Review: A Good Marriage

Author: Stephen King

Started reading: November 10th 2021

Finished the book: November 17th 2021

Pages: 253

Genres: Fiction, Thriller

Published: September 30th 2014

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 3.83

My score:

Synopsis

What happens when, on a perfectly ordinary evening, all the things you believed in and took for granted are turned upside down?

When her husband of more than 20 years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Review: Billy Summers

Author: Stephen King

Started reading: September 29th 2021

Finished the book: November 10th 2021

Pages: 515

Genres: Thriller, Crime

Published: August 3rd 2021

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 4.30

My score:

Synopsis

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?

How about everything.

Review: Later

Author: Stephen King

Started reading: July 10th 2021

Finished the book: August 25th 2021

Pages: 248

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller

Published: March 2nd 2021

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 4.04

My score:

Synopsis

The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine - as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

Later is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King's classic novel IT, Later is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.

Review: End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3)

Author: Stephen King
Started reading: June 21st 2019
Finished the book: July 21st 2019
Pages: 432
Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller
Published: June 7th 2016
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.09
My score:

Synopsis

In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.

Review: Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Trilogy #2)

Author: Stephen King
Started reading: May 12th 2019
Finished the book: June 18th 2019
Pages: 431
Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Horror, Mystery
Published: June 2nd 2015
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.04
My score:

Synopsis
John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel.

Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years.

Review: Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)

Author: Stephen King
Started reading: January 4th 2019
Finished the book: January 21st 2019
Pages: 436
Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Horror, Mystery
Published: June 3rd 2014
Source: Kindle Book
Goodreads score:
My score:

Synopsis
In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Review: IT

Author: Stephen King
Started reading: October 22nd 2016
Finished the book: January 15th 2017
Pages: 1376
Short review: Horror, creepy atmosphere, awesome characters, unique story
Published: October 1st 1987
Source: Bought the book
Hearts:
❤❤❤❤❤


Characters:
This book is about 7 kids who grow up in Derry and become friends.
Bill; The leader of this group, stuttering a lot, becomes a writer.
Beverly; The only girl in this group, likes to do boys stuff, is hit by her father.
Ben; The "fat-kid", he is great at building stuff.
Eddie; Has asthma and a really worried mother.
Richie; The "funny" one in the group, does weird voices all the time.
Stan; A neat Jew boy, loves bird spotting.
Mike; An African American boy, who ends up with the group because of Henry Bowers, is the only one who stays in Derry his whole life.

Derry is tormented by someting evil. The kids all feel and see this evil and try to fight it together. You get to know the characters as a kid, but also as a grown-up. 27 years later, the 7 main characters have no recollection about their childhood. It's so cool to experience the story through the eyes of kids, but also through the eyes of adults. You learn more about the childhood story, because the grown-ups start to remember slowly. I really believe that the characters are the strongest part of this book. Next tot the 7 main characters, there are great sidecharacters as well. You have IT (the evil lurking in Derry) & Henry Bowers (a bully that has an eye out for the 7 main characters).

World-building:
The story takes place in Derry, Maine. This town is described as a disturbing town. A lot has been going on in the past and it feels like it's not the safest place for someone to live. At some point I really felt like Derry was the biggest evil in this book. A lot has been happening in the past, not only a lot of disappearances, but shootings and big fires are also part of it's past. And the adults in this book don't seem to notice, in a weird way...

Story-line:
The story starts with 6 people getting a call from a guy named Mike Hanlon from Derry. He tells these people that "It has started" and that they need to get back to Derry. The main characters seem to have no recollection of their past, only that they made a promise 27 years ago and they need to go back to Derry. Not all main characters arrive at Derry, but once they are there, they get some of their memories back. They spend their first night sharing stories about their childhood and that is how they all, little by little, seem to remember what happened 27 years ago...

Plot-twists:
This is not a book with big plot twists. A lot of shocking stuff is happening, but it almost feels "normal" in this book. When you're not shocked about another head ripped off or another kid that gets eaten, you really know you're reading another book from Stephen King.
The plot-twists are limited in this book, but I think you don't always need big plot-twists. The creepy ambiance and scary vibe in this book were enough to keep you reading!

So:
If you're not scared about a lot of pages and want a rich story with great characters you should read this book. Keep in mind that this is horror, and you really have to like the genre. The first 700/800 pages are slow, because Derry's past is told and the story is being set-up. It took me 4 months, allright. But I read the last 500 pages within 2 days!

Goodreads Review:
Review IT