holy shart. for my first stephen king book that was fucking NUTS.

i’ve read my fair share of horror, but i can say this is defo one of the best. god damn.

now i do have some teensy tiny gripes with this and tbh it holds it back from a 5-star for me.

for one, god this book drags at points. i do think the pacing overall is good, as for this story to be “believable” it needed to take place over a large span of time. but at some point the story kept repeating itself, and not only was i slightly bored at times, but i became disillusioned. this book teeters the line between horror and trauma porn quite closely, and at times i felt it was very much horror for the sake of horror you know? like at times there felt like there was a lot of filler, and the pacing was probably slower than it needed to be.

also, i have to say, paul is not a likeable protagonist, at least for me. i think he defo starts out with the goal of being unlikeable, but by the end you’re supposed to be rooting for him. but at some point i kind of wanted him to die? like just free me from the hell that is this book’s pacing my god. and that’s the thing with annie too — the character that’s been set up almost seems paradoxical. i know that’s intentional because she’s ~mentally unstable~ but at some point she has to have some level of logic and consistency. like really i get why she doesn’t instantly kill paul, but by the end there…. really what are we waiting for. what are we doing here. idk. making annie unstable defo works for the horror-ness of the book, but almost makes the book fantastical in nature because she is not realistic.

and now we come to the overarching issue - annie herself. at some point the book stops feeling like it’s plausible in any nature and i am just annoyed. like seriously how did she get away with all that shit. be so serious. idk like i said at some point the book almost feels like a caricature, especially with annie’s character. it seems like king just made up a mental illness and went with it. cmon now at least make it seem believable please i beg.

other than that, whoo did i have a hoot! this is probably some of the best written horror ive read. the trials and tribulations paul goes through are made so vivid by king, and the motifs and themes he employs are so…. chefs kiss. 

the ending was a bit… Um. but hey they can’t all be winners!

overall i had a great time with this book. i really think king is just a fun writer. his charisma oozes through the page and it makes for a really enjoyable experience. 

please next time tho i beg speed up ur pacing sire i was ready to just look at litcharts because it felt like it was groundhog day 🙏🙏