Summer of Stephen
Title: The Mist
Publishing Date: 1979 Length: 230 pages Start Date: November 4, 2017 End Date: November 7, 2017 The Mist tells the story of David and his family. They wake up the morning after a terrible storm and notice a mist rolling in toward their small town in Maine. David takes his young son into town, leaving his wife behind, to pick up some groceries and ends up trapped inside the grocery store when the mist seems to consume the world outside. Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It was a super quick read and the suspense builds at a perfect pace. Part of me wishes that King would give us more details about the bloodthirsty creatures hiding in the mist, but I also like the element of mystery that comes with not knowing. We get just enough of a look at the monsters to feel creeped out, but not so much description that we don’t have to use our own imaginations. (It also probably didn’t help that when I woke up the morning after finishing this, it was incredibly foggy outside.) My main complaint is the ending. It almost felt like King wanted to leave this one a little open in case he ever got the chance to write a sequel for it. Years ago, one of my friends spoiled the ending of the movie for me, and that actually sounds like a much more satisfying ending. In fact, I think Stephen King himself might have said that he preferred the film’s ending. (I could be wrong on that, but I’m pretty sure I’m right. I’ll Google it later.) So, while the majority of the book was suspenseful and exciting, the end was a bit dull. There was also a moment around the middle of the story that I found ridiculous. While trapped in the grocery store, David decides to leave his son sleeping on the lap of someone else so he can sneak up to the manager’s office and hook up with a young woman who’s also in the store. Now, I don’t have a problem with sex, but it seems like that might not have been the best time for it. I mean, people are dying and David keeps claiming to be worried about whether or not his wife has survived at home. I’m pretty sure that if you were that concerned about the safety of your wife, son, and friends in the store, you wouldn’t waste energy sneaking away for a quickie with some chick you just met. But maybe that’s just me.
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Title: Salem’s Lot
Release Date: 1979 Length: 3 hours 3 minutes Start Date: November 9, 2017 End Date: November 9, 2017 Director: Tobe Hooper Starring: David Soul, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, James Mason The book version of Salem’s Lot is one of my favorite Stephen King novels so far. It’s creepy, has great characters, and stays pretty true to vampire mythology. The made-for-tv movie version of Salem’s Lot, however, is just okay. For the most part, this version follows the novel, though they combined a few minor characters and cut a few scenes to keep it from running too long. My biggest issue with the movie was Kurt Barlow, the main villain. He was supposed to be this super terrifying vampire, but instead he just kind of looked like a pale, bald dude with Bugs Bunny teeth. They also made a huge change with the ending that bothered me. (Warning: If you don’t want the ending spoiled, stop reading this.) The book ends with Ben and Mark killing Barlow, escaping Salem’s Lot, and then returning a year later to burn down the town. The movie ends with Ben and Mark killing Barlow and running off to Guatemala. While there, one of their bottles of holy water starts to glow, indicating that a vampire is nearby (which is just silly). The vampire in question turns out to be Susan, the woman Ben fell in love with in Salem’s Lot (played in the movie by young-Meryl-Streep-look-alike Bonnie Bedelia). She tries to seduce Ben, but when he leans in to kiss her, he instead stabs her with a stake, killing her. While this ending wasn’t terrible, Susan’s death in the book meant a lot more. Ben knew she’d been turned into a vampire and he decided that, because he loved her, it was his responsibility to kill her. In the movie, killing her seemed more like an afterthought. He didn’t even try to track her down in Salem’s Lot to see if she’d survived her encounter with Barlow. If this movie were remade now, I’m sure it would be absolutely terrifying, but would also try to make the vampires sexy, which isn’t the point. Stephen King didn’t write sexy vampires to appeal to teenage girls. He wrote creepy creatures of the night who were only interested in the body of a human as long as it contained blood for them to drink. Which is how it should be. So, while I didn’t hate the made-for-tv movie of Salem’s Lot, it’s doubtful that I’ll ever watch it again. Plus, it was just a really long movie. Title: The Dead Zone
Publishing Date: 1979 Length: 402 pages Start Date: September 20, 2017 End Date: November 3, 2017 As far as Stephen King novels go, I found The Dead Zone to be fairly average. The story follows Johnny Smith, a young teacher who ends up in a 5-year-long coma after a car accident. While he’s in a coma, his mother becomes a religious nut and his girlfriend finds someone else to marry. When he wakes up, he remembers almost nothing about the accident but is suddenly able to “read” the people he touches. Sometimes he can see secrets about their lives and other times he is able to see their future. The parts of the novel that stayed with Johnny and the people close to him were interesting. King did an especially good job writing the strained relationship between Johnny’s parents as his mother became more and more of a religious fanatic. His girlfriend’s struggle to move on and find someone new was also done well, as it was obvious she wasn’t quite ready to walk away from Johnny, but knew that it was unlikely he would ever wake up. Johnny’s attempts to return to a life of normalcy were realistic and great to read (especially the scene involving him physically throwing a nosy reporter out of his house). Some sections of the novel, though, veered a little too far away from the main story. I understand that they were included to give Johnny an excuse to use his newfound power, but they also seemed like King just wanted to drag out the story longer. The very end, though, was the worst part for me. This is about to head into spoiler territory, so stop reading this review if you’re going to read the book. Throughout the novel, we see small glimpses into the life of a sadistic sociopath. (Or is he a psychopath? I never remember the difference.) His story is completely unrelated to Johnny’s and doesn’t really seem to belong in the book until almost the end. That’s when Johnny shakes this man’s hand at a political rally and sees a desolate future should this man succeed in his campaign. This leads Johnny to the realization that it’s up to him to stop this man. Toward the end of the novel, Johnny tries to shoot the man during a campaign speech, but doesn’t succeed. However, the man’s political future is ruined when he grabs a young child to use as a human shield. This shows his loyal voters just what kind of man he is (because in the 70s, disgraceful behavior was frowned upon in politicians), and he is forced to fade into the realm of forgotten, failed politicians. Johnny is wounded during this whole scuffle and dies after seeing that the future is now safe from this man. While I’m totally okay with novels killing off their main character, this ending just didn’t do anything for me. It felt rushed, almost like King realized his deadline was approaching and he still needed to crank out a few final chapters. Maybe if we’d seen more of the evil politician than just little snippets, the ending would have been stronger. But as it is, the ending just felt like Johnny’s final attempt to do something meaningful with his life in the same moment that he died. Long story short: I liked the beginning and most of the middle, but was disappointed by the ending. As a final note, my absolute favorite part of this novel came when a girl accused Johnny of setting a fire with his mind, “Just like that girl in that book, Carrie!” Nothing says job security like name-dropping one of your books in another one of your books. Title: “Suffer the Little Children”
Publishing Date: 1978 Length: 7 pages Start Date: September 20, 2017 End Date: September 20, 2017 “Suffer the Little Children” is basically every teacher’s nightmare. You’re just standing at the front of your classroom, doing your best to teach and maintain discipline, when all of a sudden you realize that some of your students are literal monsters. At least, that’s what Emily Sidley, the teacher in this story, suspects. She thinks she notices something unusual about a few of the students, but she can’t be sure of what she’s seeing. Eventually, her suspicions are confirmed when one of the students “changes” in front of her. He reveals that some of the students are doppelgangers and have taken over the bodies of her real students. Emily decides that the only way to solve this problem is to kill the doppelgangers. She succeeds with several, but is stopped and arrested before killing all of them. The story ends with Emily in a mental institution. She works with young children as part of her therapy, but one day realizes that she is once again surrounded by doppelgangers. Rather than try to defeat them, she commits suicide. As a teacher, I found this story to be genuinely creepy. I mean, we all know that our students can be pretty awful at times, but to think that they might be legitimately evil is terrifying. I’ve heard that they’re working on a film adaptation of this story and I can only imagine that it’s going to scare the crap out of me. I highly recommend reading this story, but if you’re a teacher, be warned that it might make you feel a little paranoid. |
Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
July 2019
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