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Desperation
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Binding: Hardcover
Label: Viking Press
Manufacturer: Viking Press
Publisher: Viking Press
Release Date: September 01, 1996
Studio: Viking Press
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Editorial Review:
En route to Lake Tahoe for a much anticipated vacation, the Carver family is arrested for blowing out all four tires on their camper. Collie Entragian is the arresting officer, the self-made sheriff of a town called Desperation, Nevada, and the quintessential bad cop. Unbeknownst to the Carvers, Entragian regularly sniffs out passerbys on this stretch of road, and in fact has done in nearly every resident of his hometown. He can also change form and summon the help of creepy creatures, including scorpions, snakes and spiders. Though the family seems doomed, an unlikely hero emerges --11-year-old David Carver--who finds his own way to get around the Law.
Desperation is the companion novel to King's The Regulators, which was published simultaneously under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Forget the more-or-less literary novels of recent years, like Dolores Claiborne. These books mark the return of the Stephen King of The Stand and Pet Sematary, where King's main concerns where whether good could defeat evil and how much gore could be squeezed into (or out of) one book. In each novel, the characters and situations are altered as King plays with questions of identity and form. But both really center around a new personification of evil that goes by the name of Tak. Tak wants to rule the world. Somebody has to stop him. Somebody's eyes have to pop out. Somebody's head has to explode. Now that's Stephen King!
Several cross-country travelers--including a writer, a family on vacation, and a professor and his wife--end up in the little mining town of Desperation, where a crazy policeman and evil forces force them to fight for their lives. Read by Kathy Bates.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - It takes long thoughts to see this novel as a strong work
Luis Mejia - Desperation is a deep and certainly scary work of fiction which gives way to a general sense of message through it's thoughtful scenaries. Among the King universe Desperation is unconventional, although it gets quite refreshing for it's style. It captures the crudeness and strambotic sense of the desert, the mystic power always present in his paranormal fiction, the storyline is easy-going and lineal (which gives the plot a witty sense), and the reader can be excited by the All-American ... Read More
Rating:  - Pretty Good Read
This book concerns a number of travellers trapped by what appears to be a maniac cop, in a mining town called Desperation, and their attempts to escape.
As Stephen King books go, I did not think this was one of his better ones, but was a pretty good read, nonetheless. I felt the characters in the story were reasonably good, and kept you interested in them, for most of the time, anyway, as it should be pointed out, that this book is slow moving in parts, by this author's standards.
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Rating:  - First King Experience
This was the first Stephen King book that I ever read. I saw it at a 2nd hand store and figured for $5 I couldn't go wrong. Well I have to say when I opened it that night after work I could not put it down! This book was amazing! The intese details paint a perfect picture. Definately a good read.
Rating: - Flawed, but still good
Once again a novel about the classic battle of good vs. evil, but King (as usual) does a good job of coming up with original material. This keeps the reader involved, as the suspense comes from trying to figure out just what/what the bad guy is and what he wants.
That said, even when writing a horror book about the unreal, it is not justifiable to throw all logic out the window, and sadly King forgets logic in both the details and the overall plot.
For instance, in one scene ... Read More
Rating:  - Weak writing, not scary at all...
Above all, the book is poorly written. The plot is formulaic and forgettable. The author's attempt to be suspenseful and scary fell flat. I'm not a Stephen King reader but I was sorely disappointed by this book.
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