Call it a sentimental favourite if you must, but this might be my favourite King. It is mystical, spooky, terrifying, and bears witness to an unthinkable level of carnage. Given his recent revisiting/sequelization of some older works, I would give my left arm for him to go back to this world (and, of course, that of The Regulators as well).

Desperation by Stephen King I'm a massive King fan and this was a great addition. King is the master at writing about 'end of the world' scenarios and this definatley was one of them. The decription of the town and all the different characters was brilliant as was the lead up to all of the characters being in the same place. I've now bought The Regulators, which is the accompanying novel that King wrote under his pseudnym Richard Bachman.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up. King did a really great job crafting these characters, David in particular. David is a very interesting, multifaceted kid with a fascinating faith. I love the things King has to say about faith over the course of the novel, and how central it is to the plot. Even those things that I staunchly disagree with make great food for thought. The reason this book didn’t score a higher rating from me is because things get really, really gross. I mean nasty. Even for King, there were some exceptionally vile scenes. I suppose this was a successful way to up the fear factor. This was truly a straight up horror novel. But I think it could have been toned down a bit and been just as effective, as well as easier to stomach.

I’m very glad I read this immediately after reading Desperation. Firstly, had I not read these back to back I might have forgotten some of the characters who, while radically different, share their names across the two novels. Secondly, I’m glad I read Desperation first because I fear I would have actually been disappointed in that one had it been preceded by The Regulators. While I enjoyed both, I found The Regulators to be the better story overall. King, writing as Bachman here, couches an absolutely horrifying tale within the confines of everyday suburbia. I’ve never been more glad to live in the woods with no close neighbors than I was while reading this book. Your average summer day in the burbs is wrecked by a seemingly random drive-by shooting. But the shooters return, and there’s something incredibly off about them, and their vans, and their weapons. Things get more and more sinister from there. The two main things shared by this novel and its sister, Desperation, are the character names and the antagonist. I found it fascinating to read about characters with the exact same names but who were, for the most part, radically different from the counterparts in the other novel, with radically different fates. There were a select few of these characters who mirrored their other selves in some way, but it was a very exclusive group. Which just served to make those certain characters all the more interesting. Another of the main bonds between these two novels is Tak, the incredibly freaky antagonist. I found his influence even more disturbing in this book than I did in Desperation. I think this is due to a couple of things. First, everything happening on a particular suburban street made the action feel more claustrophobic, which upped the creep factor. Second, Tak was working through the possessed body of a child, which is always a terrifying horror trope. This loose duology was a very interesting stretch of my long road to the Tower. And these two novels are unequivocally horror, without a shadow of a doubt. If you’re looking to be freaked out, both of these books are a good bet. But I liked this one better.

Average nourishment. Not an earth-shattering tale by any means, but reasonably average and mildly entertaining. It's no Stand, that's for sure. I like Stephen King novels for dog walks on the headphones and I'm trying to catch up on my Goodreads challenge, so I needed something that would be easy listening to draw me away from my podcast list for long enough to get through a book. It helps that grass-cutting season is once again upon us.

I didn't realize this was a Stephen King book until after I had already bought it. I am not a fan of his writing style and this was no different.

Very good begining and middle, but rather dull ending. Happens with King's works often - he's such a magnificent storyteller and manages to build the story up but then has a rather simple and dissappointing ending - oversimplified conclusion and writing.

I didn't enjoy this book at all. Everything seemed so far-fetched.

4,5⭐ What a wild ride!