Σάββατο 31 Οκτωβρίου 2020

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King

SUMMARY

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze.

If they are awakened, and the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place.

The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease.

Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain?

MY REVIEW

Not bad....Not bad at all...

A moth flutters from the branch of the old oak tree and settles on her hand

It's been a while since I read a book by Stephen King. Until a few years ago (okay I think it was possibly 20 years ago when I was a teenager hahaha), he was by far my favourite author. My second favourite author was Clive Barker. I used to read so many horror books and I did not mind at all the fact that King was considered an entertainer, not really a quality author. If you wanted to read quality horror, you had to read some Richard Matheson or some Ray Bradbury or even a classic Mary Shelley. Anyway, thank God, a few Oscars for films based on Stephen King's books have certainly helped to upgrade the author.

The truth is that I have never really considered him a true horror author. I have never been scared when I was reading his books. I just adore the way he writes.
I love the way he describes details, the way that every detail finds its place in the end of the book, the way each detail has a meaning and a purpose.

Details! We gotta figure out the details, Jeanette."

Taking account all these, I have to say that this book has many many details and many many characters. Most people may find it boring and rambling. Nothing weird there. It is common in all King's books. This book is just so typical of him. If somebody told me that Stephen King wrote the whole book and his son just put his name on the book cover; I would have believed it.

Another thing I love in King's books is that all of them are not what they look like. They have a reason that they exist, they have a meaning, they have an identity, they speak differently to everyone.
Take for example this book:
■ You can consider it just a horror book with some fantasy elements; and be happy,
■ You can consider it a manifestation about human violence; and feel okay with yourself,
■ You can consider it as a way to show the importance of women in the world and as a way to show their value and even as a tool to make them look like the cornerstone of the existence of humanity; and still get the meaning of the book.
■ You can consider it a metaphor ( Eve doesn't trust the snake, obviously. She had trouble with him before. ); and still understand the book and embrace it.

Yes, this book talks differently to eveyone. I am just happy that after all these years that I was going through a period of drought away from my King's books; I trusted him again.

...hope you enjoyed yourself.

Thank you Stephen! I did!

Παρασκευή 30 Οκτωβρίου 2020

Elevation by Stephen King

SUMMARY

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. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis.

In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

MY REVIEW

I thought that this would be a nice scary Halloween story.
I was wrong.
Instead of feeling scared, I cried my eyes out.

It was not what I expected, but it was so much much better.

P.S. Any resemblance to the book Thinner by Richard Backman is purely coincidental.

Laurie by Stephen King

SUMMARY

Short story about a widower and an unwanted dog, foisted on him by his sister.

MY REVIEW

It was life, you were stuck with it, and all you could do was live it.

I could read anything by Stephen King. ANYTHING!
The story has a bitter-sweet start and then there is a twist towards the end.
Well, apparently no matter how much you miss your other half, you always want to stay alive for as long as possible.
The protagonist is the loveliest, most innocent dog, Laurie.
Highly recommended and completely free new short story.

Πέμπτη 29 Οκτωβρίου 2020

The Institute by Stephen King

The Institute by Stephen King

SUMMARY

In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

MY REVIEW

Best horror book for 2019.

Not your usual thriller/ horror type of books by Stephen King. This book is a paranormal/sciencefiction book.

It may remind you the series Stranger Things with the gifted children.
Children who face evil...fight evil...win against evil.

what you did for yourself was what gave you the power.

Children with supernatural powers endure horrible tests and bizarre experiments by ruthless adults at the Institute.
Many people for you to hate there....

working in a place like this destroyed your moral compass

On the other hand the kids. Luke Ellis is one of them. Abducted and imprisoned by a group of adults who think that if they use these children, they will save the world. Luke is determined to understand what they do there and stop them.

you had to have been imprisoned to fully understand what freedom was.

Stephen King has written some awesome books with kids as protagonists (shine, stand by me, even carrie etc). And this book is not an exception. Obviously this is a writer that understands children and their deepest fears. He knows how to play with his words and analyse their emotions. And you actually believe him. You feel what these children feel.

It is a fast-paced book.
Engaging.
Page-turning.
Smart-written .
Dark.
Twisty.
Disturbing.

It may make you sad and angry.

Don’t say things that invite sorrow

I loved the ending and the way it was delivered. Nothing was rushed and unexplained.

OveraIl a very satisfying experience.

this life we think we’re living isn’t real. It’s just a shadow play, and I for one will be glad when the lights go out on it. In the dark, all the shadows disappear.