Rating: 
Summary: Another superb tale from the master himself
Review: Taken from the collection of tales, Different Seasons, Apt Pupil is a socially disturbing story that demonstrates why Stephen
King's name has come to symbolise terror. Set in the safe, suburban surroundings of middle-class U.S.A., Apt Pupil centres on the intense desires of one teenager's curiosity and just how far the quest for knowledge can be taken before it becomes a
danger rather than just an interest. Todd Bowden is an all-American senior school teenager excelling both academically and on the sports field, ambitious and determined he encounters a Nazi war criminal living unnoticed in his neighbourhood. Using
blackmail he persuades Arthur Dussander to recount his experiences as a guard in the Concentration Camps, until Dussander evolves into something far more horrific than Todd could have possibly imagined. From being the 'apt pupil', Todd goes into freefall until he is forced to rely on Dussander for help, which is when the hunter becomes a weak and vulnerable prey.As tragic as it is horrific, Apt Pupil is an exemplary King work, incorporating the daily lives of the unassuming American public into a masterpiece of spellbinding, nerve-jangling twists and turns. When Stephen King begins to focus on the human rather than the sub-human, you know that something special is being born out of that dark void beyond his imagination. This creation is
conceptually brilliant and delivered with immaculate panache, so much so that hours after the final page is turned you are still
looking over your shoulder!
Rating:
Summary: The mind of a serial killer revealed!
Review: This book was very dark and frightening. This haunting novella, about a young boy's strange and perverse "relationship" with a fugitive Nazi, is quite thought provoking. King gets into the psyche of a serial killer, whether he is a Nazi or the salutorian of his high school class. The former SS man and butcher of 800,000 now lives as a "kindly old man", hiding his identity from the world and charming the pants off of his "pupil's" naive parents. The "pupil", Todd Bowden (or the "boy", as Kurt never refers to him by name), is a bright and seemingly normal young teenager. Kurt brings out a dormant evil in Todd that he feeds with his nightmare stories of the concentration camps. Kurt and Todd share a common bond and even though they have nothing outwardly in common. These commonalities are more telling than the exteriors they represent. They are both masters of deception and lies. They share a sick need to torture and hurt people and animals. Most of all, they lack a conscience and have no love or empathy for their fellow human being. Todd thinks of killing his loving parents and torturing young girls. He gets his kicks on murdering homeless drunks, as does the old man he emmulates. He hates this old man because he sees too much of himself in that rotting diseased old package, but he has a need, an addiction almost, to visit him and experience the tales of the massive slaughter. Separated by 65 years and countries halfway across the globe, the similarities between these two individuals exist nonetheless. The old man recognizes it and enjoys the company of one so much like himself. King points out that in the deep dark places of the mind, there is sometimes an inward need to experience the macabre and horrific. Edgar Allen Poe couldn't have done a better job at translating this need! King is brilliant! It is interesting to note that Todd's character has a striking resemblence to that of Cathy in John Steinbeck's masterpiece, "East of Eden". Both were handsome young people who's looks and art of deception both disguise a genetic flaw; an utter lack of conscience. They both charm and delight those naive around them, while thinking up how to destroy those that love them or get in their way. If you enjoyed "Apt Pupil", I highly recommend "East of Eden".
Rating:
Summary: A Different Season
Review: A story about an oh-so-normal middle school honor student who, by chance, work and intuition comes to identify an old man as a fugitive Nazi SS officer living in his home town of 1970's Southern California--after being interested in the subject of the Third Reich, thanks to a class he took at school! Once learning the mans identity, the boy shows up on his doorstep and winds up sitting with the old man in his living room or back porch day after day hearing old war stories, as it were, after the boy blackmailed him into so doing under threat of identity exposure. It seems, however, that the stories of Nazi death camp life begin to work not only on the mind of the boy, but simultaneously begin to re-work in the mind of the former SS Major. A parasitical symbiosis develops between them and they begin to slowly descend into a pit of madness, with the elder playing the boys "grandfather" to a school guidance counselor who gets involved due to the boys slipping grades... Meanwhile, winos begin to show up dead down by the railroad tracks, and the wily old Nazi suspects the boy, and, no wonder, since he himself is familar with killing--not only because he murdered hundreds of thousands during the war, but he has been busy dispatching winos off the "missing persons" list and burying them in his cellar. A thoroughly brilliant, bone chilling and, in the end, a rather wry piece of work. Stephen King at his very best.
Rating:
Summary: The mind of a serial killer revealed!
Review: This book was very dark and frightening. This haunting novella, about a young boy's strange and perverse "relationship" with a fugitive Nazi, is quite thought provoking. King gets into the psyche of a serial killer, whether he is a Nazi or the salutorian of his high school class. The former SS man and butcher of 800,000 now lives as a "kindly old man", hiding his identity from the world and charming the pants off of his "pupil's" naive parents. The "pupil", Todd Bowden (or the "boy", as Kurt never refers to him by name), is a bright and seemingly normal young teenager. Kurt brings out a dormant evil in Todd that he feeds with his nightmare stories of the concentration camps. Kurt and Todd share a common bond and even though they have nothing outwardly in common. These commonalities are more telling than the exteriors they represent. They are both masters of deception and lies. They share a sick need to torture and hurt people and animals. Most of all, they lack a conscience and have no love or empathy for their fellow human being. Todd thinks of killing his loving parents and torturing young girls. He gets his kicks on murdering homeless drunks, as does the old man he emmulates. He hates this old man because he sees too much of himself in that rotting diseased old package, but he has a need, an addiction almost, to visit him and experience the tales of the massive slaughter. Separated by 65 years and countries halfway across the globe, the similarities between these two individuals exist nonetheless. The old man recognizes it and enjoys the company of one so much like himself. King points out that in the deep dark places of the mind, there is sometimes an inward need to experience the macabre and horrific. Edgar Allen Poe couldn't have done a better job at translating this need! King is brilliant! It is interesting to note that Todd's character has a striking resemblence to that of Cathy in John Steinbeck's masterpiece, "East of Eden". Both were handsome young people who's looks and art of deception both disguise a genetic flaw; an utter lack of conscience. They both charm and delight those naive around them, while thinking up how to destroy those that love them or get in their way. If you enjoyed "Apt Pupil", I highly recommend "East of Eden".
Rating: 
Summary: Very Very Disturbing
Review: Apt Pupil was definitely good, but it was just so disturbing to me that I found myself saying, "Why don't I just forget this story and read the next one?" After that terrible, disgusting cat incident, I almost gave it up. I was really horrified by that and I don't get scared/disgusted/horrified easily. When Dussander then goes to the Humane Society to "pick out a dog", I actually quickly scanned each page after that to see if anything beyond that sentence ever happens (because there was no way I was reading that...that cat was bad enough but a dog....absolutely no way) but luckily there was no more mention of it. The other three stories were good, especially The Body. It is what the movie Stand By Me was based on and it's as good as the movie. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was a surprisingly good story, especially since the title really turned me off. I enjoyed that one. So, if it weren't for the animal abuse in Apt Pupil, I would have liked it better but that just really bothered me.
Rating:
Summary: Things Not Meant To Be Known
Review: Stephen King introduces us to a boy named Tod Boden. After learning of the Holocaust in school he becomes obsessed with it. Finding a Nazi war criminal hiding in the US. Todd black mails him for the truth of what really happened the stuff not printed in the books. As the story unveils we see how Boden's mind begins to warp from the stroies of terror. As Boden's nights grow more restless people become suspicious of Todd and his old friend. This book also includes the Shawshank Redemption an excellent novella.
Rating: 
Summary: Deeply disturbing
Review: Tom Bowden, when we first meet him, is a bright-eyed, charming, intelligent young man who is, in all respects, an "apt pupil," according to his teachers. His parents, whom he calls by their first names, are his pals more than parental figures, and have largely given him free rein in his young adolescent life. Since this is a King novel, though, naturally something about Tom isn't quite right - he has a dark secret. Tom is quietly obsessed with World War II, particularly the concentration camps and the methods used there to kill millions of people. Through dilligent research and sheer coincidence, Tom has found one of the SS's best butchers living in his hometown under a new name and identity. Through blackmail, Tom persuades the old man to tell him many horrible tales of the camp he ran, in terrible detail. They enter into a truly dark and complex relationship, based on trust, distrust, love, hate and mutual compulsions. As the story progresses, the reader feels both empathy and disgust for each of the main characters, and is torn between many emotions as the plot unfolds. The result is a very disturbing study of a side of the human psyche seldom seen, and King does a very good job taking us into that hidden place. Squeamish readers should perhaps stay away from this story, as there are moderately-detailed descriptions of human and animal abuse and murder, and anyone looking for a "happy, feel-good" story should definitely look elsewhere! I have to say it again, this is a really disturbing tale, not for the faint-of-heart; it left me entirely unsettled, which speaks very well for King's ability to get in there and push all of the buttons he was carefully poking around to find.
Rating:
Summary: An insight into human nature
Review: More than just a compelling and terrifying read, this book delves into the innate human fascination with the dark side of humanity.
It's interesting how the all-american kid draws himself into a web of darkness, then can't escape from it. I consider this one of King's premiere works.
Rating:
Summary: Being too apt a pupil can be deadly
Review: It all started when Todd and his friend were looking for comics in his friend's garage. Todd found his friend's dad's old war magazines. Looking through them, he read in several of them about Kirt Dussander, an old war criminal. He became enthralled. Following up on him, Todd found Dussander right under his nose. He showed up on Dussander's doorstep one day and forced him into telling him what happened in the Concentration Camps during the Hollecost. This is how Todd's deadly obsesion with an old man named Dussander began... I liked it because it showed what really happened during that time and it went into detail on some of the horrible things they did. It also showed that people were, and still are, really cruel. And it showed that even people with a good home and family can be so cruel.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Less Than Expected
Review: I was expecting to love this one, but alas I did not. It was dull and uncompelling. The premise itself was excellent--a boy who discovers a Nazi war criminal in his neighborhood and threatens to turn him in if he does not satisfy the boy's morbid curiosity. Unfrotunately, the story as King wrote it fell flat.
| 
