The Tommyknockers (1987)

Before reading: The only thing I know about The Tommyknockers is that it's polarizing. It has a pretty solid 3 rating on Goodreads because it is either loved or hated. There are a lot of people who don't like this one, including King. However, if you take a look at my ranking page you will notice that I tend to like books that most people don't and dislike books that most people do. I'm not sure why this is, but it leads me to believe that it is possible I might like this one. Therefore, I am going in with an open mind and open heart and hope to leave having enjoyed the book I just read. And if not, I won't be too disappointed as my expectations are not set too high. Well...which was it? Did I love it or did I hate it?

After reading: Well. That was a book. It was...fine. I will say that it took me a very long time to read and I was very happy to finally be finished with it. That being said, I didn't hate it. I'm not a critical reader by any means, so it really takes a lot for me to truly dislike a book. I do have a large amount of notes, however, so we may be here awhile. Consider it me making it up to you for being gone for over a month. This took me the entire month of February to read and a week into March. I do try to read at least 25 pages a day but I got really sick for a week and...I promise, I tried to read. I just couldn't do it. This was my note while I was sick: trying to read but it’s this damn Gardner chapter and what’s the point? I feel like the point is to set up the nuclear stuff (or is that just a red herring??) but I still feel like that could’ve been done much differently, it’s hard to get through and prolonging my experience. You guys...I think it was a red herring. So so much of this book was just unnecessary. This was a long book. Definitely in the top 5 longest ones we have read so far. Alright. I have my notes split between references and complaints, so let's just do that before my thoughts get too jumbled. 

This book was very reference heavy. I think it might be the most references we've had in a book so far and really tied a lot of stories together. Before we get into that, let's just briefly talk about Haven. We have had several fictional Maine towns thus far that we have visited multiple times. We also have fictional towns in other states we visit every now and then. This was the first mention of Haven, Maine. However, because of many mentions of Derry, we know we are close to other fictional Maine towns. Spoiler alert, the town burns down, so it is possible (and dare I say I am hopeful) that we may never visit Haven again. Another trope we had was not one but TWO main characters who were writers. We did get our first woman author, so that's fun. Let's talk direct references. We get a very direct Talisman reference as we are on the beach and we see Jack. This would be exciting if Jack didn't say his mom passed away in a drunk driving incident. Do you all remember The Talisman? The very long book (even longer than this one) about Jack saving his mom? Yeah. That was all for NOTHING. This isn't a Stephen King universe reference but we did get several references to my hometown of Limestone and that is always fun. There were several references to the Shop and a direct reference to Firestarter events. There was a Peter Straub reference. Circling back to The Talisman, Peter Straub co-wrote that one. This puts us back in that weird canon where we have the books and their authors in the same universe? Not sure how that one works, especially since we get, once again, a reference to Stephen King, himself. I feel like the meme of Charlie Day connecting the red strings. There were many a Derry references and several direct references to It and Pennywise, herself. Including, but not limited to, chuckling sounds coming from the drains and a clown. I hear you asking, didn't Pennywise die chronologically before these events? Sure did! Is Pennywise still alive? What is happening?! There were also many references to The Dead Zone and Johnny Smith. We even got a recurring character from that one. And last, but never least, there was a reference to The Shining, the movie. Mr. King. What is canon and what isn't?! All this being said, I think having all these references are quite fun. I love there being a bigger universe and everything tying together. However, I do think it gets a little sloppy and confusing. Moving on!

While reading this I kept feeling like it was a prototype for Under the Dome. I wouldn't be surprised if King wrote UtD as a redemption of The Tommyknockers. Funny enough, as soon as I started feeling the similarities, we got this quote: "That they’ve managed to turn all of Haven into a . . . an ant-farm, or something under a bowl?” Coincidence? I think not. One thing I think Tommyknockers does so so wrong and Under the Dome gets right, is the characters. We are set in a town where we know basically every citizen in both of these books. King is typically really great at this and we saw it perfectly executed in 'Salem's Lot. However, in this book none of these hundreds of characters are memorable or likable. There are SO MANY and I literally could not keep them straight. I couldn't remember who anyone was or why they were important.  Even the ones that we follow the most either started off already unlikable or they "became" unlikeable. For a book that is so character heavy, this really was just a big flaw. Also, after reading so much of this book already, having the entire back end of the book be a million pages about a fire and murderous flying objects, I just couldn't do it anymore. I checked out. The beginning and end of this one just weren't strong. The middle was okay but it wasn't enough to save it. I kept thinking about how It was much longer but I read it so much quicker and I realized it was because It was so good and read so quickly. I kept reading beyond 25 pages a day because I was hooked. I had to really push myself to read 25 pages of The Tommyknockers and once I hit the 25 (if I made it) I was ready to stop reading. 

If you're still here, thanks for hanging on. All of that being said, I honestly didn't hate this book. It wasn't the best and it had plenty of flaws, but it was an interesting concept and had some great pieces of writing. I think if this had come earlier in his career, it might've been better. It is just hard to compare to some of his best pieces of writing coming before...this. Do I recommend it? No. Would I stop you if you wanted to read it? Also no. 

Whew. I feel like I've been stuck on Altair-4 forever. I am so ready to move on. And we are all in for a treat cause the next book is none other than the one that started it all, The Dark Half.