THE STAND (Stephen King) - November 23/17

My crazy brain wouldn't let me not finish that and although the first half was pretty much interminable, I will admit I found myself really enjoying the second half. Basically once the good guys are all together and Flagg and his gang are in Vegas. The characters became much more manageable and I found myself rooting for Stu and Frannie and the rest of the heroes, while Flagg does make for a pretty great villain. The way Flagg and his crew are killed seems awfully sudden, especially for all that buildup, but I liked the twist that he wasn't actually dead. Maybe the original, shorter version of this is more palatable? *** out of ****

IT (Stephen King) - November 4/17

Jesus H. Christ, Steve. I think I've been working on this one off and on for like three months and honestly it felt endless. The bones of the story are good - centuries-old evil torments small town, how could it not be awesome? - but damn does King ruin it by dragging it out beyond any reasonable measure. Far worse is his tendency to offer up completely dull, momentum-killing interludes involving one-and-done characters. Who cares? I glazed over a lot of this, especially the action heavy final stretch, and I'm shocked this was a well-received novel. * out of ****