Rating: 
Summary: Smells like a made for tv movie - tacky and thin
Review: Reading Peter Straub is tedious. I have to wade through the prose like I'm standing waist deep in custard because he's so verbose. I thought this book was horrible, the same way I felt about Talisman. Straub takes King's carefully built world (mid, endworld) and uses them as cheap cardboard props in what feels like a made-for-tv movie or a high school play. I only read this because it was supposed to have some information in it about the Dark Tower series. It did, but I was very disappointed. When I read the Dark Tower series, I get this idea that there is a lot going on behind the scenes, and that the parts make sense and fit together. Straub's treatment of the breakers and endworld is very superficial, like he's just grabbing plot devices out of a grab bag and slapping them in with little thought for how they fit into the whole idea. Straub can't seem to get anything right. He refers to the bad guy as a breaker and then refers to the breakers in the rest of the book as something else. He doesn't know squat about firearms, referring to a service revolver as an automatic. There are just too many logical errors in this book for me to be able to suspend disbelief and enjoy it. He spends pages describing everything in intricate detail and then when you get to the climax he just sort of glosses over it with a broad brush, leaving you feeling empty. When you get into the mental institution he takes time to describe every turn you take getting to the actual ward D, but when the guys invade the black house at the end he doesn't go into any detail at all. It was terribly annoying - very similar to the cheezy way he ended Talisman. You'll notice I refer to Straub as the writer on this. Sure, it says King on the cover, and there are a couple of parts that feel like he wrote it, but mostly this is Peter Straub's voice. The difference between the two is very obvious. The whole book feels like it was written for teenagers or children, not adults - like an after-school special. I'm giving it one star because I can't give it no stars.
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Summary: I made it to chapter 6 ...
Review: This book was a disappointment. I like Stephen King books because they are fast reads and usually have imaginative story lines. I tried four different times to get into this book but it was no use. I thought it was really boring and in the end I decided I did not want to go where it was taking me. The nursing homes scenes were revolting and the flippant descriptions of dismembered children were a huge turn off. It was one of the most depressing books I have ever tried to read.
Rating:
Summary: The Black House
Review: I tried, oh, how I tried to get past the first 40 pages. I just couldn't do it. It was slow, plodding; laden with so much detail and information the story is lost. To see if maybe this was just for the first few chapters, I read ahead, and this style continued throughout. Those expecting something on par, or even approaching classics like Ghost Story, If You Could See Me Now, and KoKo (my personal favorite), forget it. Save yourself some cash and re-read Peter Straub's older works.
Rating: 
Summary: Told from an interesting perspective but loses luster...
Review: I agree with a few reviews written here. One being that the perspective in which this is told (fly on the wall perspective) was very unique in the beginning and seems to be less present as the story unfolds (unfortunately). This technique made the reader feel as though they were flying from location to location getting all the pieces of a story (much like a movie/screenplay). However, as the story unfolds I agreed with another reviewer here in stating so much little time is spent on the enchanting world and so much time is spent with unscary gore that it's much like a slasher movie lacking creativity. I expected more along the lines of Talisman where I just couldn't put it down. <SPOILER?>But here I found myself simply finishing this story reading every word hoping that the end would unfold some gloriousness but it doesn't for me. I think I will take friends/reviewers advice and move onto Clive Barker since his imagination is vast - read Weaveworld and see why I state this.
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Summary: Black (Dark) House (Tower) - not a place for a vacation
Review: A long time ago, two titans of horror decided to combine their creative powers to churn out a decidedly adult children's fantasy. It followed a young boy named Jack Sawyer who, true to the spirit of his last-namesake, set out on an adventure that most would believe was far beyond his years. Jack's mother was dying, and the only way to save her was to traverse a mythic country known as the Territories, a landscape filled with wonders both subtle and gross. The novel was entitled THE TALISMAN, and, in it's own wonderful way, it became as complete and enchanting a world as those of Middle Earth, Oz, and Narnia, a world of both goodness and light, and evil beyond comprehension.Flash forward seventeen years . . . Despite all the odds, the titans are still in the game and leading the pack. Straub has had a consistently high output, going beyond the boundaries of horror into mysteries tinged with hair-raising asides. King as well has maintained his prolific ways, spewing nightmares onto paper. King also has begun his own literary mythos, a plane of existence similar to our own in some ways, and in others oh so different. Taking his cue from THE TALISMAN, King has incorporated his and Straub's vision into his Dark Tower fantasy, a direct series of four books (to date), and an indirect influence on many of his other works. Elements, both delicate and obvious, are found in his INSOMNIA, HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, THE STAND, IT, THE EYES OF THE DRAGON, and several others. And so perhaps the time was ripe for a direct revisitation to the work that started it all, a look at Jack Sawyer's life after his adventures with Wolf, Morgan of Osiris, and Speedy Parker. After all, Alice had adventures beyond the looking glass, Dorothy once returned to Oz, and author and upon author have traversed the surrealistic realms of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos and Michael Moorcock's sexually ambiguous Jerry Cornelius. Sawyer deserves another look, provided courtesy of BLACK HOUSE. What has time wrought upon Jack Sawyer? Well . . . Much like the children of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, Jack has forgotten the world he once visited so easily. He has traded in the mystic for the violent, becoming a highly-regarded police detective in Los Angeles. He is also spent, retired very young, and settled in the small community of Tamarack, Wisconsin. But all is not well. Children are disappearing in the community, found later as half-eaten remains. A villain of monstrous appetites stalks the town. The local sheriff is helpless. People are slowly going insane. And crows are beginning to talk. Unlike THE TALISMAN, BLACK HOUSE is resolutely adult. These are terrors for grown-ups; the fear of losing a child, the terror of being forgotten in an elderly care facility. Straub and King are masters of understanding what scares a person, both with tiny divergences of memory and grotesque apparitions that rend the soul. Like Charles Dickens BLEAK HOUSE, BLACK HOUSE concerns a multitude of characters and settings. The duo are well-versed in the nuances of character. Sawyer is running from fears he does not comprehend. Dale Gilbertson, the sheriff, is terrified of losing the faith of the community. Judy Marshall cannot handle both the loss of a son and the loss of her mind. Adulthood, to purveyors of mature horror, is constant undying fear of being unable to control every aspect of their lives. Besides a grasp of motivation, S&K also have a keen imagination for wholly original characterization. The stand-out in BLACK HOUSE is Henry Leyden, a blind radio announcer who conceals vast reserves of intellect and insight, as well as a gift for vocal trickery. A scene where Henry is stalked, told entirely from his point of view (i.e., unseeing) is rivetting, a highlight. The Thunder Five, a local bike gang, surely amounts to the only literary collection of highly educated beer-making philosophy-spouting hard-living never-back-down bikers ever put in print. Not all is perfect. While the combination of S&K brings out their collective best, it conversely brings forth their worst tendencies. Characters over-emote, and revel in their hamminess. Too much attention is paid is characters who have no pay-off for the reader. Worst, the authors tell the story from an omni-present, "We are telling you a story" point of view. The narrative flow is often interrupted with reminders that it is a story being told by others, rather than simply telling the story, reminding the reader of the fictional nature of the product. It alienated the reader, who up until that point were swept away in the yarn. As well, too much reliance is given that the reader is familiar with not only THE TALISMAN, but the whole of the Dark Tower mythology. There is too much left unexplained, and the uninitiated to King's realm will be lost in the constant referral to unfamiliar works (much as a reader of Tolkien's THE TWO TOWERS will be befuddled without prior knowledge of THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING). Despite such reservations, BLACK HOUSE is a treat for the Dark Tower follower, an often spellbinding romp through evil and despair. Like all good fairy tales, the end is tinged with sadness, and hope of renewal. Sawyer's tale, they hint, is not over. Lucky for us.
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Summary: ZZZZZ....
Review: I love King. I really do...but this book is BORING. It takes too long to get to anything remotely interesting. I hated wading through endless pages of descriptions of every leaf on a tree or every house on a block. I really haven't read anything by Straub, but King should know better. FOR SHAME!
Rating: 
Summary: Remember IT
Review: To me, this was the finest book from SK (not forgetting PS) since IT. I've read them all and this one was just the thing to re-confirm my addiction to books that tell a great story, have that kick of the macabre but basically entertain without pretensions. I just wish they were going to write more. Read it and reflect
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Summary: Written in 2nd person
Review: What I found so fascinating about this book is that it was written in second person. The reader is like a fly on the wall with the characters. I've read a couple of hundred books over the past 10-15 years, but never one written in 2nd person. I was fascinated. I consider this book to be one of the best I've ever read simply because King was successful with this point of view. I couldn't believe it when I realized it was actually written in 2nd person, knowing how difficult it is to write successfully in this point of view.
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Summary: Black House
Review: Coauthors King and Straub, together again (The Talisman, 1984), take a Wisconsin Death Trip into parallel universes. The Fisherman, who copycats long-dead serial killer Albert Fish, has been chopping up little kids in French Landing, Wisconsin, and sending letters to the children's parents identical to those Fish sent parents 67 years ago-letters never made public, so how does The Fisherman do this? The local police chief asks for help from Jack Sawyer (hero of The Talisman), a Los Angeles homicide detective now in retirement. As a child, Jack flipped into the Territories, the parallel world in The Talisman, but has since forgotten his trip. What about the all-black Black House in the woods? Well, only Charles Burnside (Alzheimer's) and Tinky Winky Judy Marshall (just plain crazy) know the Black House is the doorway to Abbalah, the entrance to hell-and Judy's son Tyler is apparently the killer's fourth victim. Jack's new buddy, blind Henry Leyden, a radio deejay with four discrete identities no one knows are his, can't talk Jack into taking the case. But when little Irma Freneau's gnawed foot arrives in a shoebox on Jack's welcome mat, Jack flips and lands in the Territories. The Territories confer a sacred magic and, in Jack's case, absolute luck that lets him win his every bet or endeavor. Tyler, it happens, is telekinetic, and has been abducted by the Crimson King. All universes are held in place by the Dark Tower, the great interdimensional axle the Crimson King wants to destroy. Jack must save Tyler from the furnace-lands below Black House-and here the novel strives for depth, though interest dwindles. Those not knowing King's Dark Tower series or The Talisman will follow all this easily enough. Many admiring King's recent, subtler work, though, may find these blood-spattered pages a step backward into dreamslash & gutspill. First printing of 2,000,000; Book-of-the-Month Club/Doubleday Book Club/Literary Guild/Quality Paperback Book Club main selection
Rating:
Summary: It's Stephen King......... People!!!
Review: I am amazed that readers review this book with comments such as "It's too bizarre" or "It's too grim" and "It's too scary"!
Hey, this is Stephen King not Charles Dickens or Dr. Seuss. If you want to be comforted read a cozy love story or a western novel. This book is MEANT to be scary. Its a horror book!
I found it an easy read and quite frankly....alot of fun! It's certainly IS creepy and the characters are described with that uncanny realism theat King is so good at. The book illustrates madness and human frailty along with some down right interesting, albeit weird, people.
Read the thing and get a little frightened. But lighten up! It's only fiction. ENJOY!
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