Helpful Score: 5
I gave up on King a long time ago but once in a while I'll try one by him---wrong!--I knew within a few pages it was going to be one of those long drawn out description filled pages of nothing--don't know why anyone would consider his writing good anymore.
Helpful Score: 3
I'm a King near-completist, and I guess I could give this three stars because King is always readable, but honestly, this was mostly mildly interesting until the ending when this book goes COMPLETELY OFF THE RAILS. I JUST FINISHED IT AND CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE THE ENDING. I don't want to spoil it but like, how. Why. This weird mashup of Frankenstein story and examination of organized religion is just a complete mystery to me. If you feel obliged to read this novel, you'll get through it, but the payoff is so weird and I didn't find either of the main characters engaging enough to really get invested.
Helpful Score: 2
Uh, what can I say...not a stinker of a book but not very good either. Starts out very interesting building the characters and then turns into a , "so when is the horror going to start? When is the Stephen King wierdness going to start" and it never does. Its a good story that ends with a..."SPOILER" yawn. Go read Dr. Sleep, now that was a good book!
Jamie Morton is a six year old and has received the best birthday present ever from his sister Claire. It is a foot locker full of soldiers and tanks. Jamie spends many hours in his yard creating battles between the Americans & the "Krauts".
This is in the summer of 1962. Jamie lives with his family in Maine (where else!). His family consists of his parents, his sister and 3 brothers.
They are a very church-going family and the older children attend MYF classes at the church each week.
One day Jamie is creating a battle in front of his home when a shadow falls over him. This is his introduction to the new Reverend of the family church.
Jamie learns to love Reverend Jacobs and his wife Patsy and their son, Morrie. The reverend share many fun things involving electricity with MYF classes and Jamie. The reverend has a love of learning about electricity and creates many fun experiments.
A few years into this a car accident takes the life of the reverend's wife and son. Reverend Jacobs is inconsolable, but continues to preach until what is call by the Morton family as "The Terrible Sermon".
Reverend Jacobs leaves the church and the Morton family miss him, but continue to live, although the church has slowly not become as important as it once was.
Jamie becomes involved in music and gets into some bad situations. As he has gotten into a very bad lifestyle, his "fifth business" pops back into his life. The reverend is the mentioned "fifth business".
The reverends absolute love of learning about electricity has always stayed with him and seems to be his escape after the loss of his wife & son. These experiments will rule the rest of this book and lead Jamie, Reverend Jacobs and many more characters to some very interesting conclusions.
Stephen King is my favorite author and this was well written, as usual, but the ending left me a little flat, but it is always a pleasure to read from a master, whether you like the ending or not.
This is in the summer of 1962. Jamie lives with his family in Maine (where else!). His family consists of his parents, his sister and 3 brothers.
They are a very church-going family and the older children attend MYF classes at the church each week.
One day Jamie is creating a battle in front of his home when a shadow falls over him. This is his introduction to the new Reverend of the family church.
Jamie learns to love Reverend Jacobs and his wife Patsy and their son, Morrie. The reverend share many fun things involving electricity with MYF classes and Jamie. The reverend has a love of learning about electricity and creates many fun experiments.
A few years into this a car accident takes the life of the reverend's wife and son. Reverend Jacobs is inconsolable, but continues to preach until what is call by the Morton family as "The Terrible Sermon".
Reverend Jacobs leaves the church and the Morton family miss him, but continue to live, although the church has slowly not become as important as it once was.
Jamie becomes involved in music and gets into some bad situations. As he has gotten into a very bad lifestyle, his "fifth business" pops back into his life. The reverend is the mentioned "fifth business".
The reverends absolute love of learning about electricity has always stayed with him and seems to be his escape after the loss of his wife & son. These experiments will rule the rest of this book and lead Jamie, Reverend Jacobs and many more characters to some very interesting conclusions.
Stephen King is my favorite author and this was well written, as usual, but the ending left me a little flat, but it is always a pleasure to read from a master, whether you like the ending or not.
I am not a big King fan, but loved a few of his books. This one's a stinker and I gave up on it. Blah....
Great King read! Highly Recommend!
One of the most disturbing coming of age stories I've read in a while - loved the minor reference to Joyland. I had to take away a star because a few parts were a bit too long winded for my taste. Overall, a very solid and enjoyable read.
What can I say, Stephen King can write and he knows how to tell one hell of a story. I've been a fan of his since reading Carrie back in the 70s. This one has a lot of recurring themes from King including a coming-of-age story that heads toward bleakness. The protagonist Jamie Morton lives in the small town of Harlow, Maine. When he was six years old, he is playing with his toy soldiers in the dirt outside his house when a shadow blocks out the sun. This shadow was made by the new Reverend in town, Charles Jacob who becomes Jamie's shadow throughout his life. When Jamie was young, his older brother, Con, loses his voice from a run-in with a ski pole and the Reverend is able to cure him using a small electrical charge. Charles later tells Jamie that the cure was really psychosomatic and that Con actually cured himself. But was that really the case? Then after a few years, the Reverend loses his faith when his wife and child are killed in a car crash. Later in his life, Jamie becomes a rock musician and is addicted to heroin. He happens upon the Reverend at a fair in Oklahoma and Charles is able to cure him of his addiction using some sort of electricity. Evidently the former Reverend has harnessed a power and is able to cure people but with some lingering afteraffects. He uses this to make money as an evangelist but his ultimate goal is something much bleaker and he must use Jamie to assist him.
In the story, King uses some devices created by other horror authors including Robert Bloch and H.P. Lovecraft. One of these is the supposed forbidden book, De Vermis Mysteriis (Mysteries of the Worm) which provides Charles with some of his insights into life and death. This book is actually a creation of Bloch's and was incorporated by Lovecraft into the Cthulhu Mythos.
The novel also had some of its roots in Frankenstein and the creepy short story, The Monkey's Paw. But King as usual leaves you speechless at the end with a very twisted and horrific climax to the story. I have read a great part of King's output but still have some to get to including his Bill Hodges trilogy which I hope to read soon.
In the story, King uses some devices created by other horror authors including Robert Bloch and H.P. Lovecraft. One of these is the supposed forbidden book, De Vermis Mysteriis (Mysteries of the Worm) which provides Charles with some of his insights into life and death. This book is actually a creation of Bloch's and was incorporated by Lovecraft into the Cthulhu Mythos.
The novel also had some of its roots in Frankenstein and the creepy short story, The Monkey's Paw. But King as usual leaves you speechless at the end with a very twisted and horrific climax to the story. I have read a great part of King's output but still have some to get to including his Bill Hodges trilogy which I hope to read soon.
This is my first Stephen King book ever. I thought it was fairly pleasant until the twist came, then things got weird. Like super de duper creepy weird. Like I looked back twice, because I could not comprehend how twisted it got, sort of weird. Overall the book was good read and as one reviewer placed on the Internet somewhere "I was happy to be finished, but enjoyed the journey".
