r/stephenking

I made a post a few weeks back about Wizard and Glass being a struggle to get through, and I had to follow up now that I'm entering the final act. I'm about 70% through, and I have to say... wow. This has picked up.

I am absolutely hooked. I find myself listening any chance I get — on a walk, at the gym, before bed, while I make food. It was a very slow burn, but it is paying off in a big way now.

The tension is so high. The stakes feel enormous. I feel like the characters are all doomed, and it's got my stomach in knots as I read. You just get the sense that something really bad is going to happen. This is the most hooked I've been on a King book since (*checks reading list*) The Wastelands.

I'm on the edge of my seat. I don't want to spoil anything, especially since I've seen a few posts from fellow readers lately, some saying this book isn't hooking them. I can vouch, as someone who was pretty bored through the first half, that it gets really good.

I will most likely have to vent once I finish.

I’m talking about quonset huts, chambray work shirts, palaver, International Harvesters and goose flesh.

What other words are in his “favourites list”?

Don't get me wrong, i love the majority of his work. But nothing comes close to the way i love IT. I've read it 40 times. Never get bored of it. King was firing on all cylinders on this one.

1. Pennywise is an iconic villain. I'm sure the monster being what you fear most was done before, but this one has a favorite form as a clown and a personality. He can be cracking jokes one minute and be terrifying the next.

2. The losers club - They all have distinct personalities and arcs. No one is sidelined or a plot device. They are all also so well written.

3. The atmosphere of Derry is immaculate. It's my favorite small town of King's work.

4. I didn't grow up in the 50's but King captures that childhood wonder so well i get nostalagic every time.

5. The book has some of Kings best horror and terrifying moments.

6. It's just well written, juggling between present/past could've gone horribbly wrong

7. Henry Bowers is the best human villain in Kings work.

These are just my opinions so don't get upset.

What do you think?

Hi everyone,

About a year ago I decided to try some Stephen King.

Im ashamed of myself for holding back on King for so long, but at 45 I started my journey. The Shining and Cujo were my introduction and I became a life long fan and my mission is to read everything he has ever produced.

Ive done most of the classics, and only given up on the dark tower and strangely the long walk? But I digress....

The one book I avoided was pet semetary. I remember being scared of the movie trailer as a kid, and assumed it was going to be heavy on the animal death so stayed away.

I finished the book half an hour ago and have never read anything like this. I cannot comprehend how someone can put such thoughts to paper.

In literal terms it was the easiest thing I've ever read. But the horror and human emotion conveyed in each page?!.. I cant fathom??? This is not only my favourite of Kings work, but possibly the best book I have ever read.

I live in the country, by a road, and I have a 3 year old called "Gabe" so of course Im going to feel this book.

But it's an absolute masterpiece. Like Louis walking with a corpse in his arms, I dont even know why I started this post? I just felt compelled.

So we're reading The Jaunt for a course, when I first read the story I didn't really think much of it since I didn't know where the story was going. But now reading it for the second time,

I think just like Mrs. Michaelson, Victor Carune, the inventor of the jaunt, is also jaunting for all of eternity.

Here's some proof

The line "He did not push his fingers back in; in fact, Carune only Jaunted once more in his entire life" seems super ominous to me, why would he even jaunt once when he's the inventor? Since he knows the horrors of it, why would he jaunt at all? or , as I think, was he made to jaunt?

And then the mc says Carune was never made the head of the research team, and his daughter says he was at least a hero and made it in the history books. MC says, "I'm sure that's a great comfort to him ...... wherever he is". So we do say wherever he is when someone dies, but in the context of this short story it seems so sus, we don't know where he is, just like Mrs. Michaelson.

Next he says, "three years before he officially died, he rode in the pace-car at the Tournament of Roses Parade. Puzzling. And a little ominous." I don't think the text says why riding in the pace car is ominous but let's keep the name Tournament of Roses in mind. Not to mention it says "before he officially died", as if the death is not real.

They mention this book by C. K. Summers's The Politics of the Jaunt where there's a section called "The Jaunt Under the Rose" with more believable rumors that the Jaunt has. It says the Jaunt was used as a murder weapon, where they mention the Mrs. Michaelson case. So the text goes, "In the most famous (and only documented) case", and then describes the Michaelsons incident. Again the "only documented" part might be a hint that other cases did happen but were not documented and I'm suspecting Carune is one of them. And the section is called "The Jaunt Under the Rose", reminiscent of the parade name Tournament of Roses??

Finally it says, "Summers suggested, the Jaunt had been used by various tinpot dictators to get rid of political dissidents and political adversaries." And in the passage about Carune riding the pace car three years before his "official" death, and the paragraph before that too, we learn about how Victor Carune was a problem and remained a problem until 1991. So perhaps they jaunted Carune like Mrs. Michaelson because he was being a political threat just by existing? Not to mention he was actively avoiding letting the government know about the jaunt for as long as he could.

So all these subtle hints made me think Carune did in fact get jaunted to eternity. Ironic how the very person who invented it was made to suffer the same fate as its other victims. 

I'm 72. I can proudly say I bought Carrie in '75 (loaned and lost) in paperback and started my hardcover collection with The Stand as he became popular. Close to all 'First firsts' since then. Anyhow, how old are you? Pops..

Did anyone hear about this? I don't know what a "shared reality" movie experience means, but it sounds interesting.