My Book Reviews

The Long Walk by Richard Bachman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I usually take my time to read my books. But for some reason, I was quite addicted to this one, although the plot is fairly simple: A long walk.

Ray Garraty and 99 other teenage boys are taking part in the annual Long Walk. Participants have to walk at least 4 miles and hour minimum, and three strikes and you're out... permanently.
Literally.
They are not allowed to stand still, sit, or even rest.
Yes, they literally have to keep walking for days on end, come rain or shine, until only one is left standing. That person will win The Prize: literally anything their heart desires.
Throughout their journey, they're not allowed any outside help whatsoever, and while they can request for as many canteens of water as they like, they are only given one belt of food concentrates per day, most of it coming out of tubes in the form of paste or in jars (that's HARDLY enough to fully satiate someone in an activity as intense/taxing as this).

First of all, I get tired just READING about it. I'm not the least bit athletic, so I don't think I would even last a whole day on my feet. Hell, I wouldn't be crazy enough to even think of signing up for it in the first place. And food concentrates ?? The greedy pig in me would probably need at least 3 belts a day. =3

The ending result is pretty predictable, though I'm surprised that this book does not have the little twists that Stephen King (or in this case, Richard Bachman,) is so famous for (unless you count that teeny tiny revelation towards the end).

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Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read several books by Stephen King, and I'd like to think that I could ascertain which was written in his style and which was written in Owen's style. Still, I think they blend together pretty damn well.

The element of amazing storytelling that Stephen is so famous for is prominent in this book too, though I'm unable to say the same for Owen as I've never read any of his books.

It has a good theme/plot: What would happen if, one day, all women disappeared from earth? How would the men cope on their own? There are things/reactions that you would expect from men, but what intrigued me was Evie.
As with all Stephen King's books, this has a supernatural element in it too. One day Evie appears, women start being encompassed in cocoons when they fall asleep, and removing those webs would cause chaos. Naturally, Evie becomes famous faster than Trump can say 'Fuck her right in the pussy'.
She's the only woman that can sleep and wake up without being in a cocoon, and she seems to know everything about everyone, and how things were going to end up. And what's up with that huge tree??

This deserves a nod for character development too, because one particular character that I originally felt really annoyed at, turned out to be not so bad after all. (Situations change people, as we all know.) Though one character, whom I grew to despise, met his fitting fate, I think, because that leopard never changed his stripes, and stuck with his mentality through and through.

I love this book; as I do with almost all of Stephen King's other books. I love the suspense, the addictive events, the whole shebang. What can I say? I'm a fan.

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The Dark Half by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with all of King’s books, they have a way of sucking you in to it’s stories. I like this one (as I do most of his books, actually), and something about it sticks with me the way Doctor Sleep did.

The Dark Half dabbles with topics of the paranormal, as with most of his books. In this case, the ‘person’ in question, George Stark, really ‘isn’t a nice guy’. Apparently writer Thaddeus Beaumont’s ‘evil twin’, Stark does everything in his power to become real, take over Thad, and rule his life. Kinda like a creepy osmosis.

I don’t think I have to tell you, and I think that it would not technically classify as a ‘spoiler’, but of course good trumps over evil, and George Stark is thwarted (obvs). It was a nice touch though, I think, on how King writes out Stark’s eventual (and well-deserved) end. Stark’s weakness, which he himself had been oblivious about for the most part, had been very satisfying to read about; especially since Stark was the cold-blooded, bloody killer that he is. Of course it was nice to read about how THE feared George Stark had a weakness in which he himself had not been aware of. Makes the offing more satisfying eh?

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Pet Sematary by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stephen King himself said, when asked which of his book is the scariest, that Pet Sematary was it. Well, now that I've read it, this is what I think:

I read a quarter of it, and didn't find it scary in the least. No matter. Some books take about halfway through to get to the good bits, right? So then I got through half of it. Still nothing. Not quite scary; a bit of an unease would be best fitted. I still didn't see why King himself deemed it the 'scariest book' he wrote. And I've read Cujo, The Shining, It, and the likes.

Then again, as all his fans will be aware of, the description above wouldn't quite be King.

And rightfully so.

The last 'prelude', if you will, packed so much intensity and was so gripping that I felt spooked. Suddenly being alone in an air-conditioned room, with the sound of rain pelting on my window, didn't seem too calming anymore. Suddenly the slightest sounds just about creeped me out more than it should.
And now, minutes after finishing the book, I'm still jittery. The epilogue scene is stuck in my head. I'm creeped out. Not so much scared, but disturbed. Help.

Even the epilogue ended in a cliffhanger, which made it all the more disturbing, in my opinion.

I actually downloaded the movie, thinking that I'd want to watch it after I'm done with the book.
Now I'm not so sure. At least I definitely won't be watching it alone.

I stayed up till the wee hours just to finish this book, and now I'm not sure if I can go right to bed. *gulps*

You got me, Stephen King. You got me good.

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The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was something of King's that I hadn't ventured into before this: short stories.

I got this for Christmas, and naturally, was filled with glee as I'm a fan of King's, and basically getting any book will fill me with joy.

When I read the first story though, I felt... disconnected. I don't call myself a die-hard fan exactly, but I felt that the first story hadn't lived up to King's usual standards. It even felt a bit.. corny, for a Stephen King story. And I was disappointed.

Thankfully though, most of the others were ok. One of my favourites had been The Dune, where the ending made me silent-gasp. There are a number of good stories in here, but there are a few misses too, in my opinion.
Perhaps King's forte are full stories, not shorts. But then again, it might just be me.

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Thinner by Richard Bachman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first (and only, I hope) Stephen King book (although technically it's written under his pseudonym) that I felt that I didn't really enjoy. I think having taken a little over a month to finish a book that is only 340 pages long kinda speaks for itself. (Seeing as I finished It, in all its 1376 pages, in about a month and a half.)

The only thing I was taken by with this book was the fact that Billy was cursed to be thinner. And I actually wished someone would curse me thinner. The entire book was pretty predictable, I admit. It wasn't until the last chapter or so that I was actually intrigued by Billy's character change.

There was also a plot twist in the end, which I didn't see coming at all.
Or maybe I'm just unobservant.

I've got a few other Stephen King books to read, and I can only hope that his other books are not like this.

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