be weird.

This book specifically was so freakin long.  It seemed like great chunks of this book were unnecessary and had little bearing on the story as a whole.    This might be me, but I also had trouble keeping straight the characters.  A name would pop up and I had to really think about who it was and where they fit into the story.  Those seemed to be my two main gripes with this book, but it made it less than enjoyable.  

I listened to the audiobook for this and that was the saving grace that got me all the way through it.  Will Patton is one of my favorite audiobook readers.  Once again he did an awesome job with this book.  

Overall, I think it might be time to break up with Stephen King, but it'll be a hard one.

Throwback Thursday: It by Stephen King

Author: Stephen King
First published in 1986 by Viking Penguin

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry, Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.

It was the children who saw - and felt - what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing . . .

The adults, knowing better, knew nothing.

Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality. 

I have been a big Stephen King fan since I was in middle school.  I haven't been much of a fan of his latest offerings, but give me a classic and I'm all over that.  I have read a lot of his books, but I had never read It.  With the recent release of the remake movie, I was curious to see if the book lived up to the hype.  It does and doesn't.   It is really long.  Probably longer than it needed to be as I felt like I was listening to the audio-book forever.  I think had I not seen the 90s version of the made for TV movie, I would have been a bit more creeped out by the story.  That movie surprisingly got a lot of the book right.   I also started feeling a bit nostalgic because I felt like I was listening to old-school King.  That man does know how to spin a tale. 

I'm going to rant for a bit, so beware... If asked about  3.4 of the way in, I would have rated the book at 4 stars, taking one off for length. Then the last part of the book came on and I was appalled.  I know that King does a lot of gruesome stuff for shock value and not much shocks or disgusts me. However, what he had the 11 and 12YO losers' club do to find their way out of the tunnels after defeating It was close to child pornography.  I'm not going to sugar coat it.  That was gross and unnecessary.  I don't want to read about 12YOS having sex or "flying" because of it.  Eww. This scene is the biggest reason I wouldn't recommend It without warning.  I have polled a few people who have read the book in the past and none of them seem to remember that particular scene.  Perhaps the omission of that scene in the 90s movie have helped to wipe their memory of it?  Ok, rant over.  At any rate, the rest of the story is a long yet creepy monster story.  If you haven't read it, go in with caution.

Joyland by Stephen King

Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Hard Case Crimes
Date of publication: July 2013

College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life—and what comes after—that would change his world forever. 

A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old—and about those who don't get to do either because death comes for them before their time—Joyland is Stephen King at the peak of his storytelling powers. With all of the emotional impact of King masterpieces such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, Joyland is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.

After not loving the last few Stephen King books, I reluctantly gave Joyland a try when it popped up on my Overdrive site.  I'm sorry that I waited to so long to read it!  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up liking this coming of age story.  It reminded me of the gift that this author has for the written word.  It was magical and I was quickly caught up in Devin's tale of a summer and fall working at Joyland before he finished college.

This book isn't a horror story, but that was OK.  It's really a story about a teenager who tries to get over a broken heart by taking a summer job at an amusement park.  There he makes new friends, gains confidence, and really begins to become a man.  There are elements of paranormal and a mystery as well, but they aren't the central focus of the book.  I just loved the ending, it was so bittersweet.  I definitely recommend this one if you haven't tried it out yet.

End of Watch by Stephen King

by:  Stephen King

published by:  Scribner

publish date:  June 7, 2016

Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney, who delivered the blow to Hartsfield's head that put him on the brain injury ward. Brady also remembers that. When Bill and Holly are called to a murder-suicide with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put not only their lives at risk, but those of Hodges’s friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Because Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Bill Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.

This trilogy has been a departure from the typical Stephen King story.  I'm glad he took this departure and got into the detective mystery game, because these books were so good.  

End of Watch is the final book in the trilogy.  This story ties back into the first with the Mercedes Killers and some of his victims.  The story takes place several years after the massacre and Brady Hartsfield seems to be making a come back.  Somehow Brady, despite still being in a coma, is programming hand held game devices to hypnotize the players into doing terrible things.  It's up to Bill and Holly to convince everyone that these devices are causing the havoc.  When Jerome's sister Barbara is one of the victims, he too joins the team to bring Brady Hartsfield down.

This book was the perfect conclusion to the series.  It wrapped up the Bill Hodges story very well.  I loved the characters in this series especially Bill and Holly.  I doubt there will be anymore stories after this one, but it would be great if there was another spin off involving Holly.

Autumn's Most Anticipated Reads for 2016

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

by:  Stephen King
published by:  Scribner
publish date:  June 2, 2015

“Wake up, genius.” So begins King’s instantly riveting story about a vengeful reader. The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel.

Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years.

This is the second book in the "Bill Hodges" trilogy.  We were introduced to Bill Hodges in Mr. Mercedes.  I really enjoyed that book, it was a great blending on King's horror and a police procedural.  Finders Keepers was highly anticipated, but it wasn't exactly what I expected.  The story was really much more about Morris Bellamy and Pete Saubers, and less about the crime fighting trio of Bill, Holly and Jerome.

The story opens with Morris killing the famous author John Rothstein.  On the surface, it seems like the home invasion is about theft of money, but it's really about Morris wanting to steal John's notebooks because he's convinced there are more Jimmy Gold novels hidden in his notebooks.  Before he has time to read them, he gets sent away to prison on a rape charge for many decades.  In that time, Pete Saubers discovers the notebooks, discovers a love of John Rothstein and realizes what a goldmine they are and how they can help his struggling family if he can sell them.  However, things do not go as planned because Bellamy gets release from prison and is looking for his notebooks.  That's when Pete needs to be rescued by Bill, Holly and Jerome.

I really like the characters in these books.  This is an excellent series and I can't wait to read the conclusion.  Will Patton has done a fantastic job with the audiobooks as usual!

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

by:  Stephen King
published by:  Scribner
publish date:  June 3, 2014

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the "perk" and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

So it's been a long time since I've really really liked a Stephen King book.  When I got done with this one, it was like "OMG Thank YOU!!"  I was so excited for Stephen King, which is ridiculous because he's a grown successful man, but I've felt like he's been off somewhere for a long time, and now he's BACK!  Other people probably don't feel that way because this wasn't a horror novel, but whatever.

The other thing that made me happy about this book was that it was the marriage of several things that make me happy.  First, it was a crime novel, those are my favorite.  Secondly, it was written by Stephen King, he's an excellent writer and doing a straight up crime novel was awesome.  Third, the audiobook was read by Will Patton, seriously, he's the best.

The characters in the book are awesome.  If nothing else, King can paint the portrait of a character like no other.  Just when I was kinda sad that I was done with this book, I found out that it was a trilogy, so I get to visit with these characters again.  I was really happy about that.

I would recommend this book to all the crime readers.  Even if you aren't a Stephen King fan because you don't like horror, try this one out, because it's not really a horror novel.  This one is pretty much a straight up crime/private eye type book.

Joint Review: Revival by Stephen King

Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Date of publication: November 2014

In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs Jacobs; the women and girls – including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister – feel the same about Reverend Jacobs. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.

Then tragedy strikes the Jacobs family; the preacher curses God, mocking all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. In his mid-thirties, he is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate, he sees Jacobs again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings. Because for every cure there is a price…

I have had a while to think about this book and days later, I am still disappointed. I was looking forward to reading the book that was supposed to be his return to horror.  Really?  There was nothing scary about this book. Even the last 10% which is supposed to be super scary was kind of meh.  I felt like the book was more of a story about the odd relationship between two men over a number of years.  Yes, there was some freaky stuff going on with the electricity and healing, but it really wasn't enough to get me excited about the book.  Honestly, the only thing that made me finish it was the narrator of the audio book.  Actor David Morse has the most soothing voice. It really relaxed me.  

I used to be a big Stephen King fan in the 80s & 90s.  His straight horror and even his psychological horror books have always given me chills and freaked me out. I don't even usually mind the length of his books. The Stand is one of my favorites by him and that book is long!.  I will admit that it has been a while since I read one of his books. I was hoping this book would be that one to rope me back in to reading his stuff. I'm not sure it did the trick. I really hope that Mr. King gets back to his old days.  I miss the scares and gore of Pet Cemetery or the mind games from Misery.  Where is the King that I used to love?

I agree with Kari about this book.  I kept waiting for this super scary thing to happen and I waited and waited and waited.  It wasn't really a horror novel.  It seemed more like a literary novel and about the dangers of playing with electricity, rather than a true horror novel.  

I feel like King's writing has changed since his accident.  It's not the same kind scary stuff we were used with the earlier writing.  It seems a lot angrier now.  A lot of his writing now deals with physical pain and addiction.  That does seem like a valid sort of thing to write about after what he went through, but if you want the old King, this newer stuff just doesn't cut it.  

Road Rage: 2 Novellas by Richard Matheson, Stephen King & Joe Hill

by:  Richard Matheson, Stephen King & Joe Hill
published by:  Harper Audio
publish date:  February 24, 2009

Road Rage unites Richard Matheson's classic "Duel" and the contemporary work it inspired--two power-packed short stories by three of the genre's most acclaimed authors. "Duel," an unforgettable tale about a driver menaced by a semi truck, was the source for Stephen Spielberg's acclaimed first film of the same name. "Throttle," by Stephen King and Joe Hill, is a duel of a different kind, pitting a faceless trucker against a tribe of motorcycle outlaws, in the simmering Nevada desert. Their battle is fought out on twenty miles of the most lonely road in the country, a place where the only thing worse than not knowing what you're up against, is slowing down . . .

This book has 2 novellas in it.  The first is Duel.  It tells the story of a business man in his little car that draws the ire of a truck driver.  Or does he?  That was my question throughout the whole story.  Is it the truck driver that has road rage or is it the man imagining everything and blowing it all out of proportion?  

Throttle is by father-son team Stephen King and Joe Hill.  I never knew they wrote anything together so I was pleased to read this story.  It was pretty good.  This story had a little more depth than Duel, but the story line was more clear cut.  It wasn't as debatable as Duel could be.  

This was great audiobook.  Stephen Lang did a great job with the narration.  It was fairly short, so it's definitely one you would want to get from the library, but worth the listen.  

Mile 81

by:  Stephen King
published by:  Simon & Schuster Adult
publish date:  September 1, 2011

At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.

Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.

This is a new short story from the Master of Horror and this story illustrates why he got that moniker.  It was pretty creepy.  I think I read somewhere it was a cross between Christine and Stand by Me and I think that would be a fair assessment.  The first third or so talking about Pete Simmons and his trek to the rest stop was reminiscent of the Stand by Me boys.  The station wagon at the rest stop was just as evil as Christine.

Once again, King's characterization in this novella is superb.  The reader knows and cares about the characters in a few short paragraphs.  I love his creative cussing and there are some really good ones in here.  I was cracking up laughing at a few. 

My only disappointment with Mile 81 came with the ending.  It was a little far fetched in my opinion, but it's not my story so how can I dispute where the station wagon comes from?  But I didn't particularly like it.

Full Dark, No Stars

by:  Stephen King
published by:  Scribner

A new collection of four never-before-published stories from Stephen King.



1922
The story opens with the confession of Wilfred James to the murder of his wife, Arlette, following their move to Hemingford, Nebraska onto land willed to Arlette by her father.


Big Driver
Mystery writer, Tess, has been supplementing her writing income for years by doing speaking engagements with no problems. But following a last-minute invitation to a book club 60 miles away, she takes a shortcut home with dire consequences.


Fair Extension
Harry Streeter, who is suffering from cancer, decides to make a deal with the devil but, as always, there is a price to pay.

A Good Marriage
Darcy Anderson learns more about her husband of over twenty years than she would have liked to know when she stumbles literally upon a box under a worktable in their garage.

My first thought was that the title is very appropriate.  This book is extremely dark and violent and if that bothers you, skip it.  There aren't any bright spots at all.  In that respect I thought the title was rather clever.  Before I started reading it I wondered what it was referring to, so that question was answered.

I thought each of the stories were good.  1922 was probably the longest and most traditional Stephen King story of the 4.  Rats and psychological horror, the good stuff you expect from The Master of Horror.  Big Driver was a surprise to me.  It seemed a bit of a departure from typical King story-telling.  However, thinking about it for awhile, it was kind of in the same mood as Under the Dome.  Fair Extension was a interesting little twist on the deal with the devil story.  A Good Marriage is one that will make you think a bit.  I think it might make you question what you would do if you were put in the same position. 

I would highly suggest reading the Afterword.  I always enjoy reading King's insights and finding out about his writing and thought processes.  I miss his musings in Entertainment Weekly.  I found the afterword to be interesting and illuminating and a tiny bit disturbing...all the things you want from Stephen King.

--Autumn