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Saturday, December 4, 2010

The King is in the Hizzle!

That's what I said to my Dad the other night. And he said "What?" What I meant was "Your Stephen King book arrived in the mail and I've been devouring it". And I do mean devouring. My Dad and I have this deal- every time a new Stephen King comes out I buy it for him for Christmas. But I carefully remove the cover and only open it so far (as to not break the spine) and read it before I wrap it up. I have more reading time and read faster so it works great.

The new Stephen King Full Dark, No Stars is phenomenal. It really illustrates, more than any of his other works I've read, why he deserves the literary praise that is often not given to horror genre writers. The four novellas or very long stories in this novel succeed not just because they have a slight supernatural theme running through them, but because they are so carefully crafted. They aren't just scary stories, they're literary gems. Each tale paints a picture (granted, a very dark picture) so vivid that you can't help but visualize the setting. And the characters are so well thought out that you can't help but lose yourself in their stories. Each tale reminds us that we all have a little dark, a little other, inside of us. They are fully fleshed ordinary characters in extraordinary situations.

I read the whole book in three nights. Two of those nights I stayed up well past one because I could not put the book down until I finished the story. And I'm still thinking about the stories. And that my friends, is the mark of a true master, when you're still thinking about the story days later. Bravo Mr. King.

In the words of Oliver Twist; "Please sir, may I have another?"

♥Gert

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