Elevation

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

This thread is to discuss Elevation by Stephen King.

Pages: 146 pages

Length: 1 month (March)

Participants: SarahKat, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

[LinaVer]

I've decided to join you in this buddy read, if you'll have me 🤭 Short enough to squeeze in with other reads.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Welcome LinaVer!

I'll be starting this after my current audio book, by this weekend I think.

I'm reading this for the "character who runs a marathon" prompt for Popsugar. Stephen King is always hit or miss for me, so I never know what to expect. I wonder if he'll be able to end this better considering it's short!

[Lorraine]

You’re welcome, LinaVer. It’s been a while since I’ve read any short stories by Stephen King, but I remember enjoying them. Like you, SarahKat, King has become a bit hit-or-miss for me as well.

Last year, I started reading—or sometimes rereading—all of his books with a friend who is a huge fan. Let’s see if this one works for me. I’ll probably start on Friday or Saturday.

[Nathaly]

Hi, hope it's okay I join this buddy read. I saw this book on display at my local library and thought I'd give it a try.

[Lorraine]

Welcome Nathaly!

[LinaVer]

Starting today. I hope it's going to be a good one, because I really want to get back to King for the nostalgia of it (used to be a fan in my teenage years), but so far it's been rather an unsuccessful effort 😅

[LinaVer]

I'm halfway now. (view spoiler)[I like the tempo of the novella. Not sure yet why this is categorised as horror yet, but I remember that from when I used to read all of his books, that I'd often doubt the horror-ness of some of them. I'm reading the part where they start the run now, and I am getting a second-hand runner's high just from reading about it. Might even go for a run tomorrow! (hide spoiler)]

Edit: I finished it. I'm so happy I joined this buddy read and actually read it. (view spoiler)[I always love the found family concept in books, so I really enjoyed it here also. The ending, reading Missy's letter, got me a bit emotional. 🥲
I do not understand the science behind what weight loss has to do with gravity, especially if his body shape/muscles/mass stayed the same. Maybe someone more knowledgeable in these things could explain, if you think there's actual gravity ( 🤭) to what SK writes in this novella? I guess it's what happens to people in space? But then I don't understand fully how that works either. And also, how come everything he touched became weightless? Or at the end, he seemed to almost have "magic" powers, stopping the paper bag and the blanket mid-air???
Anyway, I enjoyed it. (hide spoiler)]

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

I finished over the weekend. Oddly, this novella had the same plot as a story my first husband had started writing before he died.

(view spoiler)[I like the found family aspect and that Scott saved Deirdre and Missy's restaurant, basically just by being a decent person and befriending them. I wonder if he would have been able or motivated to help without the weight situation. He wouldn't have been able to pick Deirdre up so easily if he'd have been normal.
The ending was sweet and sad. I liked that he found such a connection with the neighbors and Dr. Bob.

I do wish King would have explained a little more the how/what/why of the situation. But I suppose that wasn't the point of the story.

Lina, I'm not a scientist but here's how I understand it. Weight is a calculation of mass and the gravitational force acting on that mass. You could have a mass of 109kg or 240lbs on Earth. Your mass is 109kg everywhere. However, you go to the moon the calculation changes. Your mass is still 109kg but you'd only weigh 40lbs because the gravitational force is less.
Weight = gravity x mass
So what's happening to Scott seems that gravity for some reason isn't putting as much force on him as everything else on Earth like it's supposed to. Therefore he's slowly ticking downward to where the force is 0 and anything multiplied by 0 is 0, so even though his mass is stable, he becomes completely weightless in the end. (hide spoiler)]

[LinaVer]

Thank you for explaining it, Sarah. (view spoiler)[So does that mean that if his weight is changing gradually, that the way the gravity affects him is also gradual. It still does not explain to me the fact that he could make others "weightless" by touching them (and at the same time he would feel their weight), or that somehow the paperbag kind of hovered in front of his hand before landing into it. Is that the "mystery" part of the plot? (hide spoiler)]
Oh, and it is indeed interesting that your husband wrote something with similar/same plot. Sorry for your loss.
I had a similar thing happen to me actually. I had a novel idea planned out about people getting a chance to "try out" different paths of their lives that "could have been", had they made different life choices at a certain moment. And then I read The Midnight Library, which has this idea for the plot, just executed differently than I would have done.

[Nathaly]

I'm starting today

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

LinaVer wrote: "Thank you for explaining it, Sarah. [spoilers removed]

Yes, (view spoiler)[I assume the things he touched becoming weightless was just added magic or mystery. (hide spoiler)]

[Lorraine]

That was a good Stephen King novel. (view spoiler)[I really appreciated the “found family” aspect of the story, and especially the fact that Scott doesn’t hesitate for long before deciding to help his neighbors, Missy and Deirdre. He doesn’t remain stuck in his anger over their dogs or Deirdre’s initial hostility toward him. It’s refreshing to read about a character who behaves like a mature adult.
As for the weight loss and its impact on Scott, I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand all of it. I’m not particularly drawn to the scientific side of things, and that aspect of the story didn’t interest me as much. What truly held my attention was how Scott coped with it all. Even though both he — and we as readers — know he will die by the end of the book, he becomes the best version of himself.
I think King has a remarkable ability to create truly terrible people, but also some of the very best human beings.
Now I’m going to try reading Misery. Of all King’s novels, this is the one that worries me the most. I resisted picking it up for a very long time. We’ll see… (hide spoiler)]