** spoiler alert ** I hadn't reviewed this book before, because I am a fan and don't feel that I'm really objective. I rated this book a three because even though I enjoyed it and liked it, it didn't blow me away completely like quite a few of his other books have.
I prefer Stephen King's more fantastic stories, personally, but this one is plausibly realistic, which makes it scary in a different way...
I thought the eclipse/molestation tie-in to Dolores Claiborne was contrived and probably unnecessary, but it did give her something to think about while she was hallucinating.
I've always been impressed with SK's portrayal of his women characters. For the most part - meaning, when they're not the 'bad guy' (and even when they are, sometimes)- they are strong, complex, smart and amazingly real, considering that we are looking at the inside of a woman's head as written by a man. I wasn't that crazy about Jessie, though, even as much as I tried to like her and I cringed inside at how she finally escaped.
I can't believe that people are rating this book badly for being too 'real' and too scary. If you don't want scary, read The Shawshank Redemption, The Body, or The Green Mile. Maybe there are a few poems and short stories that I left out, but these are the most un-scary things I could think of - the ones that, when I tell people "Stephen King wrote that" they won't believe me until I pull out the book.
If you want scary, read pretty much anything else Stephen King has written, especially my favorites; It, The Boogeyman, and Misery.