“The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” By Stephen King Review

In this collection, Stephen King once again assembles a generous array of unforgettable, tantalizing tales. There are thrilling connections between these works – themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, and what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. Magnificent, eerie, and utterly compelling, these tales are a fine gift to readers everywhere.

This book is a collection of short stories written by Stephen King. Its important to say that this book includes a lot of short stories which have been published before, so there were very little new short stories in this book.

All of the short stories in this book are very uninteresting and boring. The best way to describe them is that Stephen King tried to be similar to some of his older short stories which people liked but failed a lot on this task.

The plot in those short stories were very flat, and there too short to actually understand what was happening or make us care for the characters. 

The characters in this book really surprised me here, because they were very flat, uninteresting and boring. But also the dialog between the characters were very mundane.

After every short story in this book, Stephen King adds some notes to every short story. In my opinion, these notes were very distracting because those notes would give us information we didn’t need to know and it pretty much killed the small amount of eerie vibe those short stories had.

The only place I saw this book in a store, was on the airport, and of course on that trip I forgot to take a book with me so I needed to buy one in the airport. And this book was I went with. And I truly regret spending my money on this book and my time.

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“Dolores Claiborne” By Stephen King Review

Suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, Dolores Claiborne tells police the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband, Joe St. George, thirty years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera’s physical and mental decline and of her loyalty to an employer who has become emotionally demanding in recent years.

I didn’t knew anything about this book before getting into it, and I need to admit that I was surprised because its actually good. 

The plot in this book is very interesting, enjoyable and engaging. Which really surprised me because I wasn’t expecting this from this book. But I am all here for those kind of surprised in books.

The plot is very good the grab your attention and not letting it go until the very end. The the more you start thinking the story the less stars you want to give it when it comes to it. 

It is important to say that this book isn’t as much a horror book as it is a psychological thriller. There aren’t any horror moments in this book but rather a woman trying to defend herself that she didn’t call her wealthy employer who died suspiciously. 

All of the characters in this book are very very good, which you can expect from the master of horror. All of the characters in this book have a unique personality and all of them have something which sett them apart from the rest of the characters in this book. 

The writing style is what you would expect from Stephen King, which of course means that is fantastic. It just as Stephen King knows what words to use to grab your attention and to not let it go until you finish the book.

The ending here was meh to be honest. I had some high expectations for the ending in this book but I ended up getting disappointed. Because this book builds into this good exciting ending which it fails to have.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Holly” By Stephen King Review

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

This book is the 3rd book in the stand alone Holly Gibney series. Which for me personally is the character I love the most from the Stephen King Universe. However its important to say that the stand alone Holly Gibney series doesn’t need to be read in order, you can read the series however you want without losing anything because every book in this series is a stand alone crime case which Holly Gibney needs to solve.

I read and reviewed the first book in this series 4 years ago,  and I’ve complete loved the first book in this series which means that I had a lot of expectations for this book even thou I skipped the 2nd book in this series because I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions about the second book in this series.

I had some big issues with this book while reading it. And these issues were that the plot, characters and tension of this book were very overshadowed by the topics of Covid and Trump which really annoyed me. Because when I’m reading a fictional book I don’t want to reading about political opinions and views with the author has which this book had a fair amount of.

This whole book had the feeling of covid happening as well as the author not liking Donald Trump overshadowing every single aspect of it, which made this book so much less enjoyable, and uninteresting. Because every time I would start getting into the plot and having fun with this book the narrator in this book would make some stupid comments about Trump or covid like “Trump is a psychopath and his covid policy sucks”, which would made me want to grab Stephen King by his t-shirt collar and yell into his face that I don’t care about his political opinions.

However if we step aside the covid and trump comments throughout this book, then we will see that the book was very very good and it would have been easily a 5 star book if Stephen King didn’t throw his political opinions every once and awhile.

The plot in this book is Holly faces an very intriguing crime case, which is that people in a small town keep disappearing. The kidnapper or kidnappers in this book isn’t someone you would suspect at all, which makes this book so much better. 

The plot it very interesting, engaging and intriguing. And I personally had a lot fun with it when Stephen king wasn’t forcing his Trump opinions down my throat.

The characters here were all over the specter of annoying and very incredible. Holly and 3 other characters were very good. But the rest of the characters in this book, I just couldn’t care less about them, and some of them were really getting on my nerves  like the guy who gets kidnaped in the first 2 or 3 chapters of this book.

The writing style in this book was very good, and you could easily tell that it was written by Stephen King the master of horror himself. If you have read some of Stephen King’s better books you know what I mean here about the writing style. It was like Stephen King knew what words to use to grab my attention.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“Four Past Midnight” By Stephen King Review

At midnight comes the point of balance. Of danger. The instant of utter stillness when between two beats of the heart, an alternative reality can slip through, like a blade between the ribs, and switch you into a new and terrifying world. “Four Past Midnight”: four heart-stopping accounts of that moment when the familiar world fractures beyond sense, the fragments spinning away from the desperate, clutching reach of sanity.

This book is a collecting of 4 short stories written by Stephen King which take place around midnight.

The name of the short stories which are in this book are The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policeman and The Sun Dog. I personally think that the Secret Window, Secret Garden was the best short story in this book. And it is for sure the short story in this book which I had the most fun reading.

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this book, because I didn’t know much about it other than it contained 4 short stories written by Stephen King. And that the short stories take place either in Castle Rock or in Derry.

Those 4 short stories we get in this book are pretty different from each other but they have couple of things in come, which of course is that they take place around midnight, and they are horror short stories. 

The characters in The Langoliers and The Sun Dog weren’t my favorite, and I found them to be boring and annoying at times. Which really disappointed me because Stephen King is known fin creating amazing characters. But it didn’t happen in those 2 short stories.

When it comes to the characters in the two remaining short stories which of course are Secret Window, Secret Garden and The Library Policeman. I need to to admit that the characters are very good, and I really came to like the majority of the characters in those two short stories. But of course there were a couple of characters in those 2 short stories which I found to be annoying or boring.

The writing style in those 4 short stories which this book has is very good. The way it was written you just could tell that it was written by Stephen King. The writing style is so good that you could tell that Stephen King knew what words to use to grab your attention and interested. 

When it comes to the ending to those 4 short stories, they weren’t the best. From experience I can honestly say that Stephen King can write much better ending than what he did in those 4 short stories.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Cell” By Stephen King Review

Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction. And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone.

To be honest I didn’t have any expectations for this book, because I didn’t know a lot about it before going into it.

The plot in this book is for sure a unique one. The plot in this book is cellphones turning human into a terminators / zombie of sorts. It had good premise but the way the plot was turning into, wasn’t just quite for me.

This book starts with a huge bang. And for that I gave this book some extra points for.

However its important to say that this book is far away from being my favourite Stephen king book. But as a die hard fan of his, I needed to read this one.

I had some thoughts about DNF-ing this book after reading around 60% of it because I wasn’t quite liking this book and I was becoming very bored. But I’ve struggled through it and I was able to finish it. But my initial opinions and thoughts about this book didn’t change after finishing this book.

The character in this book were very weird because they were good characters but at the same time they weren’t. Which really made me unsure what to say about them in this review which is the reason why I didn’t write this review before 3 weeks after finishing this book.

The characters here, had some good moments here and there but for the most part they were pretty flat and boring. And I found myself not caring about them at all. 

The writing style here was good, which made me give this book some extra point. However the writing style wasn’t on the same level with Stephen king’s other work. Which really made me disappointed in this book.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Gerald’s Game” By Stephen King Review

A game. A husband-and-wife game. Gerald’s Game. But this time Jessie didn’t want to play. Lying there, spreadeagled and handcuffed to the bedstead while he’d loomed and drooled over her, she’d felt angry and humiliated. So she’d kicked out hard. Aimed to hit him where it hurt. And now he was dead – a coronary – on the floor. Leaving Jessie alone and helpless in a lakeside holiday cabin. Miles from nowhere. No-one to hear her screams.

In my opinion this books isn’t one of the best Stephen King’s books. Don’t get me wrong, this book is interesting but as a die-hard fan of Stephen King I was expecting something different.

This book had some interesting moments here and there, but for the most part I found myself not caring about it.

After I finished reading this book I started thinking that we could easily delete 40% of this book and it would somehow become better. Because most of this book isn’t that interesting and at times it seems like to drags for far too long.

The most interesting part of this book was the very end. Which really made me gives this book a higher rating than I first wanted to. There was something very satisfying about the ending which really made me happy that I didn’t give up on this book.

The plot in this book is for sure very unique. When I read the summary of this book I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this book because it seemed so boring and flat to me. But after having read this book I am actually happy that I read it.

The plot contains a married couple going to a secluded house to have a lot of kinky sex, but it doesn’t go far because the husband dies after handcuffing his wife to the bed. Pretty bad timing I would say. But there was something about the whole situation which the wife have gaunt herself in which made me intrigued and made me want to read to the end to see what will happen with her.

The characters in this book are very very good. But this fact doesn’t surprise me because it was written by Stephen King. And that guy is the mastermind of writing incredible character even if the plot isn’t that good.

The writing style here was of course very good, because it was written by Stephen King. For me the writing style made this book better for me. Because it was like Stephen King knew what words to use here to grab my attention.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Fairy Tale” By Stephen King Review

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

This book was for sure a very unique one. Because I wasn’t expecting the master of horror to get into fantasy but with this book he of course did.

The beginning of this book started really big and had big Psyho vibes. Which really made the trick for me to get me hocked. The beginning had strange accident,  mysterious old house, weird noises coming from the shed, an old dog and a teenager. 

The beginning had huge suspense in it, and from it alone I was expecting Pet cemetery 2 in a way. But of course it wasn’t it.  

Even thou it started really hot and big, the book went downhill from that point in my opinion. As you continue reading this book it will turn into a teenager’s adventure. Which wasn’t bad but it wasn’t that original. In a way this book really disappointed me in a way because I was expecting something more from Stephen King.

Charlie and Mr. Bowditch were good characters even thou I wasn’t the biggest fan of them. But the rest of the characters in this book were meh to be fully honest here. I personal remembered the rest of the characters as “Deaf-one”, “Blind-one” etc. Even thou they had names as you expect, I didn’t bother to remember their names because I found them boring and uninteresting. 

To be fully honest my favourite character in this book is Radar which is the old dog in this book. 

Even thou this book is an enjoyable read, it is at least 150 pages too long in my opinion. Because after you read the half of this book, it being to drag for far too long.

The writing style in this book was very good at the beginning but as the book continues the writing style in a way goes slowly downhill which really disappointed me. But I haven’t noticed it until I finished the book.

The ending was actually good, I didn’t expect it being so good because of 2 / 3 of this book being boring and somehow uninteresting for me. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Stand” By Stephen King Review

First came the days of the plague. Then came the dreams. Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.

This review its gonna be a very unpopular review. Because this book gets a lot of good reviews from people who have read it, and I just didn’t like it at all. This book is the longest Stephen King book at the time of writing this review, and well I was excepting something more from this book.

This book took me over 3 months to read, because I just couldn’t keep my focus straight while reading this book because I was so uninterested in this book.

In my opinion this book lacks details, which really makes it or breaks it when it comes to fiction about the fall of civilisation.  

This book really started out strong but quickly it went downhill for me personally which really disappointed me. Because I was really having fun and enjoying this book in the beginning.

All of the characters in this book were very boring and uninteresting for me personally. Which really hurts to say it about a Stephen King book, because he normally writes so amazing amazing characters which of course didn’t happen in this book. 

The plot in this book is to be honest all over the place, because it follows multiple characters and most of the time I had a hard time being onboard with what was happening in this book.

This book had some good moments here and there, but it were really rare and they were surrounded by moments which really were shit in my opinion. 

The ending in this book was probably the most disappointing thing about this book. Because this whole book was building the atmosphere for this huge ending which turned out to be uninteresting and not worth 1150 pages of build up to it.

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“Doctor Sleep” By Stephen King Review

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless – mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death. Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

This book is sequel to “The Shinning”. I had this book on my TBR pile for at least 2 years and I finally read it.

In my opinion this book was very enjoyable, interesting and very fun to read but “The Shinning” was much better than this one. I still like this one but there are couple of things I wish this book had but it didn’t.

This book is entertaining but it doesn’t have the same high quality as The Shining has. Which for the most part is my main problem with this book.

The characters here are okay for the most part. I loved Danny which is a grown adult in this book and the events from the first book results in the adult damaged Danny in this book. Which I personally loved to see. To be personally he was one of the best characters coming from Stephen King so far at least. Because we see the evolution which he had from the first book to this book. 

When it comes to the rest of the characters I need to be honest here and say that I didn’t care for them at all. All of the characters (expect of Danny) were okay for the most part but I didn’t like them or relate to them in any way. 

The writing style here is very Stephen King style which I personally truly love. Some of you who are die hard Stephen King fans like me will know what I mean. But if you don’t then let me explain. The writing style here is very good, it is really good for setting the mood for the entire book, and it for the most part seem like watching the entire plot play out rather than reading a book.  

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Cujo” By Stephen King Review

Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether. Meanwhile, Vic and Donna Trenton, and their young son Tad, move to Maine. They are seeking peace and quiet, but life in this small town is not what it seems. As Tad tries to fend off the terror that comes to him at night from his bedroom closet, and as Vic and Donna face their own nightmare of a marriage on the rocks, there is no way they can know that a monster, infinitely sinister, waits in the daylight.

I had a lot of expectations for this book which it didn’t live up to. Which really disappointed me because it was written by Stephen King my all time favourite author by far.

The story line in this book was not the greatest to be honest. The main theme in this book is a rabid dog named Cujo but we only see Cujo in 5% of this book. And the rest of it is just characters running around and freaking out about different things. Which really bored me out while reading it.

The characters in this book are very flat, very boring and very annoying. Which is the worst possible combination to ever exist. 

This book was one of Stephen King’s earliest books so I can give him a pass on this book. This book was also written during the time where Stephen King had alcohol problems. 

The writing style in this book really dint feel like something written by Stephen King. It might be because of the alcohol problems which I’ve talked already about. 

This book has over 400 pages but I read it in one day which means that it is a quick read once you make up your mind to read it in one day. 

I Give This Book 1 / 5