sean fitzharris

Bitterly disappointing. I am a massive Stephen King fan and love the other books in this series, but this one suffered greatly from constant references to COVID, masks, vaccines, Trump etc which have no relevance to the plot. I get that this is a reflection of the times in which it is set, as well as the characters personality, but there is no need to mention it on literally every page. It adds nothing to the story and ends up being a distraction. To be clear, I am not agreeing or disagreeing with any of the authors sentiments on these subjects - just commenting that his continuous references to them completely spoiled this book. What should have been a very enjoyable read ended up being a total slog which I struggled to finish. If an abridged version was available with the relentless Trump/COVID/mask/vaccine segues removed then I would upgrade my rating to 3 or maybe even 4 stars.