Desperation: A Novel

When I first got into Mr. Stephen King back in middle and high school, it was this book that really put him on the map for me. Reading this book again for the first time sixteen years later, I know why.

I wanted to go back and re-read all of the classic King books before I started getting into his new stuff (I sort of fell off from The King after I read Dreamcatcher and then Just After Sunset - wasn't a terrible fan of those, sorry to say) and I finally made it to my all-time favorite and that is this one, Desperation.

I particularly loved this book because it was so remote. I've read the in-book reviews comparing this one to his other epic, The Stand, and in some ways I can see why that is. The handful of characters in Desperation do have to make a stand of sorts, but this one on a much smaller scale. Besides that, the characters in The Stand were all over the place. The evil in that book was of a massive scale. I really loved how this very haunting story took place in one locale, particularly. When you read this, you almost felt as lonely and desolate as the characters you were reading about and, unlike in The Stand, with the entire world around them going on while the six people in Desperation, Nevada were trapped in hell.

I don't like delving too much into story detail because I feel like there can be a fine line between telling someone what a story is about and giving away spoilers. Especially since this story didn't give away very much about the plot in the first place in the story info, but I will tell it like this - a small group of seemingly random people are passing through Highway 50 and are soon very forcefully detoured to the mining town of Desperation, Nevada where not another living soul appears to be alive. It isn't long before they find out why and the nightmarish terror begins there.

Hands down the most appealing character in the entire book is ten (or is he eleven?) year-old David Carver. I just wanted to give the little guy a hug - he'd been through so much. God was clearly working through this extraordinary child and more than once listening to him speak and lead the others really did make me think of how all too fragile our faith is for some of us. I won't preach, because I'm not terribly religious, but I could really appreciate the way it took me back to some of the stuff I used to question myself and how far I've come at present with my own faith in God.

I will say that this book is definitely a religious experience of sorts. If you're turned off by religion or just don't really feel comfortable possibly having to confront your own feelings about God, then you probably wouldn't want to read this. But religious aspect aside, this was one of those reads - for me, at least - that really had me wondering all over again how this group of very different people was going to get out of the hell they were in.

Lastly, I didn't care for Tak as a villain. I found the jibberish quite annoying and besides that, it had a very damning flaw (which I won't give away - remember that fine line) that made this...thing quite vulnerable for the terror that it was.

I'll admit, I gave this a five-star review out of nostalgia. After reading this as a now 30-year-old woman, maybe it wasn't the best story The King ever wrote, but I loved it nevertheless for taking me back to a time when Stephen King, a man who has been honing his craft for forty plus years, was new to me.

I remember really trying to get through this book in 2002 ... I was still 19 years old and oddly it was my first Stephen King novel. The overdose of Religion and God sorta made this book unreadable for me then honestly. Very much like Johnny I myself couldn't follow some religious aspect of anything From the losses and the screwed up turns in life? I honestly didn't even like Stephen King until my late 20's lmao I was a Koontz fan until I started the dark tower series and it just was the best I have read! Had I not been a huge fan for over 15 years I wouldn't have finally came back to read this book? I suppose this book is definitely worth the read even with the Religious beliefs and mumbo jumbo it contains... And sorta in order for 1 to believe in such evil one must also believe in such good or god or whatever and it makes sense Sorta like a real Satanist (you can't believe in Satan If you didn't believe in God in the first place ?)not that I am or know or understand? So the unease throughout the book also has the Religious overtones of unease mixed in for added strangeness. I wouldn't be suprized to find David Carver Screaming bible versus as a hobo at the top of his lungs covered in his own filth and a stench of booze lol.smh. Still though The priest in Jerusalem's lot and the gunslinger stories are among my favorite and I still recommend this book though?

This is my personnel favorite of all of Stephen King’s books. Is it the best he has ever written? Not by a long shot. Still doesn’t stop this from being the book that I have read the most over the years.

The Ugly: The thing that hurt the most in reading this book was the sudden change in the villain. Yes, it was still considered the same villain in Tak, but getting rid of Collie half-way through the book hurt a bit. Worse thing for me.

The Bad: Now, as for the book. The bad is the fact that how is it possible for an entire town to go dark the way that Desperation did. It can’t be done, even in the early electronic age where hardly anyone had cell phones or emails. There would still be someone out there looking for their relatives. Someone would notice something wrong.

The Good: Collie is the best part of this story. Then adding in the religious aspect just made this entire book all that much better. It was as if King was saying that the evils over the other worlds cannot hold a candle to the good of our world. Johnny as the reluctant hero and his surprise toward the end of the book is really played out quite smart.

Final Thoughts: When I first read this book around 2000, I just couldn’t put it down. I seriously read it in about a day and a half. It was just that good to me. Whenever anyone request a book to read by me, of course I am going to tell them one of my own first, but then I would suggest this book. I would let them know it’s not the best book ever written, but it is still enjoyable.