Which King book did you NOT like??

[goathunter]

'Salem's Lot is the first adult novel I remember reading. I was a major King fan from then (1976) until the mid-'80s. I hated The Tommyknockers, and after The Dark Half, I stopped reading King. I didn't read any more of his work until everyone was raving about The Green Mile, which I read and loved. Since then, I've read half-a-dozen others and found them OK, but nothing great.

I forgot---I did read one more after The Dark Half---the uncut edition of The Stand. While some of the extra scenes were good, the book as a whole was, IMO, ruined by the half-assed attempt to change the setting to 1990.

Of the recent books I've read, the one I didn't like at all was Under the Dome.

Hunter

[Tito_Villa]

I've heard mixed reviews of 'The Tommyknockers' too but i'm yet to read it.

[frik51]

It's ok. Not one of the best, but certainly not one of King's worst either.

sk

[Xiabei]

Hmm... to me, I thought "Cell" ended badly. I don't like stories that really have no resolution.

Some of his short stories - The Mangler? Wow. Of all the things in the world I would classify as "scary", a clothes press certainly isn't on that list.

In a general, overreaching sense, his books are often so similar that I find I'm not always in the mood for them, or I'll start one and get halfway through it. I do think he tends to really drag things out sometimes, and by now his character types seem almost like caricatures. I'm still a "buy everything he puts out" person, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll read them these days. I like the older stuff a lot more.

[peteOcha]

Hmm... to me, I thought "Cell" ended badly. I don't like stories that really have no resolution.

Some of his short stories - The Mangler? Wow. Of all the things in the world I would classify as "scary", a clothes press certainly isn't on that list.

In a general, overreaching sense, his books are often so similar that I find I'm not always in the mood for them, or I'll start one and get halfway through it. I do think he tends to really drag things out sometimes, and by now his character types seem almost like caricatures. I'm still a "buy everything he puts out" person, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll read them these days. I like the older stuff a lot more.

I'm usually not very partial to endings that are unresolved, but I have to say that I did like Cell's ending. I guess because I was already thinking ahead and wrapped it up for myself.

[srboone]

I don't think it mattered what happened. That wasn't the point. The point of the story was that King feels Mankind needs to be rebooted or reinvented in order to progress as a race and getting him to that point was the important part. Where it goes from there is unknown, but something needs to happen. Might as well be a pulse.

[Teriw]

I'm usually not very partial to endings that are unresolved, but I have to say that I did like Cell's ending. I guess because I was already thinking ahead and wrapped it up for myself.

What ending? lol. But I agree with Squire even though it still pisses me off that it didnt end

[PaulB]

For me it has to be The Tommyknockers closely followed by Delores Claiborne. Have re read The Tommyknockers twice and found it a struggle each time. I think I read somewhere that King wrote it at the peak of his recreational pharmaceutical use and I think it shows in the writing.

[Teriw]

Delores claiborne was great. I read slow unless I get really into something. Instead of a several month span I read it in about 2 weeks.

[Xiabei]

I don't think it mattered what happened. That wasn't the point. The point of the story was that King feels Mankind needs to be rebooted or reinvented in order to progress as a race and getting him to that point was the important part. Where it goes from there is unknown, but something needs to happen. Might as well be a pulse.

Well, I prefer books that actually have some type of resolution, because I don't personally enjoy spending the time to read something that leaves everything up in the air. Brian Keene's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" was horrible in that respect as well. I don't think that I should have to write my own ending, but that's just me. It seems like a cop-out to end a book without resolving anything.

[Grant Wootton]

On board with you Mr Boone, The Cell allowed each of us to formulate our own Post-Noah's Ark / Meteor That Killed The Dinosaurs conclusion

[srboone]

I think it involves the reader a little more to end it that way. The book asks each person to examine how they would reinvent themselves if suddenly they had to start over; not just financially, but intellectuall, spiritually and emotionally as well. Kind of a "what would you differently" scenario. I still put Cell in the lower end of King books, but I did like it's open ending--and admire the courage it takes to end a book in that manner.

[Tito_Villa]

I loved Cell, untill the ending, i wanted more!!!

[JDar.]

DREAMCATCHER is one of the few books (by any author) that I never finished. Since it was Stephen King, I stuggled for over 150 pages, then realized that I didn't give a damn if any of the charactors lived or died.

After being disappointed with Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne, Dreamcatcher made me seek other authors to read . . . haven't been back since.

Jan

[Tito_Villa]

Haven't been back since .... you really need to re think that, King's latest 11/22/63 is a great novel ... and i really liked Dreamcatcher