Desperation

Rating:
Summary: The first half was great, but then it loses steam
Review: This plot reminded me of a cheap horror film. The book's main flaw was the characters- they simply were not very interesting or likable. That crazy alien language King used was annoying and unnecessary. What religious implication is King trying to convey here? I must admit the first half of the book was excellent but then it became muddled. The book should have been 100 pages shorter. On a positive note, the way King portrayed that monster cop was riveting. It is truly the most horrifying figure in horror book history! This would have gotten five stars if the momentum had not been lost. In short, it's nothing special or original, but still an okay read.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: It was every thing I expected from Steven King and more! I've been a fan of his for many years. Now I'm going to get another one of his books and be scared again. I can't wait!!!

Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE!
Review: Stephen King is one of the worst authors in the field. I wonder how I even finished this one. There is no character development (frankly, the book would've been much better if every character within died) and no story. THE STAND, THE SHINING, and PET SEMATARY were equally terrible. Read Richard Laymon instead; stay away from this guy.

Rating:
Summary: Don't tell me the ending. I may get to it yet!
Review: By the time I finished Ch. 1, Pt. IV, (pg. 432), I told my son, who'd read it through, that I'd acquired neither sympathy for nor empathy with a single character in the novel and I could care less who got killed.

He said if I'd struggled that far and still couldn't get into it to forget it 'cause I'd probably hate the ending, so I spiked the book and switched to John Grisham.

I love much of King's work. His IT remains in my all-time top ten by any author. But when he retreats from Gothic/macbre to sheer fantasy or pseudo-realism, I lose interest.

After his wonderfully creepy vacation to the Overlook Hotel, I wish he'd gone back to Maine and stayed.

I'll buy his next book, of course, out of sheer "desperation" for a return to vintage King.

Rating:
Summary: Superb! A refreshing change from previous stories
Review: If you read Rose Madder you may have been disappointed. I know I was. Desperation is Stephen King at his Horrifing Best! The story is an adventure in terror. Desperation is a town literally in the middle of no where. Here the evil Tak has escaped from its prison only to possess a police man and take his own prisoners. There are some very intense moment especially Taks transformation from person to person. This book is step in the right direction for King, especially after such bore fests as Rose Madder and Insomnia.

Rating:
Summary: I finished it!
Review: And it was a bit of a struggle.

After an approximate 10-year hiatus (I enjoyed several of his early novels, up to and including The Stand, as a teen-ager) I decided to go back for another thrill escape, but was disappointed.

The novel does start out fun, but once I finally figured out what was going on, it was a labor to get to the end (which, however ballyhooed among my fellow reviewers, I did not find so great.)

Of the two main characters, the writer stands up better. The boy was too good. Couldn't he have any bad traits at all? I'd have been grateful.

Maybe I'm just not in the market for apocalyptic struggles of supernatural good vs. supernatural evil, as I was when I was a teen-ager.

I do, however, still remember The Stand very fondly.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding but not as deep as "The Regulators"
Review: I think that this book was good. I mean it was superb but it lacked the physicological aspect as the Regulators did. I mean I read this one first and thought. "Man this book was great. I mean it's a good pace. Then I read it's counter part and The Regulators blew it away! No doubt about it. It was a great book though but not the best.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Incredible. One of his best. Characters so real you can see them. Must have for any King fan.

Rating:
Summary: Sheer desperation - zero inspiration
Review: Have you noticed how many of the recent King novels that deals with desperate, uninspired writers? Think he is trying to tell us something?

After reading this novel and being alternatively bored and disgusted the whole way through, I just hope that his publisher will start showing some responsibility and not just publish anything that King has pulled out of some dusty drawer. The only answer to come from this book is to the often asked question : From where do King get his ideas ? The answer must be : From sheer desperation.

Rating:
Summary: DESPERATION IS 'TAK'-RIFICK!
Review: This is one book I just couldn't get enough of! The characters and places King creates are so vivid that you'll feel like you know them and you'll think that you're there. This is one creepy ,morbid, and always fun story that you'll instantly be absorbed into it from front cover to back! THE REGULATORS was also enjoyable. A hell of a lot more gruesome than DESPERATION but the setting,characters,and off-the-wall plot just didn't offer what DESPERATION did (it would probably make for a good George Romero flick).If you like DESPERATION you might want to check out THE REGULATORS. Both stories are interwoven into one another in ways and either book could be the sequel to the other.TAK ALA MI EN TOW! TAK! TAK!