The Dead Zone

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Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times compared reading the novel to the experience of watching "a particularly compelling movie", which he said is evidence of the novel's entertainment value, even if it does not speak of its literary value. [3] The Washington Post 's reviewer wrote, "It is not a book that will please everyone, but those who like it will probably like it a lot." [4] In a retrospective review, James Smythe of The Guardian wrote that The Dead Zone had become one of his favorite King novels after rereading it. Smythe said that although the novel seems to have no clear antagonist throughout the first two-thirds, it reveals itself as "a more literary novel about rehabilitation and loss". [5] The book is a wonderful character study about a happy and unassuming man, and then watching him go through dreadful changes when his life is shattered and he's given God like abilities.

Vera, presuming that God doesn’t desire her to take medication for her elevated blood pressure, suffers a huge stroke after viewing Johnny on the information. Dr. Weizak pushes Johnny to a different hospital to see his mommy. Sarah visits Johnny at the hospital, and they have a debate about how Sarah’s been the previous five decades. Soon afterwards, Johnny leaves the hospital and goes to live with his dad.Note: If interested, you can listen to an online interview clip with James Franco about the audiobook experience HERE. This book also fits very nicely into my 1970s nostalgic tour of horror books even though technically I can’t call this horror. Here are the other books that I've read on this quest. I was more reflective while reading this and wondering how I would react if I had Johnny's abilities and life. What I found more interesting here is what King did with Johnny’s mother, Vera. She starts out as someone with strong fundamental religious beliefs, but Johnny’s accident sends her over the high side and into the realm where she starts believing tabloid stories about Jesus living underground at the South Pole. She’s completely immune to facts and logic, and she’d rather rely on prayer than medication to handle her high blood pressure.

Ed Glosser, Trivial Psychic", a Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Christopher Walken that parodies the film Sometime in early 2013, I resolved to read some of the Stephen King books I missed during my binge around the turn of the century. Along with The Shining and It, the Dead Zone is something I'm surprised I hadn't read years ago. Knelman, Martin (1987). Home Movies: Tales from the Canadian Film World. Key Porter Books. ISBN 1-55013-049-8. The movies usually don't compare and I can only think of a few examples that did a fantastic job with one of King's books. The Dead Zone received the following accolades: Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (1980), World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel (1980), and Balrog Award Nominee for Best Novel (1980). [6]The Dead Zone is more of a drama than a horror, with some science fiction elements thrown in, but what is truly terrifying are the parallels that can be drawn between Greg Stillson, the politician that Johnny forsees causing a nuclear war, and Donald Trump. The similarities are so eerie! King MUST have some some Johnny Smith powers of this own! As an aside: The novel proper begins in 1970 and ends in 1978. King does a marvelous job of efficiently evoking the passage of this time, especially the years when Johnny is in a coma). I'm so glad coming out of this that I finally got round to it as it is yet another great King adaptation worthy of its acclaim. My advice to you dear reader is, if there’s a movie being made of a Stephen King book, read the book first!

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies. I did enjoy the story of Jonny Smith, he is a character that is easy to invest everything in but my problem lay with the bad guys. They simply weren’t in the story enough to get any feel for, There was a chapter about the killer early on and then nothing more until he was identified, which was a little too easy, there should have been more airtime devoted to the killer to ramp up the tension, no reveal but more focus around his acts themselves.

Mental powers are a commonly used trope in King´s works and I couldn´t name another author who uses it with such ingenuity, because he unleashes the characters to observe how they freely develop their angelic or hellish powers and become the mentalist, mind penetrating elve, psych necromancer with daddy issues, or whatever. One could say it are descriptions of what his subconsciousness imagines certain magical powers might be made out of and how they could manifest in normal humans, ghosts, or any mythological figure. Collings, Michael R. (August 30, 2008). The Films of Stephen King. Borgo Press. p.91. ISBN 978-0-89370-984-6. I ended up loving Johnny Smith by the end and all the characters were fantastic, even the ones that you hated. There is horror in this novel. But it is not supernatural, oh no: John's supernatural power is benign. The horror is in what that power unearths. Yes, Greg Stillson is the boogeyman in this story.

Evans, Bradford (February 17, 2011). "The Lost Roles of Bill Murray". Archived from the original on May 20, 2015 . Retrieved May 25, 2015. It's a pretty gripping read but it's not one of my favorite King books. I like the story but the only characters I felt any kind of attachment to were Johnny and his father. I was surprised by the ending, though, but I guess I shouldn't have. Stephen King was just getting started tearing the guts out of his readers at this point. But it did make me a little sad at the end it’s about the only King novel I have read that I have wished for a happy ending!The Dead Zone is King's seventh novel and the fifth under his own name. The book spawned a 1983 film adaptation as well as a television series. I think many people recommend Carrie or The Shining to people just starting King. I rarely hear The Dead Zone. But, to me, this would be a fantastic place to start. It is not too long to be daunting (like It or The Stand). It does not involve the potential commitment of a series (like The Dark Tower or Hodges Trilogy). I think the story is fairly straight forward and would be easily accessible to many. Also, hoping that I am not saying too much, I think this story is particularly terrifying in the world’s current political climate. The development of John, his relationship with his family (and Sarah) and the progression of his ability/the perception of his ability by others, was the driving force of this novel. In fact, it was more entertaining than the ultimate climax of the text, which dealt with the question of "if you could stop Hitler before he rose to power would ya?" Like in the novel, Johnny Smith assists the sherrif in the solving of several rape-stranglings of various women. He is able to expose him as the serial killer. Before they can arrest him, he commits suicide.