Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Dolores Claiborne

The scariest king book I've read so far. I genuinely had a jump scare at one point. If you find real life situations scarier than things like monsters, this is the horror story for you.

There are no chapters. Just one long story as told from the narrator in one sitting. This added so much to the story. It felt like I was right there in the room. The accents are shown through stylistic spelling choices which also adding to this as you read the whole book from this perspective.

This book is going to linger with me for awhile.

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finnsnowbevi's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

4.0

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joshkiba13's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

"Time's a reach, too, you know, just like the one that lies between the islands and the mainland, but the only ferry that can cross it is memory, and that's like a ghost-ship--- if you want it to disappear, after awhile it will." -Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne.

This was a unique one for sure in terms of style. No chapters or breaks, just a nearly 400 page monologue-confession. This means we are locked in to Dolores and her personality right away. And it ended with a sfylistic device King uses from time to time with excerpts from fictional articles and journals, which I always like.

I loved Vera Donovan's character and how the book started with Dolores's story of the three ways Vera could be a bitch. Setting her up that way and then having her be such a vital piece in Dolores's life and choices was great.

King does great making us love to hate some characters and just flat out hate others. The development builds over time and eventually gets our stomachs turning and blood boiling. We really start to root for our mama bear protagonist.

It really feels like a person telling a story, since it jumps around time-wise and is filled with rambles, Maine slang, and such. Several of her phrases made me smile while reading.

Some of my favorite parts were the little touches of horror, like Vera's hallucinations of dust bunnies and wires, and Dolores's subsequent nightmares. Perhaps I need to read a true King horror like The Shining . . .

Overall it was an intriguing read that came to surprise me at the end. Stellar character development and a unique style.

". . .the love a natural mother feels for her children [is] the strongest love there is in the world, and it's the deadliest. There's no bitch on earth like a mother frightened for her kids . . . In the end, it's the bitches of the world who abide."

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

4.0

This was told as a single, 300 page long stream of consciousness narrative, which I find can be really hit or miss. In this case, it was well done, Dolores was an interesting and surprisingly sympathetic character and the story kept me guessing the whole time. It took a little bit to wrap my head around the style and the writing, but this felt so different than most of what I've read from King that I really enjoyed reading it. I'm also glad that I wasn't just making stuff up when I was picturing Kathy Bates as Dolores the whole time. I thought that I might have just been mixing this up with <i> Misery </i>, but it turns out she played the lead in both movies.

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taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Just finished Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King in honor of the Eclipse taking place today. It felt like a very fitting read, and not that I expected anything less from one and only Stephen King, it delivered. While I hope no one follows in Dolores’s footsteps during the eclipse, I loved the format of this account. I don’t quite know if I would have liked the format from any other author, but for King’s style, it works pretty flawlessly. My one complaint is that the lack of chapters makes it hard to put down and read over multiple sittings. Not impossible, just difficult. You have to pick your moments of natural pauses to stop, and I just found there weren’t many of them. This feels like it is meant to be read in one shot, and if you can manage that, all the power to you! The pacing and flow were great, and I really wish I could have read it all in one sitting to get the narrative as Andy would have heard it in that room. I think the characters felt real, and though they suffered trauma throughout, it made them feel more realistic and grounded in the story. Though not my favorite SK novel (That spot is still reserved for Misery) there is definitely a reason why King is known for his writing, and this is certainly another great example.

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