Thursday, December 11, 2008

Review: Duma Key, by Stephen King

I'm not much of a book reviewer, so bear with me. Here are just a few of my thoughts about this book, which I finished tonight (with my heart racing!).

Stephen King has changed a lot with his last few books. Maybe it was the accident that almost killed him. Or maybe he's just evolving. He's as creepy as ever. But there is something different. It's not a bad thing. I think his books seem less gory to me. That's all I can really say about that. I like it though...

This book was 600 pages long, and most of the action was in the last 200 pages. That's not to say that nothing happened in the first 400. I was definitely hooked from the beginning, and really had no idea where the story would go. A lot of pieces to the puzzle, character and relationship development happened in the beginning, without it seeming obvious. Stephen King isn't 'flowery' about his details. It's refreshing to read something with so few adjectives. I don't think I even really would have noticed it, except that I've read almost all of his other books, so I'm used to the style. That's what makes a good book to me - I don't NOTICE all of that stuff. In my mind, if I'm focusing on HOW it's written, instead of WHAT is written, then I don't really care about the story at all, and it seems kind of like a waste of time. He describes what needs to be described, and it's so stark that you can SEE it. There's just no question. It's RED. Or it's HORRIFYING. That's all he needs to say.

So there's the review...without even a mention of the storyline. How did I manage to do that? :)

I really enjoyed the book. I'd definitely recommend it, especially to someone who's enjoyed Stephen King before (I think some people just 'get' what he writes better than others).

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