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What am I doing?

Being a true Mainer, while my mother was pregnant with me, she was reading a book by Stephen King. Specifically she was reading The Dark Half by Stephen King. In that book there is a character named Shayla and that is where my name came from. Growing up in Maine already gives you a sense of closeness with Mr. King but having him be the reason for my namesake always drew me even closer to him. In fact, for my 23rd birthday I was gifted with Stephen King’s personal copy of The Dark Half that he signed for me.  I grew up watching many Stephen King shows and movies and read a few books. My favorite book of all time being The Long Walk by Stephen King, himself. All in all, however, I’ve only read about 5 of Mr. King’s books in total. I feel like this weird connection and fascination I have with him has ultimately only led me to one place. And that place is right here, preparing to read all his books. With all honesty, I get crazy ideas like this all the time but only seldom do I see ...
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Recent posts

If it Bleeds (2020)

Before reading: We are officially in a new (and the most recent) decade of King. I feel as though the 2010's were fairly strong so I'm excited to see what these newer ones bring. If it Bleeds is a collection of four novellas which I am excited about because I thought it was a short story collection. It consists of two stories that have already been made into movies that I have seen: Mr. Harrigan's Phone and Life of Chuck. I don't know what If it Bleeds  is actually about plot-wise but I do know it is the next installment in Holly Gibney's story. The fourth story in this collection, Rat, I know nothing about but we do know that SK loves writing about rats. As is typical, I will give each story their own review as well as the collection as a whole.  After reading: I think this format is my favorite of King's. This thought kept popping up as I reading, but I was ignoring it because obviously King's novels are his best work. However, when I realized that my favo...
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Elevation (2018)

Before reading: Another one I know nothing about! I know that it is short, so that's exciting after a long read. I also know that when I watched The Curse  I saw someone compare it to this book so I have a vague idea (iykyk).  After reading: I'm not too sure what to say quite yet about this one. Even though it was very short and super quick read, I feel like I need to sit with it. With it being so short, there also isn't much to say about it. First and foremost, this was set in Castle Rock. We got familiar views and some quick mentions of familiar people, even as recent as Gwendy. There were a couple things that kind of annoyed me with this story. The main character had people constantly referring to his weight and calling him fat and that just didn't feel realistic (yeah I know this isn't a realistic story). I just don't go up to people and mention their weight, personally. Also, there was a gay couple and a lot of the book had to do with the entire town basica...
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Sleeping Beauties (2017)

Before reading: This book was written alongside Owen King, Stephen's son. I have not read any of Owen's work but I do know that Joe is the more prolific son. I have heard some not so great things about this one but I have also heard people say they really enjoy it. The biggest complaint I've seen is that it is much too long, and that is usually a negative for me. As far as the content goes, I have absolutely no idea what this one is about. Let's find out. After reading: I want to start by saying that I did like this book. I legitimately think this was a good book. I had a couple qualms that I will get into in a moment, but I want to start off with why I think other people don't like this one. This was a very pro-women and almost anti-men book. I've mentioned before that I have noticed that typically when people say they don't like a Stephen King book...it usually has a female main character. As soon as I opened this book and saw the dedication was for Sandra...
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Gwendy's Button Box (2017)

Before reading: I feel like I know a lot about this one but also nothing about it. I know nothing about the content and am going in completely blind. What I do know is that this is the first book in a trilogy. Additionally, this was co-authored by Richard Chizmar. This is only the second time we are getting a co-authored book so I am interested to see how it compares. Now what is slightly annoying about this trilogy is that King only worked on the first and third book. The second book is solely by Chizmar. That means for the purposes of this blog, I will only be writing about the first and third. However, I will still need to read the second one. That being said, I will include some brief thoughts of the second in my next blog. Luckily, this past year they released all three books together in one binding so at least it will be a little easier to read that way. Anyway, this is a short book and I've probably taken more time writing this than it'll take me to read so I'm going...
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End of Watch (2016)

Before reading: I am so excited. This is the final book in the Bill Hodges trilogy. I'm expecting good things plus this one delves into the supernatural so I'm excited to see how that ties inn. Let's go! After reading: I felt like that was a great end to this trilogy and a great beginning to Holly's story. I don't have too much to say about it and I definitely don't have much to complain about. This was a super solid trilogy. I gave each book four stars. I thought each one was really great and had its own unique story while keeping everything tied together really well. We don't get many trilogies (or even sequels) from King so this is a bit of a treat. I thought the story was very well done and captivating. It kept the original stories going while not just being a copy of them. It dipped its toe into the supernatural in a way that kept the serious tone but opened up doors for Holly's upcoming adventures. The ending was expecting but I thought it did what...
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