Review: Desperation by Stephen King – In which my joke title is DESPERATE

Novel: Horror, Cosmic Horror, Existential 

WARNING! This review not only contains minor spoilers but views expressed regarding uh, God, and uh, the meaning of existence and such. So if that’s not your thing, turn around.

            Yup.

So, this is the fourth book of King’s which I have reviewed. Or is it 
the third? You can check…I’m sure. I’m very tired as I’m writing this, I just got finished writing something which was very sapping. I might upload a hint of it.

            But, onto the review!

            A bunch of folks are all traveling through the American Southwest, and they end up getting pulled over/arrested/generally dependent on a small town Sherriff who turns out to be exceedingly violent and disturbed.

            Everything gets weird from there.

            Well, let me say that some of the characters were interesting, and some of them were not. I think we could have gone with a smaller cast of characters, but King likes his large cast. I’m not sure why, as The Shinning operated on about three people (Johnny, Wendy, and Danny [Hey! Their names all end in ‘Y’]). But that’s the way it is.

            None of the characters are annoying, or really boring, they just aren’t particularly dynamic. As far as a positive goes, the book talks about God without managing to be too pretentious, which is to say, yes, it has the person who doesn’t believe in God because his life is really screwed up, but it also makes it explicit that a lot of organized religion holds no real commitment behind it.

            So, really, the book is made for agnostics, right?

            King does make some good points, about God, and Nature in general, which at first I disagreed with. But after a little thought, I found that his ideas aligned with mine quite a lot. Still, a couple scenes are kind of painful. Maybe it’s just because I am a Downer on the inside, but King’s optimism seems very misplaced. Yes, the book states that neither God nor Life are particularly kind, but when researching the book, I came under the impression that King always wanted the book to be about how God can be cruel.

            That’s not what I got from it.

            I am of the belief that God and Nature are one and the same, and therefore, there is no kindly deity who cares about each individual, but rather a singular strength which everyone has a chance to access (to varying degrees). Now, I don’t expect for the book to fit only my ideology (that would be ridiculous). But the way in which the subject of God is handled seems a tad lazy as well as contrived. The more direct ways in which things turn out in the protagonist’s favor is refreshing in comparison to the typical “God set it up to end up okay.” But again, the direct pipeline to the entity gives us more and more of the “nice” God, not the cruel one which King keeps referring to for the entire book.

            Now, he tries to balance it out, by having this Elder God-ish villain. But the villain isn’t impressive and isn’t given nearly enough power to “combat” the God which one of the characters relies on. Yes, the character’s do most of the work. But I’d like to think, that with this good of a setting, out there in the desert, barren but for a few human beings, that a more climactic book could have been made.

            Instead, we get a rather forgetful villain and a missed opportunity for King to speak about nihilism and how nasty Nature can be for no reason. Or if that is what he was trying to comment on, then he failed because it does not come across correctly. 

            I found that my interest in the story went up and down about as many times as a boat does on open water. It didn't feel like a waste of time, just not as fulfilling as other King works. 

            I think that the story makes for decent horror if you are looking for something a little challenging. I stand by my assumption, however, that if King had been grimmer, the book would have been, much more dread-inducing and thought-provoking.

            I rate it Good.

            Thank you for reading and have a nice day!