Should I stop reading it?

[Chuck]

I'm about 1/3 of the way through "Lisey's Story" and finding it extremely tough reading another page - Should I continue? Just can't quite get into it - This is a first for me after reading so many of King's works.

[Mweene]

I had to struggle to read this book. Anyway, since i am such a sucker for punishment i plodded on until i reached its unrewarding end.

[[deleted user]]

I liked Lisey's Story... eventually. There were a couple of false starts for me along the way, but the third time I started it, I stuck with it. I think that the story in this one isn't some of his best work, honestly. I hesitate to say much about the actual plot for fear of spoiling it, but he has had other books that use some of the same devices much better.

What finally hooked me was the sort of idea that marriage can be a sort of "other place" like where Lisey and her husband explore. It's a country of two with it's own secret language and codes. Once I plugged into this underlying theme, the story became easier to read and more enjoyable.

Still, it's not one of his best, but certainly far from his worst.

[Mary]

Stop! I regretted reading the whole thing.

[[deleted user]]

Lisey's Story was the first Stephen King book I read and I kind of liked it. It led me to read more of his work and then I realized why everyone always trashes Lisey's Story. His other books are FAR better. Still Lisey's Story is worth the read. If there was one Stephen King book I'd tell you to steer clear of, it'd be Cell for sure.

[[deleted user]]

Patricia, say what you will about Cell, but you have to admit that it is one of the few King books that isn't slow in the beginning. By page 3 the poop has hit the fan and the story is moving right along. :-). But, it probably would have been better as a short story or novella.

My choice for a King book to avoids completely would be Tommyknockers. Wow, what a stinker!

[[deleted user]]

Michael, you're right about Cell - it was exciting in the beginning. I just felt like it got weak after that. I just kept reading and waiting for something to happen and it kind of fell flat. Haven't read Tommyknockers yet but it's on my "to read" list.

[[deleted user]]

Yeah it is pretty slow, but I guess that's what you get with "zombies". :-)

To be fair to Tommyknockers, it's not ALL bad. There are just really long parts that are best enjoyed by people who like the history of King's Maine.

[Merve]

did you read pet sematary ?

[Joe]

I've read Lisey's Story, and thought it was okay. Not one of SK's best. He can be tough to read at times, but then he's written some great books too. I hate to give up, but sometimes a book is just too much hard work without any reward. On the other hand, there are quite a few books I struggled with, but perservered with and which turned out ultimately to be worth the effort. I don't suppose I've helped much, have I?!

[Steve]

Jjst finish it.

[Bob]

Personally, I was very disappointed in Lisey's Story. I'd say save your energy. It was part of a 'clump' that King wrote that seemed to be a lot more of him dealing with the long-term effects of kicking his addictions than anything else. I think he's gotten past that now, with Under the Dome.

[Xakara]

I liked Lisey's Story, but I was coming off of a King binge at the time and very much felt it a close resonance to Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game. It's not as good as DC but that's still what it brought to mind for me.

[Catalina]

I didn`t like it, and I love almost all his books. It seems as if he ran out of stories for a while, but Under the Doome is good, similar to the Stand. I still love Stephen King, but Lisey's Story is borrring.

[Bob]

Catalina wrote: "I didn`t like it, and I love almost all his books. It seems as if he ran out of stories for a while, but Under the Doome is good, similar to the Stand. I still love Stephen King, but Lisey's Story ..."

"Ran out of stories for a while" - well put!

[Terri]

OK...I read Lisey's Story. I finished it. I thought it was good--not great by any means. It had some themes in it that I liked. However, if you're REALLY struggling with it? No book is worth that.

Didn't finish Tommyknockers, might give it another try.

Cell was very fast paced but felt flat in the end.

The Regulators (Under the Bachman name) was the WORST SK book I ever tried to read. I stopped after a few chapters. Totally incoherent.

Now I'm reading Under the Dome and all past failures are forgiven. EXCELLENT SK book. Read it instead. :)

[Lisa]

It's not the typical SK but a good story. I had no problem finishing it, enjoyed it even though there were some slow spots. I loved Duma Key, try that one. It's a page turner. But I'm a fan so I like all his stuff. I got mad at him for ending one of the Gunslinger series mid sentence then taking forever to put out the sequel. Pompous. That's the only King books that I didn't like and it was for my own selfish reasons. :) Lots of other people loved them.

[Terri]

Liza: I too thought Duma Key was good. I forgot about that one. Bag of Bones kept my interest, but again, not great.

[Nikki]

I read Lisey's Story..wasn't impressed thought it was very slow in the beginning but when I start a book I have to finish it..never know what your in for by the end. Agree Under The Dome was a great read!

[Kody]

I would recommend pushing through and reading it all the way through. In my opinion, King really pulls off one of his best endings I've seen throughout any of his books.

[Chris]

Sometimes the format can make all the difference. I started to read Lisey's Story and didn't really dig it. Several months later, though, I picked up it from the library in audiobook format and really enjoyed it. Sure, it's not King's best work (but for the life of me, I can't figure out why so many people think The Shining is - and I love SK), but it's entertaining. I think it gets better as it goes; at risk of any kind of spoiler, I was wondering early on if there was going to be anything supernatural about the story at all.

I recommend Lisey's Story on CD.

[[deleted user]]

Funny - I've read a lot of Stephen King and really enjoyed Lisey's Story. It was somewhat unique to his other works. I would say that it was slow at times, but well worth it for me. Someone suggested this held a comparison to Gerald's Game (which I did not like - at all). I could not disagree more.

I see some comments that Cell was fast paced in the beginning...my big problem is that I thought the beginning was extremely absurd. It was so bad to me that it was hard for the rest of the book to recover. Fast paced doesn't mean jack to me if it ridiculous.

[Dawn]

Lisey's Story was good, but not great, I agree. I also struggled to finish it. I think it's definitely worth finishing. Not his best, by any means, but worth finishing.

Cell was quick, and good, but reminded me of King's earlier works, namely, in a way, The Stand. Still, it was a good read; one I couldn't put down.

I have yet to read Under the Dome, but definitely want to. I've heard very good things about it.

I'm just finishing up his Dark Tower series and my favorites of his, to this day, besides the Dark Tower series, remain It and The Talisman.

[[deleted user]]

Dawn - I'm curious that you compared Cell to The Stand. I read The Stand probably 20 years ago and only remember that it was an amazing book and so well put together. I listened to Cell fairly recently on Audio (which may have affected my opinion) and I did not think it had remotely the same quality as The Stand - but maybe that is because I read it so long ago and was a different person back then.

[Chris]

I'd venture to guess that the similarity between Cell and The Stand for some folks is simply the apocalyptic nature of the primary event in both stories. Furthermore, there is the fact that "the good guys" spend a good deal of time walking toward a destination that has somehow been inserted into their dreams. Oh, and both books climax with an explosion that kills the baddies.

Hmmm, there are some similarities. But I'd agree that the overall feel of the stories is different. The Stand has an epic sense to it while Cell is a more personal story.

[Dawn]

Jeremy/Chris: While I think "The Stand" is a better written book, it was indeed, as Chris said, the apocalyptic nature of both, the idea of groups of survivors traveling to a distant place to eliminate the evil brought about by the end of civilization, the prophetic dreams, etc., that reminded me of "The Stand".

I would definitely agree that "The Cell" is a more personal, smaller-scale story than the "The Stand", which, in its scope, gives it that epic quality.

[[deleted user]]

Great points, Chris & Dawn. It makes more sense to me now when broken down like that. I was looking more at the differences instead of the similarities.

With The Stand he develops a multitude of characters and does that very well. You follow not only the journey of a cast of characters in a world on the brink of destruction but also the personal stories of people bettering their lives as a result of their environment or choosing "the dark side" so to speak. As you say, Dawn, The Cell is a personal, journey, for the most part of a man trying to find his son.

Like I said, the beginning just really killed it for me, but obviously others liked it. That being said, the scene of all the zombies at the soccer field will never leave my mind.

I think using the same arguments that Chris laid out, I might put Dreamcatcher into the same category. I actually enjoyed that quite a bit with the exception of a couple of parts where even my strong stomach had trouble.

[Dawn]

I could see how you might put Dreamcatcher in the same category as The Stand, but, to me, Dreamcatcher seemed to be more of a combination of It and The Tommyknockers, with only a little bit of The Stand thrown into the mix. I liked Dreamcatcher, but didn't love it; what parts of It the novel had, didn't compare to the power of It (which is still one of my favorite King novels, hands down) and the parts of Dreamcatcher that compared with The Tommyknockers didn't quite measure up to The Tommyknockers either.

While I agree that the beginning of The Cell, or, at least bits of it anyway, could be seen as absurd, it wasn't enough to ruin the rest of the book for me.

I'm looking forward to reading more of his newer books, including Under the Dome. Lisey's Story was the last "new" King novel I read. I also just realized he's writing an 8th volume to The Dark Tower series due out next year, so, I'm very much looking forward to that, since I'm working on the 7th volume now.

[[deleted user]]

I couldn't help but "stalk" what you have read. You have me beat in what you have read - and funny that a lot of the books I loved you didn't seem to like and vice versa. He's written so many that is bound to happen. Plus I wonder how much I'd like some of them as an adult versus a teenager. Hard telling.

Anyway, I loved The Tommyknockers and agree that Dreamcatchers is a better comparison to that and not nearly as good. I have to re-read the Gunslinger and then get on to the rest of the series. I can't believe that I haven't yet, but it could be in part that I wasn't blown away by the Gunslinger - which is not to say I didn't like it. I planned on reading The Talisman and Black House before the Dark Tower series.

I still haven't read It yet. I don't know a single King fan that didn't like it! I'm not sure why I haven't gotten to it, only that I saw the movie a long time ago.

[Chris]

Dawn,

As you're interested in reading some of the newer SK works, I'd recommend Under the Dome and Duma Key. Both are outstanding, in my opinion, and very different from one another.

Under the Dome is very much in the 100-character-epic-struggle-between-good-and-evil. However, it is very different from The Stand in that this story is more explicitly an examination of the good and evil inherent in the human species (compared to The Stand's manipulation of humans by supernatural beings).

Duma Key is, on the other hand, a long story with only a few primary characters. I can't really think of much in the SK canon to which I'd compare it. I thought it was one of his all-time best, though. It is clearly inspired by King's struggle to recover after his near-death experience after having been hit by a truck. Good and scary in the classic SK tradition.

[Emily]

As a huge fan of Stephen King I found this book extremely painful. I may read his grocery lists, but I bailed on this book early on.

[Dawn]

Chris: Thanks for the recommendations! I know very little about either Duma Key or Under the Dome, since I really only quickly glanced at them in a bookstore & skimmed reviews about them online, but I do definitely want to read both. Whether he's writing about a multitude of characters or focusing on just one (Trisha from The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon comes to mind), he does a great job in fleshing them out & bringing them to life.

Jeremy: Yes, I notice we do have very different opinions about some of King's novels, hahaha. The Dark Half comes to mind which I thought was awful, and I love King. Also, I loved The Green Mile, but hated Pet Sematary (this was a struggle to get through). Funny thing about The Dark Tower series is that I attempted to read The Gunslinger years ago, and didn't like it. Then, I picked it up a couple of years ago & couldn't put it down & love the entire series. I guess I just needed to be at a different place to read it.

You mentioned The Talisman and Black House. The Talisman is one of my all time favorite books. Loved it when I first read it & every couple of years, I read it again. To me, it was that good. A word of warning about Black House, however--unfortunately, like most sequels, it cannot live up to the first book. Just my opinion, of course, but, as much as I was looking forward to, and wanted to love it, it fell short & was disappointing.

I remember the It television movie. The first part I liked, the second half was just ok. Loved that book. I read it as a teenager & still can remember quotes from it & details about each character.

[Laurie]

Lisey's story is not his best, granted, but better than Pet Semetary. But it's still Stephen King, and "ok" Stephen King is better than a lot of "good" writing from other authors. Keep plowing through, it gets better. I liked it well enough to go out and buy another copy after dropping my first one in the bathtub-LOL. Wouldn't be a complete SK collection without it.

[[deleted user]]

Well - all of this discussion has gotten me more excited about reading King again. I usualy read one every year or two and like I said Talisman is up next so I am glad to hear that you loved it, Dawn.

Of the first several I read I felt I could never go wrong with S.K. Then I read Insomnia in college and it bored me. Next up was The Green Mile which I liked a lot, but then I wasn't in love with The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, hated Gerald's Game, thought A Buick Eight was OK and really liked Lisey's Story. So you can see it has been hit or miss for me lately compared to staying up all night to read Thinner and Pet Semetary. But that seems to be the way with Stephen King fans. Rarely do people like them all or like the same ones as other readers.

[Lise]

Quit now and save yourself all that reading time!! If you haven't read On Writing, it's a great read, part biography/part writing guide it's a real insight into SK and how he writes, his happy marriage and his terrible accident a few years ago. It took me nearly a year to plow through Lisey's Story and it never got any better!!!!!

[Dee]

I say try to do it. I love SK & I admit this was the only book I had to put down for a while. I ended up liking it in the end. It's long but not as long as IT which I flew through.

[~ Cheryl ~]

You've gotten answers on both sides here. All I can say is I personally started Lisey's Story twice and couldn't continue. Gave up by around 100 pages. Also, I started Cell twice and stopped.

I'm a huge King fan, but I just couldn't finish those knowing so much of his other work that was stellar.

[[deleted user]]

Probably some of this comes down to personal philosophy. Some think it is a waste of time to read a book that you don't like from the beginning. For myself, I have to finish and sometimes am rewarded in that the book turns out to be better or weeks later I realize I liked it more than I thought. I can't imagine just taking someone else's word for it that a book is good or bad.

[Dawn]

I agree. Once I begin a book, I usually have to see it through to the end & finish it (unless it's mind-numbingly boring & unbearable), and while I'll read reviews & listen to opinions, I have to find out for myself whether or not the book is bad/good. It's all subjective.

Jeremy, I'm in agreement with you about "Insomnia". I was very bored by that book. I never read "Gerald's Game" or "From a Buick 8", but really didn't like "Thinner" or "Pet Semetary". I found "Pet Semetary" to be better than "Thinner", but still wouldn't list the former as a favorite. Another one I didn't like very much was "Needful Things", although I'm still not sure why. I just couldn't get into it.

[[deleted user]]

Case in point. You are a Stephen King fan. I could take your word for it that Thinner was no good - yet I started that book and was up all night reading it cover to cover. That is not something I do very often because my eyelids tend to get a little heavy. In fact, I don't know as if I have made it past midnight in recent history. Maybe it was easier back then....

BTW - I also liked Needful Things. I found the resolution to be a bit off, though.

[Ken]

Lisey is definitely a different direction than Stephen King usually takes his readers in. However, I ate it up in one sitting.

I say finish the book, then make your decision on how you feel.

[Candice]

It took me 2 attempts to get through it, a first for a SK book for me but I thought it was worth it. It was better than some of his books and worse than others. It's interesting to read what everyone's favorites are on here. Some of the favorites picked are what I consider the worst of SK. My favorite book of King's is The Eyes of the Dragon so maybe I'm the odd one out.

[Richard]

Lisey bored the hell out of me, it was just so plodding and the pretensions of literature really fell flat. i abandoned it about mid way, something i have never done with a king book before.
there is something comfortable about a king book, they remind me of my teens when i read the majority of them (a better start on books then Harry Potter). i still read all of his new stuff, but the spark seems to have gone - my word Under The Dome was bad!

[Emily]

Candice wrote: "It took me 2 attempts to get through it, a first for a SK book for me but I thought it was worth it. It was better than some of his books and worse than others. It's interesting to read what everyo..."

The Eyes of the Dragon was a book I didn't think I would like, but like you I loved it.

[Veronica]

Chuck wrote: "I'm about 1/3 of the way through "Lisey's Story" and finding it extremely tough reading another page - Should I continue? Just can't quite get into it - This is a first for me after reading so many..."

I didn't really like it...its not memorable. I thought maybe it would be like bag of bones which i loved but eh.

[Melissa]

Lisey's Story was a difficult read at first, but about halfway through the book, I found I had a hard time putting it down. There were so many twists and turns, you really had to pay attention. Stick with the book, you will be glad you did.

[Gerd]

Hmm, I did stop reading around hundred pages in, makes me wonder if it may be worth a second try after all.

Worst of his are probably "Dolores Claiborne" and "Gerald's Game", IMHO.

Actually loved "Pet Sematary", I think it's one of his best.

[Nancy]

I actually liked Lisey's Story. I will agree it isn't one of his best and was really different from most of his books. One of my favorites is The Stand. But I love pretty much all of his books.

[Leanna]

Continue reading. I found the last part of the book to be rewarding.

[Laurie]

Jeremy wrote: "Probably some of this comes down to personal philosophy. Some think it is a waste of time to read a book that you don't like from the beginning. For myself, I have to finish and sometimes am rewa..."


Right on Jeremy...I am not inclined to take someone's word either.