Later occupies that weird space that many Stephen King novels do, somewhere between good and simply “okay”. The prose, as always, is so readable that I finished this book in a couple sittings. That said, I don’t have much to say about the plot. The cynical part of me sees the pieces that were taken…
Tag: Horror
Misery
Misery is interesting for many reasons, and one of the most peculiar may be King connecting the word to the action of writing itself. Sure, Paul suffers and goes through horrible misery in his time held captive by Annie, but he was already miserable writing about Misery. Though I love his books, I haven’t done…
The Reddening
It’s been a while since I last finished a book and realized I still had almost no idea what the story was about. It’s not that the plot of The Reddening was complex or intricate, but rather that it was meandering, boring, and ultimately pointless. I’ve seen a lot of cases of wasted potential over…
The Outsider
When a young boy is brutally assaulted and murdered, the police in Flint City believe they have an iron-clad case against Terry Maitland. Evidence and witnesses are piling up, until Terry’s solid alibi turns the seemingly impossible into reality. There is no end to the universe, and things will only get stranger before the case…
Agents of Dreamland
The Signalman has seen it all. He’s been around for a long time. How long? As the reader, we’re not really sure. But he’s been around long enough that most things don’t faze him anymore. However, when he’s called to investigate the hovel where a cult has been dwelling, what he finds there will shake…
The Ballad of Black Tom
I have been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft for quite some time, and have struggled with his racist views for as long as I’ve been reading his work. That being said, I was excited to read LaValle’s re-telling of The Horror at Red Hook. Unfortunately, I found The Ballad of Black Tom to be mediocre and disappointing. My…
Those Across the River
When Frank and his wife-to-be Eudora move to Georgia, they soon learn that the sleepy little town of Whitbrow is more than it seems. There is a secret in the woods across the river, and it has more to do with Frank’s ancestors and their brutal history than he wants to admit. Horror requires complex…
The Twisted Ones
When a young woman nicknamed ‘Mouse’ is tasked to clean out the house of her dead grandmother, she finds that the deceased old lady had been a hoarder. After coming across some strange stones in the woods, and the crazy ramblings of her also deceased step-grandfather, Mouse discovers that her problems are much more serious…
Hell House
I have said it many times before and I swear that I’ve meant it every time, but this time I know with a certainty that Hell House is absolutely the worst book I have ever read in my entire life. Proclaimed as a horror story about a haunted house and a group of people that deal with the specters…
Heart-Shaped Box
Judas Coyne is a world-famous rock star, and has spent his life picking up women and discarding them whenever he grew bored. Or whenever their psychological problems became too much for him, in his self-centered world, to deal with. After one of his girlfriends commits suicide, Jude discovers that the ghost he purchased online in…
The Call of Cthulhu
The fear of the unknown is the greatest fear that mankind possesses, and I believe that it was H.P. Lovecraft himself that said something to that extent. There is something horrific about a thing being so alien, so indescribable, that it drives a person to complete madness and inevitable death. That is the premise of The Call…
The Shining
Coming off the high of reading ‘Salem’s Lot, I was very excited to read The Shining. Being one of King’s most talked-about and notable works, I expected to love it just as much as his previous book. Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case. I honestly don’t understand why so many people love this novel and think it’s…
Quite Literary 