Wednesday Book Review: Revival

Title: Revival

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Book procurement: Birthday gift from cousin

Synopsis: (Goodreads)

In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.

Decades later, Jamie is living nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Now an addict, he sees Jacobs again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

Review:

The King does it again. Another fascinating tale of humans verses the unknown, and all the things that make us human; with just a dash of horror to liven it up of course. What I really enjoyed about this book was the fact that the horror itself was not in the form of monsters or aliens or anything of the sort but the realm of the unknown and the ever sought answer to life’s greatest mystery: what happens after death.

Told from the perspective of Jamie Morton, we “grow up” with the six year old boy playing with toy soldiers to the young man falling in love to the older man caught in a web between himself and his old preacher Charles Jacobs. I want to say more, but I have to keep it vague in fear of writing a spoiler.

King has always been a name dropper. Band names, songs they sang, the people in the band. Places. People. Things. King makes them part of the story which thereby gives a sense of authenticity to his books; as though it were a tale that happened in the very world we live in. Looking up almost all the references in Revival leads you to a factual person, band or song, and I love that aspect of “world building” in it.

I must say I was sourly disappointed by the end. Not the ending itself but the big reveal of the mystery at the end… so anti-climatic. I mean sure, it was very King-like, and if you have watched any SK book-to-movie adaptations, this ending will fit right in. But it was not that scary nor was it spectacular. I would have thought that I was perhaps desensitised to it, but there were other aspects before hand that made me put the book down and shake the image out of my head. *shivers*

All in all, a typical King book and story that I enjoyed.

Rating: Resuscitating 3 out of 5

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