Revival

REVIVAL IS ARGUABLY ONE OF STEPHEN KING'S FINEST MOMENTS. Hugely emotional, the book is part memoir, part horror classic, part love story and partially pure literature. And yet its still pure King. The book possesses the classic and phenomenally effective "King link" to the here, and the now that is the magical and mysterious ingredient contained in all of his works that grabs the reader on the opening page and doesn't let go until the end. A pure horror afficianado may well feel peeved at being made to wait until they reach the story's climax for the 'juicy bits'. A horror fan they may be; but a King fan learns many lessons from their master of the macabre; and they learn them very well. And one of these is patience.

The characters are beautifully drawn, essentially, though it comes down to two major players in this fine literary game. The six year old Charles Jacobs, who meets and immediately befriends the town's brand new reverend, who is the story's second main character. It is fair to say 'something happens' to this much liked Man Of God right at the book's opening section, but that would be too much of a corny theft of Mr King's principal story telling tool. And yet it does, and it affects the Preacher Man deeply. SPOILERS prevent me from explaining myself here, but its a shocking twist, and of course its beautifully written and goes a long way to ensuring the reader finds themselves addicted to the story just like the classic King tales of the past.

Stephen King is real. His books are real. His writing is real. There is a quote in page 26 of the kindle version which supports this claim and gifts the reader with the uneducated layman's view of the different denominations of modern day Christianity. And when Mr King moves from the everyday to the suppositions presented by the book, he doesn't leave his lyrical talents at home, either.

I said at the top of this review that the book is part romance, and its true. Its a beautiful coming of age story, with just a hint of sex thrown in to keep the reader interested. And when the relationship in question is finally consummated, it must be said that its portrayed with the maximum amount of class. The writing style used by Mr King, too, is worthy of great praise, presenting the story in pseudo journal form, breaking down relatively long chapters with shortish but highly readable sub-chapters.

It takes a while for the true character of the book to become obvious, but when it does, the true value of the story jumps sky high. Revival by name, its also revival by nature. Mr King once said in his classic IT, "don't f*** with the infinite" and this moral also holds well if it is applied to the contents of REVIVAL.

REVIVAL does not gift the reader with an overly happy ending. SPOILERS. The book is not funny. It is, however, an immensely satisfying, fascinating, horrific, slightly sexy, hugely enjoyable romp from the town of BLISSFUL DOMESTICITY to the village of TOTAL MADNESS. Constant Readers may well find themselves with tears of joy in their eyes as the book comes alive in their bands. I know i did, and they perfectly matched the grin of complete lunacy the crept across my face to keep them company. New residents of King manor may well wonder what the fuss is all about. But read on, and find themselves hooked they will. But how to explain the effect Sai King has on the world? Its simple.

Something happens.

I have three or four discs left but am enjoying this novel very much. It's different from a lot of King's works, but I like it. I think The Stand will always be my favorite, but this one is very good. Nobody develops characters like King does. I really like the character development in this one.

Update after finishing the book: I found it to be a rather unusual mixture of sci-fi and the supernatural, which is a bit of a departure for King. But it was very human, through and through, the characters were believable, the situations were believable. and it made me think about some people's obsessions with things that others don't spend a second thought on. Life, death, religion, the forces of good and evil, right and wrong, the basic needs that motivate us all and propel us through life....definitely worth reading. The protagonist is a very sympathetic, albeit flawed, man, but I think we can all relate to that. It is, in the end, dark and hopeful at the same time. Which, if you really think about it, kind of sums of life and people in a nutshell. It's all a great big paradox, and Stephen King captured that very well.

As a lifelong fan of Stephen King I finally made time to read his 2014 novel Revival. I’m pleased to relate that America’s greatest storyteller has succeeded once more in crafting a story that is dark, peppered with disturbing imagery, profound, and thought provoking. I will reveal a few minor plot threads in my review below.

The story’s protagonist Jamie Morton meets his new Pastor as an eight year old child in the year 1963. As is the case in many of King’s tales, this one is located within his own state of Maine. The fictional hamlet is Harlow, and within it we are introduced to Jamie’s extended family, a few local personalities, and a charismatic young Pastor named Charles Jacobs. For reasons unknown to us, a peculiar bond is evident between Jamie and his pastor from their first meeting. Their strange relationship is one that will last sixty years—spanning the length of this novel.

A profound tragedy occurs in the beginning of the story that causes the Pastor to abruptly abandon his religion. The Pastor leaves Harlow, Maine- destination unknown.

One interesting aspect of the pastor’s character is his apparent fascination with lightning and electricity. A preoccupation with science may not be unusual among clergy members- but one can sense there is something ‘off’ regarding his tinkering with electricity. What is not apparent in the beginning is that his obsession with lightning and electricity will have adverse consequences later in the story.

The first third of this book is some of the finest writing Stephen King has produced. Readers are swept up into a fascinating and complex story with well developed and relatable characters. The story is peppered with real-life joys and tragedies. I enjoyed reading how Jamie Morton evolved and changed from a shy boy- to awkward teen- to a confident young man in the span of a few years.

Unfortunately, Jamie’s life takes a tragic turn for the worse in his adult life. The drug addiction that began with his musical career is now uncontrollable- rapidly destroying his health. As Jamie nears death, he is somewhat miraculously reintroduced to Pastor Jacobs, now operating a traveling carnival act of his own in Nebraska.

The former Pastor has improved upon his rudimentary experiments with lightning and electricity and incorporated some of them into his carnival act. The reader is led to believe the Pastor is tampering with dangerous and unfathomable forces for some unknown purpose. What is clear by the middle of this story is that the Pastor has abandoned his former religion completely. He uses his harnessed ‘secret electricity’ to cure various people -including Jamie Morton- of their physical afflictions. As is often the case with miraculous cures, everything is not what it seems. Nevertheless, Charles Jacobs performs these miraculous medical feats and develops a modicum of fame and wealth mid story.

One aspect of this novel I enjoyed was the frequent tie-ins or references to Kings other works. The town of Castle Rock is mentioned upon occasion, and the city of Jerusalem’s Lot can be seen from a vantage point atop nearby Goat Mountain. The vampire grimoire ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’ is mentioned by the Pastor. It is unclear whether he has this text of forbidden knowledge in his possession, but I immediately suspected the story was spiraling toward a tragedy when Jacobs mentioned he read from it.

Fans of Stephen King the horror novelist may be disappointed in this novel as much of it seems focused on the grim realities of life associated with the passage of time. Untimely deaths, suicides, drug addiction, and murder are subjects adroitly addressed in Kings masterful prose. Still, I found much of it thought provoking; we always wonder how much our decisions and outcomes in life are affected by fate versus willpower.

In the final thirty pages of Revival Stephen King at last rewards us with his unleashed imagination. I won’t spoil the ending, but I will hint that it meshes Lovecraftian horror with a subtle nod to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.

In the end Stephen King ambitiously and convincingly tackles a broad variety of subjects in this well researched novel. The characters all evolve and change commensurate with the passage of time. In the end, with the exception of Pastor Jacobs, all remain identifiable with their original, younger selves. I found some plot threads near the conclusion to be a trifle disappointing as a reader, but I still believe this is a heartfelt and worthwhile read. Five stars for this gem of a novel.

I'll admit up front that I'm one of SK's "constant readers". I preorder every novel or anthology he writes and usually read it as soon as it arrives. REVIVAL was no different. It arrived in the cloud a couple minutes past midnight on 11/11 while I was sleeping and I found it the next morning. Started reading and finished it yesterday afternoon (some life responsibilities got in the way). It is quite short (for an SK novel), only 405 pages on my iPad. Except for JOYLAND (also excellent), that is the shortest novel by SK in several decades.

There are really only 2 characters in the novel, everyone else is just an extra - Jamie Morton, the narrator who we first meet in the early 1960s as a 6 year old boy and Charlie Jacobs, the new young minister in town (with wife and child) who meets Jamie on his first day. The lives of the two become forever intertwined, with intervening gaps of decades between their 3 meetings. I don't want to say too much more about the plot specifics. In fact, the little blurb (book description) gives away just a little too much in my opinion, so don't think too carefully about it.

Some of the first part of the novel (the really freaky stuff mostly happens at the end) seems semi-autobiographical. Jamie becomes a rhythm guitarist in High School and eventually a pro. After about 15 years of that or so he also becomes a junkie. SK's battles with alcoholism are well documented, almost as well as the fact that he is a wannabe musician who plays rhythm guitar with the Rock Bottom Remainders, that includes a bunch of writers and occasional guest sit-ins. I liked the musical part a lot, and it is a theme that recurs throughout the novel.

SK is a wonderful writer. It doesn't really matter what he writes about. His descriptive sentences exude a comfortable confidence. His dialogue feels natural and smooth - I can hear people actually talking like that when I read it. This one is described as horror by just about everyone including the publisher, but like many SK novels (e.g., CARRIE, THE STAND, THE TOMMYKNOCKERS, UNDER THE DOME, 11/22/63, IT, FIRESTARTER etc.) it is really a combination of science fiction and horror. And that's where I had my only gripe with the novel.

The sci-fi part has to do with electricity, or something like electricity. The best sci-fi explains (at least in part) the science in the fiction, or tries to, so the reader can at least say. "Yeah, I can see how that could work." But I couldn't do that with the sci-fi part of REVIVAL. And that caused me to deduct one star from my rating.

The horror part is great. It must be hard to be Stephen King. He's already done vampires, werewolves, zombies (sort of - CELL) and made up more horror tropes than a bag full of other writers. And this time around he does something completely new again. At least new to him. So he gets a pass for borrowing and recycling one in REVIVAL. It was created by one of King's heroes of the past. And it's used well, and differently. But the resemblance to and feeling of the original horror is unmistakable, and I am quite sure, deliberate. An homage as it were. I promised no spoilers and I intend to hold to that so that's as far as I go.

REVIVAL is not the best Stephen King novel ever written. But it's pretty damn good.

Recommended for old time fans and first timers alike.

J.M. Tepper

In Revival, the sixty third volume from terror master Stephen King, the always challenging author utilizes his special brand of literary skills to mostly abandon the paranormal and unnerve with real life horrors. King weaves the topics of mortality, disease, addiction, aging, the constant question of religion and if a life of worship is empty or actually has great meaning into a relentlessly entertaining character study. He is well aware that these are fears that can plague any individual and he uses the 405 page work as a platform to subtly discuss these subjects and to add his own insights. What is most intriguing is that King rarely offers solid answers, as none of us genuinely have any for these sadly inevitable themes, but finds a way to reassure through his character's actions and discourse his audience and to add a streak of underlying wisdom and enlightenment throughout. Revival is the tale of a pastor, Charles Jacobs, who meets the book's main character, Jamie Morton, as a youth in Maine. Jacobs' fascination with electricity causes the two lives to intersect in a tale that spans sixty years. To give anything more away would take away the great delight King exhibits as we see how time has changed the two, how their opinions and outlooks alter throughout time but how they always seem, at their core, to be a shadow of their younger self. Suffice to say, the magnificent scope of this novel is tremendous. King's unparalleled and signature focus on characters changing throughout the years, his capability to develop these personalities and show their growth and change without losing the intimate details of the relationship between Jacobs and Morton is just as incredible as the epic feel of the work itself. He shares hardships, young joys, adult grievances with the two and we, as the audience, can't help but think that in such a relatively small span we have been with these two fictional characters all our lives. That is another aspect of King's writing which is admirable: his ability to find flawed, yet relatable characters, and all of the many characters who populate Revival prove this time-tested reality. If there is a negative side to the work it is that it often seems plodding, yet this is a sacrifice made to getting to etch out the characters in more fine detail, and those who are looking for an all-out assault of Horror may be let-down. There were times when I was, though this is not really a logical criticism given that King has always put characters at the forefront of the tale and never used them as they do in many terror films and books these days as simply props for one shock after another, but when he decides to let the world of dread bleed into the personalities which dwell upon these pages we, as the audience, are hit far harder because of it. Some scenes, even early on, that are truly frightening because we realize that these are not fictional creations which we can scoff at and tell ourselves, "It's just a story." King uses real life tragedies that occur to anyone at any time and this is the type of horror that crawls under your skin slowly and upsets us the most and we can tell through the events that transpire in Revival that King himself is fully aware of this fact and never wants us to look away from the actuality of such circumstances taking flight of our lives. It is this randomness of events, which we all are made painfully aware since we ourselves are young that is a large factor of life, which makes this novel so potent and quietly powerful. King works, not on a visceral level, but on a subconscious arena and reminds of our own fate and that makes the last thirty pages, where he lets his imagination took full reign of the word he pens and his creativity and ideas about what lies beyond the door to the afterlife takes flight, amongst the most gripping conclusions he has ever written. What fellow faithful King audiences will also enjoy is the subtle and distinct connection to other works of his. On occasion this threw me out of the book but it still delighted me and I only admired him and the volume more for this clever mentions of his prior writings. They are well-planted details that only the most seasoned constant reader will pick up upon and what is also unique is how well they are woven into the fabric of the story. Just as admirable as this is how he plays with the title word: Revival. The characters go through this renewal, as does the story as it mares into more speculative territory near the finale, Jacob's obsession with electricity and lightning ( though it leads to a fairly predictable scene in the last one hundred pages which is a bit of a cringe-worthy nod to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) is the obvious play on the word but, like how all the details in the novel are swept into a clean pile of conclusions in the end, King seems to be connecting everything on both a storytelling and in a symbolic manner together. This is one of the most subtle aspects of the book yet, because of its slyness, it is one of the ones which left me the most delighted. In true King style, Revival is remarkably well-rounded. It blends character study, real life atrocity, intellectual discourse and a wonderful range of subjects into a tale that, though occasionally slow, burrows under the skin and lingers in the mind well after. This is not a restoration of King into a new style but it shows direction towards future roads which he may take his fellow readers to and showcases beautifully why King's written flair and capability is a one of a kind credit to the literary world, he gives us the whole range of the dramatic and the fearful in his prose, and why whatever paths he may dare cross, whatever subjects he may address in his prior work we will always be there to take the journey through his penned landscapes with him. Revival is one of King's many adventures which are well-worth taking.

I read Revival in less than a week, which is actually pretty quick for me.

The hype leading up to this book led us all to believe it is a dark return to the classic Stephen King, etc., etc.

I disagree with all of that, but not because Revival is bad-- it's not-- but because I don't think the "classic" King ever went anywhere.

I think the lull in King's career, if there was one, took place back in the pre-Green Mile period of the early and mid nineties.... Think Insomnia and Rose Madder. (Not that I think King was bad during this period.... I just think this material was bizarre, not nearly as accessible, and frankly, not nearly as good as what came before and after it.)

If I were to rate Revival based on a direct comparison to recent works by just about every other popular writer, I'd give it five stars, hands down, no questions asked. I think King is, simply, a better writer than the likes of Cornwell, Patterson, Koontz, Coben, and others. When King is at the top of his game, he flirts with greatness. He's darn near literary. I sometimes feel he's the Dickens of our time. And even when he's not at the top of his game, he's still several notches above everybody else.

But I'm not comparing Revival to the works of other writers, I'm comparing it to King's works, and I don't think the "classic" Stephen King that produced The Stand and It ever went anywhere. 11/22/63 was fantastic, arguably among the finest novels King has ever written. Joyland was excellent, as was Doctor Sleep and Mr. Mercedes (the opening segment of Mr. Mercedes is one of the most powerful, gut-wrenching scenes King has written in at least twenty years).

Anyway.

Revival is a good book. It is also extremely dark and thought-provoking (so the hype, I guess, wasn't totally wrong, just a bit misleading). The first third or so of it is brilliant, some of the finest writing King has ever done, and the ending is very entertaining... and bizarre. You likely won't be able to put the book down during the first and final fifty or sixty pages... and you almost certainly will wonder what the heck you just read when it's over.

I rate the book four stars instead of five for two reasons. One, when comparing it to other recent King works, I simply don't think it's as memorable as, say, 11/22/63 or Joyland, and I frankly didn't find myself tearing through the pages as quickly as I did those of Mr. Mercedes. Two, Revival doesn't really have an identity. It's being marketed as a straight-up horror novel, but it really isn't. The novel works best, to me, during its first section, when we're reading about our narrator coming of age and our small-town preacher struggling with his faith.... But I felt King started to struggle with the story when it became a nod to Shelley and Lovecraft.

Nevertheless, a four-star King effort is the equivalent of a five-star effort from just about everybody else. The writing is top-notch, the main characters are well developed, and aside from the middle section, the novel is hard to put down.

Revival is enjoyable, and it will definitely make you think. As such, it works. Another quality effort from King.

I just finished reading Stephen King's 2014 Lovecraft or should I say Machen, inspired horror novel "Revival", which focuses on the lifelong parasitic relationship between Jamie Morton and an older man named Charles Daniel Jacobs who once served as a pastor at his local Methodist church until a horrific incident which destroyed his faith in God. What it did not destroy was his faith in the power of healing, in particular through a unique method which involves him harnessing the power of electricity, which he puts to good use in diverse and sometimes inexplicable ways over the ensuing years after leaving his former life behind. The character of Jamie grows from an innocent, wide eyed impressionable youth to a hopeless drug addict in the 80s and early 90s at which point a chance encounter in the Midwest thrusts Charles back into his life, seemingly for the better, but possibly for the worse as it slowly becomes clear that the powers of electricity he is harnessing to heal the sick and dying are also leaving strange and terrifying "after-effects" which hint at another world or reality entirely. A world which seems to influence ours but is thankfully kept mostly at bay. A world of unearthly colors, prismatics, and monstrous ant-like beings hiding behind the sunny facade of everyday life. The story itself was ultimately not what I was expecting based on the title and vague knowledge of the plot, which I didn't expect to leave the 1960s and Jamie's Childhood home in Harlow, Maine. Jamie himself is a fairly standard, if not troubled and sympathetic character who experiences his fair share of loss and "revival" at different stages of his life which in many ways parallel Charles. Charles is presented as an intelligent but highly arrogant and at times condescending individual who seeks to regain through science and the forces of the occult what he could not through pure faith and religious belief alone, causing him to be presented as a dark "shadow" cast over Jamie's life ever since he was a six year old boy playing in his front yard and he makes his first appearance as a young pastor with initially wholly benign intentions. The story itself clearly takes a lot of influence from the work of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and especially Arthur Machen. The final chapter in particular seems to take heavy inspiration from the opening experiment in The Great God Pan, a comparison which King seems to make no attempt to hide as he lists many of the aforementioned writers on the opening dedication page of the book. The main problem I had with the story is that its ideas and themes we've seen and heard done before in better more compelling ways, even by King himself in classic short stories like "Jerusalem's Lot" or "Crouch End". The mention and use of "De Vermis Mysteriis" and its author Ludvig Prinn seems mostly incidental and doesn't really amount to anything beyond scattered references but the electricity aspect was to me the most original and best original creation of the story. I just wish it could have been allowed to stand on its own without the Lovecraftian tomes and quotes thrown in to appeal more to fans of the Cthulhu Mythos. Overall it was a decent read, a bit plodding and muddled at times, but overall good, just not great in my opinion.

"The aftereffects are trailing fragments of an unknown existence beyond our lives," --Charlie "The Rev" Jacobs

I read, in two sittings, Stephen King's latest novel, Revival. The book (hardcover) is 402 pages. I do not think I need to give much background on who Stephen King is. I will tell you that the first book I ever read by him was Firestarter. From there, (in 1984), I went on to devour every novel he has written.

The sad thing --and I digress, I know-- is that prior to my divorce in 2007, I owned a hardcover edition of every book written by Stephen King. Many, many first editions in my collection. Between moving, and being without money, I am down to bare basics. I have maybe ten of his novels? Eleven? I could turn around and count them, but the effort (depressing to see I might have just nine, or eight), keeps me from verifying an accurate count.

Anyway, the inside dust jacket flap gives an overall synopsis of Revival that reads:

A dark and electrifying novel about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

So here is my dilemma. I really don't care for the above synopsis. I feel like it misleads and doesn't capture the essence of anything. The book is essentially split into 4 --not exactly equal-- parts. The beginning, the middle, the climax and the end. The first 100 pages or so covers the life of a young Jamie Morton --our main character. The second half covers Jamie's 20's and 30's. The last section takes Jamie well into his 60's.

The first quarter is my favorite part of the book. It is Stephen King storytelling, and the most compelling. Almost all of the major characters are introduced and developed here. Jamie, his three brothers, his older sister, and their parents. The book opens with Jamie at age six. The small town they live in gets a new, young preacher, Charlie Jacobs. Charlie's wife, Patsy, is beautiful and loving. The whole town loves their son, Tag-Along-Morrie.

We get to see a splash of dysfunctional ("normal") family life. Although, nothing like Stand By Me, it still has that kind of youthful innocence. With first crushes, first loves, music, guitars and cars, and some tragedy. And then some serious tragedy that changes the lives of many forever.

As we get into the second and third quarters of the book, I was not as impressed, overall. Jamie and Charlie had gone down different roads, with paths crossing now and then. This is really where a lot of the building suspense come from. Jame is a heroin attack hitting rock bottom, and Charlie has become something of a miracle worker. He even helps Jamie land a job with a small recording studio. Charlie has a lot of connections. Knows a lot of people. Can pull a lot of strings. Could be because of his history of curing people.

Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the climax and overall end of the book. The build up was slow and steady. The promised nightmare is terrifying -- but it lasts about ten to fifteen pages long. Four or five pages, actually. And while the concept is truly horrific, it is over in a heartbeat. A heartbeat. So above, when I say "climax," I might have been exaggerating.

This is why I said I had a dilemma. I still loved the book. I loved the characters. And I loved the story. I KNEW these people. I felt them, felt for them. I loved Jamie and his sister (I could have read a book just about them growing up and been happy --Stand By Me-ish). I didn't even mind the older Jamie with the guitar and the drugs. I liked the old Jamie, working in the studio and interacting with everyone. I just feel the lackluster supernatural element took away from an otherwise great Steinbeck / Hemingway style novel.

Take my review for what it is worth. I loved it. But was not thrilled about it. Stephen King's Revival is getting a 3 Star review from me.

Phillip Tomasso Author of Blood River and Vaccination