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I think Revival
benefits from not knowing much going in, so I’ll be vague about the plot over the cut. It’s an uneven book, extremely gripping and with some interesting themes, with a fantastic beginning and an ending that would have really worked for me if it had made some choices other than the ones it actually made.
For most of the book, the horror elements are backgrounded rather than foregrounded. The first third, which begins with the narrator’s childhood meeting with the new young preacher, who has an interest in electricity and departs under a cloud, is absolutely riveting even though for most of it, nothing particularly dramatic is happening. It’s beautifully written, vivid, and has a masterful use of foreshadowing. (The “cloud” does not involve child abuse. However, there is child death.)
The middle of the book, which follows Jamie into adulthood, is also compelling reading, with some genuinely scary moments. The climax went in a direction that didn’t work for me.
It’s hard to either rec or anti-rec this without spoilers. It’s extremely gripping, has some great moments of subtle horror, and is very beautifully written for the most part. For much of its length, it could be a mainstream novel with magic realist touches, about the inexorable passage of time and age, what we gain and what we lose and what we only realize in retrospect, and whether there’s anybody out there but us. The fantastical elements have one strand that really worked for me but I suspect comes across as totally ridiculous to some readers, and another that did not work for me at all but I suspect really worked for some readers. So, caveat emptor. I really enjoyed reading it but I wouldn’t rank it as a favorite King; I’d suggest reading the first chapter and seeing if it grabs you.
Huge spoilers. ( Read more... )
benefits from not knowing much going in, so I’ll be vague about the plot over the cut. It’s an uneven book, extremely gripping and with some interesting themes, with a fantastic beginning and an ending that would have really worked for me if it had made some choices other than the ones it actually made. For most of the book, the horror elements are backgrounded rather than foregrounded. The first third, which begins with the narrator’s childhood meeting with the new young preacher, who has an interest in electricity and departs under a cloud, is absolutely riveting even though for most of it, nothing particularly dramatic is happening. It’s beautifully written, vivid, and has a masterful use of foreshadowing. (The “cloud” does not involve child abuse. However, there is child death.)
The middle of the book, which follows Jamie into adulthood, is also compelling reading, with some genuinely scary moments. The climax went in a direction that didn’t work for me.
It’s hard to either rec or anti-rec this without spoilers. It’s extremely gripping, has some great moments of subtle horror, and is very beautifully written for the most part. For much of its length, it could be a mainstream novel with magic realist touches, about the inexorable passage of time and age, what we gain and what we lose and what we only realize in retrospect, and whether there’s anybody out there but us. The fantastical elements have one strand that really worked for me but I suspect comes across as totally ridiculous to some readers, and another that did not work for me at all but I suspect really worked for some readers. So, caveat emptor. I really enjoyed reading it but I wouldn’t rank it as a favorite King; I’d suggest reading the first chapter and seeing if it grabs you.
Huge spoilers. ( Read more... )
