Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Desperation

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 51,690 ratings · 867 reviews

There's a place alone Interstate 50 that some call the loneliest place on Earth. It's not a very nice place to live. It's an even worse place to die. It's known as Desperation, Nevada...

Hardcover, 690 pages

Published October 1st 1996 by Viking Books (first published 1996)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Goriest Books Ever

26th out of 185 books — 297 voters

Stephen King Books I've Read

69th out of 103 books — 33 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 10, 2007 Lane Wilkinson rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, I dropped the pretention and read a Stephen King novel. True, I read several of King's works...in middle school...but I thought that it was time to give him another chance. After all, King's popularity is eclipsed only by, oh, I don't know...Jesus? Well, not Jesus...but someone popular.

I'll admit, the story was engaging. King has a way with propelling his story-lines over hundreds of pages without taking a breath. Or so it would seem. Unfortunately, the mediocrity of his prose is, at best, d...more

12 likes · like · see review

Mar 21, 2010 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: stephen-king, owned, fantasy, horror, mystery-and-thrillers, religion-related, reviewed, 2010, challenge-1010

This is probably the 4th or 5th time that I've read this book. I have always liked this story, although not as much as it's other half, The Regulators, but I have to say that this time, unfortunately, Desperation lost a little something for me. I actually downgraded it from a 4 star to a 3 star rating (OK, 3 1/2 maybe).

Maybe this is due to the fact that I'm on something of a King kick, and I've been reading a lot of his stuff within the past few months. I think, because of this, some of his les...more

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 04, 2011 Mari Biella rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Say what you will about Stephen King, but you’ve got to hand it to our man in Maine: sitting down with one of his novels is never a struggle. Having read a number of his books, I’ve gradually come to think of him as being a bit like an old friend: a charming, chatty old friend who, for the price of a paperback, will happily sit down with you and tell you one of his numerous stories, stories whose occasional nastiness seems quite at odds with their mild-mannered narrator. On this level, Desperati...more Say what you will about Stephen King, but you’ve got to hand it to our man in Maine: sitting down with one of his novels is never a struggle. Having read a number of his books, I’ve gradually come to think of him as being a bit like an old friend: a charming, chatty old friend who, for the price of a paperback, will happily sit down with you and tell you one of his numerous stories, stories whose occasional nastiness seems quite at odds with their mild-mannered narrator. On this level, Desperation does not disappoint; you’re likely to be hooked from the very first page and, yes, it really is pretty nasty – but then I have got a slight phobia of creepy little towns, so I would say that.

Highway 50 in Nevada is apparently (being a Brit I’d hardly know) “The Loneliest Highway in America” – not the kind of place where you’d want to run out of petrol, have an accident or, indeed, meet a seemingly psychopathic policeman, as a random group of travellers are about to find out to their cost. In fact, the policeman is just the tip of the iceberg, as the actual source of the horror is something bigger, older and considerably more deadly than one man. The small mining town of Desperation, once a small but safe and friendly place, has been devastated by an ancient evil, and it falls to a ragged group of survivors to do battle with that evil.

It’s astounding how many of our primal fears King works on, and with what apparent ease: the fear of being possessed, the fear of bodily degeneration and decay, the dark, being alone, not being alone, wide open spaces, confined spaces, and of course what horrors might lurk in those spaces. In many ways this is not for the easily-upset: it’s genuinely horrific on occasion, and most certainly gory. King was never the man to spare us sickening physical details, and he’s on form here, disgusting us with every dribble of blood, every rotten lump of flesh and every putrid corpse. The foulness can get a bit much on occasion, and yes, it does begin to feel a bit gratuitous, but it’s a compelling story, so you can overlook that.

There are one or two gripes: as is so often the case with King, he starts off so well, and with such an intriguing premise, that he actually sort of writes himself into a corner; the ending is a disappointment, not to mention unintentionally mildly funny. And of course there are the recycled characters, the characters who have made numerous appearances in other King novels – the young boy with strange powers, the weary, cynical writer, the slightly downtrodden woman who has to struggle against the odds – but then again the fact that they keep coming back only really testifies to how successful they were to begin with. If ever a writer was a victim of his own success, it’s SK; but then, in accordance with one of the major themes of the novel, God is cruel. Recommended, if not for the faint of heart.
(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Mar 21, 2010 Kandice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If I were rating this book on story alone, I would probably only give it 2 stars, but because the style in which it's written means as much, if not more, to me as story, I'm saying 3 stars. As disturbing, sad, and at times disgusting as this book was, I wanted to know how it ended, who lived, who died, and WHY. Most of all, why?, but I was left a little disapointed on that score.

The story opens with a crazy cop on the rampage. He lives in the small desert town of Desperation, and scans the road...more If I were rating this book on story alone, I would probably only give it 2 stars, but because the style in which it's written means as much, if not more, to me as story, I'm saying 3 stars. As disturbing, sad, and at times disgusting as this book was, I wanted to know how it ended, who lived, who died, and WHY. Most of all, why?, but I was left a little disapointed on that score.

The story opens with a crazy cop on the rampage. He lives in the small desert town of Desperation, and scans the road pulling over and then detaining travelers with no apparent rhyme or reason. They are all locked up in the local jail together, and on their trips into town it becomes apparent that the cop, or someone, has gone on an absolute killing spree. What's not so clear right away, is that the cop's not actually crazy, but posessed, as are the local wildlife. Posessed of what, and how, we don't know. Something evil, no doubt.

The polar opposite of this "evil spirit" seems to be an 11 year old boy, David Carver, whom the cop has locked up with the other prisoners. David is touched by God. We see, through flashbacks, that although he was not raised in religion, he has become religious for reasons of his own, and God does seem to converse with the boy. The boy not only accepts this, but is willing to perform the hard task God has set for him. The task for which David seems to have been called to Desperation. The bare bones of this story seem to be good versus evil, God versus Satan, however you want to put it. Pretty much the same premise as King's The Stand, but with a smaller cast of characters.

So often in King's work, religious zealots (or zellies, as they are called here) are just plain crazy. They take their devotion to God to the extreme in such a way that they actually harm others. It's the people not considered religious that actually follow God's plan and commands. King tends to show God speaking to someone not actually listening for his voice, and then use that person to His purposes. It's a personal, quiet, humble devotion, often resisted, but never fully avoided. In King's work God gives nothing for free, and always expects the return of a favor.

(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2010 Nicholas Armstrong rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm an indecisive rater and my rating on this will probably fluctuate with mood and memory but regardless of that this is a great read.

What I always found insulting was how easily critics, snobs, and pretentious twits write-off Stephen King because he writes stories about realistic people in fantastic situations. So what? Seriously, he writes amazingly so why give a damn what he writes about? Desperation is a perfect example of horror and fantastic writing and anyone who doesn't think so can go...more I'm an indecisive rater and my rating on this will probably fluctuate with mood and memory but regardless of that this is a great read.

What I always found insulting was how easily critics, snobs, and pretentious twits write-off Stephen King because he writes stories about realistic people in fantastic situations. So what? Seriously, he writes amazingly so why give a damn what he writes about? Desperation is a perfect example of horror and fantastic writing and anyone who doesn't think so can go stick their nose in some classics of literature and sip wine and think about how superior they are.

The first thing that gripped me in this book was how goddamn creepy it really was. There are few things that scare me, really, but cops are one of them. Cops scare me because I'm terrified of prison. I have no reason to go but dammit if I haven't read and seen things that have convinced me that sometimes innocent people get put away and horrible, horrible things happen to them. So the opening scenes of Desperation which show a sheriff who is seemingly innocent had me gripped and on the edge of my seat already. The characters were tense because of the bizarre way the cop pulls them over and the fact that they do have pot on them. This is probably my favorite part of the book but that does not mean it is the only good part. King's use of repetition of the senses here really astounded me. I never knew how powerful repetition could be until I read this book and this scene and I begin to sweat as hard as I thought the characters were. As their paranoia grew I could feel my own paranoia growing until I wanted to shout at the book "Are you a good guy? Is this going to turn out as horrible as it feels?" I don't know how many other authors use this method or have used it successfully but this was my first book that exhibited it noticeably and it blew me away. King's literary tools and knowledge of how to use them really awes me at times.

From there the tension never slows and never stops. The characters are filled with real emotions, memories, and personalities. The woman (whose name I forget) is badass. Seriously, her and the writer were my two favorite characters, flaws and all.

Yes, this is a horror. Yes, it is not filled with symbolism or a greater cultural message which we all probably know. Despite all of this it is still remarkably well-written and any author that makes me feel what the characters are feeling and the absolute hopelessness of a situation gets a thumbs up.

Thumbs up King. Screw the snobs.(less)

15 likes · like · see review

Dec 12, 2007 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Stephen King fans, horror fans, people who dig religious-themed stories

Shelves: horror, thriller

It's pretty much guaranteed that if Stephen King wrote it, I'll like it. I can't honestly say that this is one of his best books. It's certainly very menacing, and extremely tense, but it was also kind of predictable and the ending seemed a bit too easy. A lot of King endings are vaguely unsatisfying, though, and I blame that primarily on the fact that he builds up the story so much that there's really no way to end it on a satisfying note.

Still, something about Desperation got to me. It played...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 07, 2007 Tommy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, stephen-king

An excellent horror novel from Stephen King, that satisfyingly evokes classic novels from the author. This novel is full of great characters, including the detestable but redeemable Johnny Marinville, the 'prayer boy' David Carver, one of King's blessed boy characters (here used very effectively) and most especially Collie Entragin, the giant cop who serves as a terrifying host for the demon Tak.
This novel contains my favorite phrase from Stephen King; 'God grinds the axe he plans to use.' As fa...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 09, 2009 Julor Hart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The ook i read was Stephen King's Desperation. It is a fiction. The book is about two familys and a married couple who struggle to survive in a town in the middle of nowhere.

The book starts out with a couple on the highway in Nevada, taking a trip for the summer, when they see something strang (and gross if you ask me) about a speed-limit sign under a U.S. interstate 50 sign. After pulling off from observing the sign a white police car blasts by them, suddentlly the car comes to a screeching hal...more The ook i read was Stephen King's Desperation. It is a fiction. The book is about two familys and a married couple who struggle to survive in a town in the middle of nowhere.

The book starts out with a couple on the highway in Nevada, taking a trip for the summer, when they see something strang (and gross if you ask me) about a speed-limit sign under a U.S. interstate 50 sign. After pulling off from observing the sign a white police car blasts by them, suddentlly the car comes to a screeching halt as the police car begans to slow down in front of them. For a while the cars were slowing down franticlly before the step-father, Peter, desded to go around the cop car. At theat point Peter desides to look at the decal oin the side of the cruiser, Desperation Police Department. The officer soon pulled them over(to no ones surprise),as the got out the car they noticed he stood 6 foot 3 (or 4 which -ever one)and had the look of a former football player. But, little did they know that thet would start a story of horror that that they could only imagine or see in movies, from deaths ,to even a miracle.

The book keeps you guessing what's going to happen next and who's goin to get out alive and who won't. the most memorable moment for me was when David Carver's little sister , Pie, gets killed by the cop when he pushes he down a flight of stairs. The scenes were very vivid, the scene i would see the most vivid were the most suttle of scenes like when it descibes david walking past the West Wentworth Middle School, and the writting in yellow spray-paint on the side were the words IN THESE SILENCES SOMETHING MAY RISE. And how it descibes a metaphorical conversation between David and a jackel statue with the head of Collie Entragian(the pyschotic cop) in it's mouth. There was some confusing parts, but the most confusing was what was waling around after they had escaped from the police station. The book make me be more observant and causious when I'm traveling on vacations, and to enjoy my family and friends because you'll never know when they can be taken away.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Stephen King novels and Teenagers. It you read Richard Bachman's The Regulatorsor IT or maybe Thinner, then you would like this book because it keep the classic Stephen King Suspence Filled horror that he's known for. The story line keeps your mind thinking and puzzled till the very end.

I think the book was one of the best books that I've ever read and I don't think any other author could do what Stephen King did in this book.The mixture of story's from family to family on how they got to the little town on Desperation and how one really dimented cop dah these complete strangers have to depend on each other for survival, or the constant struggle for a boys faith in God against the constant persistance of the Devil and with the accident of a friend who was left in a coma who miraculously awakens and is perfectly fine like nothing nothing ever happened.This book is single-handedly my #1 book of my top 10.(less)

like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 David Roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am reviewing the novel Desperation by Stephen King which is a very good horror book which I bought from kindle. This book is a kind of sequel to The Tommyknockers which I haven't read but judging by the film was just a rehash of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Anyway the plot to this book is there is a mine in Desperation in Nevada where an evil alien presence lurks underground. Some Chinese miners had previously uncovered it and luckily someone made the mine collapse to kill them and prevent t...more

like · see review

Apr 04, 2013 Jeremy Bates rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One thing I find fascinating is how many critics write off Stephen King as a hack because he writes horror novels. Unlike literary authors, who write about extraordinary people in regular situations, King writes about regular people in extraordinary situations, and that’s just fine with me.

Desperation is reminiscent of King’s magnum opus The Stand, and King revisits many familiar themes such as good versus evil, salvation, redemption, faith, so forth. There’s also a lot of blood and gore, which...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 11, 2012 Derek Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

King's best in his short stories, worst in his looonnnngggeeessst interminabilities of novels. I guess, for King, Desperation isn't even that long – a mere 547 pages – but it feels like a meander through the waiting room to eternity.

Various people get picked up by a huge psycho cop in Nevada, killed in various messy ways or badly mashed. But the cop may actually be .... something far more evil! Yep, he is. Eventually, the something is defeated after the determined suicidal sacrifice of half the...more

like · see review

Jul 31, 2012 Jacob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aside from a collection of short stories, and his brilliant On Writing, I'd never read a King before. While this wouldn't have been my first pick, the used bookstore I was at didn't have his prime titles.

But that's ok. Because for who I am, this turned out to be right in my wheelhouse of interests--largely due to character David Carver. David is a kid (I think it specifies his age, though I forget. I always kinda picture him around 12 years old) who prays. But unlike most religious characters (a...more

1 like · like · see review

May 19, 2012 Campbell Mcaulay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A disparate collection of travellers are abducted by an insane cop and incarcerated in the jail of a small Nevada mining town in the middle of nowhere. It quickly becomes clear that the cop isn't just insane - he's posessed - and an ancient tunnel recently uncovered at the mine may hold the clue...

King's novels are rather variable in quality. I suspect that most careful and discerrning readers, even King's Constant Readers, will acknowledge that as true. I'll qualify the statement and state that...more A disparate collection of travellers are abducted by an insane cop and incarcerated in the jail of a small Nevada mining town in the middle of nowhere. It quickly becomes clear that the cop isn't just insane - he's posessed - and an ancient tunnel recently uncovered at the mine may hold the clue...

King's novels are rather variable in quality. I suspect that most careful and discerrning readers, even King's Constant Readers, will acknowledge that as true. I'll qualify the statement and state that I haven't yet read a single King that I *didn't* like but I *can* recognise their flaws. Perhaps that's the mark of a true fan (I'd like to think so)?

Now; I'm re-reading a lot of his old stuff and (slowly) coming up to date with his newer work so I can't claim to have a huge base across which to compare, but I think that Desperation has to be one of his better novels. It scores highly on a number of counts, the best probably being the atmosphere that King develops: the desperate, deserted, dusty desolation of the setting, the sense of rising foreboding as events build to a head, the terror and uncertainty evoked by the murderous cop, the helplessness of his victims and the sudden randomness of their deaths. This *feels* like a horror novel. The depiction of the mad cop is also masterful: he's not simply insane Tak, his problems go far deeper than that and his strange mannerisms and sayings convey his demonic posession rather well.

That said, King lets himself down somewhat with the dialogue he constructs for his other - less mental - protagonists and they frequently talk as if their lines had been scripted by a Hollywood B-movie dialogue coach; wordy and schmaltzily sincere. Perhaps it's less noticable to an American, but I found it hard to swallow without gagging slightly.

The characters are, as ever, King's usual band of non-descripts and includes a regulation college lecturer. The cast is supported by a slightly stronger character in the guise of Johnny Marinville a self-centred, self-important writer trying to resurrect his fading star by going on a road trip. He's obviously meant to be deeply unlikeable (see The Stand's Larry Underwood) but this is always a dangerous tactic in my book as an unsympathetic lead can detract from or even put you off the story altogether (which is why I never managed to complete Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series). That doesn't quite happen here because Marinville just isn't strong *enough*.

Anyway, I've spent more time criticising the book than I intended. At the end of the day it's a good, page-turning story with a strong theme and plenty of gore! I realise now that, over the last few years I've been plodding through my reading list unenthusiastically and under-engaged, struggling to find anything that I really wanted to finish. Returning to King after a ten (or more?) year break, I seem to have rediscovered a joy in reading. Suddenly I find myself creeping downstairs at 1am to read another chapter, or turning off the telly so that I can read instead. For me, with all its faults and failings, Depseration is a part of that discovery.

`Did you puke in the back of my cruiser, Lord Jim? Because if you did, the first thing you're gonna get when we hit town is a big old spoon.' (less)

like · see review

Apr 25, 2012 U.n. Owen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: stephen-king

This was actually not the book I read, they don't have the ISBN on here oddly. But this was the second Stephen King book I had read and it was wonderful. Right from the get-go, as many of his books do, it was making me feel uneasy. I think it was the first chapter that there was a dead cat hanging on the street sign! And they were in the middle of nowhere, so that kind of gives it away that something bad is going to happen.

I love Stephen King's ability to make his characters hopeful with a good...more

like · see review

Nov 16, 2011 Charles rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not a great Stephen King, by any means... and in the middle third, actually became kind of a drag. And then-- The thing about King is that all the apocalyptic good-vs-evil and God-vs-Devil stuff is just a bunch of highly-animated machinery he uses to put a character into a particular position. In this case, Johnny the burned-out prize-winning writer, who is self-ish and stylized to the point where no one can stand him, including himself. A total fraud, who has a chance to come back from the dea...more

like · see review

May 29, 2011 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After The Regulators, I discovered that I had an old paperback copy of Desperation on hand, so that was the next natural readaloud for Dad. Dad said he enjoyed listening to it possibly more than any other book (I think he's forgotten a few). As far as I can tell, both novels were written concurrently, using the same monster and most of the same characters, but changing significant details about them. In Desperation only the Carver family comes from Ohio. Everybody else is from somewhere else, li...more After The Regulators, I discovered that I had an old paperback copy of Desperation on hand, so that was the next natural readaloud for Dad. Dad said he enjoyed listening to it possibly more than any other book (I think he's forgotten a few). As far as I can tell, both novels were written concurrently, using the same monster and most of the same characters, but changing significant details about them. In Desperation only the Carver family comes from Ohio. Everybody else is from somewhere else, living lives that might have been had they never lived on that street in Ohio. Johnny, the writer, especially, appears to be the guy he would have been had he never landed in Ohio, and it's that detail that makes me think that the Bachman book was secondary to the King book. In The Regulators Johnny has a brief flashback scene with his agent, who can't understand why he's moving to this dumpy little middle-class neighborhood in Ohio. Also, in Ohio Johnny has become rich from writing children's books, not from novels that win him the National Book award.

So yeah, I think Desperation was first, although apparently they were released together, as "companion" novels.

I found the book to be about as compellingly readable as most of King's stuff. As usual, I don't think he needs to go as far as he does with the profanity, but if he feels he needs to do that, ok. As usual, it's exciting, grim and sometimes uplifting. This book certainly takes a stand in favor of God, something a bit unusual for King. About the only other time he dealt with that is Father Carnahan in 'Salem's Lot, as I remember. But it's a good monster, much better than in The Regulators I think, perhaps because it's a bit more delineated here. I rather like the idea of the extremely reluctant, extremely flawed hero. It took me half the book to get Johnny's voice in my readaloud, but when I did it seemed to fit him well. I finally hit on using George Plimpton's tones. Very late in the book another character describes Johnny's voice as a "stage voice," in other words, phony, insincere and too loud (as I read it), and that's how it came across, I think.

So, fun monster, the usual fantastic suspense, grim stuff, redemption. Highly entertaining, which is why we read King.(less)

like · see review

Apr 18, 2011 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book went much more quickly than I had anticipated.

Before reading Desperation, the only Stephen King text that I was familiar with had been "Survivor Type". I adored this short story years ago, and have read it a handful of times since 2008 (when it was introduced to me by my senior lit teacher in high school). However, it never drew me to Stephen's other works.

I probably never would have picked up a Stephen King book on my own. I'm simply interested in reading other things much more than I...more This book went much more quickly than I had anticipated.

Before reading Desperation, the only Stephen King text that I was familiar with had been "Survivor Type". I adored this short story years ago, and have read it a handful of times since 2008 (when it was introduced to me by my senior lit teacher in high school). However, it never drew me to Stephen's other works.

I probably never would have picked up a Stephen King book on my own. I'm simply interested in reading other things much more than I am novels like these. Stephen's writing is very well-done; he is a master of suspense and confusion. The plot and various scenes within it seem to flow seamlessly in and out of sequence. To this, I was pleasantly surprised. Previously, I had regarded King novels as "cheap thrill" reads. Far above the airport-junky book-porn of James Patterson and Jodi Picoult, yes, but not what you might call "constructive" reading. Take, for example, one of my closest friends - and the reason I opened up Desperation in the first place. He sits around the house everyday reading Stephen King books, presumably wanting to read them all so that one day he can eagerly await the newest release like a real fan.

After all of the lip he had demonstrated in favor of the man, I asked him to pick one Stephen King book of which he thought might capture my fancy. Desperation was that book. I read it in a few days; not diligently, but certainly with vigor, when immersed. It's a page turner unlike one that I've seen - then again, I don't normally read about evil ghost-towns in bumble-shuck Nevada.

Desperation was fun. It kept me guessing, and wondering, and at times, laughing out loud. The "famed writer" and quasi-protagonist Johnny (I've heard in the past few days, usually in disdain when friends saw me reading King, that there's quite often a tortured famous American writer in his novels) is a hilarious character. I found myself admiring him the most - progressively so.

However, I may have expected too much of it. Often, I read intensely, so as not to miss a single detail in anticipation of having to look back to ascertain a variety of things as the book became more confusing. This wasn't the case, though, and I found myself increasingly dissatisfied by my lack of perplexity. If I'm going to read something this long, shouldn't it be at least a bit of a challenge to figure out what the hell is going on? That was a minimum expectation.

In the end, I'm happy I read this book. It was fun, went fairly quickly, and provided me with another example of what Stephen King is capable of. I wouldn't read it again, except to pick up some of the brilliant sayings of Johnny Marinville. And I may.(less)

like · see review

Mar 11, 2011 Vince rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Desperation plays out like a scaled down version of King's The Stand. In it the reader revisits many familiar themes from King's other works - good versus evil, salvation, redemption, faith. In this novel, however, the scope is smaller. Instead of tackling a global saga as he did with The Stand, King focuses this story on a nearly deserted town in Nevada that is now inhabited by an evil presence and its few hostages.

Do not let the grandness of the themes fool you, however. This is King at his ho...more

like · see review

Sep 06, 2010 Benjamin Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

I read more than 100 novels each year and have read most of King's stuff. Obviously, with so much output from one writer, there are bound to be hits and misses. This one was a near miss, in my opinion but that means it still succeeds and is definitely worth the read.

I had not yet read The Regulators, the companion volume, when I picked this one up so I wasn't sure what to expect. I came away with the feeling that I had experienced a pretty good King novel. It is far from his best but I enjoyed i...more

like · see review

Sep 04, 2010 Sophia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: King fans, horror fans, spiritualists

Another dark tale from the master of horror. Honestly, this wasn't King's best or scariest, but he is still able to infuse that sense of pervading dread throughout this tale of a mixed jumble of ordinary people randomly caught in the battle between good and evil (or is it so spontaneous?) and the constant struggle within the individual to rise to the occasion, to sacrifice and be brave, when it's so easy to indulge in what is our lesser, selfish nature. I find it amusing that some of the King cr...more

like · see review

Jul 07, 2010 Colin Moon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, fiction, horror, own

[writer's warning: this article is almost wholly concerned with comparing this work to the other work of Stephen King. Those not interested or well-read may want to skip it]

Upon my second read through of Desperation, I found myself pleasantly surprised—almost shocked. When I read the novel the first time (I assume it was somewhere between finding King in 1994 or ’95 and my high school years, when I first plowed through the bulk of his catalog), I was left feeling it was part of his (to me, at le...more [writer's warning: this article is almost wholly concerned with comparing this work to the other work of Stephen King. Those not interested or well-read may want to skip it]

Upon my second read through of Desperation, I found myself pleasantly surprised—almost shocked. When I read the novel the first time (I assume it was somewhere between finding King in 1994 or ’95 and my high school years, when I first plowed through the bulk of his catalog), I was left feeling it was part of his (to me, at least) lamentable “middle period” which, I’m starting to realize, may or may not exist/be all that bad. Insomnia I still hold to be of that ‘period’ (it was published in 1994, around the time I started ‘It‘), and when I read that novel last (during my reading of the Dark Tower and associated books) I found it to be just as ill-gained as I had originally assumed—a mere foot note to the Tower.

Desperation, on the other hand, I found both capable and well composed, with its myriad view-points (a King touchstone I myself have been planning on trying out), unique characters (well, for the most part. I still feel that both Mary Jackson and her ill-fated husband Peter to be nearly inconsequential in the long run, to say nothing of Audrey Wyler’s scant appearance), and a diligently crafted villain and locale—it has a feel that doesn’t recur in King’s work, even the sister novel, Bachman’s The Regulators.

I imagine the disdain for religion and religious tones I possessed in my younger years—an almost knee-jerk refusal to accept God-themes in my reading—had much to do with my initial dislike for the novel—something I had to fight tooth and nail through during my first couple readings of King’s The Stand—but that feeling has long since been exorcised from me; I still have a hardened agnostic’s view of the world, but have opened up the realm of religious themes in my reading—and, in Desperation, David Carver’s (and, later, Johnny Marinville’s) God-knowledge has its purpose and its strange, cynical nature. Sure, in the end we learn that “God is love”, but for most of the novel he comes off as a self-serving, cruel, even manipulative jerk.

As for Tak, the novel’s great evil, I have mixed feelings; at times it is sinister while at others goofy. This is true of several of King’s antagonists (Pennywise the Dancing Clown, my personal favorite, has some laughable moments due to what King seems to see as an absurd nature of evil), and in no way diminishes Tak’s essential ‘outsider’ nature—a monstrosity from BEYOND (again, see Pennywise), a being of incredible power which is both horrible and, in the end, impotent.

What Tak is—a question that can rarely be answered of any of King’s evils save few—is a question that needs to be aske3d; it is in this novel that the terms “can toi” and “can tak” (Little God and Big God, respectively) are intoned first, and these things resurface in the Tower; Callahan has a can toi of Maturin and uses it near the end of that cycle, but how and why? In Desperation the can toi are poisonous, evil, dreadful to even look at. If such things exist in both evil and “of the white” ways, why and where do they come from and from where does the power spring?

Tak has its “well of worlds”, where, seemingly before man and, therefore, perhaps, before David’s God, it took root in Earth (not Keystone Earth, as this is an earth where Arnette, Texas exists), just the creature and its strange supply of can toi and can tak. It waited to be discovered. The creature in It, much more primal and physical, also came from BEYOND, but hosts no magic items to wreak its havoc—even though It and Tak share the fact that, while they do have physical or metaphysical bodies, their true essence still lies somewhere in that BEYOND—It in It’s Deadlights and Tak in its well.

So if can toi are some sort of manifestation of power, where does Callahan’s Maturin come from? A like-minded space, a sort of “well of White” or “well of Maturin”? Are there, as in Tak’s case, many of these artifacts? Perhaps a space like Tak’s well for all the Guardians of the Beam, now lost or secreted away?

The magic items—or charmed items—of King’s universe are rare and nearly all wihout origin (think of Maerlyn’s Rainbow), but seem to offer more cosmic answers by their existence—answers we never really get (the closest I can think of some vague answer is in It‘s “Ritual of Chud”, as Bill drifts past Maturin, and even that’s not any degree of proof or negation). Even It’s symbol is re-used in Under the Dome to no real satisfaction.

At any rate, the use of God in these novels still feels iffy: if God is there, using David (or The Stand‘s Mother Abigail), then is he, like in Desperation, only concerned with that which is an affront to Him (as he claims the China Pit to be)? Where, then, does that leave It, the Crimson King, or the possible fall of the Tower? Or is David’s God more of a source of the White, one of many? Does Roland ever feel that God, or just an aspect of Him/a different aspect of Him? God’s Twinner?

All of King’s metaphysics aside, an interesting turn for his ubiquitous writer here—a fool hardy asshole is presented in Johnny Marinville, which we see again in the form of King himself in the Tower cycle, but which rarely expresses itself in King’s other writers—Like Bill Denbrough or even Misery‘s Paul Sheldon, or Bag of Bones‘ Mike Noonan or Lisey’s Story‘s Scott Landon. Of course, there’s always King’s original, Jack Torrence of The Shining, the most flawed of King’s writer characters—aside, of course, from King himself.

King’s game—using the same characters in Desperation and Bachman’s The Regulators—even so much as making some of them reasonable “twinners”–is a fantastic concept, one that would be interesting to try out with one of the other writers I have known and worked with (though, in my case, it would be a real, breathing writer); come up with a list of names and then run with them without knowing what the other writer is doing.(less)

like · see review

Nov 23, 2009 BarkLessWagMore rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, horror

Cleaning out some old gems of mine. I tried reading this one many years ago and remember giving up midway. I have it on audio from the library and hope to get through it this time but I don't know . . . the thing is 18 discs long!

Later: Well, I managed to get through all 18 discs but I think I'm a glutton for punishment. If I had been reading this the traditional way I would've given up early on. Some of the characters were okay but mostly they seemed all too familiar. There was the religious bo...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 01, 2009 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not one of my favorites. I don't really know why. It didn't lack for strong characters or excitement or anything. I just didn't like it as much. Maybe it was too brutal for me. This is one of the strongest Dark Tower tied books. There are references everywhere. And though the same characters that inhabit the Regulators are in Desperation...the circumstances are totally different. What was particularly interesting about this book was God. This is the first Stephen King book where God played a suc...more

like · see review

Oct 02, 2009 Ryan Dwyer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book I chose for my project is “Desperation” by Stephen King, who is my favorite writer. King got his inspiration from a cross-country drive he took in 1991, during which he ran across an old beat down town in the middle of the desert call Ruth, Nevada, near Highway 50. All the inhabitants were dead. His imagination went wild and he actually convinced himself that the sheriff had killed the town. He slow began to think of a plot for a new book. About three years later, he went on another cr...more
The book I chose for my project is “Desperation” by Stephen King, who is my favorite writer. King got his inspiration from a cross-country drive he took in 1991, during which he ran across an old beat down town in the middle of the desert call Ruth, Nevada, near Highway 50. All the inhabitants were dead. His imagination went wild and he actually convinced himself that the sheriff had killed the town. He slow began to think of a plot for a new book. About three years later, he went on another cross-country trip on his motorcycle and heard rumors about workers from Ruth were working on a mine when it collapsed on them keeping them trapped inside. Stephen began to use his imagination to form the most amazing story ever.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good horror story with plot twists and a lot of thinking. I kept reading this book because this book has you wondering the whole time what is going to happen next. If you ever run across this book I suggest you get it, because most people who like good writing will love this book.
My favorite character is the super-natural entity named Tak. The reason I like Tak so much is because he is really brutal and is the “bad guy” of the story. In this story he resembles Satan and the boy named David Carver is posed as Jesus Christ. Tak was trapped in an old abandoned mineshaft until recent activity by local mining faculties. He takes over someones body for a short period of time and he slowly begins to grow out of it, like someone would with clothes; and when they run out he has to find a body to switch to, which is why he captures all these innocent people, so he will always have a body to go to.
If it was made into a movie I would pick some of the best characters to play these parts, because I would never want to ruin this amazing book. This book has already been made into a movie and from what I heard it had a very good review. I watched the trailer for it and it looks very good.
My favorite line from this book was when Tak captured the couple in the beginning and was driving them to the station and coughed and spat his whole tongue out, turned back and smiled at them and said “Nasty summer cold.” The girl started screaming like crazy, it was an awesome part of the book.
(less)

like · see review

May 17, 2009 Isaac Martin added it · review of another edition

Desperation and the Regulators together comprise a literary experiment. Both concern a writer named John Mainville, who is menaced by a supernatural evil from Nevada that possesses and destroys the people around him. The dramatis personae in the two books have the same names, though they are not the same characters--except for the supernatural villain, who is identical.

The books are, in other words, alternative histories. In Desperation, Mainville is a washed-up literary novelist on a road trip...more

like · see review

Jul 23, 2012 April Hamilton rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really, really wanted to like this book. At last, I thought, King returns to form with a supernatural thriller, and with the wonderful Kathy Bates narrating the audiobook, too! But I couldn't finish it.

The religious overtones are just too much for me. It's not just that they make the book preachy, but that in my opinion, they also make the plotting seem lazy. By the halfway point it became apparent to me that while evil would not always be defeated, when the author had decided that it *would*...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 17, 2009 Jahmilla2010 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "How far would you go to escape your deadly fate with a daranged maniac,especially when their job is to serve and protect?"

Well in the frightening novel,"Desperation",by the horror master Stephan King,was engaging.It kept me on the edge of my seat with its creepy plot.The imagery crippled my diginity making me paranoid and the characters twists of events were breathtaking.

The outstanding plot of this spine chilling tale shakes the story of an estranged,homicidal, and possessed shariff that de...more "How far would you go to escape your deadly fate with a daranged maniac,especially when their job is to serve and protect?"

Well in the frightening novel,"Desperation",by the horror master Stephan King,was engaging.It kept me on the edge of my seat with its creepy plot.The imagery crippled my diginity making me paranoid and the characters twists of events were breathtaking.

The outstanding plot of this spine chilling tale shakes the story of an estranged,homicidal, and possessed shariff that deliberatly creats scenarios to arrest victims while driving along the long stretch of interstate 50 highway of Desperate Navada.
The shariff,Collie, is belived to just be a daranged psychopath but is later found to be possessed by a demon.The demond calls itself Tak that was released from underneath an old mining cave.Tak can control the life forms from the wildlife in the desert and also take human lives,acting as a parasite.after Tak has inprisoned his vitims their only hope of survival is a young boy by the name of David.David has a religious girt that might be able to fight the evil possessed by Tak.

Now the imeragy of this striking terror was on a whole different level for me.King detailed the pain, suffering, and death of thoes tourtured. In chapter 5 the description of one characters death was remarkable."It was the smell that told Johnny what it was,a smell of like meat gone feverish with rot.It's huge unkempt wings flapped against the sides of his face as it solidified its position...it was plowing his scalp in furrows, bringing blood.This brought a disgusting image of the buzzard actually tearing him apart.

Last but not least the characters grapped my attention. The twists of events that the characters endured were distorted and amazing.Watching their loved ones die especially when the shariff kills the young daughter of a kidnapped family was so upsetting.But the stunning part was when a young couple approached Collie's hell hole.The couple notices many bodies scattered across the streets.Bringing it too Collie's attention the shariff turns around and shoots the boyfriend,killing him instantly and leaving his girlfriend in disbelif.All does not end there because towards the ending of the book there are some survivors that manage to escape even going back to capture the evil in Tak and putting it back where it belongs.

So if I had to react to a daranged murderer, attacking and killing everyone around me, i would hope the best for my peers.Their on their own.In other cases it would be devasting to watch someone kill my loved ones but if i dont react fast i'll end up like them.It might sound selfish but it is what it is.

(less)

like · see review

Oct 26, 2010 Mweene rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know why Stephen King wrote this book. Maybe he was suffering from that thing they call writer's block and instead of just letting it run its course, he decided to write this book. Let me put it this way; there is nothing in this book, not a single word or paragraph or sentence worth reading. I read this book and somehow the memory of his other more creative books encouraged me to keep going. The violence is gory for sure and at times just plain disgusting but instead of backing it up wi...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 03, 2011 Lucy Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, disturbing, demons, horror, imprisonment, moral-dilemmas, shapeshifters, sinister, spiritual-bonds, supernatural, survival, religion, god, good-and-evil

This is the second Stephen King book I've read after Carrie and I really enjoyed it. The 800 odd pages just melted away. The story is, as the title suggests, about desperation. A tiny backwater desert town called Desperation, the desperation of a group of people put in extreme life-threatening circumstances by an apparently pre-ordained set of events, the desperation felt by religious believers as to the nature of God.

In a nutshell, it's a terrifying, well crafted story. Although there is a majo...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 12, 2012 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a gore-fest! Definitely not for the squeamish; I sometimes struggled to read it in a morning when I was feeling a little more delicate than usual and I know I was pulling some really entertaining faces on the train!

Despite that the story kept me gripped in typical Stephen King style. This was an epic thriller which managed to almost rival The Stand.

A group of disparate travellers brought together in the ghost town of Desperation by a homicidal cop who seems to be keeping them only...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Stephen King Fans: Desperation	90	267	Nov 12, 2012 10:49am
English 11 Block ...: Desperation	1	9	Sep 30, 2012 01:06pm
Stephen King Fans: Desperation.	2	24	Dec 05, 2010 08:45pm

combine
Other Editions (76)

More editions...

Genres

Horror

1,361 users

Thriller

109 users

Fantasy

75 users

Suspense

50 users

Fantasy > Supernatural

38 users

Novels

30 users

Fantasy > Paranormal

23 users

Adult

16 users

Science Fiction

14 users

Mystery

13 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

The Stephen King Universe: The Guide to the Worlds of the King of Horror
by Stanley Wiater
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance
by Robin Furth
Creepshow
by Bernie Wrightson (Adaptor, Illustrator)
Mr. X
by Peter Straub
Strange Highways
by Dean Koontz

About Stephen King

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

More about Stephen King...

Books by Stephen King

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Desperation

5 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Desperation

“Dolls with no little girls around to mind them were sort of creepy under any conditions.” — 201 people liked it

“Oh shit, the mummy's after us, let's all walk a little faster” — 64 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Desperation
avg rating	preview: Desperation Goodreads rating: 3.71 (51690 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/441239.Desperation?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1174796091l/441239.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/441239.Desperation?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Desperation by Stephen King[/url]

Desperation

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website