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The tale is about seven children, outcasts and bullied by their peers, in a small New England town. The tales of the bullying is horrifying in themselves, but soon all seven begin being pursued by a mysterious clown, appearing to them as their most greatest fear. Pennywise, incidentally, is behind a string of murders in the town and neighbouring area.

Because of their shared persecution, and because there are only so few places one can run and hide in a small town, the seven of them eventually meet, forge a friendship and band together against the bullies, and eventually Pennywise the evil clown.

Unfortunately, they do not kill Pennywise as they believe. As such, they find themselves on a journey back to Derry, Maine for their final battle against Pennywise.

Honestly, I had a rough idea of the book, although the details weren’t clear. Each incident that featured Pennywise in the build-up of the book was chilling, and I would look forward to the rainy evenings before bedtime with Pennywise, cowering in fear and delight! This is where Stephen King is best, writing the most chilling and suspenseful horror fiction in recent years.

He builds a relationship between the reader and his characters. By the end of each chapter, we might know more about them than they themselves do. Sometimes he kills them off immediately, sometimes he kills them or maims them later, sometimes they live, sometimes they become evil, but whatever it is, we (the readers) have a connection with the character in question. Excellent!

Where he can go wrong is where his storytelling goes too far into the sub-plots and background building. He doesn’t do this in “It”. He does do something which I also find to be a weaker point, turning the story into something so bizarre, it doesn’t gel. At least with me…

The climax and denouement of “It” was not satisfying to me. The climax reminds me of “Exorcist: The Beginning“, with lots of Hollywood effects and storytelling thrown in. The denouement left me a little sad but still, bizarre much? I’m not going to say much more than that, but I guess this is why “‘Salem’s Lot” stays in my mind much more than “It”; the former is far more consistent, although the latter’s most brilliant parts surpasses the former’s scary bits.

Still, one of the scariest pieces of contemporary fiction out there. So give it whirl!

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I don’t need to go into too much detail, the story of ‘Salem’s Lot is well-know even outside the circle of horror readers. Ben Mears and Mark Petrie are the last two survivors of a town slowly besieged by vampires. Eventually, Mears and Petrie return to rid the town of the vampire plague.

One of King’s greatest talents is that he  lovingly creates a character, fleshes them out, builds little sub-sub-sub-sub-sub plots about them, with other characters then developed within this web of storytelling, and for the most part, this works. The reader is drawn into a world of intrigue, building a relationship with character after character, some of whom he kills immediately after telling you all about them. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t work.

With ‘Salem’s Lot, it works. The storyline(s) are compelling, and each character makes the story more than three-dimensional (if that’s possible). One thing I noticed from this reading excursion (as well as “It”, my current read) is that dogs really have a tough existence in Stephen King’s books. ‘Salem’s Lot saw a cute little dog see a very gruesome end! Boo!

Anyway, this is one of the scariest books ever, so pick it up!

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The story focuses more on the thoughts, emotions and daily lives of the three main characters though. Michael, Emma and Carl make an odd threesome and interesting foils to one another. Moving from a large group in the city to a group of three to the countryside, the three of them have separate issues to deal with, with Carl perhaps being the most fleshed out, being a father and husband. Emma’s past is also mentioned a little, while Michael, although the protagonist, has little to reveal.

The zombies are interesting too. They appear harmless at first, motored only by their instinct to move. Sight and sound seem to be senses they lack. However, the more they decay, the more they (re)develop these senses, as well as the will to survive. It’s not clear if the zombies actually eat people (and animals) but I know that I felt sorry for the poor stray dog in the book. Its fate was clear, but whether it was pummelled or torn apart, or whether it was eaten, wasn’t clear.

Moody‘s chapters are short (makes sense considering he wrote the book online). His style is a cross between American and British. At first, it wasn’t easy to tell which nationality he was.

The little excerpt from “Autumn: The City” at the end of the book has made me keen to grab hold of the sequel! Hope it’s as good as (or better) than the first!

“The Grey King”, which won the Newbury Medal, is a compelling dark children’s adventure, set in the atmospheric slopes of the Welsh countryside. This book introduces Bran, which we later discover to be the son of King Arthur, brought forward into time by the Old Ones and Guinevere. Bran is an albino, with golden eyes and no colouring in his skin or hair. Of course, this makes him the brunt of much bullying, but he holds his own and much of his comfort in his dog (which the Dark caused to be killed later in the book – boo!). Will and Bran’s task in “The Grey King” is to wake the Sleepers, who will later on fight the Dark.

I think Bran’s loneliness and his loss of the dog was probably the emotional core of the book. Everything else was really peripheral for me. The grey foxes of the grey king were fantastic, but were under utilised, IMHO. Lots more could have been done with these bad creatures! All in all, I enjoyed “The Grey King”, perhaps much more than “Silver on the Tree”.

I read “Silver on the Tree” when I was very young. It possibly could have been the first book I read after “The Dark Is Rising”. Jumbled though my thoughts might have been, missing out on the first, third and fourth book, I remember “Silver on the Tree” to be an exciting adventure story, with enough menace for it to be horrifying to a child.

Reading it as an adult, I found it strangely lacking. True, it is an adventure story on a grander scale than “Greenwitch”, but I somehow was reminded of other contemporary fairy tales, especially Michael Ende’s “The Neverending Story” (which I plan to re-read next!), which is a story for a much younger audience than “The Dark Is Rising” sequence, IMHO. The best bit was the skeleton horse, of course.

Still, for some, I can imagine that this would have been a grand end to the saga. The one who went on from the original six is not surprising. The surprise though was that [spoiler!] the Drew children and Bran had their memories wiped out. This was harsh, I think.

It’s been good re-living the days of my youth through the books I read. I look forward to more grand adventures!

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