Book Review: Pet Semetary; Stephen King.

October has absolutely flown by and it has taken me ages to get into and through a book, but I finally finished this harrowing read by Stephen King. And this is absolutely my favourite read of his so far.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Pet Semetary
AUTHOR: Stephen King
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton
PAGES: 465
GENRE: Horror, Thriller, Suspense

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
The house looked right, felt right to Dr Louis Creed.

Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.

Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat.

But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully cleared path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial.

A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding.

What I Liked:

• The build-up was so good. King's ability to create tension has always been something I've admired, but I really felt it in this book. Perhaps because we don't really know what it's building up to here? Only that something sinister is coming.
• This is the perfect example of a very real, relatable horror with a paranormal twist being far superior to a totally supernatural one. There were no killer clowns to be found here. Instead - a highway with dangerous, speeding lorries and the simple truth of having young children and/or a pet that could run into the oncoming traffic at any time.

What I Disliked:

• I appreciate that King's characters are supposed to be flawed, but do they have to be so misogynistic all the time? Reading such outdated, poor attitudes towards women is pretty tiring and makes the main character a little harder to root for.
• I think after such an amazing build-up, I felt a teensy bit let down by the climactic result, which was over in a few chapters. Sure, it was pretty horrifying, but it felt a little too quick. There was so much scope here for a super creepy 'family reunion' and that just didn't happen. Such a shame.

Overall Conclusion:

I've wrestled with the fact that I've not taken to King's books for a while, especially considering that he is considered a master at a genre I love to read. It was a relief to finally read some of his work and actually feel chills. I'll keep trying to find the book for me. The build-up was perfect, I just wish that the ending had matched the pace of the beginning and middle, and that not every book had to be from the POV of a privileged, whiny man who loves women but also hates them, and lives in Maine. 

Book Review: The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams; Stephen King.

After such a long time since I read Stephen King, I felt that it was time I gave his works another shot. This time I chose a book of short stories because I felt his 1000+ page-long 'It' was a little too much for me to handle before. This was definitely the right choice because even his short stories were fairly long!

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams
AUTHOR: Stephen King
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton
PAGES: 507
GENRE: Adult, Horror, Short Stories, Mystery

RATING: 3.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
In this new collection King assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.

What I Liked:

• King's writing is exquisitely detailed and while for readers such as myself who have a shorter attention span this can be difficult, I can fully appreciate why he is considered a master of writing. His sense of atmosphere and build-up is particularly masterful and necessary in his chosen genre, horror. There's no doubt about it, King is a great writer and I can't say that I really disliked any of these stories though I enjoyed some more than others.
• There is a huge variety in these stories, though as the blurb says, they are all linked in terms of theme. There really is something for everyone here, whether you prefer slow suspense, stories on the unusual, or supernatural thrills, you'll get it here. There's even a spot of poetry! Stories I particularly enjoyed included 'Obits' for it's focus on morality, 'Summer Thunder' because of that Dystopian edge it had, 'Ur' which was probably my favourite because it took me back to a time when the Kindle was a brand new concept and 'Bad Little Kid' which gave me fond memories of the things I'd liked about 'It'.

What I Disliked:

• As I said, there were some stories I liked more than others and while I didn't hate any of them, some left me feeling very frustrated, as if I had missed out on something. 'That Bus Is Another World' for example, or 'A Death' and 'The Little Green God Of Agony'. Areas felt rushed and I didn't connect with them in the same way that I did others. I would have really liked to have enjoyed all of the stories, as I consider myself a pretty diverse reader and don't feel this is solely down to personal preference.

Overall Conclusion:

This was a good little collection of stories that had a lot of variety yet played upon similar themes and each contained a distinct style from King. His writing and attention to detail truly is superb. Some of the stories didn't grab me as well as others, and I have to say, that very few of them had a new setting for me to immerse myself into. Most of them were set in Maine, which seems to be King's 'area' of choice in his works. He clearly knows it very well but often writes it in a shady, grubby manner, causing me to long for a totally new setting altogether.

Daily Shenanigans, 08/02/2014: Victory is mine!

I've finally done it! I've got all the way through Stephen King's 'It'! It has been a long journey, but I have succeeded in my goal of finishing it today, and now I am up to date on my 2014 Book Challenge. Hooray! The review I have already posted earlier this afternoon, so go and check that out if you want to know what I thought of the epic novel. I have already started working on my next read which, as promised, will be Andrew Miller's 'Pure'. Looking forward to this one, what I've read so far is intriguing to say the least. Also it's much shorter (a whole 1000 pages or so), which I think I need  while I recover from the last book before I dive into 'Inheritance' and 'The Wise Man's Fear' which are both long books too.

As for what else I've been doing all day, the short answer is not a huge amount. I woke up fairly late this morning (well, late for me) and managed to send out an email that has been bugging me for a while and took a great deal of weight off my mind. After that, I switched between browsing the internet, reading, updating my Goodreads account and just general procrastination. I've had a horrible headache that despite copious amounts of painkillers, has refused to go away all day and I've generally felt a bit drained today. My mood was much better when I woke up though!

This evening I've spent with Mat, who bought his 3DS round and we played some Pokémon (I was devastated, he didn't bring the Yu-Gi-Oh cards!) We were originally going to watch 'Robocop' at the cinema but decided against it because we were both tired and my head was still hurting. To be honest, it was just nice to relax this weekend and not have to go out anywhere. The weather is still absolutely terrible and it looks like it won't stop being rainy and windy for a while. I'm definitely looking forward to when the sun decides to come out, I miss walking and actually wanting to venture outside. I'm off to spend the rest of the evening reading with a cup of tea before bed, so I'm posting this a little early.

Book Review: IT; Stephen King

Well, after days of battle against this book, I have finally emerged victorious. The book is finished. There will probably be some minor spoilers here, so if you'd rather not know then don't read! 

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: IT
AUTHOR: Stephen King
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton
PAGES: 1376
GENRE: Horror, Thriller, Supernatural, Suspense

RATING: 3/5 Stars


Blurb

It is the children who see - and feel - what makes the small town of Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurks, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reaches up, seizing, tearing, killing...

Time passes and the children grow up, move away and forget. Until they are called back once more to confront IT as it stirs and coils in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.

What I Liked:

• Stephen King has a great grip on his setting. I was stunned by just how well he knew the town of Derry. It is my understanding that a great many of his books are set there and so at this point, I imagine he had become quite comfortable with this particular setting. But the intricate and well thought out descriptions found throughout the book meant that I could see Kansas Street, the Barrens, even the dripping sewers where It's lair was found.
• His characterisation too, is marvelous. King tells the story of Derry using a variety of different viewpoints, travelling back and forth between the pasts of the seven individuals and their present day lives. Every single character he wrote (and there were a lot) was both memorable and believable, and this was vital in order to keep track of the story. It jumped around a lot, but this presented absolutely no problem for me.

What I Disliked:

• The pace of this book is excruciatingly slow at times. The novel is long. And I mean long. For some, this might not be a bad thing, but for me I found in certain areas that I became a little (dare I say it) bored. Whenever the children encountered It, the pace would pick up and I would become engrossed in the action. But the huge amounts of back-story and detail that King used just made things a little too drawn out for me most of the time. I found that as the end approached and King built up to the climax of the story, the situation improved and I wish that the rest of the book had been a bit more like that.
• I wasn't scared enough. I'll probably be shot for this bombshell, but honestly, I really expected much more. The concept of a monster that can disguise itself as your worst nightmares and feeds on your fears is a terrifying one, but I found that each encounter barely chilled me. Perhaps it was because these fears were normally so specific that I couldn't relate to them myself. Perhaps it was because It had a sense of humour and would often inject these frightening visions with a bit of comedy (It's most common form was a clown, this to me says a lot). Most of the time, the images were vivid and horrific but I never felt truly frightened, which I was expecting from my first Stephen King read. In fact, I felt more fearful for the lives of the children when they were being chased by the town bully than when they met the monster.

Overall Conclusion:
Overall though, despite its slow pace (a common trait of Stephen King's stories, so I hear) and the lack of 'scare factor' I did still enjoy it as a story. I don't think the problem is the book, or the author. Stephen King is no doubt a master at his art. I think it is that I haven't found the right Stephen King book to scare me. It was still good enough that I would happily pick up another of his books and try again, because I did see a lot of potential in this one and if I found the right 'monster' as it were, I think I could be truly frightened.

Daily Shenanigans, 06/02/2014: Goodreads First Reads winner!

Spent most of the day acting as a Taxi service for various members of my family due to the terrible weather. Honestly, it hasn't stopped raining since yesterday evening and I'm going to have to catch the train to Uni tomorrow because a lot of roads are flooded. Other than that, most of my day was filled with  the usual list of bits and bobs to do.

The most exciting part of my day was logging onto my Goodreads account and finding out that I had won a book from the numerous giveaways that they do! I was not expecting it at all, so many people enter them and I can't wait for it to arrive so that I can get stuck into it. The book is called 'Wolves' by Simon Ings, it was only released a month ago(ish) and I haven't heard many reviews about it so it should be interesting to read and of course I'll be reviewing it for you guys! 

I know this is a short post but I really don't have much more to say. I have basically finished 'It' and so a review of that will be up in the next couple of days. I'm off to Uni, then lunch, then seeing Mat (my boyfriend) tomorrow so there will be a lot more to talk about!