Reading Stephen King

I love Stephen King and have read many of his books.  Just finished Revival and thought that it would be fun reading some more.  So here is the list of all his books.  I have crossed off those that I have read in the last year or so.  The rest I will be re-reading or reading for the first time now.  If you see that any book is missing from my list, please let me know or if you want to buddy-read any, drop me a line too.  

Next up is 11/22/63 that I will be reading with a group of book buddies in March :)

Carrie (1974)
‘Salem’s Lot (1975)
The Shining (1977)
Rage (1977)
Night Shift (1978)
The Stand (1978)
The Long Walk (1979) [by Richard Bachman]
The Dead Zone (1979)
Firestarter (1980)
Roadwork (1981) [by Richard Bachman]
Danse Macabre (1981)
Cujo (1981)
The Running Man (1982) [by Richard Bachman]
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)
Different Seasons (1982)
Creepshow (1982)
Christine (1983)
Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)
Pet Sematary (1983)
The Eyes of the Dragon (1984)
The Talisman (1984) with Peter Straub
Thinner (1984) [by Richard Bachman]
Skeleton Crew (1985)
IT (1986)
The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
Misery (1987)
The Tommyknockers (1987)
The Dark Half (1989)
The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990)
Four Past Midnight (1990)
The Dark Tower: The Waste Lands (1991)
Needful Things (1991)
Gerald’s Game (1992)
Dolores Claiborne (1992)
Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)
Insomnia (1994)
Rose Madder (1995)
The Green Mile (1996)
Desperation (1996)
The Regulators (1996) [by Richard Bachman]
The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass (1997)
Bag of Bones (1998)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)
Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
Storm of the Century (1999)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)
Dreamcatcher (2001)
Black House (2001) with Peter Straub
Everything’s Eventual (2001)
From a Buick 8 (2002)
The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah (2004)
The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower (2004)
Faithful (2004) with Stewart O’Nan
The Colorado Kid (2005)
Cell (2006)
Lisey’s Story (2006)
The Secretary of Dreams, Volume One (2006)
Blaze (2007) [by Richard Bachman]
Duma Key (2008)
Just After Sunset (2008)
Under the Dome (2009)
Blockade Billy (2010)
The Secretary of Dreams: Volume 2 (2010)
Full Dark, No Stars (2010)
11/22/63 (2011)
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)
Joyland (2013)
The Dark Man (2013)
Doctor Sleep (2013)
Mr. Mercedes (2014)
Revival (2014)
Finders Keepers (2015)
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015)

Red  =  books in TBR

{Movie}Review: 1408

1408 (2007):
Starring: John Cusak, Samuel J Jackson

The cynical and skeptical writer Mike Enslin writes books evaluating supernatural phenomena in hotels, graveyards and other haunted places, usually debunking the mystery. While writing his latest book, he travels from Los Angeles to New York to spend one night in the Dolphin Hotel's evil room 1408, which is permanently unavailable for guests. The reluctant manager Mr. Gerald Olin objects to his request and offers an upgrade, expensive booze and finally relates the death of more than fifty guests over decades in the cursed room. However Mike threatens Mr. Olin, promising to sue the hotel, and is finally allowed to check into the room. Later in the night, he finds that guests of room 1408, once they have checked in, might never leave the room alive.

My thoughts:
Stephen King has not been very successful when it comes to movies made from his books but this one is a little gem.  You are not so much shown the horror as given little glimpses to make you feel the suspense - this is psychological horror at it's best. 

John Cusak is an expert at playing a tortured hero and in 1408 he becomes the cynical cult story writer trying to show that this hotel and it's ghost is just a scam.  I am hesitant to say anymore - you don't want to be robbed of all the shocking, scary moments.   

Also watch out for the alternative ending . . . I am not sure which one I prefer . . .

I really need to find the novella as I have not read the original pages.   I have heard that the movie is very close to the short story.

{Audiobook}Review: Mr Mercedes

Mr Mercedes
by Stephen King
 
Genre: Crime fiction
Date Read:  13 June 2014
Reading with my ears
Narrator:  Will Patton   
Unabridged audio - Length: 14 hours 21 minutes

A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring a retired homicide detective who's haunted by the few cases he left open, and by one in particular - the pre-dawn slaughter of eight people among hundreds gathered in line for the opening of a jobs fair when the economy was guttering out. Without warning, a lone driver ploughed through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes.

The plot is kicked into gear when Bill Hodges receives a letter in the mail, from a man claiming to be the perpetrator. He taunts Hodges with the notion that he will strike again. Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing that from happening. Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. And he's preparing to kill again. Only Hodges, with a couple of misfit friends, can apprehend the killer in this high-stakes race against time. Because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim hundreds, even thousands.

My thoughts:
Mr Mercedes is the journey of Bill Hodges, a police detective, with nothing to live for after his retirement from the force.   He puts away his father’s gun (and thoughts of using it) as he begins to tract the one crazy killer he was never able to catch. 

Brady Hartfield is very sick.  It is scary to think that he lives in real life too.  People blending nicely into society but with grandiose thoughts of being famous as the greatest killer. 

I loved how King revealed only little bits of the support characters at a time.  We never really got to know the the other characters in the book, just enough to give us glimpses into the reasons for Brady’s psychosis. 

One of these characters is Freddy, Brady’s younger brother.  He is only mentioned a few times in this book but I felt such empathy for him.  A poor little lost soul, born into a family that ultimately killed him.  Freddy was always slow and suffered brain damage during his short life which made caring for him a huge burden on the family.  I understand the frustrations that the family must have felt but poor little Freddy did not deserve his life.  Thankfully he would not have understood all that went on.

If you are looking for a scary horror by the great master, then you will be disappointed.  Mr Mercedes is only scary in the way that an insane person can be scary.   And Brady is scary . . .
This is instead a great detective story, defining the phrase “cat and mouse games”. 

Will Patton once again showed why he is such a beloved narrator.  He did an excellent job and the story flowed beautifully from scene to scene.  He is a true professional.  Love him!

{Audiobook} Review: The Shining

  The Shining
    by Stephen King
 
  Genre: Physiological Thriller, Horror
  Date Read: 22 March 2014
  Reading with my ears
  Narrator: Campbell Scott
  Unabridged audio - Length:
  15 hours 54 minutes

Danny was only five years old but in the     words of old Mr Halloran he was a 'shiner',   aglow with psychic voltage. When his father became caretaker of the Overlook Hotel his visions grew frighteningly out of control.
As winter closed in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seemed to develop a life of its own. It was meant to be empty, but who was the lady in Room 217, and who were the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why did the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive?
Somewhere, somehow there was an evil force in the hotel - and that too had begun to shine...

My thoughts:
I read THE SHINING a lifetime ago and I still remember how scared I was – I even had to put the book aside for a bit between some of the scenes.  This was the first book that scared me enough to stop me reading.  I loved it! 

I watched the (original) movie a week or two ago and decided to re-read (listen to) the book again.  I must admit that it lost some of the scary-ness for me.   This time round it felt more like a physiological thriller.  It was about a man slowly losing his grip on reality and sinking into madness and not so much about a haunted hotel.  I could see that Jack Torrence wanted to blame everyone around him for his own failures and short comings.  Unfortunately only his wife and son was around and they made excellent scapegoats.  

I have also lost some of my sympathy for Danny (I did not enjoy DR SLEEP as much as the rest of the world).  I realize that he was just a little boy but I was unable to think of him as such.  He seemed to be much more mature than a five year old child.

The narrator of the book, Campbell Scott did not seem like a good fit when I started.  He talked too slowly and in such a dull tone.  But as soon as the real story begun, he was perfect.  That tone just made all the bleakness and emptiness of the snowed in hotel more real.  He quite literally scared me with Jack’s screams a few times.  He was an excellent fit for the story.

All in all, this was still an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it.

{Movie} Review: The Shining (1980) and Room 237 (Documentary about the movie)

 

The Shining (1980)

Starring:  Jack Nicholsen, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers 

Genre:  Psychological Horror, Suspense

In the film, Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic, takes a job as an off-season caretaker at an isolated hotel called the Overlook Hotel. His young son possesses psychic abilities and is able to see things from the past and future, such as the ghosts who inhabit the hotel. Soon after settling in, the family is trapped in the hotel by a snowstorm, and Jack gradually becomes influenced by a supernatural presence; he descends into madness and attempts to murder his wife and son. 

I was browsing around in my collection and found the documentary ROOM 237 which details the different theories of the possible symbolism of the movie, The Shining and I was immediately drawn in again.  I just love these kind of "conspiracy theories".  I am not able to think up these theories myself but I love reading about them!

Some of the deliciousness are:

The TV in the first scenes in the hotel does not have a cord (and why . . . )

Continuity in the movie (shown and debated if it was done on purpose)

The typewriter changes color continuesly.  Also the old German typewriter (and the repeating of the number 42 in the movie) represents the Holocaust.

Odd angles of shots and the reason for it

Symbolism in the movie suggest that the "fake Apollo landings" was supposedly filmed by Stanley Kubrick and he tried to tell the world.

The blood flowing out of the elevators are a metaphor . . . and on and on and on . . .    

After watching this, I had to re-watch the movie also.  Wow, no-one does crazy like Jack Nicholson.  The movie is a little dated but it is still a favorite.  

Now I will have to re-read the book!

{Audiobook} Review: Joyland

Joyland
by Stephen King



Genre: Crime mystery; Fantasy
Date Read: 01 February 2014
Reading with my ears
Narrator: Micheal Kelly
Unabridged Length:
07 hours; 31 minutes 

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

My thoughts:
Stephen King books are a curiosity these days.  You just never know what you are going to get.  I am sure that he has already touched every genre there is (including time travel!) and this time we get a type of cozy crime mystery with tones of fantasy.  

In comparison with some of his epic novels, this one is a shorty (almost a novella) but I am not sure if it packed the punch we were hoping for.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this novel and it kept my attention but it did not have the wow-factor that I was hoping for.  

We meet Devin at a juncture in his life.  He has taken a summer job at a carnival with history in a neighboring town.  Here he comes to know and love this fellow carnies and some of them will stay with him for the rest of his life.  There is a murder mystery connected to one of the rides and it has become a ghostly legend.  The story follows Devin's journey into adulthood while trying to uncover the strangeness of Joyland.  I think this was more about the journey of the characters than a serious murder mystery. 

I cannot really say more because I might give some of the uniqueness away, so let's just say that this is a quietly flowing river that will fill a few lazy hours in your vacation.  If you have nothing against audiobooks, I would recommend that version.  The narrator, Micheal Kelly, has a beautiful raspy voice that complements the story beautifully.  He definitely added to the story.

{Audiobook} Review: Just after Sunset

Just after Sunset 

by Stephen King

Original Publication date: 03 September 2009
Genre: Short Story Collection, Speculative Fiction
Source: my own copy
Date Read: 19 January 2014
Narrator: Various
Length: 15 hours 11 minutes 

Stephen King — who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times bestsellers, and many unforgettable movies — delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything's Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007, King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications.

Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating — and then terrifying — journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, "The Gingerbread Girl" is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable — and resourceful — as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark. In "Ayana," a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In one of the longer stories here, "N.," which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside...or keep the world from falling victim to it.

Just After Sunset — call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It's the perfect time for Stephen King.

My thoughts:
This unabridged audio version of the short stories of Stephen King made for a enjoyable few hours. Not all of the stories was a hit for me and some just left me feeling “huh?” but mostly the old King-magic shone through. 
Short stories allow for some of the “stranger” aspects of life to be shared with listeners and some of these stories definitely fit that bill.  It was exactly what we were looking for.

There are 13 stories in this bundle - let me tell you about a few of my favorites.  

Willa I loved this story. Stranded passengers wait for rescue after their train derail. Not all of them have escaped the wreck with their minds undamaged, so no-one is practically worried when a young man finds that his fiance has disappeared – Willa was not very well liked. But Willa knows the truth and slowly she shows him what he has not allowed himself to see for maybe the last 20 years. This story had all the elements that makes for a creepy story – and I love creepy stories.

Harvey's Dream  It is early morning and when Harvey meets his wife in the kitchen, he begins telling her of the disturbing dream that he has just awoken from wherein an early morning phone call described an awful accident that will change their lives forever.
Some reviews speculate that “. . . everything Harvey described were actual events from earlier that morning, only believed to be a dream due to Harvey's self-denial and his onsetting Alzheimer's disease.” Somehow that makes the story even more disturbing . . . loved it!

N    N suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (or so we think). The story begins with a note sent to a childhood friend indicating that the doctor treating N has committed suicide (just like his patient). We hear transcripts of their sessions and come to believe that maybe N was not just imagining what was happening to him.  It is always a fascinating story for me when the mind starts to wander into the darker suburbs of our unconsciousness.  The mind can be a scary place.

There are some others that fits the creepy bill perfectly and still others that makes for disturbing reading and some others that will make you scratch your head.  A great escape.

There are quite a few different narrators in this book and King even narrated one of the stories himself (Harvey's Dream). It made for a nice variety. It felt like a brand new book every time I started a new story. The narrators' voices fit the feel of the stories perfectly and the overall quality was very good.  A wonderful compilation.

I would recommend this to satisfy your desire for the shady part of life . . .told through the voices of many characters.

Audiobook Review: The Long Walk

 

The Long Walk 
by Stephen King

 
Publication date: 01 April 1999 (first published 1979) 
Genre: Science Fiction; Dystopia; Horror 
Source: my own copy 
Date Read: 09 August 2013 
Narrator: Kirby Heyborne 
Length: 10 hours 40 minutes 

Every year, on the first day of May, one hundred teenage boys meet for an event known throughout the country as "The Long Walk." Among this year's chosen crop is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty. He knows the rules: that warnings are issued if you fall under speed, stumble, sit down. That after three warnings... you get your ticket. And what happens then serves as a chilling reminder that there can be only one winner in the Walk - the one that survives...

My thoughts: 
When I was younger, I was a huge Stephen King fan and read anything with his name on it. As I have become older, I have read less and less of his novels as I have gradually lost interest in his writing style. I have found a few gems here and there but overall I have been disappointed.

Then I came across this audio copy of The Long Walk. I read it quite a few years ago and it was a happy surprise as I remembered the creepiness of it. I was not disappointed in this “re-read”, it held the same creep factor that I remembered loving from his earlier titles.

The Long Walk is about winning a race that will mean all your dreams coming true – for the rest of your life. So it is quite an honor for the 100 boys that is chosen from the lottery draw. Unfortunately only one boy can win and that means that 99 other boys will die. I cannot

imagine someone being eager and excited about this possibility but these teenage boys all seem to think they will live forever.

In this dystopia television extravaganza, warnings are given for any “infringement” of the rules . . . if your pace becomes too slow, you get a warning. If you sit down to rest your bleeding feet, you get a warning. If you try to leave the race in any way, you get a warning. Every warning can only be erased by walking an hour without any incident. And if you receive three warnings in an hour, you get your ticket – delivered by a gunshot. Your race is terminated – forever, while the spectators cheer.

This book is very entertaining even if it all takes place on a highway during a few days' stretch. We meet a few of the characters and not all of them are very likeable . . . The ending is somewhat strange. I have read a few reviews that speculate about the real meaning of the ending but I thought it was perfect just as it was. I recommend this for all dystopia lovers.

Audiobook Review: Doctor Sleep

Title: Doctor Sleep
Author: Stephen King
Source: My own audio copy 
Narrated by: Will Patton









Blurb:
 
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are

quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

Review:

I loved THE SHINING.  I read the book more than once, saw the movie a few times (here's Johnny!) and even sat through the disaster that was the re-make.  So imagine how excited I was, when Doctor Sleep was announced.  

Unfortunately my excitement turned to disappointment fairly quickly.  I was irritated from the start.  Dan is messed up (as I imagine anyone would be after his experiences at the Overlook Hotel) but his troubled life was not shared sympathetically at all.  He just came across as a very unlikeable bum.   

Luckily he gets off the bus in the right town and his life is turned around when he meets Billy, someone with just a twinkle of shine.  He is introduced to AA by his new friends and his life becomes more bearable.  

He starts working at a Hospice (or Hot Spice as Abra calls it) as an orderly.  He uses his shine to ease dying patients as they finally let go and he becomes known as Doctor Sleep. 

Abra not only shines, she radiates!  Dan has never known anyone that shines so brightly.  Unfortunately this is also recognized by The True Knot, a group of creatures that craves shine.  They use steam (as they call it) like vampires use blood.  They hunt for children with the shine and through torturing them to death, they steal their steam.  Steam that has given them centuries of life.  They feel invincible, high above the average human being. 

As you can imagine, it becomes a battle for Abra's life.  And here her parents become the next irritating sequence for me. Abra is thelve years old - her parents have experienced some of her specialness through the years.  You would imagine that her mother would have some inkling of how to handle this paranormal situation . . .

There are not much horror in the supernatural sense in this book.  And I would not like to compare it to THE SHINING.  In fact, you can read Doctor Sleep without even having heard of THE SHINING.  All in all, it is not a bad book . . . as long as you do not expect the suffocating terror of his predecessor.

Doctor Sleep coming on 24 September 2013!

Coming soon!

The sequel to THE SHINING.

Blurb:
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

I can't wait!

Audiobook Review: Lisey's Story

Title: Lisey's Story
Author: Stephen King
Source: My own audio copy 
Narrated by: Mare Winningham

Blurb:

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.

Review: 
Let me start by saying that I love Stephen King.  Unfortunately his books have been either a hit or miss for me in the last few years as he moved away from purely horror.  
With Lisey's Story I have found some of that secret mojo that I loved .  The story is not horror although there are some horror elements.  It is a strange story that grips you and just propels you forward with every chapter.  It is fantasy mixed with a little bit of reality and lots of crazy!

We jump around in time as we re-live some of the life that Lisey and Scott shared.  We learn that mental illness lived in Scott's family (and to a certain degree also in Lisey's).  It is portrayed as a separate living being that is always nearby and will one day just suddenly take over your whole existence. And it did, first with Scott's beloved brother and protector, Paul, and then not long after, his father is taken.  Even Lisey's sister, Amanda, is stolen for a while.

In spite of all the subplots of sister-love, mental illness, greedy professors and a madman that threatens Lisey;s life, this is at it's heart a love stroy of a woman that has to keep on living after the death of her husband.  I thought it was handled very sensitively and I could feel Lisey's pain and longing throughout the story. 

I listened to Lisey's Story through the narration of Mare Winningham - her voice was perfectly matched to this story of Lisey's struggle to keep on living. Every day I looked forward to listening to little more of this strange world that engulfed Lisey's life.  I must admit that Lisey's Story was a perfect audio choice for me.  I am sure I would not have enjoyed it as much if I had to follow the words on paper.