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The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel by Stephen King

11 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

5.0

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This might be my favorite Stephen King to-date. Holly has been one of my favorite characters of his, but John Coffey is a close second. What I like most about them is the duality of their extreme vulnerability and great inner strength. I think the people who meet them, befriend them, love them, that these people are forever changed for having known them. That's the kind of legacy I would want to leave, and so I love these characters. I'm only sorry Coffey had to die in this one (not a spoiler - it's a story taking place on death row!).

There was one moment that made me laugh with amusement. I forget where it was in the book, but Paul reflects how it was 81 degrees in October and still so hot and whether to take it as an indication of end times. The book was written in 1996 and chronicles his life events from 1932 to 1996. I wonder what Paul would think of the weather today. It's the end of October, and in Houston, the weather is 87 degrees. LOL.

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kemrick19's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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lay_kone's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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tifftastic87's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It feels slightly odd to give this a five start and then say it's not my favorite book by Stephen King, but here we are. I genuinely do think that the Green Mile is one of King's greatest books and it is a five star read for me on this second time around. This one always stands out to me because it is one of the rare cases for a King work where the movie holds up for me. That being said I do have some criticisms.

I really wish the only black character in the book hadn't been King's typically magical being and that we didn't have to have him be magical for his incarceration to be in question. I do like that King made some comments early on that minorities in prison are rarely given the same freedoms, or excuses, or even pardons that white people are. But some of the use of Coffey in this story is hard to hear because not only is he incredibly large, he's incredibly dim witted. He is simply a being of instinct with a deeper sense of the world than the rest of us. He is almost childlike in some aspects, being afraid of the dark, not being able to tie his shoes etc. It is uncomfortable at times to hear it that way.

The other thing is that listening to it as an adult versus reading it as a teen I really wanted Paul to stand up to Brad a bit more. There never was any consequences for him and that just didn't sit right with me. But then, rarely are there consequences in life.

Criticisms out of the way, the episodic writing really made the whole feel of the book different than most other King books. Usually we sit with the main character for half to two-thirds of the story before anything really happens and we just get to know them. But with an episodic story like this, you have to get to know them organically and to me that really felt like Paul was sitting down and telling me the story of the fall of 1932 on the green mile. It felt comforting, like a story my own grandparents would have told me around a campfire. Apart from all the brutal murdering that is.

It really felt King did some work here to make criticisms of our prison system, nepotism, and, of course, capitol punishment. There is some light commentary on how race plays into a lot of these things and I think for a book published in 1996 by an older white man, that is maybe not as common as it would be today. While the commentary was clunky and not without it's fair share of white saviourism, it was nevertheless, at least broached.

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