Desperation: A Novel

4.5 out of 5

6,565 global ratings

Stephen King’s #1 national bestseller about a little mining town, Desperation, that many will enter on their way to somewhere else. But getting out is not easy as it would seem…

"I see holes like eyes. My mind is full of them."

For all intents and purposes, police officer Collie Entragian, chief law enforcement for the small mining town of Desperation, Nevada, appears to be completely insane. He's taken to stopping vehicles along the desolate Interstate 50 and abducting unwary travelers with various unusual ploys. There's something very wrong here in Desperation...and Officer Entragian is only at the surface of it. The secrets embedded in Desperation's landscape, and the horrifying evil that infects the town like some viral hot zone, are both awesome and terrifying. But one of Entragian's victims, young David Carver, seems to know—and it scares him nearly to death to realize this truth—that the forces being summoned to combat this frightful, maniacal aberration are of equal and opposite intensity...

624 pages,

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First published February 19, 2018

ISBN 9781501192234


About the authors

Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

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Reviews

Michelle Mitchell

Michelle Mitchell

5

Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024

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I loved this Stephen King book. There are a lot of pages, but Desperation starts with action and is a page turner. I liked this book so much that this is the second Tim I have bought this book. I wanted my co-worker to read it.

jim

jim

5

quite good and scary

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2024

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I even liked the ending, which is like a 50/50 chance with this writer. Anyone who’s had a bad experience with a cop should find this terrifying

Shaq1077

Shaq1077

5

The best of SK as usual

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2024

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This one started a little slow for me. I'm normally immersed immediately but it took a few more pages this time. I'm so glad it did. What a story! What a message! What a horror!!! Loved every minute.

Kindle Customer

Kindle Customer

5

Stephen King doing what he does best!

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2024

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I really liked this story, Johnny Marinville seemed to be S.K. himself, with his struggles and with his success, I only hope his character was exaggerated. The story flowed well and I'm amazed how the writing was so descriptive I could actually picture how things were. Another amazing trip with S.K.

Elgn Allen Arney

Elgn Allen Arney

5

Another gift for my wife.

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2024

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I purchased this book for my wife, who is a huge Stephen King fan. She loved it!

Kindle Customer

Kindle Customer

5

As good as I remembered

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2013

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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.

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9 people found this helpful

Mary Ellen Strahm

Mary Ellen Strahm

5

CREEPY Stephen King book!

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2024

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As usual Stephen King wrote a really creepy book that was spell-binding!

2 people found this helpful

fionawmb

fionawmb

4

Sorta ties with IT?

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2022

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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?

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6 people found this helpful

Rick Maluchnik

Rick Maluchnik

4

A Horrifying Story From a Master Story Teller.

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2024

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This is full of murder, shock and horror! The characters are well written with typical Stephen King descriptions and inter-action. Loved it! Read it if you like King at his best or near it.

Tim Yingling

Tim Yingling

3

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Desperation

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2017

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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.

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5 people found this helpful