the king is not scary part 2

As a nod to a friend of mine, but also because I thought it was a good topic, I listed five Stephen King books that weren't horror stories... perhaps they dive into the supernatural just a little, or maybe science fiction, and definitely an air of suspense, but nothing like an evil hotel, like "The Shining", or a possessed car, like "Christine", or an evil, possessed clown like "It"... so here is another five of Not Scary King... you can read Part I of this post by clicking here. Otherwise, here ya go...

THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON (1999)
A little girl is hiking in the woods with her family along a familiar trail... her family is quite dysfunctional, of course, as Brother is quite annoying and Mommy and Daddy are fighting all the time. She slows a bit to take a restroom break right off the trail, slips on an embankment and ends up down a hill, completely lost. Trisha begins to drift further into the deep woods, armed with only a few things like a Twinkie, a poncho and a Walkman, which she likes to use to listen to her favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, and her favorite player and athlete crush, pitcher Tom Gordon. Thus begins a psychological story of a little girl who is not only battling the elements, but the darkness, fear and eventually, her sanity. It's thrilling, a little strange, and you'll root for Trisha the entire way. (224 pages)

CELL (2006)
More science fiction than anything, a random signal from outta nowhere is shot across the world, and everyone who is on a cell phone at that exact time is zapped in an insane zombie-like killer. Writer Clay Riddell is in Boston, and amidst the ensuing chaos and destruction that follows, sets out on a journey to try and get to his son, Jonny, in Maine. He teams up with Tom and a teen named Alice, and the trio meet good guys and bad guys as they make their way.  (355 pages)

UNDER THE DOME (2010)
Here's what I wrote back in 2011, listing this book at the 42nd Coolest Thing of 2010... In the fall of some year after 2012, Dale Barbara, known as "Barbie", is trying to leave the small town of Chester's Mill. Before he can get very far, however, something odd happens. An invisible, indestructible barrier--a dome, per se--is dropped over the town, keeping everyone who's out of town out of the town, and everyone who is in the town, in the town.

Big Jim Rennie, second selectman, takes over the town, appointing his corrupt friends and sick, twisted son Junior as town officials, and does his best to try and contain the opposition, which includes Barbie and newspaper editor Julia Shumway. Slowly but surely, the town's government falls apart as Big Jim's rule becomes more and more stern, and as his ego--and paranoia of losing control--spiral out of control.

Efforts to destroy the Dome fail one after the other, and everything from civility to law to just common sense begins to fall apart, piece by piece, little by little... its not a slippery slope so much as a straight up and down cliff. 

While the Dome is the central key to the novel, it is what happens to the town that becomes the book's plot. The breakdown in civilization, the loss of respect and democracy... that's the book's central storyline. When Big Jim realizes that not everyone sees it his way, its then that he begins doing whatever, and I mean whatever, is necessary to ensure his own rule is followed.  Also, one of my favorite Stephen King covers ever... (1074 pages)

JOYLAND (2013)
I listed this at the 10th best book I read in 2013... here's what I wrote about it: Some of King's best work is not horror or of the supernatural ilk, and this is a great example of that. "Joyland" is set in 1973, and tells the story of Devin, who gets a job at an amusement park in North Carolina. He ends up befriending a few people, including Annie and her ill son Mike, plus some of the people at the park, all set with the backdrop of some unsolved murders that occurred in the Haunted House years previous. At under 300 pages, it reads quickly, and though you might see the ending coming before you get to it, its worth the ride. (288 pages)

11/22/63 (2013)
One of the most random, unusual non-Stephen King stories that still plays out like a Stephen King story after all is "11/22/63". Jake is a divorced high school teacher who, through a friend who seems to be going through his own troubles, is shown a "portal" in the past... namely, 1958, at exactly 11:58am on September 9th. No matter how long he stays in the past, only a few minutes pass in the present day, along with some other restrictions of the portal. The mission is to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy on, you guessed it, 11/22/63, so Jake begins a life in the past to try and lead up to the event. And the story slowly unfolds bit by bit, and though it's a slow burn, it's worth the ride. King also gives a very interesting answer to the question, "What if JFK lived?". (849 pages)

Finally, MR MERCEDES is the latest non-horror-but-thrilling novel from Stephen King, from earlier this year in 2014. I loved this book, but will wait to review it until the end of the year. However, you can read my friend Jessica's review on it if you'd like...  and at the end of the year, I'll also be discussing King's newest book, "Revival", coming out in November.

The #31DaysofWriting is coming to a close this week! And coming tomorrow... Taylor Swift's new CD dropped today! I'll give you my own fangirl experience and a track-by-track commentary on the whole thing!

the king is not scary part 1

My friend Jessica Jobes, fellow blogger and avid reader, has taken on the #31DaysofWriting Challenge, dedicating her blog to book reviews--one book every day, for the entire month of October. I can tell you that she and I have different reading piles, though I think she'd be more likely to read some of the stuff in my stack in Audible.com as I would be to read what she has in her stack.

She said in a Facebook post the other day that she had finished reading "Mr. Mercedes" by Stephen King... now, this is a dandy of a book, and unlike many of his horror/supernatural tales that King writes. This is a straight up serial killer whodunit cat-n-mouse chase kind of story... and so Jessica (who did a review of this very book on her own page today) asks what other Stephen King books are set in real life, and aren't supernatural, horror sort of stories.

And so I thought I would give that list of those non-horror, but still suspenseful and creepy Stephen King novels that I've read... some of them may have a touch of supernatural, but it's not in a frightening way.  All of these are available on Audible.com, by the way, and I've listened to them all, as well as read the printed page.

THE LONG WALK (1979)
Written under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman", it's a dystopian tale of a "Walk", where teenage boys of a certain age are commanded to... well, walk. And walk. And walk. And walk. To win, you don't outpace the other boys, or raise more money or fight anyone... you just outlast everyone else. As in, you are the last one alive. It seems like a long book for such a simple premise, but this is early in King's career... the characters are interesting, but I did find myself just wanting the book to end at some point. I liked it, but won't re-read it.  (384 pages)

FIRESTARTER (1980)
Though it's kind of a crappy movie, I actually liked the film, starring David Keith, George C. Scott and a very young Drew Barrymore... but the book is 1000x better. Andy and his daughter Charlie are on the run from the government, as Andy is telekentic, and Charlie... well, she can start fires. The novel chronicles their journey, and those who betray them, culminating with one heckuva flame throwing final scene. (426 pages)

CUJO (1981)
You know the basic story... a big St. Bernard named Cujo... he gets rabies... and he starts drooling a lot and killing a lot more. It centers on two families, the Cambers and the Trentons. The former is the family that owns the dog, the latter is a family that is falling apart due to an affair by the mom, Donna. Cujo gets bitten by a bat, and it's on. A small part of the narrative even looks at the story from the dog's point of view, which is a twist. The movie with Dee Wallace (I can't remember if she was "Stone" or not) is not bad, though the ending is different. (319 pages)

MISERY (1987)
You probably know this story as well... writer Paul Sheldon is wrapping up a very popular series of books, centering on his character "Misery Chastain", and as tradition, goes up to a secluded log cabin to finish the book--and the character--off. A freak snowstorm sends his vehicle into a wooded snowbank, and he's rescued by Annie Wilkes, who turns out to be quite the superfan. Most of the book surrounds the tense relationship between Paul and Annie, who just will not have her favorite character ending the story. The book is brutal in what happens to Paul--if you've seen the movie, there's a scene where Annie breaks Paul's foot with a hammer to keep him from escaping... what she does in the book is just horrendous... (320 pages)

THE GREEN MILE (1996)
Undoubtedly you have seen this film, but the book(s) are even better as a whole. In 1995, it was announced that in early 1996, Stephen King would release a new novel, but broken up over 6 parts. The first, "Two Dead Girls" would come out in March of '96, then every six weeks, there would be a new chapter in the story.

The parts included "The Mouse on the Mile"... "Coffey's Hands"... "The Bad Death of Edward Delacroix"... "Night Journey" and "Coffey on the Mile", and aside from the last book, all were just under 100 pages. "Coffey on the Mile" was 144 pages. Back before Algore's Internets, I had to go to the bookstore to find out when these would come out, and the day of the release, I was at Walmart, spending my hard earned $4.44 to buy each one, consuming it by midnight.

In 1932, John Coffey, an enormous, but kind hearted and simple black fella, is arrested after he is found holding two dead little girls that were missing. He is taken to the Cold Mountain Penitentiary, led by supervisor Paul Edgecombe, a nice enough guy, with his fellow officers Brutal and a few others, and the sadistic and cruel Percy Whitmore. You also meet a few other inmates that become intrigal to the story, especially a little mouse that is known as "Mr. Jingles", along the way... there is a touch of supernatural, once you find out what John Coffey is actually all about, and you'll find yourself wanting to read each part, telling yourself "Oh, its only 100 more pages..."

This is readily available in novel form as a whole, or you can find it in a used book store in the original six parts, which is what I did a few years ago. Why, you ask, don't I have the novels that I bought originally? Well, I lent them to a chick friend in college, because she smiled at me, and she had a pretty smile. And I never got them back. She's actually here in town now, we are friends on Facebook, but I have never bothered to ask if she still had them.  (By the way--if you've never seen this movie, you should.  It's incredibly well done, suspenseful and heartbreaking.)

Part 2 to come soon, with five more "not scary King" books...