Desperation - Stephen King

I read a horror book after quite some time now. And if you don’t count Strangers and Cujo as horror books then I am hard pressed to remember the last horror book I have read.

And it was quite fun to read good old SK again. He really gets to you the way he writes… builds characters… and plays out their internal thoughts. Of all the fiction that I have read, SK does it the best.

About Desperation now. The book is about how a bunch of strangers are dragged and imprisoned in a town called Desperation by a lunatic, dangerous and a physically huge cop. The strangers include the Carver family: Kristie and David being the kids and Ellie and Ralph the parents. Then there is Peter and Mary. America’s greatest writer Johnny Marinville is amongst those present. And the Desperation local vet, Billingsley is one of the few in the town who seems to be alive. And Steve Ames lands in Desperation as well, looking for his boss, Johnny. And he brings along a hitch hiker, Cynthia, along with him.

The prisoners have no clue why they are being held. They have no clue if the cop is going to kill them the way he seems to have been doing with other town folk. And they have no clue as to why such relentless killing is going unchecked in this little town. And they have no clue how to escape.

The story for most part is over-the-top gross and violent. And while reckless death is the premise of the book, as a reader, even a Saw series appreciator like could not really digest all the blood. And just as I was getting sick of the book being all about the cop killing people with the only explanation of the prisoners being alive seeming to be that their escape would be the story, there is a twist. It comes sort of late, after a lengthy ramble about David discovering religion and Steve wanting to have sex with Cynthia. But the book doesn’t really get too boring till that point. So you will probably remain interested to reach plot point one.

That’s where the story gets interesting. And it builds to a nice climax. SK treads the path well. While the evil in the book is evil for the heck of it really, and the hero is well, quite random and not very smart in delivering the Desperation survivors, it is not outright dumb really. So I wouldn’t complain much about it. And the climax was thought out properly, so it does have a satisfying conclusion to the story with some negligible loose ends in between.

Desperation is no “The Shining”. But if are a horror fan who reads horror really few and far in between because there is so much else to read, you won’t have a lot of problems with this book. I certainly don’t have any regrets about reading this book.

Cujo - Stephen King

I read a Stephen King after a long, long time. The last time was Carrie, a pure horror book, which was extremely tightly written, and therefore was quite a treat.

Cujo, is not so much a horror book as it is a thriller cum drama. In the sense, it doesn’t have your usual spirits, and ghosts, and apparitions out to capture human souls. It is about a rabid St. Bernard dog, Cujo.

There is quite a lot going in the book. It’s not your usual Stephen King book where really the ghost or the villain is the central theme of the story. In this book, Cujo, while an important element of the narration, is tied in to the other aspects of the character’s lives which are as vital in the continuity of the story.

The protagonists, Vic and Donna Trenton and their kid Tad, have their worries. Vic’s career is at a break point. Donna’s having an affair with a Steve Kemp, and when she tries to end it with him, he becomes spiteful and sends out a nasty note to Vic announcing that he had been fucking her while handsome hubby toiled at work. As if that were not enough to shatter Vic, his major client, Sharp Cereal Company has been planning on pulling the plug on AdWorx, Vic’s advertising company, and Vic and his partner have to travel to New York to try and salvage the situation. And with such life changing events happening all around, there are the daily chores that continue to hound, like a faulty valve in their family car, which Donna takes to Joe Chamber’s garage to get fixed.

Joe Chamber, the filthy, son of soil, mechanic, has his own life, with a subdued and dominated wife, Charity, and a son, Brett, who is increasingly taking a liking to his father’s mannerisms and way of life. Charity, in an attempt to get his son to see and adopt a more civilized living habits, takes him to her sister’s home in New York. That leaves Joe Chamber alone with Cujo, who by this time has got rabid from a bat-bite.

Cujo is dis-oriented, but continues to showcase his cunning, a reference that he might be possessed by the ghost of Frank Dodd, a serial killer from another of SK books ‘The Dead Zone’ who has a reference throughout this book. Cujo starts by killing Chamber’s neighbor. And just when Joe discovers his body, Cujo is on to him. And when Donna and Tad reach Joe Chamber’s garage, there is no one on the premise to warn them beware: Dog on premises. Sputtering, spitting and using up the last of the car’s life, Donna drives into the garage, leaving the car in no shape to make it back without repairs. As she is about to get off the car to hunt for Joe, the dog enters the scene, driving the mother and son back in the car, windows up, and fear gripping their hearts. The car becomes their prison. And Cujo stands guard. Vic is not in town to be of help. And the garage is at the end of the world for anyone to come around to help. And Castlerock, Maine has the hottest summer that year, which makes the car a furnace to live in.

It’s a fight for survival for Donna and Tad. And that is what the book is really about. The lives of all the characters converge to this battle.

Captivity and isolation are themes Stephen King employs extremely well. Remember Misery or Gerald’s game? And while Cujo, because it is about a lot more than just captivity and isolation, is not as chilling as some of the other books, has it’s tense moments. But then if you are reading a horror book to get terrorized, this is not the book for you, even though, overall it is fairly enjoyable primarily for the completeness of the characters.

Dog lovers might not dig this book, because Cujo is shown to be a real monster. The transformation of Cujo from a good natured, kid loving, docile dog to a blood thirsty devil is brought out excellently. The struggle in his mind, as he tries to be a good dog, makes you pray vehemently that Cujo doesn’t get rabid. But then, if he didn’t, Cujo would have hardly made a story. 

Carrie - Stephen King

Carrie is the first book of Stephen King, as a lot of SK’s fans might know. And to think that he almost didn’t write this book for some other job that might get him some money, had it not been for his wife who pushed him along, makes me think of what a tremendous loss that would have been in the world of fiction writing. Well, that’s the reason you should marry… so that your partner can keep nudging you back on the path you are supposed to be on, whenever you think of taking a detour.

Carrie is the story of a young girl with telekinetic ability, that is to move objects by just the power of thought. Remind you of Jean Grey? Well, she is much like that. Only a lot more troubled. She isn’t troubled because of her power. She is troubled by her fanatically religious mother who doesn’t let her lead a normal life. She is troubled by her peers in college who make her the butt of every classroom joke. And she is troubled by her own inadequacy to be like a normal college going kid.

The book is not about how she learned to master her power. The book is not about a superhero girl who took on the responsibility of saving the world. The book is infact about the travails of a teenaged girl and the ultimate manifestation of her anger and frustration. You can push anyone only so far. And you should not be pushing people with telekinetic powers around. And when you do, not just you, but many more innocent people might just pay the price.

The climax of the story is truly scary. You really struggle to label Carrie as a protagonist or an antagonist of the book. Can’t give away much more.

Narration apparently is what SK decided to experiment on in his first book. Well it’s not too over the top an experiment as such. But it is definitely more engrossing than the regular linear story telling. The story as such is fairly simple to summarize. SK took a fairly simple story to new heights through the narration alone.

Carrie does showcase the writer that Stephen King was going to be. In his very first book, he successfully connects with the reader and generates fear, anger, disgust and sympathy. All that together, makes Carrie an excellent read even today!

The Dark Half - Stephen King

It had been quite some time that I had read Stephen King. Maybe I had lost my love for horror as a genre. Or maybe I just had too many other books to lap up. But either ways, point of the matter was that I had not read a Stephen King book since a long time; and that’s a shame, since he does have the claim to my favourite author’s title, along with P.G. Wodehouse of course.

The Dark Half was a book, highly recommended by a friend. And I had it lying with me for quite some time too. But that was the last Stephen King book that I had. So I never got the heart to read it, knowing that if I read it, I wouldn’t have any more Stephen King books left to read. So what I did, is that I got a couple of new Stephen Kings. So with the fear of running out of SKs out of my head, I finally picked up the book.

So… with the review.

One thing about SK books is that it’s very difficult to write a review without giving away spoilers. The protagonist, Thad Beaumont, in this book is a writer. (Why does that not surprise me) And while he has written some successful and some not so successful books under his own name, the books written under his pseudonym, George Stark, his so called dark half, have been runaway hits. The book is essentially about the battle between these two names, two identities, two halves. Apologies to Mr. King if I have downplayed the plot a bit. But wouldn’t want to narrate the synopsis of the story here. The battle is just not in the mind. It’s very, very physical. And no, the book is not about schizophrenia. It is as pure a horror novel as a horror novel can get.

The biggest challenge a horror writer faces, perhaps, is to make the horror believable. And it’s no easy, walking-on-the-cake, or sipping-the-ice-tea task. How do you convince a reader that the ghost is a pseudonym of a writer who doesn’t write under that name anymore? Stephen King has created some very unlikely, but believable ghosts, and with consummate ease, elsewhere. Remember Christine? And the hall of famer, The Shining? Here too, he does a fairly decent job of conveying the reality of the “dark half”. But the problem is that the ghost here is a very much a piece of clay at the disposal of the author. He has all the strengths the author decides to give him, and weaknesses that the author conveniently confers upon him. And scariness, though quite logical, feels somewhat forced. I guess there’s a limitation to a humanish ghost, regardless of how inhuman the author makes him out to be.

Though the book is not that scary, the story is quite all right. The characters are well built, and there’s a lot of chemistry between Thad and his wife, Liz. And the interaction between Thad and his dark half, George Stark is very well written indeed. The mind games are a delight to read.

The ending, though convenient, isn’t as lame as a priest coming and scaring away the ghost by holy water. The end is built up well throughout the book, all the way to the climax. And neither is it that predictable. And not that Stephen King was ever short on descriptive skills, but the climax is especially well described. And it actually makes your flesh creep under the skin while you read. So, maybe as a horror novel it is not quite that top notch. But as a fiction book it has its share of thrills and blood. You wouldn’t be bored with the story, but you also wouldn’t really be at the edge of your seat. Not a regret to read, but nothing too must-read about it as well.

The Shining - Stephen King

Scaring people has been a form of amusement for our species since time immemorial. (We’ve all jumped from around the corner, going boo at some friend of ours, sometime in our lives) And the thrill we get from being scared spawned a genre of entertainment called “horror”. But then, the supreme human being I am, so above everyone, I always enjoyed horror in a detached kind of a way. I have never really been scared of any horror movie or a book for that matter. And even the one that I call good horror is where the “what next” excitement causes an adrenalin rush. I am one of those, who don’t believe in ghosts, not even remotely so. So, invariably, even the ghost stories that I enjoyed never quite managed to germinate fear in me. And then came “The Shining”. And horror will never be quite the same again. I love the way Stephen King writes. His ability to get into the head of his characters and convey all their emotions with utmost clarity, somewhat like being in a dream that you know is a dream, is unparalleled. His characters don’t really know what they are thinking. But all those thoughts are communicated to us. Being aware of the characters subconscious thoughts gives a surreal reading experience. This is exhibited in all of his few books that I have read so far. And isolation is an important element he uses in his stories. Thematically, these two concepts are present in The Shining as well. But SK out-surpasses himself in The Shining. Not to dole out spoilers, but the book is about a family which goes to live up in a hotel on the mountains, as Jack Torrance gets a caretaker’s job there for the winter. And the his little boy, Danny, has what is called “The Shine”, a psychic ability to see the future, to read other people’s thoughts, to see what had happened in the past, even to see ghosts, etc; The proverbial “gift he didn’t ask for”. And the horror begins from there, and how! Writing from a little boy’s perspective can never be easy. And yet Stephen King manages that. His fears, his confusion about his “Shining” has a poignant effect as you feel nothing but sympathy for the child. His parents are the other central characters in the book, and their relationship with each other, and with Danny is again extremely well played out. SK also dwells into the past of both Jack Torrance, and Wendy Torrance (father and mother) which lends a lot more credibility to their actions and thoughts. And then the possession… boy oh boy. I always thought that SK did a brilliant job with Arnie Cunningham in Christine. But Shining outclasses it by miles. Shining has one of the best villains a horror novel will ever have. Everything about the villain, its purpose, its modus operandi, its tenacity, is a treat. And it’s really, really scary. Anything more, and I will give away too much. The climax is the crowning glory of “The Shining”. If you sit back and think about it, you might feel in retrospect, that the ending is probably a bit predictable. But SK gets you so involved in the events and happenings of the hotel that you totally forget about it. And when it dawns upon you… you feel a huge burst of relief and triumph at the thought that the good people might just have a chance. They might just survive. Read the book to know if they do. The weak hearted readers; you would be advised to please consult a physician before reading this one. It will give you a lot more than just goose bumps! - Himanshu
PS: In FRIENDS the very popular TV sitcom, Joey Tribiani keeps his copy of “The Shining” in the freezer of his refrigerator to keep the ghosts locked up.

Pet Sematary - Stephen King

Death is a Mystery, Burial is a secret.

It’s a line on the first page of this book. With a line like that, its difficult not to get lured to the book. Plus the title was pretty intriguing. And with “Sematary” spelled weirdly, I was attracted to the darkness that the book seemed to exude. So I picked it up.

So there are pets here, and there’s a cat, as indicated by the cover picture, and since there is a “sematary”, even with its wrong spelling, in the title, there are dead pets here. And death implies horror. And Stephen King tries to weave a tale around that.

Louis Creed, has just moved to a new house and finds an affable, if old, neighbour, who has plenty of stories to tell about the country and its secrets. One of the secrets is the pet sematary, where the children, in the past, would bury their pets when they would die. And that is where the horror all begins. The past, the history repeats itself, and changes Louis Creed’s life beyond his, or even mine, wildest imagination.

Well, I think there the book merits something. The book tries to tackle the theme as realistically as possible. It is not reduced to a bunch of heroes fighting zombies on a rampage. That would have been a really pathetic. And I actually thought that there is a pretty good chance that, that’s what it would become. But it didn’t. Thankfully!

One big negative is that the book rambles quite a bit. And the author has a hard time building up the horror. In fact the book could have been half its length if Stephen King would have wanted to write it. But he chooses to include the elements from Louis’ professional life in a quest to give it an extra dose of horror. And even though that portion, is actually quite vivid and scary, the way it is related to the actual plot is just lame.

Ending is good. You don’t feel cheated when you finish the climax. Stephen King stays true to the story and concludes it the only way it could have concluded.
The book would have been an excellent short story… one of those which wrap up in 100 pages and there are 5 of them in a book. There is not enough content to warrant a 400 page novel. Not that it is boring (Hell, I don’t get bored by any book), but you do end the book with the feeling of having read so much, but read still so little!

The Dead Zone - Stephen King

Stephen King has written the book almost as if he were writing it for a movie. It really reads like a screenplay more than a book.

To give away a little bit of the story, albeit, very briefly: John Smith has a major accident which puts him in a coma for 4 years. And when he does regain his consciousness he realizes that the world, more specifically, his world has changed… a lot.

For me, the book is a mellowed version of a super-hero story. John Smith has his superpowers, as a result of an accident, the ability to see in the future. When you go through the book, you find out it is more of an ongoing punishment than a welcome gift. Whatever it is, John is equipped to save the world. But then, John Smith is a lot more vulnerable than Superman or Batman. For one, he does have to work for a living. And he has a love life that, by no fault of his own, is in utter shambles. And being a superhero, well, he has a world to save! Well, if I am making it over dramatic, let me tell you its not. It’s the paranormal which is present in the right amount in a real world. There are no super-villains that John is battling. But having seen the future, he has a problem to solve, which would hurt the whole of the country if allowed to manifest itself.

Amidst all of this, the real aspects of John Smith’s life are very well narrated. His own anger and resentment for the way life has turned out for him touches you in some mystical way. Because what is happening to John, and even though he wistfully wishes to go to the past and set things right, he accepts it with a sense of finality. That renders a poignant touch to this Stephen King book.
Perhaps not a great book in terms of story or its high-adrenalin drama, and not really on my all-time-favorites list, but it’s not something that I regret having read either.

Christine - Stephen King

I read the blurb on the back page which basically suggested that Christine, with her overbearing evil powers had Arnie Cunningham completely in her control. Well… I thought about some evil chick getting her evil deeds done through poor ol’ Arnie. As it turned out… Christine was a car!!! An evil car, bent on killing the people it… sorry… she didn’t like!!!

For those who remember, there was a movie made in apna Bollywood, “Tarzan – The Wonder Car.” Guess where was the plot picked from!!! Oh yeah… Christine… was renamed as Tarzan! Now that’s a riot. And for the people who bothered to watch the movie, I know I did, it was a crappy movie. And with the movie as a reference point for me, I had my doubts about Christine as well.

But hey… the book was written by Stephen King. And he didn’t let me down. To begin with, the characters are extremely well built, be it Arnie Cunningham, Dennis, his best friend , girlfriend Leigh Cabot, the original owner of Christine, Lebay, the rowdy college kids, the parents… and most importantly, Christine. That’s where Stephen King is unbeatable. He is believable, even convincing about Christine’s evilness. The chemistry between various characters is brilliantly brought out. The hate between Christine and her rival Leigh; the awkwardness between her and Dennis; the control of Arnie’s mother over him and then his rebellion; and most importantly, the relationship between Arnie and Christine; everything is absolutely brilliantly portrayed. And while I wouldn’t be too excited about a car killing people, the narration held me on.

Lastly, the climax is good. That is where most horror books trail off in a bad way. Not Christine. When you flip over the back cover, you get a sense of completeness about the book. And it’s really irritating if you don’t get that after 500 pages!
500 pages… not too many by Stephen King standards. The story, though predictable is quite pacy and thrilling. Even the surreal plot of “car on a kill” is brought out convincingly. Therefore, it is quite gripping as King introduces newer facets of Christine as the book progresses. That, makes the book quite an enjoyable read.

Misery - Stephen King

Stephen King as you would expect him. Gory… Vivid… and masterful at creating frightening scenarios. As you read the book you get more and more convinced that King deep dived into himself for playing out the thoughts of the protagonist, Paul Sheldon.

The book does have a close resemblance to one of his other works, Gerald’s Game. Of course this had more content to write around, as an author. After all, there were two people in this book: Paul and his captor, Annie Wilkes. And Paul had a specific task at hand, other than escaping. On the other hand, Gerald’s Game is about one woman who is trapped in a secluded house, hand-cuffed to a bed and the whole book primarily about her getting back to the world again. Surprisingly, in terms of volume, Gerald’s Game manages to beat Misery. Misery, in fact, is one of the shorter works of Stephen King!!

The plot veers more towards gore than horror. There is no paranormal activity here. Its just two humans, one, Paul Sheldon the writer, rendered a wreck by an accident and another, Annie Wilks, a psychotic fan of the writer who brings him home and provides care and medical help to the writer. As it turns out, Annie is not all that noble, and not very tender when you “beg to disagree” with her. The movie actually had to play down the nastiness of Annie Wilks in the novel, just so that the audiences didn’t leave the theater in a stagnant pool of puke that might have erupted had they actually seen what Annie does in the book. The story then goes through the trials of Paul as he is given a task, to write a novel, just for Annie.

The book offers plenty of scope to describe Paul’s state of mind, which would be as turbulent as twister, and more violent than the battle between King Kong and T-Rex. Wodehousian similes aside, the mind is King’s element. And he lets it flow as he goes through the hells that Paul Sheldon is subjected to. The book could have very well been written in first person since none of the scenes ever describe anything that does not have Paul Sheldon himself. Annie Wilkes too, is a very well constructed character, with her tantrums, though random, totally befitting a mentally unstable person. The balance between stupidity and sharpness, cruel and caring, obdurateness and yielding… all are well brought out in Annie’s persona. The ending is, as Annie would have put it, “fair” and believable. Stephen King offers a complete, entertaining package with this book.

As a book, Misery is a lot pacier than some of the other King books. So if a person has to begin reading Stephen King, Misery would be a great first book. If one has an appetite for this genre, it would be easy to get hooked on to Stephen King with Misery…