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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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Billy Summers (2021)

Before reading: I don't actually know anything about the plot of this one. I think it is a detective/crime novel, but I could be making that up. This is one of the first ones that came out as I was on my journey so I'm excited to finally be getting around to reading it. I do think this one is more of what I would consider a "man" novel, but King has surprised me before. The only other thing I know about this one is my dad read it. That's all I've got so let's go.  After reading: Oh Billy. It is four months later and I have finally finished you. It's Stephen King, so it was undeniably a good book. It was written well, it was entertaining, and I'm sure some people probably love it...it just wasn't my cup of tea. First and foremost, it was for lack of a better time a "man" novel. I just couldn't get into all the sniper stuff and the war stuff and stuff stuff stuff. This one kinda felt like a mess to me. It was all over the place. We ...
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Later (2021)

Before reading: This is King's third Hard Case Crime novel. I enjoyed the other two and these tend to be quick and easy reads. I know absolutely nothing about the plot. Let's see what this is all about... After reading: Alright, not too much to say. It was a Hard Case Crime novel. Of the three, I liked it just as much as Colorado Kid. I thought throughout that it would definitely be my favorite, but as I finished it didn't quite get there for me. This one did give me more King vibes than the other two. It felt like it could have been something he had written on his own, rather than writing it for Hard Case. It had more of a horror/supernatural vibe right from the beginning whereas the other two either didn't have it at all or randomly sprinkled it in at the end.  I enjoyed the narrator and the overall story. I thought it had a really great mother/son relationship, as well. I was surprised when it tied in with It. The connection was almost too in-your-face for me, though...
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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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