“I think telling stories is like pushing something. Pushing against uncreation itself, maybe. And one day while you were doing that, you felt something pushing back.”
I can’t believe I only have one book left in this series! It feels like I’ve been reading it forever, but also no time at all. (I read The Gunslinger last fall, and The Drawing of Three in December, which is when I really fell into Sai King’s world.) What it really feels like being inside this story, I suppose, is timeless. (Perhaps weirdly because it is so aware of time, and feels really specific, like all SK stories do, to a time and place? And that unfortunately includes some racially uncomfortable moments . . . )
I can see why some people don’t really like this one. Not a super lot happens in this book in terms of plot, at least in Susannah’s sections, but I was engrossed in it the whole time nevertheless. The short length and extended lead up to the birth of Susannah/Mia’s baby felt really tense and, well, expectant. And I thought the sections with Eddie and Roland (and “Stephen King”!) in Maine, were nearly perfect. Just the right combination of action, character moments, worldbuilding and revelations. Also, I super dug all the meta shit, the way he comments on art at the same time as moving his story along. If we have more of that to look forward to in the last book, I’m there.
All in all, just a super weird installment in this super weird series. No idea how it’s going to end (probably not well for any of our characters). What the heck is even going to happen.
[4.5 stars]
I just finished listening to this one (yes, again) today. I still don’t know what I think of it. I keep changing my mind.
The one constant for me: if I ever met Calvin Tower in real life, I would probably strangle him.
Which parts do you change your mind about?
Mostly I struggle with whether or not I even like Susannah as a character, and how I feel about the focus being on her for the majority of the book. Each time I read it I have a different opinion…this time I listened to the book and it made me dislike Susannah even more than other times.
I hate Detta. I don’t really care for Odetta. I despise Mia. Susannah Dean isn’t too bad, but as a whole, she’s not my favorite.
But.
Knowing what I know is coming, I get that the book is a set up, sort of a placeholder. And in that way it works for me.
I do miss that we didn’t get a lot of time with Jake and Pere. And I wanted more of Roland and Eddie hanging out with John Cullen.
I’d have loved 100 more pages of Jake and Pere running around modern day Manhattan with Oy and holding guns up to obnoxious cab drivers and getting deli sandwiches with pickles and stuff.
I really enjoy Susannah’s split personalities because it seems to me a heightened way to portray conflicting identities. Why do you hate Mia so much? She’s not really Susannah, more of an interloper, yes? Or did I read that wrong?
I think it being a placeholder is exactly what I enjoyed about it. I recently finished the last book (review forthcoming when I clean my brains off the floor) and it was just SO STRESSFUL, right from page one. In hindsight, I appreciate the slow build up of this one even more.