Revival: A Novel

95% intro / excessive character development / pointless side stories that never go anywhere... 5% anticlimactic conclusion with no answers or closure. Very disatisfying, very difficult to get through, and very disappointing in the end. By the time you get to the end you struggle to remember earlier events that the protagonist references. Really could have cut this book down to a fourth of its current length and given a bit more of a satisfying end.

At the beginning of this school year I read my first Stephen King book, Christein, I found it wonderful, a goofy and scary romp for the ages, I continued to read more books from King, Salem's Lot, The Dark Half, Desperation, and my favorite story, the Regulators, written under Richard Bachman. But recently, I've read this book, and in my personal opinion, it is his worst story. For a long time your wondering, when is something going to happen, and when something does happen, it's over and your left wondering what the hell you just read. A boring mess that led to the biggest, "well, that happened" in the world. Don't read this, read one of the Desperation Duo, or Salem's Lot, they are much more enjoyable than this.

This is a really good King's book. I like it and I like it a lot. However, as is too often the case, the culmination felt somewhat weak. The build-up is great, the fall-off is otterly brilliant and depressing but the punch-line falls slightly short and is somewhat predictable. But again, if I could give it 4 1/2 stars I would. I really fall between liking and loving for this book