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Summary: Another Masterpiece from King
Review: One of the most absorbing boks I've ever read, Stephen King's The Dead Zone is sure to please almost any reader. King keeps the reader turning the pages during this book. I read it in roughly two days, and for someone like me, who usually doesn't read unless it's required, that was quite a short time to read a book of this length. During most of my free time, I found myself picking up the book and continuing to read. King creates impressive characters to whom you soon feel yourself attached. The protagonist, Johnny Smith, was one of those characters that I began to appreciate and enjoy learning of his next action. The plot is most intriguing. Though it would be doubtful that the novel's events would occur in real life, I found it so interesting that I just had to keep reading. I spoke with my teacher about the book, and she decided to read it. Several days later, she said she finished it and said she believed it to be the best book Stephen King has written. I haven't read all of his books, nor have I read that many books, but I enjoyed this book and was able to actually finish it, unlike other books I've given a weak attempt at reading. I believe anyone would enjoy reading this book.
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Summary: A psychic man who has the ability to tell the future.
Review: The Dead Zone is one of the best fictional novel ever written by Stephen King. The story grabs the reader's attention and sets a good imagery because of the suspense and descriptive details. John (Johnny) Smith the main character of the fictional novel is a psychic. As a psychic, John Smith uses his powers to help save people from catastrophes. For example; He had saved the life of a student who he was tutoring, Chuck Chatsworth, from attending a graduation party that was going to be struck down by lighting. Stephen King also wrote a book called It, a very powerful and scary story similar to The Dead Zone. For those of you who are a Stephen King lover, or who want to get a glimpse of a frightening and shocking thrill, then give The Dead Zone a try. I promise you that once you have picked up a copy and have read a few chapters of the book, you will not want to stop.
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Summary: king's best book by a long shot
Review: Stephen King's ability to write is magical. I felt as if i was a part of johnny's life and watch it unfold slowly before my eyes.the best part is it is totally unpredictable and did not use any age old cliches that have been repeated over and over again in most books and movies these days.
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Summary: Fortune and Fate
Review: The Dead Zone is one of Stephen King's best novels, a tale rich in every way. It's well-told, with excellent characters, loaded with symbolism and shocking events (oftentimes both), and full of the plainspoken yet lyrical prose that is King at his best. There is little in King's long and excellent list of titles that can surpass this novel.We'll start with the basic story. A young teacher named Johnny Smith is "gifted," through a car accident that leaves him comatose for nearly five years, with a strange precognitive/telepathic ability. And here's the catch, evidence of King's genius if ever I've seen it: He has to be touching a person or object for the power to work. King takes this startlingly simple (and original) idea, and weaves it into the most complex, and intriguing, tapestry of his career. King does a lot -- and I mean a LOT -- with this novel. Take the prologue, which so expertly sets mood, and tone, and character -- Johnny shows early flashes of his power, while the villain of the piece, Greg Stillson, kicks a dog to death in a dooryard outside Ames, Iowa. King literally takes you from one extreme to the other here, does so brilliantly, and continues to do so for the rest of the novel, as Johnny and Stillson are set on their inexorable collision course. But the novel is much more than that, as well. It's the story of Johnny and Sarah, who might've been his wife if not for intervening circumstances; it's the story of Johnny and his parents, Herb and Vera, a loving couple who find separate ways of dealing with Johnny's misfortune; it is the story of Johnny and the Chatsworths, a rich New England family whose son Johnny tutors ... and it is the story of Johnny and one Frank Dodd, a character as frightening as any King has created. All the way through, of course, this is Johnny's story -- and in John Smith, King has outdone himself. Johnny, in just about every way you'd care to imagine, represents us, the average person -- the name alone is a dead giveaway. (Some have said the symbolism of the name is crude -- absolutely not! King has always gone for the larger symbols along with more subtle ones.) His reactions are our reactions -- never made more clear than during the press conference at the hospital, where he looks on in abject horror at what his own power has done to a reporter there. It's a tense moment, in a novel full of them. King deals in many levels of symbolism in The Dead Zone, symbols of fate, fortune, and God's will (the three being interchangeable in King's Calvinistic view); fortune wheels, omens, Vera's obsession with the more hysterical and relevatory aspects of Christianity (she could've stepped out of a Flannery O'Connor story), the seller of lightning rods (used, much as Bradbury used him, as a harbnger of doom), the mythical resonances of Cassandra and the abiguity of the Delphic Oracle, the Biblical references to Jonah as Johnny runs from himself, his power, and finally from fate and God -- again, interchangeable from King's point of view. There is also the brilliant use of the Jekyll/Hyde mask, one of the most elegant pieces of symbolism in the novel. But let me get back to the Calvinist attitude here -- which I've mentioned a couple of times, and by which I don't mean conservative and/or repressed. Instead I refer to the Calvinist notion that everything that happens, even things like "luck" and "fortune," is predetermined, willed by God. And though we as human beings have free will to defy or not defy our fates, the fact remains (as Mother Abigail pointed out in The Stand) that this is what God wants from us. That's the statement at the heart of The Dead Zone; it is what John Smith, King's reluctant hero (another powerful myth-figure) miust face at last, in what is one of King's most powerful novels. It is a cornerstone of an King library, and should definitely be in yours right now. Think of it as -- Fate.
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Summary: Always Entertaining
Review: One of the many, many great reads granted us by Stephen King. I am in awe of his talent to entertain.
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Summary: The Movie Is Better!!!!
Review: I usually like Stephen King's books but The Dead Zone was lousy. Definitely his worst book! Have never watched the TV show but the movie starring Chris Walken is way better then this terrible book!
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Summary: This book STAYS with you
Review: I'll never forget the first time or the tenth time I read this book. It is a true classic, a wonderful saga of human emotion, compassion, and sadness. Stephen King possesses a unique gift of touching the soft, warm places of humanity, while paralleling the dark and less attractive, deceptive sides. This book grips you from the very beginning, and you will find any other activity, other than reading, an annoyance. Johnny pulls at you in so many ways and leaves an indeliable mark on your psyche and soul. TRUE GENIUS!!
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Summary: A good story with a few minor flaws!
Review: Overall, this book was very good. As I was reading it, I never wanted to stop. The main character was described very well, and his actions seemed to have merit. I had no problem with the basic premise of the story. The one problem I had was his ability to sense things by touching them. If he had this power he would have gone mad with images from everything around him giving him signals from the past or future. He would of had to live in a bubble to not get totally engossed by everything. Besides that one thing that annoyed me, I enjoyed this book fully. I put that flaw aside, and read the story for what it was, and it was very good reading. The author has characters you love or hate immeadiatly, and you remember the characters when you put the book down. I always thought that if you put a book down and think about the story weeks later, then it must have been a pretty good book. This novel is one of those books. The ending took me a little by surprise, but then I thought of who the author was, and thought that to myself that the ending he came up with was approriate. A book well worth reading.
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Summary: What if???
Review: I read the Dead Zone after Mr. Kings "On Writing". I have read a few of his other books but did this more in a textbook study. It was all I could expect. He has a grasp on his genre of writing no one else currently could come close. I learned a lot from his " On Writing" and this book as a example of writing with a outline. I will read more because of this example.I know that he is a writer that works from a mind and heart that is one of a kind.
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Summary: Entering the Dead Zone
Review: The reason I read this book was because of the TV show. I wanted to read this because I wanted to spot the differences and similarities between the two. A fan of the show may want to read this. There are certainly differences in the characters and events from the show. The Dead Zone tells of a man, Johnny Smith, who inherits visions after waking up from a coma. This book is about Johnny's struggles with seeing the past and future after his coma. This book tends to lag at times, and this happens a lot throughout the book. It is a long book, but it is also the one you want to pass time with. Overall, this is an excellent read.
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