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Duma Key
by Stephen King
by Stephen King
** spoiler alert **
I powered through this in just under 3 days, and MAN. I was all, "one last chapter" last night, and I literally had to keep a light on when I was going to sleep because I was actually really creeped out. AWESOME. When I was describing it to one of my customers, I called it a slow burn of a ghost story, and it is in a way. Stuff builds and builds and builds and then King takes the top of the pressure cooker and the last 175 pages or so is a whirlwind of awesome. The thing is, in those first 400+ pages, King is also doing some really excellent stuff with his characters. He's got 4 main characters or so, but a pretty large cast of people that are important to Edgar in some way, and King never short changes them. His 4 biggies though, Edgar, Wireman, Jack, and Elizabeth are all fantastic, and my love for them reminds me of how I felt reading Cell.
And a bit of space before the spoilers:
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Here be spoilers:
* Dude, I am so excited Jack got to live. I was SO not expecting him to make it out.
* According to Bookgasm, there's something around 450 pages in that you'll either accept or you won't. It's right around the time that Tom has been taken over by Perse and is on his way to kill Pam... is that what is hard to accept? I totally buy that Edgar's paintings/sketches have a certain sort of sway, or rather, act as a conduit for Perse. I *really* liked that Mary Ire was the one to kill Ilse.
* As much as I didn't like the lead-up to Edgar walking in the house when the twins and the brother-in-law have appeared and left footprints and YEAH THIS PART WAS SO CREEPY AND AWESOME, when I turned the page and saw that scrawled "where our sister" I literally stuck my bookmark in, turned on 3 more lights, and then went back to reading. I'm not sure what it was about this one scene, because I think King has written scarier stuff, but it freaked me out and I loved it.
To sum up: It might not end up as part of the "canon" like Salem's Lot and The Shining and The Stand, but it holds up to his earlier work and it's about 8 million times better than Lisey's Story. So: A++, you go Stephen King, you go.
And a bit of space before the spoilers:
**
**
**
**
**
Here be spoilers:
* Dude, I am so excited Jack got to live. I was SO not expecting him to make it out.
* According to Bookgasm, there's something around 450 pages in that you'll either accept or you won't. It's right around the time that Tom has been taken over by Perse and is on his way to kill Pam... is that what is hard to accept? I totally buy that Edgar's paintings/sketches have a certain sort of sway, or rather, act as a conduit for Perse. I *really* liked that Mary Ire was the one to kill Ilse.
* As much as I didn't like the lead-up to Edgar walking in the house when the twins and the brother-in-law have appeared and left footprints and YEAH THIS PART WAS SO CREEPY AND AWESOME, when I turned the page and saw that scrawled "where our sister" I literally stuck my bookmark in, turned on 3 more lights, and then went back to reading. I'm not sure what it was about this one scene, because I think King has written scarier stuff, but it freaked me out and I loved it.
To sum up: It might not end up as part of the "canon" like Salem's Lot and The Shining and The Stand, but it holds up to his earlier work and it's about 8 million times better than Lisey's Story. So: A++, you go Stephen King, you go.
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