Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are.
First thing I will say about this book is ‘It’s good to be back in Castle Rock again’, it’s kind of like coming home again after a long trip away.
One of the things I love about Stephen King books is the way he manages to drag you right into the lives of the characters in his book, you instantly start to feel the same feelings as them, as if they are your own neighbours or friends, rather than being just characters in a book.
This book is no different, even when taking into account this is a rather short book of just over 140 pages.
There is no way you can say that this is one of Stephen’s best books, but it is something rather different to what he normally writes about (aside from one of his older books – Thinner) and it is certainly a story which grabbed my attention and kept me very entertained throughout.
I guess this book could have been classed as a Richard Bachman book in a way as the story certainly does not have a happy ending for some of the characters, but I still felt the book overall had a positive and uplifting message to give out, talking about how communities and people with totally different views can come together to be a real support for one another.
I honestly had no idea how Stephen King was going to bring the book to a close and genuinely felt a tinge of sadness with what happened, especially as it came soon after a rather humorous description of Scott trying to get to and from the mailbox.
There has been quite a lot of backlash around this book as it was on sale at a ‘standard book price’, although it was somewhat shorter, but I don’t think this complaint can be leveled at Stephen King as it would be the publishers who set the prices and for whatever reason, they deemed this was a fair price.
The only real complaint / question I had when finishing this book was around what was causing him to lose this weight, it was never explicitly explained as the book progressed, although it was vaguely discussed by Scott throughout the book.
Overall Rating – 3.5 / 5.0
