I was concerned that this would be a bloody horror, but no, just a well written novel, in fact I consider it among King's best work. The one I have is the 45th anniversary edition, I doubt that it is significantly different that the first edition. ( )

Großartiges Buch! Für mich stimmte hier alles! ( )

After a 4+ year coma, Johnny Smith awakens & finds he gets visions - when he touches someone/something, he often gets glimpses of their past/future. The rest of the book is about what he does (or doesn't do) as a response to his visions, how the people around him treat him. Some see him as being superpowered, while others act as if he's cursed. Johnny himself wants to be left alone, but sometimes he is pulled into situations as a result of this ability. I appreciated Johnny as a character, seeing him struggle with recovery & his visions. His post-coma relationship with Sarah was strange, though. King did a good job of building up tension, especially towards the end. Quite an easy read, & I certainly enjoyed it ( )

#366 in our old book database. Rated "Good." ( )

Stephen King's sixth book. Copyright 1979. Didn't seem to flow well. First part had a nice scene with a carnival game and magical ability to predict outcome. The following car crash resulting in a four plus year coma worked for me. However, the character who was the Castle Rock killer and the other character who was an evil politician confused me. I thought they were one person when first introduced. Also was disappointed there were two psychic events involving same type of disaster: A fire. The end of the book's format being different than the other parts added to the strange flow of the book that wasn't working as well as it could. Nonetheless I enjoyed the book as I have enjoyed many by this author.
9,776 members; 3.8 average rating; 12/15/2023 ( )