1st Review Stephen king's revival
It is review time.
I am not going to lie. I am a little bit nervous about this. I have never formally reviewed anything before, let alone a novel, and the thought of it is a little bit daunting. With that said let’s jump right into this review.
The review is broken up into three categories at ten points each. Meaning that a perfect novel would be a 30/30. The categories are: Cover, Writing Mechanics, and Story Telling. Beware, spoilers are ahead. If you don’t want spoilers abandon hope, all ye that read here.
The first novel on the review chopping block is Revival by Stephen King.
Cover-
Now the edition of Revival that I have is the first edition hardback, so this is the one I will be reviewing. The cover is an eye-catching glossy cover that has a holographic tint to it. You can shift it in your hands and watch the colors dance across the cover like electricity which was the intention I believe. It is a very simple cover in regard to some of King’s other works, but that is not a negative for this cover. The back-page bio is clean and enticing and sets the stage for the novel without giving away the good stuff. I liked the print of the cover and the unique holographic tint to it and once you read the novel the cover fits well.
10/10
Writing Mechanics-
This one is really interesting for this book because I am a guitar player, which ties into a big part of the story, but that means that I understood a little about the musical side of this book. With that said, his references to everything starting off in E were spot on and made me laugh. Of course, it being a King novel I didn’t find any spelling errors or anything of that nature. It was an easy read, a fun read, and I didn’t feel bogged down with details or looking ahead for exciting parts.
10/10
Story Telling-
This is where I am going to lose some readers. Right here, I can feel it. I read this novel years after it released, I know I am behind the times. I am catching up, don’t patronize me. The reason I wanted to review this novel is that nearly every review I read or saw concerning this novel had the same line in it. “Scariest book I have read in a long time.” “Really scary.” “Scared the crap out of me.” Things to that tune. Well, it has been a while since I have read a book that truly scared me, so I thought it was about time. I jumped for this book because of the reviews, and I devoured this thing page by page. I was hungry for horror and scary but what I found was a mystery/suspense with a tinge of scary sprinkled on top.
I wasn’t scared at all. No heart racing, sweaty palms, nervous breathing, nothing. There was a shroud of mystery as to how the Reverend was “curing” people and their side effects. The opening deaths of his wife and son were heart-wrenching, right up King’s alley. Pulled on all the feels but then it died off for almost then next half of the book. There were little bumps in the story but nothing that made me want to stay up late and press on to the end of the chapter because I had to know what was going on. At the end when the bill came due, and all was revealed, I was extremely let down.
I thought Rev. was going to find a way to put his mind in another body or something and was going to live forever and laugh as those around him screamed in terror. He just wanted a peek behind the curtain at the wizard which was a little lackluster for me. What he saw on the other side of the curtain, scary stuff. Whoa man, I wasn’t expecting that. Had the story had more writing like the family getting killed and the last few chapters I would have put this up there as the best novel he had ever written. There was just too much dry writing for me to enjoy the entire thing. I liked the ending until the end if that makes sense. It was good and scary, and then it just petered out. I closed the book feeling two things. The first was “That’s it?” while the second came a little later and was a “So what?”. I had an empty feeling, and I thought the main character was sort of empty by the end as well. I still liked the story overall, not my favorite but when King was on fire, he was blazing like the sun. I think it is worth the read if you were like me and hadn’t read it yet but I wouldn’t recommend going into looking to get scared.
5/10
Overall score 25/30
83.4 or a B. Good story, not his best.
I am not going to lie. I am a little bit nervous about this. I have never formally reviewed anything before, let alone a novel, and the thought of it is a little bit daunting. With that said let’s jump right into this review.
The review is broken up into three categories at ten points each. Meaning that a perfect novel would be a 30/30. The categories are: Cover, Writing Mechanics, and Story Telling. Beware, spoilers are ahead. If you don’t want spoilers abandon hope, all ye that read here.
The first novel on the review chopping block is Revival by Stephen King.
Cover-
Now the edition of Revival that I have is the first edition hardback, so this is the one I will be reviewing. The cover is an eye-catching glossy cover that has a holographic tint to it. You can shift it in your hands and watch the colors dance across the cover like electricity which was the intention I believe. It is a very simple cover in regard to some of King’s other works, but that is not a negative for this cover. The back-page bio is clean and enticing and sets the stage for the novel without giving away the good stuff. I liked the print of the cover and the unique holographic tint to it and once you read the novel the cover fits well.
10/10
Writing Mechanics-
This one is really interesting for this book because I am a guitar player, which ties into a big part of the story, but that means that I understood a little about the musical side of this book. With that said, his references to everything starting off in E were spot on and made me laugh. Of course, it being a King novel I didn’t find any spelling errors or anything of that nature. It was an easy read, a fun read, and I didn’t feel bogged down with details or looking ahead for exciting parts.
10/10
Story Telling-
This is where I am going to lose some readers. Right here, I can feel it. I read this novel years after it released, I know I am behind the times. I am catching up, don’t patronize me. The reason I wanted to review this novel is that nearly every review I read or saw concerning this novel had the same line in it. “Scariest book I have read in a long time.” “Really scary.” “Scared the crap out of me.” Things to that tune. Well, it has been a while since I have read a book that truly scared me, so I thought it was about time. I jumped for this book because of the reviews, and I devoured this thing page by page. I was hungry for horror and scary but what I found was a mystery/suspense with a tinge of scary sprinkled on top.
I wasn’t scared at all. No heart racing, sweaty palms, nervous breathing, nothing. There was a shroud of mystery as to how the Reverend was “curing” people and their side effects. The opening deaths of his wife and son were heart-wrenching, right up King’s alley. Pulled on all the feels but then it died off for almost then next half of the book. There were little bumps in the story but nothing that made me want to stay up late and press on to the end of the chapter because I had to know what was going on. At the end when the bill came due, and all was revealed, I was extremely let down.
I thought Rev. was going to find a way to put his mind in another body or something and was going to live forever and laugh as those around him screamed in terror. He just wanted a peek behind the curtain at the wizard which was a little lackluster for me. What he saw on the other side of the curtain, scary stuff. Whoa man, I wasn’t expecting that. Had the story had more writing like the family getting killed and the last few chapters I would have put this up there as the best novel he had ever written. There was just too much dry writing for me to enjoy the entire thing. I liked the ending until the end if that makes sense. It was good and scary, and then it just petered out. I closed the book feeling two things. The first was “That’s it?” while the second came a little later and was a “So what?”. I had an empty feeling, and I thought the main character was sort of empty by the end as well. I still liked the story overall, not my favorite but when King was on fire, he was blazing like the sun. I think it is worth the read if you were like me and hadn’t read it yet but I wouldn’t recommend going into looking to get scared.
5/10
Overall score 25/30
83.4 or a B. Good story, not his best.
