Review - Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hardcover, 436 pages

Published June 3rd 2014 by Scribner (first published January 1st 2014)

Source: Own Copy

Synopsis:
'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.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again.

Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.'

My Thoughts: 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr Mercedes and think that it was another great attempt by King to write something other than a novel of the horror or supernatural persuasion.

Crime novels are usually my favourite genre next to horror and in my opinion this one had a gripping storyline that was built up nicely from the beginning and carried through nicely to the end.

All of the characters were interesting and easy to imagine and by the end I even grew quite fond of some of them which means I really cannot wait until the next instalment in this trilogy gets released. I'm especially interested to see which characters get carried on through the series and how they develop further over time.

One of the main aspects of Mr Mercedes that I really enjoyed was that the reader was given the story from two different perspectives, being that of the retired cop investigating the crimes as well as the bad guy who is responsible for it all. Once I got further into the criminal's mind and saw his history and background, I almost felt pity for him as he is clearly an object of his upbringing and the psychology behind the actions of people like this has always fascinated me a little.

All in all I loved this book and struggled to put it down during the last 100 pages or so. Due to the nature of King's previous work you really do never know what his conclusions will bring and I was so invested in needing to know what the outcome of the bad guys mission was going to be that it became my mission to find out towards the end.

If you go into reading this book expecting old King writing then you might be a bit disappointed, but if you go into it with a clear mind and the knowledge that you are reading a good crime novel then hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Review - Lisey's Story by Stephen King

Lisey's Story by Stephen King
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hardcover, 513 pages

Published October 24th 2006 by Scribner Book Company 

Source: Own copy

 

Synopsis:

'Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey had to learn from him about books and blood and bools. Later, she understood that there was a place Scott went -- a place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it's Lisey's turn to face Scott's demons, Lisey's turn to go to Boo'ya Moon. What begins as a widow's effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. Perhaps King's most personal and powerful novel, "Lisey's Story" is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love.'

 

My Thoughts: 

It's been a long time since I read a King book that confused me and disappointed me as much as this one did.

I feel so dirty saying this (being the huge King fan that I am!) but I just couldn't get into Lisey's Story and felt such a huge sense of relief once I'd finally turned the last page.

Firstly, the constant swapping between past and present tense did my head in. I found it really hard to follow sometimes whether the story was going along in it's current state or whether I was getting told some more of the backstory yet again.

Also, I just couldn't get a feeling of closeness to Lisey or her plight. Her character seemed very distant and a bit cold to me and it wasn't until the end that I felt some real emotion came out. Maybe this was on purpose to try and show how she managed to move on with life after her husband died but it made it very hard for me to connect to her character throughout the whole story.

I also started to get a bit annoyed with the childish, made-up language used constantly through the book. It was like a children's book mixed up with an adult book. I know it was most likely to try and show the bond between Lisey and Scott and to highlight that most married couples have their own language and 'thing' that goes on behind closed doors that no-one else would understand, but I just didn't buy into it.

All in all I think the story itself could have had so much more potential, especially when you think of the personal comparisons between King and his wife against the main characters Lisey and Scott.

Oh well, I'm just glad it's another King book I can cross off my list.

Review - 11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63 by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hardcover, 849 pages

Published November 8th 2011 by Scribner

Source: Own copy

Synopsis:

'If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you? Would the consequences be what you hoped?

Jake Epping, 35, teaches high-school English in Lisbon Falls, Maine, and cries reading the brain-damaged janitor's story of childhood Halloween massacre by their drunken father. On his deathbed, pal Al divulges a secret portal to 1958 in his diner back pantry, and enlists Jake to prevent the 11/22/1963 Dallas assassination of American President John F. Kennedy. Under the alias George Amberson, our hero joins the cigarette-hazed full-flavored world of Elvis rock'n'roll, Negro discrimination, and freeway gas-guzzlers without seat belts. Will Jake lurk in impoverished immigrant slums beside troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald, or share small-town friendliness with beautiful high school librarian Sadie Dunhill, the love of his life?'

My Thoughts:
This book is one of those that seems to stay with you for a while after reading it.

I have to say that it definitely wasn't what I was expecting when I first started it. I knew it was a bit different to the usual King books, but being a King reader for over 20 years I still guess I had a bit of a set path that I assumed it would follow. Boy, was I wrong!

In short, this book was amazing. The amount of research and detail that has gone into this book just stunned me. It also made me extremely curious about a topic that I really wasn't all that interested in before. Being Australian, the JFK assasination never had as big an impact over here than it obviously did in the USA but I now have a much greater appreciation for the conspiracy theories and stories that I have heard about this major event over the years.

The main character of 11/22/63 is Jake and I thought he was such a genuine and likeable guy who really did want to do what he thought was the best thing for his country. I really enjoyed seeing how Jake handled the time travel and adjusting to life in another era and then watching him develop as a character while even finding love along the way.

Many of the other main characters were the same. Very well developed, interesting and easily able to be imagined in the real world. King always seems to create such good characters to me and this book is no exception.

The ending was definitely not what I was expecting but after thinking about it for a little bit it really was the best option, although quite a sad one. You really feel for poor Jake by the end and all the years and effort he went through and it makes you really think about what you personally would do if given a similar opportunity and faced with the same hurdles.

King is certainly a versatile writer when he wants to be!


Links:
Amazon
The Book Depository

Review - Under The Dome by Stephen King

Under the Dome by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

ebook, 1120 pages

Published December 24th 2009 by Scribner (first published 2009) 

Source: Own copy

Synopsis:
'On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.'


My Thoughts:
Oh boy! I don't even know where to start with this book except that I now feel a little bit lost that I have finally finished it.
In true King style this book contains a massive list of characters but they all weave together in such intricate ways and play their parts so well that I don't feel it was a struggle at all to remember who was who.
I love the concept of this book. It's a bit like Lord of the Flies where you get a glimpse at seeing how normal people react and adapt to an abnormal situation. It shows us how human nature can change and that everyone is capable of a bit of evil if pushed far enough.
Also, this is not a book where you should get too attached to any particular character as there is a great possibility that they may not be around by the end. King certainly doesn't pull any punches with what fate awaits the poor citizens of Chester's Mill.
Under The Dome is definitely one of my favourite King books to date. It has taken me a good couple of months to get through this mammoth read using a mix of audio and regular reading and I haven't felt so consumed or invested in a book in a very long time. I literally felt like I knew the people personally and could visualise the town and the events that were happening with almost perfect clarity. I guess a lot of this has to do with the great narrator of the audio book portion I listened to.
The ending was a bit of a surprise to me. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what finally eventuated.
I wouldn't class this as a regular King horror, instead I would say it is a bit of a mix of Sci Fi and Thriller. Whatever you think it should be classified as, it just works.

Important Links:
Amazon: Under the Dome
The Book Depository

Stephen King's 'Under The Dome' Readalong

So, it's no secret that I am a massive Stephen King fan and 'Under The Dome' is one of his books that I have been wanting to read for such a long time but haven't had the guts because it's over 1000 pages and I get a bit scared when books get that long.....

Anyway, I happened to come across this fun readalong hosted by Coffee and a Book Chick so that everyone has the chance to try and get this chunker of a book read before the mini-series starts on TV in the USA on June 24, 2013.

Being in Australia we will probably get the mini-series a little bit later than the USA, but I'm still excited to join in on this readalong anyway as a bit of extra motivation to try and conquer this huge book!

For those interested, here is the synopsis for Under the Dome (from Goodreads):

'On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.'

Here are some suggested rules for the readalong as per the original sign-up post:

Do you need a blog to participate? No way. If you don't have a blog, you can either sign up in the comments on the sign-up post, or you can create a free account with either Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing and enter that information into the linky there. Any of those sites will make it easier for you to track your thoughts, or you can use a Twitter account to sign up. If you don't want to do any of those, but still want to participate, then you can post your thoughts in the comments for each of the mile-marker posts throughout the readalong.

Timeline: May 25 through July 27

How many posts? Who cares! It's informal. However, if you want a little structure, you can do a kick-off post now, then a middle-of-the-road post (halfway through the book) on June 24 (to celebrate the mini-series premiere even though we all probably won't watch it until we're done reading), and then a final sayonara post on July 27. Sound good?

Twitter-chat? Use the hashtag #domealong

Mini-series Twitter chat? After the readalong as we watch our DVR'd recordings of the show? Maybe?

And do anything you want in-between! Throw a "Stephen King, you are freakishly awesome" party, or do a screamfest movie marathon, or write a gushing post on the fall release of Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. Or, you can just post your glee on the fact that you've been a horrible blogger and reader in 2013 and this readalong is going to bring. you. back. Back, baby! Oh, maybe that's just me...

I have to admit a little secret..... I don't even own a copy of this book yet but am going to do some shopping today and I promise it will be in my hot little hands before I make it home this afternoon which means I will probably make a start on it tonight :-)

 

I can't wait to get some time to sit down and look over the Twitter #domealong hashtag and see what everyone else's thoughts are so far!

So, who else will be joining us??

Review - Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Audiobook, Unabridged

Published November 9th 2010 by Simon & Schuster Audio (first published 2010)

Challenges: Mt TBR Challenge, Colour Coded Challenge

Synopsis:
"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger . . ." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922," the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King.

For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.

In "Big Driver," a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.

"Fair Extension," the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends "A Good Marriage."
My Thoughts:
Wow, this is the first Stephen King book I have read in quite a long time and it reminded me of how I never seem to be disappointed in anything that he does.
Full Dark, No Stars is a haunting compilation of four short stories that all seem to centre around human nature and highlight what we could all be capable of as a species if provoked or pushed to our limits.
The first story, '1922', centres around a husband's attempt to stop his family home from being sold off by his wife and is a chilling tale of how our mind can play tricks on us when guilt eats away at our systems.
'Big Driver', the second story, clearly shows us what we can be capable of when pushed to our limits and when the notion of revenge takes hold.
The third story, 'Fair Extension', is a tale that every one of us can relate to who has ever had that one person in our life who seems to have everything and win at every opportunity, and who you may have harboured that tiny amount of jealousy or resentment towards because of it.
Finally, 'A Good Marriage', is a great story that shows us that even the most placid person can be pushed to do the unthinkable in certain circumstances.
I thoroughly enjoyed each one of these stories but have to say that 'A Good Marriage' was probably my favourite.
If you are a fan of classic Stephen King then you certainly won't be disappointed by Full Dark, No Stars. It's full of his trademark psychological horror and vivid detailing that enables the reader to get swept up in the story and completely visualise every aspect as it is happening.
Yet again, this book has ensured that King stays at the top of the list as my favourite author of all time.

Important Links:
Amazon
The Book Depository