38. Dreamcatcher

38. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King (12/10/2011 - 12/18/2011)

I love Stephen King but man, this book is disgusting.  There are so many freaky/disturbing and really disgusting things that happen early in the book that I don't know if I can actually recommend it to anyone.  Once the first 150 pages or so are over, though, the book gets quite good.

The actual plot is that of an alien invasion; aliens are attempting to make the Earth into their personal breeding ground by basically eating everything in their path -- people, dogs, buildings, etc.  But the aliens land in northern Maine, an area that, thanks to the weather plus the people they encounter, proves inhospitable.  Those people include four childhood friends -- Beaver, Pete, Jonesy, and Henry.  Two of these men die early on in horrible ways, but the other two prove essential to saving the Earth from the alien beings who have moved in. Then there is an entire sub-plot about a man with Down's syndrome that these four guys saved when they were all kids, and this turns out to be crucial to these men solving the problem that now faces the planet.    It's weird -- the plot doesn't sound that interesting when I describe it, but it's a tough book to put down.  I got so engrossed, I spent a lot of my week sitting on my couch reading.

Stephen King continues to surprise me, and I think that's why I like his work. I am quite familiar with his propensity for gratuitous violence or gore, but even so, my stomach was turning and reeling reading this book in a way that few other books have ever been able to inspire.  I suppose that's not exactly a pleasant surprise, of course, but nonetheless -- it helps me understand why King is one of my favorite writers. This may not be a  favorite of his books, but his abilities with pen and paper astound me.