Cell by Stephen King

Struggling artist Clayton Riddell has finally landed a contract for a graphic novel when all hell breaks lose. All around him people with cell phones suddenly start going mad, and soon turn into violent, zombie-like creatures. In the subsequent hours and days, he discovers that a pulse from an unknown source has flooded the wireless network, and has somehow managed to blank out the minds of those who answered their phones.

This horror / apocalyptic book falls neatly into the zombie genre. After meeting up with a group of normies -- people who didn't have a cell at the moment of the "pulse" -- he begins a journey to find his lost son, while dealing with a chaotic world that has gone crazy.

Stephen King is a wonderful story teller and even his duds are fairly good. I must admit, however, that I found this story to be ho-hum, and nowhere near his best work. If you like zombie stories then this book could be of interest. For everyone else, on the other hand, you wouldn't be missing much if you decided to take a pass on this novel.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

This a brilliant but deeply flawed book. The beginning is extremely slow (at times I had to force myself to continue slogging through the book) while large sections of the middle section seemed like excessive acts of literary self-indulgence on the part of Stephen King. To be blunt, the narrative was such a rambling mess at times that I thought on more than one occasion of quitting this book.

Despite these flaws, however, one must confess that the plot is wonderful. Based on the story of Lisey Landon, the widow of the late best-selling author Scott London, the novel is a captivating love story that revolves around two main plots: the life of Lisey (pronounced LEE-see, which rhymes with cc) after her husband's death; and the life history of her late husband, with a particular emphasis on his troubled childhood.

Though the story is way too long (the paperback is more than 650 pages, with at least 200 of those pages been prime candidates for cutting) it does contain a wonderful mash of different styles, somehow managing to mix romance, horror, fantasy and -- especially at the end of the book -- wonderful writing that is pure literature. If you can survive the rambling beginning, and don't get frustrated after 200 pages, you will find that the ending is well worth the read.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King

After her baby girl tragically dies, Em begins to run to deal with her devastating loss. Soon after, her marriage dissolves, and in order to deal with the tragedy in her life Em heads to the Florida Gulf, where she moves into a house owned by her father on a lonely stretch in the Vermillion Key. One day, while running on the beach, she looks into the driveway of Pickering, a man who is known to bring women to his house on a regular basis. To her horror, Em soon discovers what Pickering is doing to these women, and before long she has to fight for her life.

This novella is not one of King’s best works. In several parts, the dialogue is suprisingly clunky and at times downright cheesy. The plot also echoes his previous book Misery, so it is not that original. Despite these flaws, however, this is still a half-decent story. Which is pretty impressive when one thinks about it. For even a so-so tale by King is better than the best work of many writers

3 out of 5 stars

Carrie by Stephen King

Stephen King is a master storyteller. In this classic horror novel, we are introduced to the unforgettable Carrie While, a misunderstood teenage girl who is teased mercilessly at school, until she gets her final, horrible revenge. What most fascinated me about this book, however, is King's incredible narrative skills. From a stylistic point of view, (let alone the spine chilling plot), this book is a narrative masterpiece. When I finished reading it, the first thing I wanted to do was get another King novel.

4 out of 5 stars

Living Dead in Dallas (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 2) by Charlaine Harris

Beware! Reading this book can be harmful to your sense of pride. With horrible dialogue, clunky narrative structure, and plot twists that are downright juvenile, this terrible mess of a novel somehow manages to be enjoyable. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I liked this campy vampire book, which is the second volume in the Sookie Stackhouse series. It also reconfirmed that the people from HBO are geniuses for turning this flaky book series into a gritty TV drama.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

As an avid viewer of the TV show Dexter, I found this book to be quite enjoyable. (The first season of Dexter is based on this story). Though there are key differences between the TV show and book -- especially at the end -- I was pleased to see that the novel was a well-written page-turner. This being said, if I were to have one criticism of the book, it would be that the ending was fairly abrupt. Nevertheless, overall found this novel to be a good read.

3 out of 5 stars

The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident by Eleanor Druse

This is a terrible book. Purporting to be the true life story of an elderly woman named Eleanor Druse, this novel is in reality the work of Richard Dooling, who co-wrote and co-produced the 2004 ABC miniseries "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital."

Unfortunately for the reader, it seems that this story serves no major purpose besides acting as an advertisement for the Kingdom Hospital TV series. The writing is clunky, the plot progression incredibly slow, and the dialogue filled with cliché after cliché. This is a shame, as the idea behind the story -- an elderly woman discovers (and then remembers) horrible experiments on children that take place in a hospital -- has a lot of potential.

This is the first book by Dooling that I have read. I don't think it would be fair, however, for me to assume that he is a bad writer, as it is pretty clear that this book was written quite quickly for purely commercial reasons. I have a suspicion that his other works are much better.

1 out of 5 stars

The Dark Half by Stephen King

Stephen King is a fantastic writer. Even great novelist, however, can produce boring stories. "The Dark Half," I was disappointed to discover, is one of those stories. This book recounts the tale of Thad Beaumont, a writer who pens several blockbuster horror books under the pseudonym George Stark. But when Beaumont decides to kill off his alter ego, and stop writing under his pen name, a series of strange murders start to occur. To his horror, Beaumont soon discovers that Stark has become real, and is threatening to kill him and his family if he doesn't start writing again under the Stark name.

It would unfair to call this book poorly written (King is too skilled of a wordsmith to write dribble). But what this book does suffer from is pages and pages of unnecessary scenes and narrative. Two-thirds into the book I became bored with the story, as I found the development incredibly slow. As well, some of the scenes descended into typical Friday the 13th slash-and-burn pulp, rather than interesting horror. By the end of the book my reaction was simply "blah".

I have read enough of King to know that he is a brilliant writer. But if I had to recommend one of his books, this one would not be it.

2 out of 5 stars

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

It is early June and Trisha McFarland, a nine-year-old girl, sets out on a hike in the New England woods with her mother and older brother Pete. Ever since the divorce Mom and Pete have been arguing, and this family weekend is no different. So when Trisha has to pee in the forest, neither Pete nor her mom – who are busy fighting – notice as she scurries away into the trees.

But instead of heading back the way she came, Trisha decides to go down a different path to rejoin her family, and soon finds herself lost in the woods. As the hours pass, Trisha finds herself stumbling through the forest, and with each step getting more lost. When night arrives she has to scramble just to stay alive. With each passing day her ordeal worsens, with her only human contact being her walkman, which allows her to listen to Boston Red Sox games, and to hear if her favourite closing pitcher Tom Gordon can save the game.

In this high-enjoyable novel, Stephen King takes us into the mind of a lost child, who caught in an unimaginable situation is forced to find ways to survive, while trying to keep away from the mysterious creature that keeps following her through the trees.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

From a Buick 8 by Stephen King

Eighteen-year-old Nate Wilcox is lost in grief after his father Curt, a Pennsylvanian state trooper, is killed in a car accident. Wanting to help their late-colleague’s son deal with the tragic death, Curt’s coworkers invite Ned to become a member of the police barracks, first by allowing him to do odd chores – i.e. mowing the law; cleaning the precinct – and then working in the radio dispatch room.

One day Nate begins to inquire about a mysterious Buick that is parked in a shed in the back of the barracks. What follows is a fantastic story of this terrifying car, which some officers speculate is not a vehicle at all, but rather an alien creature from another world. As the reader flips through the pages of this wonderful book, it is revealed that the Buick could be responsible for the disappearance, murder or suicide of several characters. An incredibly well written book by a master of terror.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars