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The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
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The Tommyknockers (original 1987; edition 1993)

by Stephen King

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
9,29481851 (3.31)1 / 155
Fiction. Thriller. HTML:

Late Last Night and the Night Before...

...Tommyknockers, tommyknockers, knocking at the door.

Something was happening in Bobbi Anderson's idyllic small town of Haven, Maine. Something that gave every man, woman, and child in town powers far beyond ordinary mortals. Something that turned the town into a death trap for all outsiders. Something that came from a metal object, buried for millennia, that Bobbi stumbled across.

It wasn't that Bobbi and the other good folks of Haven had sold their souls to reap the rewards of the most deadly evil this side of hell. It was more like a diabolical takeover...and invasion of body and soulâ??and mind.


… (more)

Member:Prinny
Title:The Tommyknockers
Authors:Stephen King
Info:Signet (1993), Mass Market Paperback, 747 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:**
Tags:2000-2010, books-i-own

Work Information

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (1987)

  1. 60
    The Harvest by Scott Nicholson (jseger9000)
    jseger9000: Both books deal with an alien force slowly taking over a rural community.
  2. 40
    Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (jseger9000)
    jseger9000: Another book that deals with a sinister alien force that slowly possesses a small town.
  3. 30
    Brain Wave by Poul Anderson (jseger9000)
    jseger9000: King references Brain Wave in The Tommyknockers and with good reasons. Both books deal (in part) with people whose intelligence is suddenly and unexpectedly increased dramatically.
  4. 10
    Strangers by Dean Koontz (sturlington)
  5. 01
    Cross County by Tim Waggoner (beckylynn)
  6. 13
    Prey by Michael Crichton (Hedgepeth)
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» See also 155 mentions

English (72)  Dutch (3)  Catalan (1)  Hungarian (1)  French (1)  Finnish (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (80)
Showing 1-5 of 72 (next | show all)
King keeps introducing new characters like he's unloading a clown car, right until the end of this bloated mess. ( )
  A.Godhelm | Oct 20, 2023 |
this is the first King book that I remember abandoning in disgust in what an awful book it was. Since then I've learnt that it was around this time that King was in the midst of his cocaine habit and that goes a long way to explain the results - but does nothing to explain why the publishers accepted (and published) it. Could they not just have shoved it in a drawer somewhere?
  nordie | Oct 14, 2023 |
this is the first King book that I remember abandoning in disgust in what an awful book it was. Since then I've learnt that it was around this time that King was in the midst of his cocaine habit and that goes a long way to explain the results - but does nothing to explain why the publishers accepted (and published) it. Could they not just have shoved it in a drawer somewhere?
  nordie | Oct 14, 2023 |
*all reviews pulled from web comments*
There's something strange in the woods in Haven, Maine. Bobbi Anderson, out walking her dog quite literally stumbles over it. A few weeks later when Jim Gardener, poet and drunk decides to visit Bobbi, his only real friend, he finds a woman who's changed. Obsessed, intense, she's inventing things, making things happen. She's developed telepathic powers. But oddest and most ominous of all is what she's discovered buried down beyond the end of her garden.

In my opinion this is the type of story Stephen King does best, horror in a small town. What I liked most about The Tommyknockers was the vast and complex plot featuring lots of gruesome imagery and the building anticipation surrounding the meaning behind a mysterious object and what the consequences of its discovery will be.

The first half of this book is pure character development, the second half is all action. Is it a little overwritten? Maybe, but I still really enjoyed it. So it has some super weird bits (I’ll never look at a Coke vending machine the same way ever again) but I love that. Small town residents go crazy, nastiness, extreme gore and aliens! No one destroys a whole town like Stephen King!

If you like strange and unusual, you'll like this. If you are a slow/impatient reader, I wouldn’t recommend this one.
  TeacherCarrieP | Aug 28, 2023 |
Hmm, probably my least fave Stephen King book I've read so far. I don't really know why, but for some reason I had a really hard time getting into it, especially the first part with just Bobbi (weirded me out that she was referred to as 'Andersson' when we were getting her POV), but when the other characters got introduced it got better.

Though idk. I knew nothing about the plot when I picked it up and from the title you expect them to encounter some sort of horrible monster that knocks and freaks you out and that wasn't what I got AT ALL, so maybe that's why I didn't really like it. It's a bit too long for a book that doesn't engage you properly, even though I enjoyed the second half. ( )
  upontheforemostship | Feb 22, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 72 (next | show all)
The first third of ''The Tommyknockers'' is wonderful. With his usual eerie effortlessness, Mr. King attaches us to Bobbi and Gard, taunting us with menace neither they nor we can define. When evil starts gobbling Haven with a vengeance, swollen prose and comic-book grue spurt out one authentic gem (a little boy's magic show) and instill in us a creeping terror of good country folks. The last third of the novel is Armageddon, as is usual with Mr. King.
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
King, Stephenprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Körber, JoachimTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rekiaro, IlkkaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Related movies
Epigraph
Late last night and the night before,
Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers,
knocking at the door.
I want to go out, don't know if I can,
'cause I'm so afraid
of the Tommyknocker man.

—TRADITIONAL
Well we picked up Harry Truman, floating down from Independence,
We said, "What about the war?"
He said, "Good riddance!"
We said, "What about the bomb? Are you sorry that you did it?"
He said, "Pass me that bottle and mind your own bidness."


—THE RAINMAKERS,
"Downstream"
The terrorist got bombed!
The President got hit!
Security was tight!
The Secret Service got lit!
And everybody's drunk,
Everybody's wasted,
Everybody's stoned,
And there's nothin gonna change it,
Cause everybody's drunk,
Everybody's wasted,
Everybody's drinkin on the job.


—THE RAINMAKERS,
"Drinkin' on the Job"
Then he ran all the way to town, screamin
"It came out of the sky!"


—CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL,
"It Came Out of the Sky"
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

—THE WHO,
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
Dedication
FOR TABITHA KING

"...promises to keep."
First words
For want of a nail the kingdom was lost—that's how the catechism goes when you boil it down.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Do not combine the movie with the book; not the same work.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
Fiction. Thriller. HTML:

Late Last Night and the Night Before...

...Tommyknockers, tommyknockers, knocking at the door.

Something was happening in Bobbi Anderson's idyllic small town of Haven, Maine. Something that gave every man, woman, and child in town powers far beyond ordinary mortals. Something that turned the town into a death trap for all outsiders. Something that came from a metal object, buried for millennia, that Bobbi stumbled across.

It wasn't that Bobbi and the other good folks of Haven had sold their souls to reap the rewards of the most deadly evil this side of hell. It was more like a diabolical takeover...and invasion of body and soulâ??and mind.


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