The Green Mile by Stephen King

So at one point, I was reading this book, got up to do something, came back and sat back down and looked at the tv, and wondered what happened to the movie.  That's right, it was so descriptive that for a moment I really believed I was watching the movie instead of reading the book.  The Green Mile is just one of those books that is that good (and the movie was quite good as well).

Paul Edgecomb is a head guard on the Green Mile.  That's what they affectionately call death row at the prison he works at.  Things are as normal as they can be in that kind of a job until a man named John Coffey comes on the row for murdering two little girls.  There's something special about John, but Paul doesn't realize how special until he witnesses a miracle involving another inmate's pet mouse.  And because of that, Paul makes a few decisions he might never have done before.

I like Paul the guard.  He seems to have his head on his shoulders right and he isn't afraid of the unknown.  He is also fair and hard working.  A general all-around likable guy.  And then there's Percy.  The one you're supposed to hate.  And he makes it so easy.  All of the other characters provided good background.  Even John was likable in his way, although he always stayed mysterious.

This book was written as a serial, meaning broken up into short stories.  I am awful glad that I just got a book that condensed all these serials, as I don't think I would have been very happy waiting for installments.  But maybe that's just a lack of patience.  It is an interesting way to do a book, and with the new technology of ereaders I can see it being more prevalent now than even when it was in print.  But regardless, reading this in one sitting suited me just fine.  It was gripping, well detailed, and had a lot of character depth, which is something that I sometimes find lacking in King's books.  It had the super natural, but it was all a believable sort of supernatural, which I appreciated since this book was set in a very real time period with real life plotlines and normal people.

A very good book, I enjoyed finally reading it after seeing the movie so many times.  It sure isn't going to disappoint someone looking for a gripping story.

The Green Mile
Copyright 1997
465 pages

Rose Madder by Stephen King

Stephen King is known for writing horror stories.  And what's one of the most horrifying things out there?  Domestic abuse.  Which he explores thoroughly in this book.  Sadly though, since it is King, he adds an element of the supernatural to it though, which it really didn't need.

Rosie's life is changed by one drop of blood.  She's been in an abusive marriage for over a decade and suffered many brutalities.  But seeing one drop of blood on her clean bedding one day wakes her up, and before she knows it she is fleeing.  She lands at a woman's shelter, where they help her find a job.  But she worries that her husband will find her.  He is a cop after all, and has ways of finding people.  But with so many things going wonderful in her life, and a new painting that symbolizes her new beginnings, she wants to believe that the best is out there for her.

Norman is probably one of the creepiest literature bad guys out there.  Granted he pushes it to the extreme at times, beyond human intolerance for pain really, but everything he does seems drastically real.  And it's something that could and does happen out there.  Abuse is very real and abusers have something inside them that just doesn't tick right and they can create their own little horror show for their victims.  Rosie is a pretty strong abuse victim though.  After what she's been through she bounces back pretty fast and while she has some accurate tendencies of an abuse survivor, her timeline is a little quick.  But she's got a wonderful group of people at the shelter to act as side characters and help her on her journey.  Bill, one of the men she meets in her new life is supposed to be a pretty good character, but I found him a little flat and not well developed. 

This is a good story.  In fact, it didn't need the supernatural added in at all and I actually found that it kind of ruined it for me.  Had King not done such a great job with Rosie's life and her abuse and the drama there, I would have welcomed his thriller odd happenings tone, but it just wasn't needed here.  And don't even get me started on the epilogue.  Maybe I missed something, but I couldn't quite figure out the whole lesson that was being learned in that.  Or really the whole ending of the book at all.  I do want to warn the reader that this is a gruesome book.  Foul language, racial slurs, violence, rape, abuse; pretty much everything you can think of is in this book.  And it's all done very descriptively.

This wasn't a terrible book, but as I said before, it was an intriguing story that was cheapened by supernatural elements.  Just average to me.

Rose Madder
Copyright 1995
479 pages

The Stand by Stephen King

The Stand is a very very long book.  I'd watched bits and pieces of the tv series before, and knew what it was about a little bit, but there was a whole lot more to the book than even the series got into (which is how it usually is).  I should note that I read the 1980 copyright of this book, as there seems to be several different ones circulating out there with changed information in them.

Because of a mistake, a deadly virus is loosed on the world and it quickly decimates the population.  The survivors are all driven by their dreams; some of a dark man west of the Rockies, others to an old woman, somewhere in Nebraska.  Based on their morals and interests they head to these two different people, meeting up with other survivors along the way.  And once they establish their own societies, it is quickly realized that both can't exist in the world.

There are a lot of standout characters in this book and there are a lot of characters that are extraneous.  I really liked Stu's character as he seemed to be a decent guy with only a few flaws and he genuinely seemed to want to help people.  I don't understand his logic at times (or a lot of the characters for that matter), but he drives the plot along quite nicely.  Frannie, on the other hand, seems to only be in the story for the use of her pregnancy in the plot.  She could have been so much more but I felt like King only used her for convenience and she wasn't really a strong character on her own.  As for the bad guy, Flagg, I just didn't find him that menacing.  He seemed more bark than bite and while he did do plenty of awful things, they were all background and his henchman seemed more vile than him.  (Yes, I suppose it could be a lesson on how true evil uses others to do its work for it, but I'm not really wanting to go that philosophical with this book).  There were also a lot of loose ends with a lot of the characters too, like the boy Joe/Leo and a few others and I would have liked to have known what happened to them.

This is a long winded book.  King likes to use a lot of words and it works for him most of the time.  I think in this particular one there might be too much to it though.  I find my interesting flagging at times (no pun intended) and had to read it in several sittings.  Especially towards the end, I really had to push myself to finish the book.  The beginning was fantastic though, just the right amount of detail and the subject was compelling as they were trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.  It was when he started throwing in the supernatural that my interest waned as it could have been a strong story even without it.  It was still interesting, just not as intriguing as it could have been.  And the ending was a bit of a let down.  I don't want to give away too much, but it just seemed too easy after everything else that had happened.  King is known for doing the supernatural thing though, so I shouldn't be surprised that this book followed that formula.

I liked the book but I didn't think it was an epic story.  It started off strong and kind of ended with a whimper in my opinion.  3.5 stars from my perspective.

The Stand
Copyright 1980
817 pages

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine Program**

So I'm only partially familiar with the Walking Dead universe. I've seen the first season of the tv show, and that's about it. This was my first introduction to the Walking Dead in written form. And I have to say, it was well done. Gruesome, but exciting.

With the Biters (zombies) taking over the United States, a small band comprised of Philip, his brother Brian, Nick, Penny (Philip's young daughter) and another buddy are on their own trying to survive. Hearing about a safepoint in Atlanta, they begin an excruciating journey to get there only to find that the city has been taken over by Biters and there are few normal humans left. And everybody is out for themselves, as things get worse and worse, sanity gets hard to hold on to.

Philip is a pretty compelling character. He's smart but neurotic and he has a mean streak he can't seem to control. His greatest love is for his daughter and when he gets into a rage, even she disappears from his view sometimes. You're never sure what's going to happen with him, which is thrilling and scary at the same time. Brian, his brother, is more of a wimp. He's the heart of the operation, and he seems to genuinely care for his family, but as he follows along he doesn't add much to the group. Even his musings on the cause of the zombies doesn't get far. And Nick, well in the beginning he's normal, but turns into somewhat of a religious zealot and becomes nearly as unbalanced as Philip. The zombies aren't actually described as much aside from their rotting and want of flesh, but that's to be expected, they aren't exactly human and capable of emotion anymore.

For a plot I think it was pretty exciting. They're in danger at every turn and having to carry around a little girl who's father is unstable adds a whole new element to the story. I'm not familiar with the character of the Governor, but if this is his back-story, he must be a pretty warped individual. This book definitely kept me reading because I wanted to see who would survive and what would happen to them. And surviving was tough, with all the blood, gore, and even rape in this book it's a rough read. The TV show is just as bad, but there is so much violence in this book I had to look away from it at times and give my head a little break. It's not for those people who have weak stomachs. My only complaint would be, that despite being over 300 pages, this book just felt rushed. They were constantly hurrying around and there wasn't much in the way of meaningful dialogue because of it. It was mostly just action scenes.

A good book, and because of this one I'll probably check out the others in the series. And I might return to the TV show to see what happens after the first season. As gruesome as it is, it makes you root for human survival.

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor
Copyright 2011
308 pages

Thinner by Stephen King

I wasn't really a big fan of this book, which puts me in the minority.  I like a lot of King's other works, Different Seasons and The Shining were terrific.  But this one left a lot to be desired for me.

Billy Halleck is a local lawyer who has more than just a few pounds under his belt.  He's fat.  Or at least he is until he's cursed by a gypsy after running over one of the clan.  The problem is he got away with the manslaughter, and the man wanted revenge.  So now Billy is losing weight at an alarming rate and there's nothing he can do to stop it.  Short of finding the gypsy and reasoning with him, Billy is going to die.

Billy is not a sympathetic character.  He whines and moans and blames others for his problems.  In fact, I don't really see any growth in him at all until perhaps the very last chapter of the book, and by then it was too late for me to really care for him as a character at all.  And then there's the gypsies.  They're pretty much stereotyped and not in a kind way at all.  In fact, there weren't any redeeming characters in this book at all.  No one to root for, which aside from a cheap thrill doesn't really make the book worth reading.

I do have to say that the descriptiveness of the writing was very good and up to King's usual standard.  You can't complain that it wasn't filled with horrifying detail or scenes that you could absolutely picture through the description.  But when broken down the plot just didn't hold up because of the stereotyping, lame attempts at humor using racist jokes, and other flashy tricks with no real substance.  This could have been a great book for showing a man trying to do right and correct things to make his suffering go away; but instead you have him whining and blaming everyone else the entire time and ending up just the way you predict he will at the end.

I'll still read King's books, he's got some decent stuff out there and few clunkers like this one.  But I can't say that I'd recommend this particular book to anybody.

Thinner
Copyright 1985
318 pages

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

I almost feel like somethings wrong with me for not liking this book; it seems to be overwhelmingly popular. And it does have some good points, but I just couldn't get into the book. Nor did I think it was absolutely brilliant. It was good, but not to my taste.

Alex is in a gang that roams the streets at night, causing mischief and mayhem. They strike terror into those who meet up with them and are capable of causing great violence. But when Alex gets caught his life changes drastically. And after a few years in prison he is offered the chance to go free again, but only if he submits to a new experiment the government wants to try out. Not realizing what he'd be giving up, he goes for it, and discovers what its like to have choice taken away from you.

I personally didn't think Alex suffered enough. Actually I think he gets off pretty easy throughout the book. So the message involving Alex and free will and such didn't really get through to me. Although I don't really think I'm for a souped up government for thinking that way. Alex just isn't a compassionate character, its part of his design. And since I would never think like the majority of the characters in this book, I just can't connect to any of them. I can't even muster compassion for the victims because of the way it's written. Alex's friends are second to him so we don't really get to know them too well, aside from being partners in his mayhem.

The writing is absolutely off the wall. I was so frustrated within the first few chapters that I almost decided to set it down and leave it alone for awhile. But then I came across a certain word, "okno" and something clicked in my brain. And I realized that a lot of the "slang" was actually Russian. And after I discovered that I found reading it a lot easier. There's still unknown slang, but at least I was able to translate some of the words to make for easier reading and wasn't hopelessly lost trying to figure out what on earth the characters were saying. Because not even context helped some of the slang be recognizable. Even so, I wasn't a big fan of the way this book read because of it. I think it enforced too much on the reader if you really wanted to drive a lesson home.

And the lessons in this book are unusual. Themes of good vs. bad vs. free will vs. control are predominant. And the author makes you question what is best. But there's also a lot of violence in this book that can be so gruesome and "horrorshow" that the lessons could be lost while the reader is focused on the horrible things that happen. It's definitely not a book for those who don't like to read about violence, rape, murder, and other various terrible things. Although most of it is only recognizable if you can get past the slang.

Not a book for me. I know people love it but apparently it just didn't speak to me. I'm not sure if I'll watch the movie as a result of not really caring for this book. It may have some great themes, but I just couldn't get past the writing.

A Clockwork Orange
Copyright 1962
192 pages

The Chocolate War by Richard Cormier

What a strange, disturbing little book. I honestly have very mixed feelings about it. And not for the disturbing parts, I actually liked those. What I didn't really like about this book was the style of the writing, which is probably weird on my part I guess.

Jerry is just trying to fit in at school. After the death of his mother and the loving but distant relationship with his father, he needs something else in his life. So he goes out for the football team. And you would think that would be where things get interesting. But no, Jerry's school is a little different. It's a prep school for the middle class, and underneath it all is a secret organization of boys who's main purpose seems to be creating mayhem. They like to "assign" tasks, and in this case Jerry has to forgo selling chocolates in the school's annual sale. And something so harmless doesn't seem like much at the time to Jerry, but it quickly becomes much more sinister.

I never really connected to Jerry as a character. We're given a little bit of his background and his emotions, but never all of it. And I think that made the book wanting a bit. Heck, I'm still not even sure why he didn't want to sell chocolate although I feel like I should know. And the rest of the kids weren't exactly endearing either, although I think that was kind of the point. I think the only character I did like was Jerry's father, and he didn't even play much of a role. But at least he was sympathetic and a little bit of light shone in the book.

The concept behind the book was brilliant. Peer pressure, sinister schools, the animalistic side of humans. There was a lot of different themes here. And it was definitely a dark and disturbing book with some lessons hidden here and there. But the writing, I just couldn't get into the style of writing. The lack of connection to the characters was one thing, but reading it in half a regular book and half through a teenage boys eyes was tough to do. Now granted I've never been a teenage boy, but I should at least be able to sympathize a little bit right? I just had so much trouble enjoying the pace and flow of the book and getting caught up in it. I was actually a bit glad when it was over, not because I hated it, but because it was tedious for me to read in that voice.

Fantastic idea which sub par writing, I'm not sure if I'd attempt the sequel or not. Although the ending is a bit ambiguous which I actually liked for once and it made me curious.

The Chocolate War
Copyright 1974
191 pages

The Child Thief by Brom

What a strangely disturbing, dark and intriguing tale. I actually enjoyed it for the most part despite the violence and dreariness.

The Child Thief is a different look at the tale of Peter Pan. In this tale, Peter steals children, but only the runaways and down and out ones. He leads them through the mist to Avalon where things aren't as wonderful as they used to be. A group called the flesh-eaters roam the island, men who have been twisted by the magic there and they are destroying the magical place. So Peter recruits these children to help him fight them despite it being a losing battle. And his greatest enemy that he knows is the Captain.

I hesitate to call anyone a good or bad guy in this book. Its kind of just shades of grey and at times I find Peter more menacing than the Captain. And I think that's how Brom meant it to be. Everyone is misguided and vicious and the very base of themselves. Certainly goodness has been lost in this twisted world and savagery what replaces it. Peter I didn't really find very likable at all, but that's just as well considering Nick, one of the children doesn't find him impressive either and I really like Nick's character. I found him the most real out of all of them. There are several of the "lost" children as well and even they are not quite human if not humane.

As I said before this book is very very dark. So dark in fact that it starts with the rape of a young girl by her father. And it just goes down into gore, murder, and other violence from there. If this isn't to your taste don't even try to read this book as its in every page. It also paints a pretty bleak picture of Christianity, so again be warned if this isn't to your taste. Despite all the violence and rage this book holds I did enjoy the vast majority of it. My main complaint would be the ending. It just seemed to lose focus and the tone wasn't as interesting as the first part was. It seemed more like action and less plot was the important role.

I did like it. And I think it was inventive. Add in the great pictures from Brom and it really completes the picture. A very dark wonderful book.

The Child Thief
Copyright 2009
481 pages

Sow and You Shall Reap by B.P. Smythe

*This book was received as a free Advanced Reader's Copy*

I actually don't read thrillers and murder mysteries too much. But when approached about this book I thought I'd give it a try. There certainly was a lot of excitement in this book, and plenty of intrigue to keep things interesting.

Elizabeth Waverly has been in prison before, mainly for abusing those under her care at a nursing home. She and her partner Norman Christie have bigger fish to fry now, however. A person who was responsible for sending them to prison, and who shares the same first name with Elizabeth is first in line for a very generous will should her mother die. Elizabeth and Norman help this along, and take care of the other Elizabeth for good measure and then Elizabeth Waverly assumes her identity. But before they can make out with the money, a new will is found and a brother enters the picture. He buys some property in Majorca and makes Elizabeth and Norman's plans much more difficult. Many more people will die and strange happenings start as a result and it is only a little more time before things just aren't what they seem.

Elizabeth and Norman are decidedly deliciously evil bad guys. Especially Elizabeth, the trauma of her past mixed with the ruthlessness of her future ensure that she is a force to be reckoned with. Norman too is a pitiable yet hate-able character. The other characters, Victor, Helen, and the rest have some important roles, yet I felt that I would have liked to have more information about them. There are a couple of scenes that describe Victor further which was helpful, but not so much background on Helen except through her father. I did like some of the side characters and their different stories. Here the author gave some background on their personalities through use of flashbacks and it helped explain their actions in the future.

For a plot this one definitely had a lot of murder and intrigue. In fact, I wondered what lurked around the corner at every page because I was never quite sure what was going to happen. A complaint I would have though is that towards the end it seemed rushed and actually kind of confusing. I had to reread the last three chapters a couple times before I finally understood what happened even though I couldn't quite understand how it happened (my imagination filled in that for me). I liked the touch of supernatural the book had as well, but it almost seemed an afterthought and I would have liked to see it incorporated sooner into the novel. Still, it was spooky and I liked the author's descriptions on some of the horrors that were beginning to move around. The writing itself was very direct and easy to read; I can see people of all types enjoying the tone of the novel.

Not a bad book, while there were a few flaws I largely enjoyed it. Definitely worthy of 3 1/2 stars to even 4. If you like thrilling tales of murder and the supernatural, this might be right up your alley.

Sow and You Shall Reap
Copyright 2011
347 pages

Different Seasons by Stephen King

Different Seasons is made up of four different short stories by King. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body, and The Breathing Method. I have to confess, I mainly picked up this book for the Shawshank Redemption and am a little biased because it was filmed at the Reformatory in my hometown. I loved the movie and couldn't wait to read the book, although I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a full novel. The rest of the stories I had heard little about and wasn't sure what to expect going into them.

The Shawshank Redemption centers around Andy, a man who claims to be wrongfully accused of his wife and her lovers murder and is sent to prison. While here, because of his astuteness of a banker he becomes an asset to the higher ups in the prison and this gets him special privileges and affords him some protections that other prisoners don't get. Despite this, Andy dreams of ways to escape from the nightmare that is life at Shawshank. His story is told through the eyes of Red, a man who's the person to go to to get what you need at the prison and a friend of Andy's.

The next story, Apt Pupil, is about a boy who has discovered the location of a Nazi war criminal. Blackmailing the old man, he makes him tell him stories of what the camps were really like, every gory detail. However, during this telling the tables are turned and the boy is slowly lured into a trap in which he cannot escape. Together they both rely on each other to keep secrets and keep them both from harm.

The Body is a story of young boys who, hearing a rumour about a body in the woods, set out to find it. It is filled with adolescent angst and the trials of trying to fit in with each other and their differently abusive families. The boys fears, hopes, dreams, and other emotions come out as they look for the poor boy who has nothing to hope for anymore.

The Breathing Method was the shortest of the books but somewhat intriguing. It is the tale of a man who has been asked to join a "club" (everything is quite secretive and there is an unspoken rule not to talk about certain things) where the main function is telling stories. Especially exciting are the stories told around Christmas time and the narrator uses this book to especially tell the story of the "breathing method" which is told by one of the doctor members and is about a young unmarried woman pregnant with her first child.

The characters in all of these books were well written. My favorite of course was Andy and Red in the Shawshank Redemption. I felt particular loathing for all of the characters in the Apt Pupil, but I suppose that is what King was trying to get out of the reader as no one was a very likeable character in it. The boys in The Body were ok; most of their lives were pitiable but I never really felt any connection to any of them. The characters in The Breathing Method were nice, but nothing special and there wasn't enough about them to make you interested in their lives.

Kings writing was fabulous in all the books. His books are very mature in theme though and this particular one includes gore, sex, rape fantasies, racial slurs and other potentially offensive material. Most specifically, Apt Pupil was very sickening and had loads of crass material in it. The most mild would probably be The Breathing Method. I would have liked King to expand more on this story as he had an interesting side story, but it wasn't fully fleshed out and what could have been a marvelous idea, was cut short.

Overall I thought this book was fantastic because of Shawshank. The other stories were good but they just didn't capture my interest as much.

Different Seasons
Copyright 1982
507 pages

The Shining by Stephen King

Somehow I've made it to this age having only read one Stephen King novel (Pet Sematary). So I decided to remedy this by reading The Shining, which I had heard was immensely creepy. I had also liked the movie as well, which also inspired my reading of this novel. I did enjoy the book, it was frightening at some parts but also had a good back story as well.

Jack Torrance and his family have been hired to be caretakers at the famous Overlook Hotel during the winter season. Since roads become impassable in the winter to get to the motel, they will be the only ones around to take care of the place. It will also help Jack get back on his feet after being fired from his last job and also his recovery from being an alcoholic. With him is his wife Wendy and his son Danny. Together they will spend their time at the hotel with a fully stocked larder preparing for winter and just enjoying each other's company while being a healing family. The Overlook has other plans however. With a warning in his head from the hotel chef before he left Danny knows the place is sinister. He has what the cook (Hallorann) calls the "Shining" which is the ability to perceive things and have precognition. The Overlook wants Danny and this ability, and with its dark history, will stoop to using Jack's weaknesses to get its way. The Overlook wants to party once more.

Jack is a very tragic character with few redeeming qualities. He tries to be a strong family man, but really is just too weak. Between the temptation of alcohol and his fondness for chewing aspirin he has several addictions. And these addictions make him dangerous before the hotel even starts influencing him. Wendy was more of a filler character. She was there to be strong for Danny and offer Jack a few problems, but the book doesn't give as much focus to her. Danny of course is greatly intriguing with his "shining". It was an interesting concept to give the boy and really plays an integral part in the book. I liked Hallorann really well. He was a very cool character and helped explain some of the more complicated aspects of the story.

King is a very entertaining writer. He comes up with these crazy ideas and is able to get them down on paper. He does a lot of character development in this book and while I always appreciate that, it does make the first third of the book somewhat slow moving. I also would have liked to see more scary scenes in the book although possibly the movie could have made me crave this more. As a warning there is a lot of harsh language in this book and it might not be appropriate for some children. Parental discretion is advised. Otherwise, there were a few things that were offensive as well which could affect all ages.

It was an interesting book and some parts really kept me at the edge of my seat. Yes, there were a few things that could have been improved, but overall the book was good. I look forward to reading more of his work.

The Shining
Copyright 1977
464 pages

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

I really need to start reading descriptions better. I had only heard the title of this book, "Heart Shaped Box" before I read it. I expected a love story. And I guess it could somewhat be considered a love story, but I would call it more of a horror. Which actually isn't that bad of a thing.

Judas is an aging rocker who has adjusted to life on his property with his dogs and goth girlfriend Georgia. Because of his death metal like approach to music, he has an odd assortment of things relating to the occult, death, and other macabre things. So its no surprise that when his manager finds a ghost on-line for sale, he decides to take a chance and buy it. A black heart shaped box arrives after this sale and contains an old suit that is supposed to be haunted by an old man who recently died.

From then on its a non-stop adventure. The ghost is definitely in his house, and he isn't innocently haunting it either. A quick call to the original owner turns out to be that that was the plan all along. The ghost and his step-daughter are out to take revenge for a relationship he had with the other step-daughter Florida that ended with her committing suicide. They want him and everyone close to him dead. He and Georgia has to find a way to stop this ghost, even if it means going to Florida and confronting the sister. But can they make it there alive?

The characters in this weren't particularly charming, or even good people really, but despite this I found myself caring about what was going to happen to them. Even if they weren't likable, they were definitely well written. The ghost was appropriately menacing and had a lot of odd character quirks that made him seem very real. He definitely gave me the shivers.

The writing is extremely descriptive and in the break that I took halfway in the book while reading it, I found myself thinking back and re-imagining it as a movie rather than a book. Only after I picked it back up to read I recalled that it was actually a book and not a movie. To go along with this, I must warn that there are some very graphic scenes in this book, both violence and sexual. It may not be good for young or sensitive readers. The writing is non-stop adventure and I think it takes a good author to be able to pull that off. Sometimes it can be hard to non get repetitive with the plights and troubles that high adventure brings but Hill does a wonderful job at keeping you at the edge of your seat.

My only complaint on this book (and this could possibly be a spoiler) is that when more things are revealed, there doesn't seem to be a convincing reason for wanting to kill Judas. The whole logic behind it seems kind of weak to me and while it didn't really ruin the story for me, it did diminish some of its excellence.

I would definitely read something by Joe Hill again. He has a very clear precise storytelling method and I enjoyed the novel. It would be a great book for any people who are fans of the horror genre.

Heart Shaped Box
Copyright 2007
374 pages