Revival, Stephen King

Title: Revival
Author: Stephen King
No. of pages: 365
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Publication date: November 11th 2014
Date read: August 19th 2017

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Blurb

In a small New England town, in the early 60s, 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 – including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister – feel the same about Reverend Jacobs. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.

Then tragedy strikes the Jacobs family; the preacher curses God, mocking all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. In his mid-thirties, he is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate, he sees Jacobs again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings. Because for every cure there is a price…

This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
(Goodreads)

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Review

This was not my favourite King book. Although the book is more than 350 pages long, not a lot happened in my view. The story starts off with Jamie being six years old and ends with Jamie in his fifties, so you’d think a lot would be happening. But thinking back to reading this book, I can’t really remember what exactly filled up those 350+ pages. Only in the last 50 pages it started getting interesting, and those had me on the edge of my seat.

On the other hand, I love it when a story tells you about (as good as) the whole life of one person and that’s what this story did. You really get to know all about Jamie’s life and personality. Other than that, this book was a typical King book with all it’s gross dead people and the perfect weather descriptions (I won’t ever stop talking about those), but that’s also where this review ends, I’m afraid! I really don’t know what more to say about this book.

All in all, while reading this book I kind of dreaded continuing, mainly because of the longevity. But then again, I love the writing style and stories of Stephen King, so I don’t think that I’ve wasted my time or anything! It just isn’t my favourite King book hah!