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The Dead Zone (1979)


 Before Reading: I have absolutely no idea what this book is. The name feels vaguely familiar but I was definitely surprised to see it next on the list. No clue what I'm getting myself into! I did read a synopsis and I kind of feel like I spoiled it for myself a little bit. It seems interesting enough and I hope it's a good read! I did check how many pages there were and it seems totally doable so I'm ready and excited! Hopping on a plane here in a few days so I'm hoping this will be a good little vacation read. 

After Reading: If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you? That is essentially what this book is about even if you don't realize that until near the end. No surprise, this book took me forever to read. But hey, I finished it. Let's go through the notes I took while reading before discussing how I felt about it, overall. 

Firstly, there were a lot of parallels to Carrie. Both stories are about people who have special powers that stem from their mind and both stories have a lot of religious undertones (both even discuss praying in a closet). Stephen King definitely has a knack for characters that are telepathic or telekinetic (Carrie, The Stand, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, The Institute, etc.) and I'm not complaining! I definitely think that is when he is in his element and I'm a fan. Something that I noticed in this book that paralleled his later books that I read was introducing important characters or plot points kind of vaguely in the beginning and then not fully fleshing it out until toward the end of the book. Not super sure how I personally feel about that. Do you like when stories bounce around like that and give you hints or would you rather just know what's going on already?! This was the first time that we were officially introduced to Castle Rock which is one of King's fictional towns that we see quite often from here on out (it is also a really great show on Hulu). The premise of this story is that our main character, John Smith, got into an accident and was in a coma for four and a half years. This left me wondering...are people actually in a coma for 4 1/2 years, typically? Like, they just let you do that? I should probably just Google that rather than asking into the void. There is a cat in this story, very briefly, named Speedy Tomato, and I love him. I really loved the character of Sarah and the relationship between Sarah and John. This relationship reminded me a lot of Susan and Ben from Salem's Lot and I am really enjoying how King writes (healthy) relationships. In addition to the town of Castle Rock we are also introduced to Castle County which I thought was just really cute. Much like how reading The Stand during a pandemic was a little too close to home for me, there are a heck of a lot of parallels between the political (this is a very political book, btw) going ons in this book and real life at the moment. There was a little bit of Carrie-ception where a character in this book mentioned reading Carrie and compared John to Carrie (which I totally called at the beginning). And just when you thought I hadn't mentioned Carrie enough, the book ends very similar to the way Carrie does with court records describing what happened and wrapping up the plot. My final note was that there was not enough Sarah in this book and I needed more. 

This book wasn't necessarily my type of story but I did really enjoy it. I didn't love how it was all over the place and seemed like 3 different stories wrapped into one, but I didn't hate it either. Overall, I found myself really liking the story and the characters, even the minor ones. I thought the villain was a little too realistic but that goes to show how well-written he was. I found it interesting how ~of the times~ it was with the uptick of assination attempts and basically every 70's reference you can think of but it was also very current. Definitely a super interesting read and I look forward to watching the movie, as well! If you haven't read this one, I recommend it! It is a lot of people's favorite King book and it is even one of his own favorites. Up next is Firestarter which I am very excited about and am looking forward to some more mind powers. Make sure to check out my ranKINGS page to see where I rank The Dead Zone  ;)

For the record, I would definitely go back in time and kill Hitler. 

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