Mita > Recent Status Updates

I’m about halfway through & I am not liking this. Maybe I’m not the target audience, but it goes like this: Phoebe meets & talks to a character, a complete stranger, who immediately likes her & spills every detail & secret from their lives. Interspersed with sad flashbacks of her failed marriage. Rinse & repeat. I just don’t find the dialogue & behaviours believable.

I’m torn with this book. The plot is certainly intriguing, but I don’t like that the writing style is overly descriptive (I find myself skim-reading large paragraphs) & I dislike the 40-year-old male protagonist, who again just lusted after a 20-something-year old single mum (she was described as “maternal & sexy” as she held her baby). MALE WRITERS, like, WHY?! Can you not? Gross. Female writers FTW.

Haven't read a male author in while & ONE chapter in, OF COURSE the 40 year old male protagonist is checking out a 20-something year old girl whose beauty is detailed. Can you not, old man? Gross. *Eyeroll*

POSSIBLE SPOILER
POSSIBLE SPOILER
POSSIBLE SPOILER
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Here’s my guess: Theo is the one who killed Gabriel. His wife Kathy was having an affair with Gabriel, so he wanted to kill him. The chapters with Kathy were all in the past. So Theo stalked Gabriel/Alicia & then on August 25th, he killed Gabriel & framed Alicia. He became her therapist to figure out what she knows. Alicia is biding her revenge.

My fave character at the moment is young Ben Hanscom, who's fat, sure, but also polite, kind, smart, & secretly brave. His thoughts after mailing his haiku to Beverly was touching, that he doesn't need her to know it was from him as long as it made her happy. Selflessness is ALWAYS touching.

And King still SUCKS at writing female characters. She is ALWAYS defined by her attractiveness (as a child & adult, practically every character thinks Beverly is pretty/hot). Like "The Stand", there is also only one female &, in that one, she hooked up with the main hero, which here is Bill (author insert!). I really hope not & I want to be proven wrong, but I'm not optimistic. Bill already has the hot wife too. UGH.

I'm liking this book more than "The Stand", because most of the characters are kids (& they're more charming than the horrible adults King tends to write about), BUT I'm rolling my eyes at the author-insert character Bill Denborough, who grew up to be a horror writer (gee, I wonder who's the inspiration! *eyeroll*), who's the alpha, best-looking one, the one the only girl character immediately likes (*EYEROLL*) UGH.