Roadwork

I went into this book blind, and had to look up spoilers because the content was so heavy. Not in the sense of gore or spookiness, but the depiction of grief and depression, ending in EXTRA SPOILER!! suicide by explosives END SPOILER was just too much for me. 

Amazing, amazing, amazing! Definitely a must read.

King said it's the weakest novel in The Bachman Books collection so I was dreading what abomination it could be if The Long Walk was already one star material. But it was not so. Written between Salem's Lot and The Shining it's sort of a writing exercise that would be perfected in the latter book.

While not outstanding I was intrigued almost all the way through though the ending has a bit smaller bang than I hoped for. I couldn't even bring myself to finish last ten pages late at night, finished them in the morning instead. Theme of losing sanity is among my favorites (it's why I love Philip K. Dick and The Shining) so this single thing kept me going with this novel. Not as good as The Running Man but far better than The Long Walk. It had structure, it had a story, it had character motivation. I can't say the same about The Long Walk.

2.5 stars

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book. There wasn't a lot going on. I mean the whole thing is the main character talking about the laundry business he has worked at for 20 years and how the roadwork is taking everything from him including his house and he is slowly losing it. I was just bored throughout most of it and honestly it could have been so much shorter. The ending gave it a little leg up though.

FALSE

This is the third Bachman Book that I've read as part of The Grand Stephen King Experiment on TannerWillbanks.com. It is, however, the first one that I have truly enjoyed. It is a well-written story about a man losing touch with reality and the links that somebody will go to when they reach rock bottom.