Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Sep 16, 2010

Alex rated it:

DUMA KEY BY STEPHEN KING: Most Stephen King fans will admit that the last couple of novels by the international bestselling author, while selling well, have been somewhat lacking coming from the renowned horror writer; one might even go so far as to use the term “mediocre,” and don’t get me started on Cell. Thankfully, with the arrival of Duma Key, the slate has been wiped clean and the master of horror is back! King’s first novel set in his alternate home of Florida weighs in at over six hund More...

11 comments like (34 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2010

Bells rated it:

How jacked up is it that I'm going to say I find Stephen King comforting?

Yep. Pretty jacked up.

Then again, I've been reading him since I was a pre-teen (or tween, I think that's the proper term for it these days). Anyway, when the R.L Stine and Christopher Pike seemed a bit immature, (no offense to those authors, I LOVED them as a kid!) I turned to King.

He's what I know.

(insert joke about my psychological issues here)

After all these y More...

8 comments like (17 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2008

Howard rated it:

Awful. Cloyingly sentimental, forcedly folksy, sloppily written. At first I was hoping that he was doing this on purpose, using the unrealistic dialogue and the instant bonding of the characters to turn it around on us, make us look back and see it as creepy eventually, but it's just bad writing. The characters don't act like people, they act like characters in a Stephen King novel. When they develop psychic powers, nobody even blinks, and everybody immediately understands how they work...becaus More...

8 comments like (12 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2008

Lisa rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

Jake rated it:

Every single page is like a lover touching my cheek...sometimes it's a caress, and sometimes it's a slap...but every page, every word, has a profound impact upon me. I'm in the middle of the book, and I'm terrified to finish it, but I can't stop turning the pages...

...Just finished it. I heard one reviewer state that it was the best book King had ever written. While reviewers have short memories and liberal use of hyperbole, I must admit that this was one of his best he's written. More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2008

Trevor rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Salma rated it:

So I finished this today. (Feb 2). Wow. This reads like some sprawling, wrenching Greek tragedy. Just when you think nothing can get worse for the narrator...it does. The tale is of an ex-tycoon named Edgar who's been damaged, wrecked both emotionally and physically in an accident. Marriage breaks and he sets off for Duma Key in Florida. Spending time there recovering, making friends with Jerome Wireman and Elizabeth Eastlake, who've got disturbing secrets/stories of their own, Edgar discovers a More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Pam rated it:

I've finished the book -- I think it's one of the best he's done in a long time. King blends a ripping good supernatural story with what must have been his own experience in recovering from a horrific accident. It felt very personal without being self-indulgent. I think King is getting some distance from his accident, but he's seeing clearly.

The parts of the book where Edgar talks about the artistic process are beautifully written and insightful. King's written about the artistic More...

8 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2011

Oscar rated it:

¡Me gusta la pizza, que le voy a hacer! Un cocido, un bistec o una paella están muy bien, es comida sana, sin duda. Pero reconoced conmigo que de vez en cuando no apetece una buena pizza, con su queso fundido, su mozzarella, su atún, bueno, lo que sea. Pues lo mismo me sucede con Stephen King, que cada cierto tiempo me apetece leer alguna de sus fantásticas historias.

Pero, ¿es Stephen King un buen escritor? La respuesta es un rotundo y merecido sí. Aparte de se aportación a las letra More...

9 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Imogen rated it:

More literal magical negros than we usually mean when we use that phrase (although this one shows teaches white people things too), more classic-rock-oriented tragic heroes than you see in Sophocles, and arche/stereotypes so predictable and effective that you're totally sucked in even as you're laughing at the dialogue and the plot twists: you know when you are reading Stephen King.

I'm glad I started reading him when I was little and I liked everything, instead of now that I am old More...

6 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Brandy rated it:

Eleven thousand "literary" books waiting and I pick up the latest Stephen King tome. Eh, c'est la vie.

Irony alert: in this lengthy review, I accuse King of writing far more than necessary!

On balance, this is a pretty good book. I'm not sure I'd give it a full 4 stars if it weren't Stephen King--this is a 4-star book for him, definitely, but I'd probably be a little more harsh about its flaws if it were (say) an unknown, or someone whose style I didn't enjoy. More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2008

Robert rated it:

Stephen King, Duma Key (Scribner, 2008)

Once a decade or so, Stephen King goes through a terrible writing slump, and I inevitably find myself wondering if King is finally past it. It happened in the early eighties (Christine, Cujo, Firestarter, et al.), the early nineties (culminating in the grandly awful Insomnia), and the late nineties (in which he went from the brilliant The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon to the... not at all brilliant... Bag of Bones). In the midst of this last batch c More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Meg rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2008

Mike rated it:

Just started this. I think I keep reading King the way I keep buying Bowie albums. May often enjoy for more nostalgic than new reasons . . . but so be it.

400 pages in and pretty much out of patience. The stuff I've always dug--the sense of dread in the every day--bubbles up now and again, and I am pretty fascinated by Edgar's barely-contained rage following his accident.

But I've always hated when King's characters banter. (I don't want everyone to sound like 13-year-o More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2008

Sacha rated it:

Stephen King has grown. The characters in this novel are fleshed out, deep, and poignant. The story is compelling, but the real triumph here for King is character over plot. As he enters a mature phase of life, his writing is just better than ever. he is underrated by the literati and Duma Key is his best effort in decades.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Felina rated it:

"The thunder heads stacked up, huge flat boats, black on the bottom and bruise purple through the middle. Every now and then lightening would flash up inside them and then they looked like brains filled with bad ideas."

I love this quote. Brains filled with bad ideas is so perfect when describing a mounting thunder storm. This quote actually moved me...seriously it did. I remember rewinding my iPod at least 10 times because the writing was just stunning.

As far as t More...

10 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Alan rated it:

It must be nice to be Stephen King. Everything you write is automatically a bestseller -- no editor or publisher will ever tell you "no." But the flipside of such omnipotence is also evident in this book.
A building contractor from Minnesota has an awful accident in which he loses one arm and also suffers brain injuries from which he slowly recovers. His wife leaves him so he moves to an almost deserted Florida key and begins painting strange works of genius. It turns out that evi More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2008

JP rated it:

I'm not a big fan of Stephen King, but my entire family is -- especially my Aunt Joanie. I thought this book was "ok", but it really dragged in the middle. It's more than 600 pages, and I think that's about 200 page too many.

My reviews always include the section of the book where I said, "Ok, I'm gonna like this book". For Duma Key, that didn't happen until p.204. Edgar is trying to prove to his ex-wife that he has developed psychic powers, through his paintin More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Jamie rated it:

In preparation for doing this review of Stephen King's latest, I did some poking around and read some other reviews on the 'net and was surprised to find that a lot of people like it. I, despite being a King fanboy, didn't care for it that much. It's gotten to be that King barely writes what you can fairly call horror books anymore. That's his prerogative, of course (roaring, scarcely imaginable success has its privileges), but between this, Blaze, Cell, Lisey's Story, and The Colorado Kid it's More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Becky rated it:

I've read a lot of King. I read a lot of King, and this is among his best. I know some people feel that after his accident he lost his touch for the creeping horror that made him famous, but I assure you that is not the case. This book proves that King not only still has it, he's still improving.

I listened to this on audio, and I'm sure that lent something to the suspense, but I'm very glad that I did. (I downloaded from Audible, and each part was preceded by music that is creepy on More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

Joe rated it:

This has become my personal favorite.
Many of King's fans have been upset with some of his later work because of the lack of true terror. Others were pleased because there was a bit more variety or literary quality. Me, I feel that I can't say his books ever got better or worse.

Stephen King writes so many different kinds of stories that everyone is going to be happy with some and disappointed with others. For me this has had very little to do with when he wrote them. It wa More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2011

Sezin rated it:

Feb. 17, 2011:

I have a real thing for stories about artists who make "live" paintings. Man, this book was creepy and not just because I'm scared of the water. I really enjoyed re-reading this one and it seriously made me want to paint more. :-)

May 24, 2008:

As ever, Stephen King's work is brilliant and insightful. It seems as if every new novel he produces becomes more and more spiritual, and I loved how the main character in this novel went through a horri More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2008

John rated it:

If Stephen King had died fifty years ago and left all these books for us to read whenever and in whatever order, I wouldn’t have placed this one in the twilight of his career. This would have gone in the “good and thoughtful” pile. I guess being hit by a car helped him write Edgar, the man who lost an arm, mangled a leg and lost part of his mind to a construction accident. Edgar is our sympathetic narrator, who stumbles out of a marriage that couldn’t survive the accident even if he did, and mov More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Kealan rated it:

In many circles, Stephen King's last novel LISEY'S STORY is considered his masterpiece. I couldn't get past the 50 page mark, the gauge by which I judge the readability of a book. This is not to say that it isn't a classic. We've all put down books with a snort of disgust only to try again sometime later and realize them for the great works that they are (or, in some cases, are not.)

Before LISEY'S STORY came CELL, and while I found it entertaining and worth reading, I didn't conside More...

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

Evil_Dead_Junkie rated it:

And Stephen King's late period roll continues. Fan's know that after his accident, King's books where well not at their best Dreamcatcher, A Buick 8, and side projects like Kindom Hospital seemed muddled and confused, but I think finishing The Dark Tower series cleared out some cobwebs for him and since then he's been playing ball, I know I'm in the minority but I thought Cell was a great bit of old school, Salem's Lot style, bit of no holds bar horror, and Lisey's Story is quite possibly his be More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2008

Shirley rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2008

Kim rated it:

Another great one from the master of horror. The main character survives a horrible construction accident, loses an arm and moves to Florida to get away for a while. He begins painting to help deal with his anger over both the accident and his failed marriage. His talents grow at an alarming rate and he knows that his art is somehow being controlled by not only the key, but also the house he is living in. At some point he knows there will be a price to pay for his transformation into a successfu More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2008

Cliff rated it:

Finally finished Duma Key. It's an okay SK book. I held on till the end. The story is about a building contractor who's in a near death accident. The accident has left Edgar Freemantle minus one arm and a mean temperament which costs his marriage. Relocating to sunny Florida he rents a beach home and picks up his past desire to draw. The pictures he draws are great but hold a certain mystery to them. He befriends his beach neighbors and he learns the local history of the unfortunate Eastlake fa More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2008

Mary Sue rated it:

This is a big book that reads fast. Having dabbled in sketching and painting I was fascinated with the power of the muse in this book. Of course with Steven King it starts out amusing and then becomes exponentially terrifying. The author as always is a master about character sketches. I never have trouble visualizing his characters or the scenery. I love the new local, I have always liked the Gulf Coast of Florida and glad to see it through his eyes. He does it so effortlessly compared to the sl More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 31, 2011

Liliana rated it:

Oh God! Stephen king likes to write, no doubt of that. Just look at the number of pages!

Another book with a great story line but also loooonnngg... story line.

There was countless times that this plea pop in my head "please just say what you want to say!!!" It's was like his fingers just kept vomiting words without a glimpse of an end...

Unfortunately this book was not so dark as I was expecting from a Stephen king story and I may say (forgive me the u More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)