A few months back I went down a Stephen King rabbit hole and purchased five or six novels, a lot of his older stuff, and this was one of them. I like to collect things, comics, books, etc. and I like looking for some of the first editions of King’s earlier works.
As I always say when reviewing a King novel, if you do not know who he is then I cannot help you in any way.
The story follows a man named John Smith who has an extraordinary ability. When he was a kid he fell on some ice and hit his head, ever since then he has been able to see things, just glimpses of things that were going to happen. When he was 18 he was in terrible car accident and was in a coma for five years. Upon awakening his ability had grown stronger and now when he touched a person or certain objects he could see details about them and about their life. Smith has always seen his ability as a curse, until he sees a future that must not come to pass. He then sets out to change it if he can.
I have to say that this is probably the worst King novel I have read. That was a tough sentence to write, however King has some great novels don’t get me wrong, I just did not care for this one as much as the others I have read – (Salem’s Lot, Needful Things, Pet Semitary, and The long Walk), not to mention quite a few of his short story collections.
My point is that he has so many great novels that unfortunately this one ranks near the bottom for me. What is interesting is this is definitely one of his most famous novels. In saying that I am not sure if it is because this was also a movie as well. Usually when a book is made into a movie the book is phenomenal but not always. For me I just could not connect with it like I have his other novel and stories.
The main reason I didn’t care much for this one is because it was way too long. I am used to reading a long King Novel a la Needful Things, however that one is probably 100 pages, or more , longer but much more exciting and held my attention the whole time. The Dead Zone dragged on much longer than it needed to in my opinion. I believe at least 60 pages or more could have been cut out and the book would have been fine, or I might argue even better. To me there was way too much scene building and details that didn’t really do much and not enough dialogue to move the story. King usually does a great job between the narration and the dialogue but this one was overboard on the narration, which added to the length.
With that being said I will say the last 30 to 40 pages were really exciting and moved along the lines of the normal King and what I would expect from him. I guess I should also state that I looked up every King novel ranked and this one was a top 4 novel. So perhaps I just did not personally like it, but I stand by my assessment of it.
As I always say when doing a King review I am blown away by how many of his books are out of print or hard to find. I bought my copy of The Dead Zone on eBay. It is either a BCE or first edition I am not sure, either way I didn’t pay a ton for it.
In closing, if you are a King fan I am sure you have already read this and gotten angry with me that I did not like this one, but I just felt it was a tough read which is not what I expected from one of King’s supposed best and most famous novels. Still I would recommend checking it out perhaps I am in the minority on this one.
Manik
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