This is one of my book club’s choices for October. We had this as the darker, spookier read and The Phoenix Kepper by S.A. MacLean as our cosy, autumn read. This is the first book of Stephen King’s I read, and I was very disappointed.  

This book is based on Jamie Morton, he lives in a small New England town. In the early 60s, a shadow falls over Jamie whilst he was playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie looks up to see a striking man, he is the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity. Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Now an addict, he sees Charles again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling “portraits in lightning.” and their meeting had profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.  

One of the things I struggled with is there was a lot of information but not a lot going on. It starts with Jamie being 5/6 years old and ends with him being in his late sixties. A lot happens, but it’s more of a biography of a kid who was groomed, became an addict, went back to his groomer, realized how messed up that was, tried to stop him from being a fraud, got blackmailed into helping him, then him getting therapy. I couldn’t figure out what type of villain Charles was supposed to be, I went into this book being like don’t trust anyone besides Jamie so at first, I thought this was going to be a typical religion is evil and the priest is a groomer, but then it shifted and he was a fraud, but was curing people. I was just completely lost. I went into this book hoping I would be freaked out because of what you hear about Stephen King’s work. However, I was really freaked out or even scared and it wasn’t gothic either – it was just long with not a lot going on.  

When there was action and things happened, I was sort of kind of on the edge of being hooked but then the next chapter would happen, and it was a whole back story to do with a family reunion that I didn’t care about. The storyline kept me hooked only because I wanted to know what the hell Charles’s endgame was. I wanted to know why he was doing this because as it went on, you realized he didn’t want to be rich and famous; he wasn’t dying so that was the question that kept me reading this book. I felt sorry for Jamie throughout the whole book with the way his life had turned out and I wanted to hug him and wanted him to be happy at the ending, which we didn’t get. 

I would say this would be the first and last book of Stephen King’s that I read; however, Misery is on the list of 100 books to read in a lifetime. So, I will be giving Stephen King another chance to impress me, but right now, it’s not looking so good.