Bookshelf: Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot

Stephen King is a master of writing horror, and his second novel is strong for a new writer. Carrie was a little of a rough novella for me, so I was a little concerned that his second novel wouldn’t be that much stronger. It has everything I loved about King’s novels though. The content is very dark, the characters can be scary and ones you care for and the novel is lively.

Summary: Ben Mears is returning to Salem’s Lot to face his dark past. After witnessing a man hanging in the house where a rumored murder happened he has felt troubled since a boy. Now he wants to write a novel about the town. After arriving there strange things begin happening, and bodies are disappearing. Many of these bodies are turning up at night being sighted. Ben is also growing closer to a woman he has met, Susan, and has made friends with a teacher, Matt. They also have become aware of the situation, but the reality of what is happening may be enough to send them into denial.

Characters: The characters really grow on you as you read the novel. It isn’t until someone is dying that you realized just how attached you had become to that particular character. Ben does seem like many of the other King characters I’ve read, but that makes him likable. He has these very masculine qualities, but he isn’t annoying or too macho. I guess people could complain that the women like Sue don’t read like women, but I always like how King portrays strong women who also seem feminine to me. There is also the other characters like the bad guy, Straker, who was really terrifying. The thing about this book is that there aren’t many unlikable characters, and if you do grow to dislike them you feel disappointed the character let you down.

Writing: King’s writing style has definitely improved over time. He seems to have found since this novel more of a voice for his characters that reads prominently. This novel is good, but it does lack a little in the skill he definitely has more defined now. I love how the writing just drifts by without you noticing how many pages you have read though.

Plot: The plot I love because well t does deal with vampires. Most people associate vampires with the romance trend happening with them, but I like the way that King depicts them in his second novel.  They are a nice blend of scary and even seductive. King admits to being inspired by Dracula and it definitely shows through in this novel. As someone who liked the vibe of Dracula but wasn’t as huge a fan of the writing I welcomed the change that King brought not only with the writing, but a story that was well written. The characters develop well with the story and it has an intriguing plot.

Salem’s Lot is one of my favorite reads from Stephen King and it is one of the better books I’ve read this year. I flew through this book quicker than many books I’ve picked up this year. King is a classic writer that I still think is underrated because of his popularity. He knows how to craft in themes, good stories, interesting characters, and good writing into one book.

Rating 9 of 10.

Bookshelf: Stephen King’s The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass

So The Dark Tower is definitely building toward something eerie, and developing the characters well enough that you will be devastated if anything happens to them. In the second book we spent a little time getting to know Eddie and Susannah’s past and then in the third with Jake. In the fourth though we finally explore Roland’s elusive past, and with him being the quietest and most mysterious character in the book most people will be curious as to what this book has to reveal about his past finally.

Summary:  Wizard and Glass picks up at the very intense scene where the last book left off. It also throws us into the past of Roland as he tells Jake, Susannah, and Eddie about what changed the course of his life at 14 years old. He tells them about his first love, Susan. Her world though is very divided among men, so when Roland steps into her led with his two other friends they find themselves in a bit of a mess, and dealing with all sorts of badness including Rhea, a witch. He shares how he found and loss bits of his life very early on in life.

Characters: In this book your favorites like Eddie, Susannah, and Jake take a back seat. For me I haven’t been as interested in Roland’s story before, but I think this book in the series will get anyone more tied to who he is and cheering him on. It also makes him less mysterious and more human as well. Before that he almost seemed so mysterious he didn’t seem real. One of the other characters that was most interesting to read for this story was Susan. Susan always feels she is bordering on doing something bad even though she is a good character, so it gives her this edgy vibe to follow.

Writing: As with most Stephen King work, he is just a good writer. On top of that he has good stories to tell. He’s one of the few with a combination of story telling and writing talent to combine both for what I believe will be a classic writer. He just doesn’t get enough credit because his work is popular. With Roland in this novel he is telling a story to his listeners about his past and the ones involved in Susan’s life as well. A lot of people will wonder how Roland can have so many perspectives from his one view, and King ties that in perfectly for the reader’s understanding. Also, you have the great technique of dialogue being brought to life to make it feel real and true to who the characters are, even though I didn’t find the dialogue to be the most enjoyable to read always.

Plot: If you’ve been following the past three books then you most likely will be into the plot of this one, unless you just absolutely hate anything to do with Roland, and from what I know it seems anyone who reads The Dark Tower series enjoys the character Roland. This books does develop the plot toward the Dark Tower in a lot of ways, but mostly it’s to get us close to the main character, which it does well. It gives you love, action, friendship, and loss in the most epic of ways.

Wizard and Glass shows the series is getting better and deeper with each novel. All the characters feels like they are on equal footing now as far our attachment to them, and now I feel more ready than ever to see what the future holds for them as they continue to seek the tower. Other arrays of bad guys thrown in also mix up the novel as well, and give the reader a little bit of fear, but not so much as Blaine can.

Rating 8 of 10.

Bookshelf: Stephen King’s The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands

With Gunslinger we’re introduced to the central character of the novel. Then with The Drawing of the Three we are introduced to the other characters deeply involved, and then with The Waste Lands were are finally on our way to the Dark Tower, but with the arrival of one last crew member. Where the others built up the characters to power the other books in the series, this book finally churns out where we are going, and how we’re getting there. Thankfully, I wasn’t reading this book upon it’s release though, or I would be left with a huge cliffhanger.

Summary: Now Roland, Susannah, and Eddie are in the woods after moving from the beach, and encountering plenty of oddities and dangers of Roland’s world. Many things are also taking place with the crew themselves including new paradoxes of the mind, and lots of odd but very telling dreams. Also, things are happening from the world that Susannah and Eddie left behind in New York City that still need to merge over with them to line everything back up again. The three will deal with this though as they continue their pursuit to the Dark Tower.

Characters: The characters just become more likable in this novel, but most of their development seemed to take place in the prior ones. Now they are having to utilize the strengths that they garnered in the previous ones from their transition to work together in this novel. I thought some characters in this novel also contributed to the eerie vibe of the novel quite well like Blaine. I think Blaine is one of the most horrifying characters I’ve read in the past year. I’m still trying to identify why that was? Maybe because of the fear he brings about that you feel as a kid. Susannah I think is also one of King’s better written female characters. She seems to embody being strong, but feminine well.

Writing: Stephen King probably doesn’t get as much credit as he should yet for his writing because of his mainstream success. He has a way of capturing the way characters speak in their dialogue that feels very real, and true to the character. Like when Blaine is speaking, it is in all caps. I think people get too caught up on making things look grammatically clean on paper, that they forget words can have a lot to do with how you visually imagine something as well. Writing the characters in big format provide that big, intimidating feeling to Blaine that works. This goes the same for other characters.

Plot: The plot is one that reads like fantasy sometimes, and the other times horror. I think it merges the two genres well. I also like the attention to characters as well, and the plot doesn’t leave them behind to try to create action or appeal to people. The characters grow appropriately from the action. The plot builds up so much to the end that for some you’ll feel you’ve been left on a cliff while the story is moving on without you.

The Wastelands progresses the series nicely. It is a novel that feels like it is finally connecting where the novels are going. The second are the characters, this one is where we are going, and the next should be when we get there. Stephen King knows how to get the audience attached to the characters, and leave us anxiously waiting for the next novel and what will happen to them.

Rating 8 of 10.

Bookshelf: Stephen King’s Carrie

Carrie was Stephen King’s first published novel, and to this date probably his most famous work. They have made two movies from the novel, and spawned a failure of a sequel. While definitely a bit rough patched in some areas, there is something about the tragedy of Carrie that pulls any reader in. Maybe it’s the topic of high school bullying, the supernatural elements, or the insane mom, but there is still something that by the end has you snagged into the story. There are still some strong Stephen King traits that the novel holds even when he was starting out that make it one of his interesting reads to see how he has developed and stayed the same.

Summary: The story begins in a locker room where we meet Carrie. Not exactly meet her, but more so meet her through the eyes of others. After beginning her period in the locker room the girls decide to tease her, especially since she already is the subject of teasing, this is just a thing they found to make it easier to tease her about. Becoming a woman though is something that is about to spark off a violent side to Carrie that she didn’t have full access to before though, her telekinesis. There is one person though who beginning to feel really bad for Carrie, and that is Sue. She even makes her boyfriend, Tommy, take her to prom to make up for it. There are teens that hate Carrie really bad, and Sue has unknowingly opened the door for them to ridicule Carrie in the worst way of all.

Characters: For a novel that is mostly wrote as if it is from excerpts from books and newspapers it actually does develop the characters well. I can only imagine how close the connection would have been to the characters had we had it written as if it was a narrative instead. In a lot of ways though this book should be imagined as a movie as much as possible to get a full grasp of the characters. The way it is set up really does transition the characters in a way that feels like clips and glimpses. Where they are supposed to be likable they are and where they are supposed to be unlikable then they really are. There are also the minor complexities of other characters who do mock Carrie but also feel bad for their ways despite their habitual slip up of doing it. Carrie though is one the book is about but even by the end we feel we barely know her, and that seems to add to the horror.

Writing: As noted earlier the writing style is one that mimics as if it is a lot of excerpts from different perspectives and sources that contribute to showing how the end happened. This does add to the story feeling real, and a lot of the action. Especially near the end of the novel where we switch from perspective of the surviving citizens being questioned and the evens of Carrie reigning evil over the city. This somehow builds up the tension. I do think the writing style leaves some disconnection, and depending on who you are you may like the questions it leaves or hope for more of a story.

Story: The story is heavily based in horror and the supernatural. This does cause it to rely on some stereotypical tools of horror from that time as well including the insane Christian mother, and the kids who only have a mean streak in them. There are some scenes with Carrie though that really make you wish you could be in her head though like when she seems to sense confusion about the murders she commits and when she swiftly switches from the nerd to this girl who has a lot of power. As said though, if the story had explored her further we might have lost of the terror only left in the fact some things were unknown. It is well developed though and grows on you as you read.

Carrie is  a novel that would have made a great Halloween read, and as someone who hasn’t watched any o the movies it spawned I was able to approach the novel with a clear mind without any previous biases. Mostly, the novel will appeal to horror fans though. There isn’t any real scariness to it, but it has a classic horror story vibe I enjoy. There isn’t any character development that makes it worth digging into for fans who are outside the genre either. It does a young author who had a lot of potential early on though.

Rating 8 of 10.