Blaze

Tragic story of Blaze who has such bad luck. There's a bit of a supernatural element and a tribute to Of Mice and Men.

The events of Blaze's life are so dark: brain-damaged by his father, hated by the head of the orphanage, placed with an abusive foster family, tricked out of a good home by cruel fate. How much could one man take? People taking advantage of his size and slowness right and left. You can't blame him for falling into a life of crime or anything he does because he's a true gentle giant.

“Bachman” really got to me with this one. Blaze's story is frustrating, tragic, compelling, and inevitable.

One seemingly small thing that stood out for me was the irony of the child Blaze fathered (but never knew about.) The son is similar in size and temperament. He's adopted by a presumably good couple, plays high school football, and goes onto college. The implication that Blaze could have had a similar life, but for all bad that happened, really hurts.

Well written and there are a lot of very good parts, but the plot is a little too trivial...

I read this as part of the #KeeperofKing readalong I participate in every month. This book was easy to read which is saying a lot for a King book because his books can be difficult reads with so many pages and so many characters but this one was pretty simple. Not simple in a bad way though. I'm surprised that King made me feel sympathetic for the villain of the story but that is exactly what he did. I felt bad for Blaze because he was dealt a bad hand and ended up being lead down the wrong path by people taking advantage of that. This was a favorite King read but it's definitely one of the more enjoyable ones.