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Monday, December 1, 2014

Revival by Stephen King review

     I finished this novel last night, and although I love Mr. King's work, this one just didn't do it for me.  The plot dragged on, maybe because I was expecting this to go back to the horror "Cujo" and "It" roots from what I had read of reviews on Goodreads.
     It's a well written book, like any of his others, but only the last 40 pages or so really resolve the story rather than bits and pieces being revealed along the way, which to me made it pretty uninteresting.
     The plot is mainly about our protagonist's life and the peculiar way a certain reverend keeps popping up, but....

 **SPOILERS! STOP HERE NOW IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON READING THE BOOK!**

......rather than this reverend being a figure of evil, he's really just an ordinary man who's gone a bit crazy after the loss of his wife and child and tries to find answers in a very Frankenstein way.
     I'm still waiting for the next true horror book as it feels like Stephen King hasn't written one in a few years.  Although Doctor Sleep gave me a few shudders at the beginning, it was the same as this with only 40-50 pages having a horror feel, and Joyland was a mystery (it was labeled as a mystery, so I didn't expect any different from that one really).  I couldn't say about his book Mr. Mercedes as I still haven't read it, but judging from the jacket description it seemed to be a mystery as well.
     Where is the next Tommyknockers, Cell, and Christine?  I don't think he's lost his touch since his writing is still excellent, maybe he's just in a more tranquil state of mind, but I for one can't wait for the next real horror he comes up with.
      There's a story collection listed on his site due for release in 2015 called "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams", which sounds right up my alley so we'll see how it goes and if that satisfies my morbid horror lovers heart.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars