This book absolutely held up.

I basically just wanted to listen to it straight until I finished.

It was so engaging that I couldn't put it down or stop listening.

Definitely rising it higher in my list of favorite King books.

I find it genuinely perplexed why it's not one of his higher rated books.

Maybe it's because it didn't receive as much publicity as some of his other works.

Or perhaps it's a matter of personal taste and some readers just didn't connect with the story as much as I did.

But regardless of the reason, I think this book is a hidden gem and deserves more recognition.

I would highly recommend it to any Stephen King fan or anyone who enjoys a good thriller.

It has all the elements that make King's writing so great - interesting characters, a compelling plot, and plenty of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.

I'm sure you'll love it as much as I did.

Another one of King's books where the main character has the ability to see the past, present, or future and tries to make proper use of his power.

Although in some parts it was tiring and seemed excessive, it was still an easy read. Except for the part related to the description of a crime, there was nothing scary.

The cinematic quote from Cronenberg wasn't interesting either. He had even changed the scary part. It just advanced the story and was almost like a Hindi film and didn't have proper character development. The character development in the book was much better.

Overall, this book had its flaws but also had some redeeming qualities. The concept of the main character's power was quite unique and engaging. However, the execution in some areas could have been improved. It would have been better if the author had focused more on developing the characters and making the story more suspenseful and thrilling. Despite its shortcomings, it was still an enjoyable read for fans of King's work.

Stephen and I have the most curious relationship.

I have a list of Stephen King novels that make me wish I could just die already. This is because of the extensive time he takes to build his characters and their backstories, delving into every minor detail of seemingly every experience they have, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to the plot. On the other hand, I also have another list of his novels that I adore for the exact same reason. Sometimes I think it simply comes down to pure luck or maybe timing as to whether I like his books or not.

Sure, there's a third group of books where he rambles on endlessly with no payoff. At least, none that I can see. But most of the time, his books fall into one of the two categories above, where I can appreciate him as a writer and, for pretty much the same reasons, either love or hate the book.

This particular one here is firmly on the positive side of the spectrum. Like almost every King novel, it requires patience. The story is about a man who, in the prime of his life, has a tragic accident, spends years in a coma, and wakes up when almost everyone has given up hope. He discovers that he now has the gift of knowing things about people by simply touching them, which soon becomes a burden as he tries to reclaim his life. This story has a payoff. It took its time to draw me in, but when I really started to feel for Johnny, feared for what would happen to him, and became curious about when and how he would cross paths with the other main character, there was still a lot of story left.

This other main character is a ruthlessly opportunistic politician who has a talent for entertaining the masses and a program that includes shooting garbage bags to Mars to solve the pollution problem. Yes, he did remind me of another clown politician, just as people had told me he would.

There's also a side plot about a serial killer that brings Johnny to Castle Rock, and a lot of contemporary topics that King touches on. It was a very immersive experience. While I don't love it as much as It or Needful Things, it was definitely a rewarding and highly enjoyable read.

A buddy read with the Stephen King Readers in SpecFic to be precise. Thanks, guys! It was fun.

Up next in my already failed attempt to read all the stories set in Castle Rock before reading Needful Things is Cujo.

My first encounter with Stephen King was a resounding success! I have always been hesitant to read any of his works as horror is simply not my preferred genre. I have watched numerous movies based on his books, and two hours of such content has always been more than sufficient for me.

When I learned that "The Dead Zone" leans more towards supernatural suspense rather than pure horror, almost bordering on Science Fiction, I decided to give it a try. I'm truly glad I did, and I've come to discover that there might be a few other books by him that I could potentially enjoy even more than his more renowned horror novels.

There were certain passages, especially those involving Frank Dodd, that were a bit too graphically described for my taste. However, thankfully, they were few and far between.

I didn't anticipate that he would actually go ahead and fix the problem. But once he did, I immediately realized that although what he intended to do to change the course of events didn't precisely occur, a change did indeed take place. And that was enough. Phew.

All in all, I found it to be an engaging and interesting read. It was quite diverting and made the time pass by quickly. I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by James Franco. His characterizations were subtle yet distinct. While his cadence in the narrative parts was a bit monotonous at first, once I got further into it, it wasn't an issue.

I wouldn't claim that this was an absolutely mind-blowing or earth-shattering experience, but for the most part, it was simply enjoyable. A solid 3.5 stars.

2020 Update:

As I grow older, this Stephen King novel just keeps getting better. I thoroughly enjoyed my fourth re-read. It even managed to pull me out of my reading slump. Reading it in the era of Trump was truly chilling and added a certain horrifying element to the Stillson plot. It remains firmly in my top 5 King novels.

2015 Review:

The Dead Zone, the last novel Stephen King published under his own name during the 1970s, is arguably one of his most mature and intricately-plotted works.

From a historical perspective, this book holds great significance in the world of Stephen King. It was his first release with Viking after leaving Doubleday. It was also his first hardcover bestseller. King's star was already on the rise, with Brian de Palma's film adaptation of Carrie hitting the big screen three years earlier and captivating movie audiences like few horror movies before. He was becoming a household name, and book sales were soaring. By 1979, King was on the fast track to becoming the literary icon he is today, and this novel reaching the number one spot played a major role in that.

What makes this book's success so interesting is how different it is from anything King had attempted before. While it combines elements from his previous works, such as religious fanaticism and clairvoyance, it's not a horror novel at all. Instead, it's a tragedy.

The plot centers around Johnny Smith, an ordinary schoolteacher. After a car wreck on his way home from a date with his love, Sarah, he slips into a coma for over four years. When he wakes up in 1975, he discovers that the world has changed. Vietnam has ended, Nixon has resigned, and the Oil Embargo has had a significant impact on America. Johnny has missed all of these events, and his life has been forever altered. Sarah has married and has a child, he is five years older, and his body is in a weakened state. This setup didn't fully convey the tragedy to me on my first read, but on this fourth reread, I could truly feel Johnny's pain, loss, and depression. His power to see the future also brings him scorn, ridicule, and some amazement. He must learn to deal with this unwanted gift.

As I mentioned earlier, this book has one of King's most intricate plots. There is no central bad guy driving the narrative, aside from perhaps the Castle Rock Killer or Greg Stillson, but the reader only gets brief glimpses of them. Instead, the focus is on Johnny Smith as he progresses through physical therapy, moves back home with his parents, becomes a tutor, and eventually gets involved in local politics, where he comes face to face with the corrupt Greg Stillson. The villain here could be seen as fate, God, or luck, or perhaps all three. Like in The Stand, the idea of a master plan and doing our duty to the best of our ability is explored, but on a smaller and more intimate scale, making it more relatable to the reader.

Unlike King's other novels dealing with psychic powers, Johnny Smith wasn't born with his abilities. This makes the way he reacts and uses them more realistic. He can remember a life without special powers, and now that he has them, he must use them to save humanity from its greatest danger. This raises the chilling question that Johnny himself asks: "If you could go back to 1932 and kill Hitler, knowing you would probably get caught, would you do it?" The theme of political assassination also appears in King's later novel 11/22/63, linking the two works together.

In conclusion, The Dead Zone has always been one of my favorite King novels, but this reread has made it even more special. It's a must-read for any King fan or lover of political thrillers. It's a chilly, autumnal novel that's perfect for the cold months ahead.

King connections (page numbers are from the American hardcover first edition):

- Sarah moves into an apartment on Flagg Street in Veazie, Maine. (p. 20)

- Johnny bets the house on nineteen in a game of wheel of fortune at the local carnival. (p. 38)

- Johnny plans to visit his mother at Cumberland General, a hospital above Jerusalem's Lot. (p. 171)

- A teacher (and victim of the Castle Rock Killer) loves the works of Robert Browning. (p. 236)

- Johnny tutors a boy reading a book called Fire Brain, which stars a gunslinger. (p. 282)

- King's debut novel Carrie is referenced. (p. 368)

- Roger, the boy Johnny is tutoring, mentions Stovington Prep. (p. 370)

- In a cemetery, Sarah passes by a row of Marsten headstones. (p. 423)

Favorite quote: “What would his father do then? Go on, Johnny supposed. People had a way of doing that, just going on, pushing through with no particular drama, no big drumrolls.”

Favorite scene: The press conference after it's revealed that Johnny is clairvoyant.

Up next: Firestarter! (But first, a write-up of King's '70s works. Stay tuned.)

Several years ago, I saw a conversation in a group between George Martin and Stephen King about writing speed. Martin asked King how he could write so fast, and then King explained that he writes several pages every day. On the other hand, Martin also pointed out how much inspiration he has when writing.

I remember that at that time, everyone in the group was making fun of Martin, saying that he had brought in the smell and this kind of writing model where 10 years have passed since your last book and there is no continuation. In general, they were hitting King on Martin. At that time, I hadn't read anything by King, but my heart deeply sympathized with Martin, and I still wonder why his audience is so unkind to him and doesn't understand the great work he is doing.

Now, what is the connection between this incident and our book? The connection is that this book is exactly the result of King's fast writing and lack of inspiration, which makes people go astray and become weak.

You see, let me explain it this way.

Certainly, you know that for anyone to do a job correctly, they must spend an appropriate amount of time. The faster this work is done, the higher the risk of it being messed up or not being done correctly. Now, in writing, it's the same thing. The faster a writer writes, the greater the probability that the work will be of poor quality. Of course, there are always exceptions, but Stephen King is not one of them.

King and branding in literature are amazing.

If you look at the covers of King's books, you will see a very interesting thing, and that is the name of the author, which comes on the cover with an extremely large font and is the first thing that catches your attention. It seems that it doesn't matter much what the name of the book is and what kind of book it is. Just having the name King on it is enough. This branding is a good thing, and that is that your book sells and you feel at ease. On the other hand, you can support other writers to a certain extent or sometimes help them (like what Jordan did with Martin), but there is also a condition in the middle. That is, you must keep the brand alive and continuously publish books. This is where writing a lot and publishing books causes you to sacrifice quality. The pages are filled and the story is stretched until your book becomes more complete and you can sell it better. The fanatical techniques that are nothing, but other people also buy your book because of the famous name of the author to see what you have written, and this cycle repeats continuously. According to one of the kids, the work reaches a point where only one of every two or three new books you publish is really worth reading. Now, this book, which is from King's old works, and this branding issue is not unique to King, but this book is one of those poor examples that come into being as a result of branding. I should also say that a high-quality example of branding is someone like George Martin, and a corrupt example is someone like Sanderson, who publishes two or three books a year and plans to write 8262810837 sets. King is somewhat in the middle of the story.

But what are the flaws of the book?

The first and most important flaw is that this book is infinitely boring. The whole story is like pulling apart a pizza with cheese, and unlike the pizza with cheese, it's not delicious and it doesn't feel good when reading it.

When reading the book, I was constantly comparing it with "The Stand", and I saw how weak this book is compared to that one. While King knew what to say and how to say it in "The Stand", here it seems that he has forgotten, and the story he wants to describe, he has not been able to tell it correctly and attractively.

The next point is that the book has good potential, but this good potential is gradually being destroyed and not being used properly. King focuses on things that undermine the good potential of the original idea, and in the middle of the book, you say to yourself, "If the story had gone this way, it would have been much better."

On the other hand, none of the characters in the story are so real and alive that I, as the reader, have no emotional attachment to following them.

And these three points are enough for me to be disappointed with the story and the characters, and reading this book has become a chore for me that I just have to finish it.

I didn't like this book, and King made me extremely disappointed. I don't understand why a writer should write a book that can be easily deleted one-third of it. How can it be that when you create good potential in your story, you don't use it and you develop the plot in such a way that not only does the potential of the story get lost, but also the reader becomes disappointed with the characters and events and no longer gives them importance.

In general, this book was very disappointing and weak, and probably in the future, I will only go after King's masterpieces and delete the rest of his books from my list.

This is extremely apropos to the present political climate. However, perhaps that's precisely the reason why I didn't relish my time with this as much during the second encounter.

I absorb an ample amount of that through the osmosis of daily existence, and I don't require any additional dosage added to the continuous microdose drip.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The Good…

Johnny Smith persists as one of King's finest characters. I cherish his relationship with Sarah, notwithstanding its Shakespearean tragic destiny.

The Less Good…

The initial half of this book is astonishing and is indelibly etched in my mind. Nevertheless, it takes a downward turn for me once the Castle Rock story concludes. This would have been a superior book had King lingered more on the serial killer cat-and-mouse game and made that the focal point of the second half.

The Conclusion…

It's a classic King book, and I can fathom why numerous people adore it. But for me, the Stillson storyline weighs this book down and makes it one that I'd rather not revisit again.

Update: (01.10.2024 г.)

King has confirmed that Stillson from "The Dead Zone" is Trump. If you haven't read this amazing political thriller, I highly recommend it!



Original review:

Johnny is a talented young teacher who has recently found a girlfriend and his life has begun to fall into place. One night, however, he suffers a severe car accident and falls into a coma for almost 5 years. When he wakes up, nothing is the same anymore... His girlfriend Sara has married and has a child, his mother has become a religious fanatic, and he himself faces a difficult recovery and return to a normal life... While still in the hospital, Johnny discovers that he now possesses unexplained psychic abilities. When he touches another person, he can see parts of their past or future... This newly emerged "clairvoyant" talent becomes an unbearable burden as many people start to fear and despise him, and the tabloid press won't leave him alone, following his personal life... Johnny tries to help others by warning them of future dangers and also helps the police find a mysterious killer. After a while, when he meets a famous politician, his incredible gift puts him in front of a very difficult life choice...

"The Dead Zone" is a wonderful combination of supernatural and political thriller! Through this extremely powerful and influential novel, Stephen King gives readers different themes to think about and also describes the American reality of those years in a more engaging way.

I completed this book over a week ago. You might wonder why I haven't marked it as completed yet. Well, I have this habit of not reviewing a book right away. So, I've been completely ignoring the fact that I finished it. This delay is partly because I've been extremely busy and too tired to read more than a few pages a day, let alone have the time to properly formulate a response to what I've read. But the other reason for the delay is that mediocre books are the hardest to review. And as much as I've loved King in the past few years and enjoyed binge-reading his work every October, this book was mediocre for me.

There was nothing really wrong with the book. The writing was in King's signature style. The character development was good; in fact, Johnny might be one of my favorite protagonists King has ever written. There was a multifaceted depth to Johnny that really appealed to me. The secondary characters were sympathetic and believable. However, the problem for me comes down to two issues: the believability of the antagonist and the plot.
First, let's talk about the antagonist. Greg Stillson just didn't work for me at all. I know there are charismatic sociopaths out there, but true charisma requires a certain level of charm. We're told that Stillson is charming, but I as the reader was never charmed. So, I found it very difficult to accept his charisma as fact. Because of this, his entire half of the plot just didn't ring true for me.
Now, about the plot. The concept of a preternatural insight into the lives and futures of others is a great foundation for a King novel. I also like the idea that one can recover from extreme trauma and gain an ability like this. The addition of a Dead Zone in the mind is interesting, but it seemed almost like an afterthought. Generally, King's title concept is very important to the plot, but I felt that the story could have taken a similar route without the presence of the Dead Zone. Also, it felt like very little actually happened in this book. The story meandered through most of it. However, I did think that this was one of King's stronger endings. It didn't leave me feeling frustrated. I also like that I'm going back and reading some of his older work. Because I've already read 11/22/63, I could see how aspects were inspired by The Dead Zone. And because I read Needful Things before this one, I found it interesting to visit Castle Rock before the arrival of Mr. Gaunt. In other words, there were aspects of this book that I enjoyed. But overall, it didn't wow me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't mind-blowing either. It's a book that I would pick up if I was stuck in an airport or a doctor's office for a long time and had nothing else to read. But I would have no problem closing it mid-chapter and handing it back to the owner when it was time to go.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

The Dead Zone is a captivating story that explores the life of Johnny Smith.

He is a rookie teacher with just $8, enough to take his girlfriend Sarah to the county fair.

At the fair, Johnny discovers an unusual ability when he starts winning big at the Wheel of Fortune.

But his life takes a drastic turn when there is a car accident and he goes into a coma for four and a half years.

When he wakes up, he has the power to see pieces of people's futures by touching them or their possessions.

This ability, however, brings both fear and ridicule from those around him.

As Johnny tries to find a normal life, he is drawn back into the spotlight when a sheriff asks for his help in catching a serial killer.

Meanwhile, there is another man, Greg Stillson, with dangerous ambitions.

Johnny's encounter with Stillson leads to a moral dilemma as he contemplates whether to stop him and risk changing the future.

The story is a psychological thriller that delves into themes of fear, power, and the consequences of our actions.

Stephen King's writing is masterful, creating a tense and engaging narrative that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

The book also makes references to King's other works, adding an extra layer of depth for fans.

Overall, The Dead Zone is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a thought-provoking and thrilling story.

“We all do what we can, and it has to be good enough, and if it isn't good enough, it has to do.”

I have a profound love for early King. Of course, I still hold affection for the current day King as well. However, these early books possess such remarkable power. He is truly operating at his peak in "The Dead Zone". When I first read this novel years ago, being hungry for horror, I was left with a tinge of disappointment. But this time around, having matured as a reader in general, I was able to fully appreciate it for what it is - an incredible work that delves into themes of love, lost opportunities, and obligations.

Johnny Smith遭遇了一场车祸，导致他昏迷了四年多。当他醒来时，他获得了通灵能力 - 他能够看到他所接触之人的过去、现在和未来。"The Dead Zone"感觉就像是King在试探他后来的作品《11/22/63》的领域。在小说中，Johnny提出了这样一个问题：“如果你回到1932年，并且有机会这样做，你会杀了希特勒吗？”在整个故事过程中，Johnny面临着许多艰难的决定。

我们都谈论着Sadie和Jake，Roland和Susan……我们最喜欢的King笔下的情侣。但我必须为Johnny和Sarah说句话。在Johnny遭遇事故之前，他们在书的开头就处于坠入爱河的边缘。我们看到他们在一起的时间如此短暂，但却极具影响力，你会非常渴望他们能在一起。我喜欢Johnny这个角色 - 他有着很棒的幽默感，我觉得他非常讨人喜欢。而这也让他一次又一次遭受打击时更加令人心碎。这真的让我心痛。

"The Dead Zone"与其说是一部恐怖小说，不如说是一部带有一些科幻元素的戏剧。但真正令人恐惧的是，在Johnny预见会引发核战争的政治家Greg Stillson和Donald Trump之间可以找到的相似之处。这些相似之处是如此令人毛骨悚然！King一定有一些自己的Johnny Smith式的能力！

我很高兴我决定重新阅读这本书，因为它已经成为了我的新宠。而且我敢说 - 这是King最好的结局之一？

5颗星。

2024年重读 #从一开始就爱King - 我每次重温这本书都更爱它一些。这是他最好的作品之一。

Some time last year, I made a rather interesting decision. I thought it would be a great deal of fun to reread a significant portion of the Stephen King canon. I began with his very first novel, “Carrie,” and then followed a more or less chronological schedule. I added in books like “The Dead Zone” and “Firestarter” that I had skipped back in the day for some unknown reason. I got as far as “The Shining” when I realized that I needed to deviate from the plan and focus on “Doctor Sleep,” King’s 2013 sequel to the original. I wanted to find out what had happened to the remains of the Torrance family after the ashes of the Overlook Hotel had cooled. I had also skipped “The Stand,” but I expected to rectify that later this year. This brings me back to “The Dead Zone.” First published in 1979, it was the first of King’s books to move away from outright supernatural horror and instead offer a more subdued study of the paranormal. In this case, it was the psychic ability to foretell the future. Psychics were still a big deal in 1979. Edgar Cayce was always a great source of story fodder for the tabloids, and Uri Geller was still bending spoons for talk show hosts. So, it wasn’t entirely unexpected to see a writer of King’s stature take on this subject as a main plot point.
King’s tale centers around Johnny (no middle name) Smith, a newly minted schoolteacher in a typical Maine town during the idyllic days of 1970. Johnny is doing well as a second-year teacher and catches the eye of one of his rookie teaching colleagues, Sarah Bracknell. The two go on a date to the county fair. They have a great time and are about to head home when Johnny is persuaded to play a rickety-looking Wheel of Fortune game. It is here that he first shows a hint of his abilities by going on an unprecedented winning streak and winning over $500. Sarah, who has been unwell due to a bad country fair hot dog, manages to get herself and Johnny out of the fair. At this point, he leaves her at her apartment and decides to take a cab back to his place. However, this turns out to be a disastrous decision, as Johnny and the cab are involved in a massive road accident that leaves Johnny in a coma for the next four and a half years.
Cut to the backstory, where we first encounter Greg Stillson while he is selling Bibles in the Midwest. In this scene, Stillson doesn’t sell any Bibles, but he does manage to kick a family dog to death, which gives us a good idea of what kind of person he is. He is a driven man, and driven men can sometimes be dangerous. Stillson has his sights set high, but he doesn’t yet know how high. It is clear, however, that he is destined to do great things.
While Johnny is in a coma, Sarah gets married. His mother descends into deeper levels of religious paranoia, and his father is relieved to see him alive and conscious but is burdened with guilt for having wished for Johnny’s death during his long ordeal. Johnny himself is a physical and emotional wreck, and his latent psychic abilities seem to have been sharpened and enhanced by his near-death experience. All he has to do is touch a person or object to get an “impression” of it, and this “talent” soon becomes a curse as he struggles through several media firestorms following highly publicized psychic events, one of which leads to the solving of a series of sex crimes.
Meanwhile, Greg Stillson manages to get himself elected as the mayor of his small town and sets his sights on reaching the House of Representatives. Johnny becomes something of a political junkie and manages to attend one of Stillson’s rallies. Here, he shakes hands with the candidate and has a vision of a horrible future for the human race if Stillson manages to achieve the impossible and get elected as POTUS. This is a rather complex plot, and I have left out a lot of details. However, if you want a more in-depth understanding, you can always refer to the Wiki page for the book.
The real action of the book begins as the two plotlines converge and Johnny makes a fateful decision about what to do with the information he has received. So, my observations. I’ll start with the obvious and note the strange similarities between the character of Greg Stillson and Donald J. Trump. Stillson is clearly a psychopath who is willing to do whatever it takes to climb the political ladder. Lies, corruption, murder – nothing is off-limits for him. His political rallies are pure theater, designed to entertain the cult of personality and boost his own ego. It’s nationalism and populism at its finest, and it’s not surprising that a significant portion of the public will lap it up like candy. The parallels between Stillson and Trump are obvious in today’s political climate, but it’s a bit eerie that King was so accurate in his characterizations here. This book was written 40 years ago. Maybe King himself has a bit of that “shine” about him.
And speaking of that “shine,” precognition was a minor part of the talents that Danny Torrance displayed in “The Shining.” However, it seems to me that this is just a matter of scale. Johnny’s ability to see the future is just one aspect of the “shining” phenomenon as a whole. I would also include Carrie White’s abilities in this category, and perhaps even Charlene McGee’s pyrotechnic skills, although a lot of the credit for her powers appears to be due to the drug tests performed on her father. Still, it’s interesting to see that Stephen King seems to be grouping a wide range of what we would call “psychic” phenomena under one umbrella term that can encompass them all and make sense of them in context. It’s like a field-unification theory for the expansion of the mind’s more extreme potentialities.
I was also highly entertained by the numerous references to Ray Bradbury’s seminal horror novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” There are several points in the text that hark back to Bradbury’s vision, one of which is a direct reference to the title itself, and the other is a delicious and short chapter dedicated to the “lightning-rod salesman.” I laughed out loud as I read this chapter, and as soon as I finished it, I knew that the storm was going to come, bringing with it lightning bolts of righteous retribution. And I was pretty much right.
King also manages to include a little nod to himself in the text, as one of the characters references “Carrie” at a particularly terrifying moment in the novel. King has always loved to include these little Easter eggs in his books, and I always enjoy finding them as I read.
King was really on a roll in these early novels, and he gets through “The Dead Zone” in a remarkably efficient and powerful 402 pages. His characters are well-developed, and his pacing is just about perfect. “The Dead Zone” was the first of his books to make the yearly Top 10 lists in terms of popularity and sales, and he was just hitting his commercial stride. In this sense, I found it interesting that he would abandon traditional horror in favor of a more subtle exploration of such tabloid topics as “psychics.” But I think he knew his audience well, because the same people who were buying “The National Enquirer” and “Weekly World News” and reading their daily horoscopes were the same ones who were snapping up copies of his books in the checkout lines of supermarkets across America. All of this makes me think that King is one of the most outstanding observers of human nature ever, and certainly one of the shrewdest when it comes to marketing his work.
In conclusion, “The Dead Zone” is a damn fine thriller and a worthy addition to the King canon. I reserve 5 stars for those King books that are clearly head and shoulders above the rest, but this is a solid 4-star effort and should be recognized as such. This is King in his prime, producing brilliant prose while he was still at the top of his game. I have no idea why I overlooked this book when I was younger, but I’m glad that I took the time to correct that oversight now. Now, perhaps it’s time to move on to “The Stand.”