Rating: Summary: A suspenseful look at tragedy Review: Narrated by the author, The Journals Of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation Of The Kingdom Hospital Incident is the true story of a female spiritualist. Drawn to a Maine hospital built upon a site where, in 1869, a textile mill burned down killing dozens of workers including child laborers, Eleanor Druse pretended to be ill in order to search for the ghost of a young girl and root out the presence of an ancient evil. A suspenseful look at tragedy and how its negative ripples can carry over space and time, The Journals Of Eleanor Druse is literally haunting to listen to and highly recommended. Four 1 1/2 hour audio cassettes.
Rating: Summary: An engaging set up for the tv series. Review: Of course, this is not one of Stephen King's masterpieces; it is designed mainly to promote the Kingdom Hospital tv series. (I would rather read the rest of the story than watch it, but only this journal has been published so far.)
Initially I found the Sally/Eleanor Druse character un-engaging, however midway through the story I became fully fascinated. The story is one worth reading and seems to work on different levels: the current hospital bureaucracy, the strange suicide attempts, an evil spirit, and lobotomies on children. It ends abruptly and unresolved, but sets up the tv show nicely.
Rating: Summary: An engaging set up for the tv series. Review: Of course, this isn't one of Stephen King's masterpieces; it's designed mainly to promote the Kingdom Hospital tv series. (I'd rather read the rest of the story than watch it, but only this "journal" has been published.)Initially I found the Sally/Eleanor Druse character un-engaging, however midway through the story I became fully fascinated. The story is one worth reading and seems to work on different levels: the current hospital bureaucracy, the strange suicide attempts, an evil spirit, and lobotomies on children. It ends abruptly and unresolved, but sets up the tv show nicely.
Rating: Summary: regardless Review: of if this is a ripoff from another story this is such an obvious attempt to make money off the stephen king name, whether or not it was written by him or someone else it's only half a story albeit a somewhat decent one but you're still paying normal price for what adds up to be an advertisement for the show Kingdom Hospital. Save your money.
Rating: Summary: Not worth reading as a stand-alone. Review: Oh, what a waste of time. Maybe it's good in tandem with the (now cancelled) TV show, but alone it's tedious, it drags, and, since it's designed to get you to watch the show, has no real resolution or denoument. If you MUST read it, get it from the library, don't waste your money.
Rating: Summary: Not worth reading as a stand-alone. Review: Oh, what a waste of time. Maybe it's good in tandem with the (now cancelled) TV show, but alone it's tedious, it drags, and, since it's designed to get you to watch the show, has no real resolution or denoument. If you MUST read it, get it from the library, don't waste your money.
Rating: Summary: ABSORBING Review: On the order of The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer this story has the power to hold attention, relate to and hate characters, cringe at details and want more. The crusty old woman who tells the tail is a cross between Murder She Wrote and Miss Marple - and the vocabulary is a little too "high tone" for such an elderly dowager, but at the end you are flipping end papers looking for more. Excellent read - and you should!
Rating: Summary: If the book is anything like the show... Review: PPeeewww!! This show is horrible. Long, drawn out, my gosh, when I watched the first two hours of the premier on channel 7 I thought it was only going to be a two hour movie. Towards the end I thought "Wait a minute. Don't tell me this is going to be a series!!!" Then I find out it's a 13 week series. 13 WEEKS!! What the heck can they do for 13 hours? If the book is anything like the TV show, and by reading some of the reviews it seems it is, well the book must be just as horrible. What a waste of time. The concept is great. A hospital built over a grave of children who died in a fire many years before. That would've been cool. But, man, did they drag it out. What's with the Aardvark? Heck, I don't know. But you know that the Stephen King's "IT" was great!!!! Until the very end. When it turned out to be this big "Spider" and the clown was working for him to lure people to it. That was pretty stupid. They could've done it without the Spider. But, the rest of it was very well done and it wasn't 13 weeks!! Here's a lesson: Don't take too long to tell a story. You'll lose the audience!!!
Rating: Summary: Not a story, just a printed trailer Review: Save your money - this isn't a complete story, just a printed trailer for the TV series. Bought it, read it, and returned it in disgust.
Rating: Summary: solid ghost tale just not as kingly as fans expect Review: The poster boy for underachiever (not the school grade child type as he almost forty years old) Bobby Druse works as an orderly at Kingdom Hospital in Lewiston, Maine. In December 2002, Bobby calls his mother Eleanor to inform her that a patient Madeline Kruger nee Jensen tried to commit suicide while she keeps insisting that it is 1939 and she needs to know what happened to her friend Sally Druse. Finally Bobby mentions the long note that Madeline penned referencing the little girl is coming. Eleanor has a deep interest in the paranormal and thinks the drugged out Madeline is referring the deceased Mary Jensen. With the help of her son, Eleanor begins to investigate strange phenomena at Kingston and soon learns that the hospital was built over land where a textile mill burned to the ground in the late nineteenth century; many workers including numerous children died in that blaze. Eleanor wonders if these poor souls and others including Mary have become trapped here because they cannot find solace or if something evil is holding them prisoner. She hopes at least to free Mary. Though in some ways this journal sounds like an amateur sleuth starring in the movie Poltergeist, fans will appreciate the lead character as she investigates the unknown. The plot is exciting especially for ghost story fans. The support cast seems two dimensional though those who work at Boston General know how to "treat" a patient, just ask Eleanor. Overall this is a fun solid ghost tale just not as kingly as fans of the supernatural in Maine expect. Harriet Klausner
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