Alice Inacio

I have to give King his crown - the first half of this narrative was incredibly captivating. Grotesque, and mind-boggling descriptions at its finest! This was my first Stephen King novel, and perhaps thriller/mystery as well, so I didn't have expectations going into this. Regardless, as you may notice from the other reviews, the ending was underwhelming, to say the least. I found myself searching for reasonings behind every occurrence in the book - why's, how's, when's, and what's...all to be answered with a supernatural figure that is to be blamed for the brutal murders of children and their families. Don't get me wrong, I love a thought-provoking book, but I wasn't expecting to do that much thinking with an almost 500-page book. To me, many of the introduced plot(s), characters and chapters felt absolutely unecessary and so prolonged; I unfortunately couldn't count the times I yawned. Especially when the question of "who did it?" was answered halfway through the book - a slow burn? Perhaps. However, it truly had me questioning the countless hours I spent reading this massive book! If you lack patience, I would recommend perhaps looking into his other books (as I will do), however, if you're questioning this review then read the book for yourself and you'll see what I mean. It's captivating, but physically made me tired at the end. This may have been my first book, however...definitely not the last. 3.5/5