Stephen King's Desperation

Desperation by Stephen King
First Printing: 1996 by Viking
Interior Art: John Jude Palencar
Cover Art: Unknown

Just look at that glorious beard.

I'm back after taking a week off for Thanksgiving! If your holidays are anything like mine, sometimes books are the only escape. The only thing that could be more terrifying than a family gathering would be a thriller from the master of horror himself.

Desperation converges on a young couple, a family on vacation, and an uninspired writer. Each are travelling through Nevada on the lonely U. S. 50, and each are pulled over by a small-town cop. That cop is Collie Entragian, and something is deeply wrong with him. He arrests our travelers on the spot, killing some and jailing the others. The prisoners witness Entragian speaking in an ancient language that the animals not only understand, but obey.

 "He's not just a serial killer; he's the Bram Stoker version of Dr. Dolittle." says Johnny Marinville, the captured writer.

 The entire desert seems bent on keeping them captive, and their only hope comes from an unlikely source. David, the only child in the group, claims to be able to speak to God. David knows that his visions are true, but can he convince the others in time to save them?

About halfway through this book I started having nightmares about scorpions invading my house. In the dream, the only way to get rid of the scorpions was to read the entire book and then the secret to killing them would be revealed. Many times the dream would start with me waking, finding scorpions all over the place, and then peeking over the side of the bed to find this:

Good morning, sunshine!

Final Rating: 4 out of 5
In a nutshell, this story had me hooked enough that I was subconsciously wanting to read it all the time, even while asleep. I stayed up late finishing chapter after chapter, and I was peeking at it during family gatherings. It was terrifying enough to give me nightmares, and the story kept me hooked with its continuous motion. King could have improved upon it by not leaning on his go-to character models (i. e. the hack writer, the bad cop, etc), but the plot was more than enough to keep my interest. I can't wait to get started on its companion, The Regulators!

Favorite Quote:
"GOD FORGIVE ME, I HATE CRITICS!"- Johnny Marinville, page 529

Bonus inside-cover art by John Jude Palencar!

Desperation is available in physical and digital copies from all major booksellers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.