Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Desperation

This one gets started with the tension pretty quickly, there is a creepy and unsettling atmosphere right from the start and the characters come second. Not that the characters are bad, but there isn't the usual depth of backstory that I usually notice in King's books. There's plenty of gruesome body horror in this, and although the creepy atmosphere dies down a bit by the end, the ending at least feels satisfying (endings generally being a weakness in King's longer books).
Ultimately is I don't think it's going to be one of my favourites but i DO want to look up 'The Regulators' which is a companion book to this.

Content Warnings

hannahkate's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

goodolmc's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Content Warnings

zakcebulski's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am so fucking glad that I have had a redemption arc with Stephen King. When I started reading his works I was not super thrilled with them, and admittedly did not care for a handful of his books. However, recently, I have been burning through his stuff.

This book takes place in Desperation, Nevada off of U.S. Highway 50, or... the most lonely highway in America.
The story starts off wit ha series of character introductions in a series of vignettes which introduce the main cast of the Carver family- Ralph, Ellen, David and Kristie, Author Johnny Marinville, Johnny's assistant Steve and his friend Cynthia, Paul and Mary Jackson.
The are all accosted and arrested under extremely dubious means by the terrifying Collie Entragian and are locked up in Desperation.
This plot, to me, is immediately interesting and gripping. It is up to the characters to not only escape their imprisonment, but also to escape Desperation and the Terminator-like killing machine that is Entragian.
I have to say that the atmosphere in this story is absolutely fucking amazing. I think that King did an exceptional job at making this whole town feel like a cat and mouse game wherein there is a maniacal killing machine.
The desolation of the town is due to Entragian killing all of the other inhabitants of the town. There is a feeling of mystery in this book as we do not know whether Entragian is going on a killing spree because of dual personalities, or something else. In fact, King does a wonderful job of laying down red-herring breadcrumbs that will lead to the reader wondering what in the fuck is going on.

The violence in this book is extremely vivid and is written in a way by King that masterfully conveys the brutality of each of the kills. I think that this helps illustrate truly how dangerous the killer is. I also love how it gradually becomes more and more clear that something more than meets the eye is ravaging the town of Desperation.

One of my biggest gripes with King's works is his characters. Starting off I did not like many of his fan favorite characters. The Creed family, Paul Sheldon, many of the characters in It ... however, in this book, I actually quite liked everyone. I thought that they acted more or less believable in spite of the circumstances.
I liked how each of them felt like a character who was experiencing growth. Especially Johnny Marinville. While I did feel like his change of heart was like... very sudden, I still liked that he went from a egotistical dirtbag to a guy who was willing to indulge in reformation.
The biggest issue, to me, with this book is that it felt a bit like The Stand - lite. Like, it is a fight between good and evil, but without the super virus. I liked the infection aspect of it, as it called to mind The Thing but, I just wish that that was played with a little bit more. I felt like the whole idea of God being used as a means to win was the point of the book, but, I still didn't love it because I felt the tension ebb away. I suppose I can't be too upset as King literally has a kid who is a hyper-Christian as a main character, but, I just felt like I saw the ending coming from long before it happened.
I thought that the history of the story was truly very interesting. I liked the worldbuilding that King added to here, and, when I go and read more of his works I am interested if any of these aspects will be incorporated in to his other books.

I am glad I overcame whatever differences I had with King and am now a fan of his!

Content Warnings

karamelka_kar19's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

marleens's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was a wild ride. Lots of gore and violence, but also a great setting with a lonely highway and a creepy desert town. As usual with King I loved getting all the different POVs. There were a few character interactions that I didn’t like, but most of it was great, and of course it’s always a good time when a group of strangers has to band together to defeat the forces of evil. The weird language that is often used by the evil in the book did confuse me sometimes, I wonder if I was supposed to understand it, maybe it’s references to other King books I haven’t read yet? Something else that should have bothered me was the major theme of religion. Lots of God and prayers in this book, and I would normally have stayed far away from it, but weirdly it worked well in the story and with the characters, and didn’t bother me.

Content Warnings

tle_1994's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

Content Warnings

More...