Trudi’s review of End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #3) > Likes and Comments

Oh no! I'm on the library waiting list. Am going to hate the disappointment.

Lisa wrote: "Oh no! I'm on the library waiting list. Am going to hate the disappointment. "

Maybe not Lisa!!! There are lots of five star enthusiastic reviews. You might be one of those lucky ones! As much as I love King, I just wasn't feeling the love here this time. Knowing how few books he's got left in him I became so despairing to see him waste those precious pages on this trilogy.

I'm re-reading The Stand to cleanse my palate.

Hunter wrote: "Great review. I had the same feeling about the trilogy as a whole. If I wasn't such a big King fan I wouldn't have even read past book 1."

Yeah, I'd have difficulty recommending this series to anyone else but King completists. On the other hand, if you're stuck in an airport or the dentist's office, I suppose you could do worse. But it just falls so far below what I've come to expect from him.

Jake wrote: "I'm re-reading The Stand to cleanse my palate."

I almost think a King palate cleanser is required after this one! :)

A King book at 2 stars?!? Oh, you're gonna be hearing about this from the faithful...

Trudi wrote: "..on a weak, middling, trashy airport novel filled with ridiculous cardboard cutout characters and a ludicrous plodding plot that left me lukewarm, and quite frankly, bored."

Ooof.. them's fighting words.

Kemper wrote: "A King book at 2 stars?!? Oh, you're gonna be hearing about this from the faithful..."

Nah. I'll be just fine. Your three star review will keep them so busy and in a frenzied state they'll have no time left over for me.

Brandon wrote: "Ooof.. them's fighting words. ..."

I was mad as hell and I just couldn't take it anymore!

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I'm glad I didn't waste time on the rest of the trilogy after the disappointment of Mr. Mercedes.

I'm still waiting for this one from the library. I have to agree with you though, that this whole trilogy was a stupid waste of his precious time, no matter how good this last one is.

And it's not like genre-crossovers haven't worked for him before. His foray into fantasy with the Dark Tower series worked splendidly. But this whole "mystery, detective, Sherlock" thing just doesn't seem right for a writer like King.

I hate to ask it, but is King losing his touch? It seems like most good King was written in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Misery, The Green Mile, his fantastic short "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", all of these were written in that time frame (I think), and I consider them to be the best of him.

I've been disappointed, frankly, with some of his recent books. Revival was meh. Full Dark, No Stars was kinda mediocre in my mind. And obviously, this Mr. Mercedes trilogy has been worse than meh, it's been (I hate to say it because I absolutely love Stephen King and I hate to judge before I actually read the last book of the series but what the heck here I go) bad. I mean I loved The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, but those stories weren't all written recently. The only book that has stood out to me recently was "11/22/63", which I found spell-binding and an absolute page turner.

IDK. I hope he can write another great one before he backs out.

Jordan wrote: "I hate to ask it, but is King losing his touch?..."

It certainly feels that way sometimes, doesn't it? 11/22/63 is definitely one of my favorites that King has done in a long while. Lucky for me I loved Revival and Full Dark, No Stars (though I wasn't as excited over Bazaar of Bad Dreams).

Hopefully now that this trilogy is done, King can go back to the terrain he's mined successfully for four decades.

Ty wrote: "Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I'm glad I didn't waste time on the rest of the trilogy after the disappointment of Mr. Mercedes."

I would only recommend this trilogy to King completists, and even then with caution. I basically hate-read this one I had become so frustrated with the experiment. It didn't feel like King at all, even though he'd introduced some "King elements."

Trudi wrote: "Ty wrote: "Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I'm glad I didn't waste time on the rest of the trilogy after the disappointment of Mr. Mercedes."

I would only recommend this trilogy to King compl..."

It's funny, even when I hear that a King book is "bad", I don't not read it. Maybe I am just a King completist, and read it for the name. Probably another reason I read any King book is because, even if it's "bad", I know it's going to be a pure, unadulterated story. So he's got that going for him.

I have to agree with the two stars review. This book did not have the Stephen King touch at all. I even thought to myself, "Did one of his kids or wife write this one?" I am a huge Stephen King fan but I was really disappointed in this read.

I agree. I've read all of his books. Every single one as most of us commenting here have. I've noticed something in his last few books when he writes about kids and teens he's a little out of touch with how they talk and what they're into. I know he's older now and I don't know who edits his work but I've noticed it a few times now.

I was beginning to think I was in the minority. Normally I can slurp up a King novel quickly but this one took me so long to finish. I was so sick of him rehashing the backstory. It was draining and boring. And Brady?That little punk. I wish he'd really died in book 1. By the end of the book, I wanted to make my own Happy Slapper and knock King in his noggin.

I couldn't sum up my own feelings toward this book (and this series) any clearer than this review does. I love me some Stephen King, but MAN...these were just BORING.

RJ wrote: "I couldn't sum up my own feelings toward this book (and this series) any clearer than this review does. I love me some Stephen King, but MAN...these were just BORING."

Right?? Thank you for commenting, RJ.

Thank you for a great review! You put into words exactly how I felt about this trilogy. I reluctantly plodded through it but the entire series was very weak to me.

yes: "There's other King books that haven't done it for me over the years, but they've still felt like King" What a sad waste this trilogy was

I actually liked the first two. This one was "poopy".

I could sum up this review much more quickly. "It wasn't exactly like everything else he's written, so I didn't like it." See how easy that was?

Amanda wrote: "I could sum up this review much more quickly. "It wasn't exactly like everything else he's written, so I didn't like it." See how easy that was?"

I could also sum up this comment very quickly - trolling bitch. Thanks for stopping by with your astute observation.

Trudi wrote: "Amanda wrote: "I could sum up this review much more quickly. "It wasn't exactly like everything else he's written, so I didn't like it." See how easy that was?"

I could also sum up this comment ve..."

Well, as long as you recognize that in yourself. *shrug*

I hear ya! I did not hate the book or the trilogy myself but I've got this feeling that King's writing has become mediocre and predictable in a way. Not long time ago I finished re-reading Salem't Lot (my King's favourite book) And what can I say... there is simply no way to compare these two books. All that darkness and creepiness from his early works is lacking here. There used to be main characters that were dyeing all of a sudden and there was this feeling of no hope at all. Instead, now we get some Hollywood spiced plots. Well I guess his age and the modern era of computers, internet and social media have left their mark in his recent works.

This book was terrible from start to painful dragged out finish. The first book was interesting, and the 2nd wasn't too bad, but this one did nothing for me. The excruciating details of the Zap It and his plan to use them to cause such damage was a little too far fetched for me to go. There was so much potential here, and I felt every bit of it was wasted. I almost never quit on a book once I start reading it, but it took everything I had to keep going with this one. Hard to think of anything I liked about it.

I'm just over half way through the book, and it is dreadful. The dialogue in many parts is cringe-inducing, and the story is deeply uninteresting. I don't even know if I can bring myself to finish it (I probably will as my OCD usually makes me finish a book even if I'm not enjoying it).

You're nuts. Mr Mercedes was GOOD and BY FAR the best of the trilogy. Finders Keepers was derivative but enjoyable. You're spot on about End of Watch though.

Returning to this thread. Mr. Mercedes was OK and definitely the best of the three. But I just read "Joyland," so we know King can actually do a noir-ish thing with real characters. Maybe it helped that it was set in the past, where he was comfortable with how young people of his own youth were.... And that was part of the most fascinating aspect. It rang true to someone who grew up about a decade-plus later (reading Stephen King!) even though the plotting was relatively slight and there were some anachronisms (narrator inventing the Heimlich maneuver apparently!).