Few writers can gut punch readers with an ending the way Stephen King can. Written in the first person, 11/22/63 is ominous from the start. But why it is so ominous takes over 850 pages to understand. For all his flaws with endings, the final lines are usually cutting. Take another story told in first person, The Green Mile. It’s only at the end, the very end, that the true cost of the story is revealed with that haunting final line “We each owe a […]
This is not my first apocalypse
As a fan of post-apocalypse fiction who cut her literary teeth on Stephen King, it was nearly impossible for me not to compare this book to The Stand. Both tell the story of a worldwide global Armageddon and its aftermath. Both follow the forces of good and evil as they converge for a final confrontation. Despite those very big similarities, they are very different books. In fact, I could probably write a short essay comparing the two. But since this review is supposed to […]
Still alive
The Girl with All the Gifts breathes life into its genre with a fresh angle on the pathology of an outbreak and an ending that I truly did not expect. The story opens at a noticeably unconventional school/dormitory, where the pupils are carefully monitored and restrained when they are not locked in their individual cells. Our primary protagonist, Melanie, is one such pupil, a bright girl of about ten who loves learning, particularly math and stories of Greek mythology. Her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, encourages […]
Someone read this and talk to me about it, now!
Twelve hours after finishing this book and turning it over in my head I’m still not sure if Marjorie Barrett was a) possessed by a demon. b) an incredibly bright but mentally ill young woman whose psychotic break was exacerbated by her father’s religious mania and her deteriorating family situation c)a convoluted combination of both. That conundrum is only a part makes A Head Full of Ghosts a complex and really amazing work of horror fiction that I managed to blaze through in less than […]