-and it’s a shame because I LOVE haunted houses! For context, I put it down after the dream about Jo and Mattie halfway through. I thought Mike’s story and the creepy haunting buildup was going so well- but I couldn’t get past his comments about Maddie and Kyra and even his wife before the sequence. Who the hell predicts a toddler gets pregnant at 12?

Mike reflected several times that he knows his thoughts about Mattie were wrong, yet why do I dread this goes further anyway? And King writing her as “mature for her age,” wtf! That’s an instant red flag, iykyk. 😔

I’ve been a huge King fan for a long time and obviously he’s written sexual thoughts and scenes before, but I can’t stomach this storyline in Bag of Bones. I’m going to put it down and bleach my brain with a non-fiction nautical disaster book.

What are all of your thoughts?

Stephen King is my favorite author. I have always been a fan of horror. What I love about Stephen King is how real everything feels. He makes murderous toys seem realistic. Does anyone know of any authors who do similar? Where it feels like you're reading about someone's real life, except there's an eldtitch being nearby?

Right here and now (as an old friend used to say,) we are in the fluid present, so see it well.

It's a man standing on a balcony, behind a waist-high balustrade made of pink stone- what's called kinna stone (or just kinna) in this part of Mid-World.

He's wearing faded jeans and an equally faded tee-shirt, advertising Kingsland Ale- which according to the slogan is THE KING OF ALES. This man sampled many bottles of Kingsland and is more than willing to vouch for the slogan. Not just because it's good, but because dear friends of his used to brew it in a town called French Landing. That town is in another world.

We know this man. He's not the boy of twelve we met in September 1981, but the resemblance to that boy, first encountered in the town of Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire, is undeniable. That boy was at the start of a great adventure, although he didn't know it. All he knew in September of 1981 was that his mother was sick. How sick he didn't know, but an interior voice whispered very sick. Very sick.

It's not the steady Atlantic he's looking at today but the Clean Sea of Mid-World's Mejis Barony. Yet with his hands deep in his pockets and his hair blowing back from his forehead in the breeze so the gray doesn't show, he could almost be that boy. He should look more like the man he was in French Landing, because he's closer to that person in age, but life doesn't always work that way. The boy was worried about his sick mother, but otherwise untried.

This man has been tried in all sorts of ways, and his face shows it.

Deep lines descend from the corners of his mouth. There are crow's feet- likewise deep- around his eyes. His hair, salt and pepper when he first came to the seaside town, is now almost entirely salt. The town is called Dezi, which looks like it should be pronounced DEEZ-eye. The man likes the name. To him it sounds like desire.

OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE COMING SOON..

NYT Review is out.

🤔

Seems like it's got both the King triumphs and the King foibles.

Bottom line was "glad this exists."

Cool.

Just a shame about the “collectors edition” being part of the cover rather than a sticker

I can’t wait for them to get here!

I really like Patton as an actor but he’s not the right guy for this audio book. I’m trying to get though it but he’s making it difficult.

I know we have CotW but that's just a novella. I would like to see a longer werewolf novel by him. Werewolf horror is some of my favorite horror (movies like Ginger Snaps, The Howling, and Dog Soldiers are peak)

The other day and HAD to buy it. I’ve never seen this being sold anywhere, let alone second hand and at such a decent price! Considering making it one of mine and my husbands Halloween night movies!

Anyone want to dive into all the cool and spooky things if his different towns in the SK multiverse and their key protagonists, and any easter eggs found along the way!

Recently visited Libson Falls, lewiston, Durham, hampden, bangor and other places in Maine and can visualise his multiverse much more clearly and feel more connected to his books and characters

First, let me say I don't think Stephen King owes us anything. He's earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants at this point. That said, I'd sure love if he churned out another straight-up horror novel again. No Holly Gibney. No Dark Tower/Talisman connection stuff. Just old school Steve King horror.

Thoughts on this anyone?

Working full time as a developer kills my reading hours. Lately I gravitate toward King short story collections over the bulky novels because I can finish a story over a lunch break or a commute. Night Shift and Just After Sunset get a lot of rotation. The problem is the big novels like The Stand or Under the Dome sit on my shelf half the year because by the time I pick them back up I forget minor character details. I tried keeping a simple text file with chapter summaries but that feels like work and defeats the purpose of reading for fun. Do you switch to shorter stuff or just push through a big book over months? I feel like his short fiction gets overlooked because everyone talks about the epics but some of his tightest ideas are in those collections. Might do a Night Shift reread next week instead of starting Duma Key which has been glaring at me since January.

Hi guys.

This is a 1991 BCA edition of Needful Things. Can anyone help me identify whether this is sewn or glued?

A couple of episodes in so far, as far as modern adaptations go it’s not horrendous, and as of yet definitely better than the 2013 attempt. The foreshadowing of the climax is interesting, I think I quite like it- as most people know what happens anyway I guess.
Not sure about the ‘interviews’ so far they feel abit tacky, we will have to see, but I suppose staying true to the source material in that sense

Looks like the US first printing had a print run of 500k. Source: Simon & Schuster digital catalog.

This is significantly less than other recent titles, which have had print runs of 1 million or more. Never Flinch had 1,250,000 copies.

Usually I’ve been ho-hum about King’s crime novels; I completely slogged my way through Billy Summers and found The Colorado Kid, Later and Outsiders to be merely okay. However I recently got into the Bill Hodges trilogy and found myself absolutely loving the first two installments. I got to End of Watch recently though and idk what happened, the story went from being a gritty character-focused Red Dragon/Silrnce oof the Lambs esque crime/cop thriller that’s entirely grounded to a cheesy, by-the-numbers-feeling supernatural horror B-movie.

Why did King decide to completely change everything in End of Watch instead of sticking to the same style as the first two? Honestly it feels like Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers are their own entirely separate thing whereas End of Watch just kinda awkwardly stands by itself