WIJFR: Mr. Mercedes by SK (NS)

[susiebw]

Has anyone else read this?

So many of his books are such epics, it's easy to forget how great his regular books are.  He's such a great storyteller.  I thought this was great!  It's no 11/22/63 or It, but they can't all be that, and frankly, I kind of appreciate something I can read/listen to in a reasonable amount of time without it taking over my life for a month. I really loved the characters, in typical SK fashion, and I'm psyched to read the sequels.

[leeba25]

I loved this one! It's amazing how King can get you to love such flawed characters.

Happy slapper!

[susiebw]

leeba25, have you read the sequel? I think the third book in the series comes out next month, right?

It's amazing how he even comes up with some of the character flaws! That dude was SO MESSED UP!

[rainbowchip]

I need to read more SK!

[susiebw]

Everyone needs to read more SK!

[Yankees21]

I really liked this one (and the sequel)- I'm excited to the third one to come out this summer. I'm going to an event where SK is speaking, answering questions, etc and I get a copy of the book, so that'll be fun.

[leeba25]

May 12, 2016 9:33:18 GMT -5 susiebw said:

leeba25 , have you read the sequel? I think the third book in the series comes out next month, right?

It's amazing how he even comes up with some of the character flaws! That dude was SO MESSED UP!

do you mean Bill Hodges, the MC? Or the guy with mommy issues? (LOL but I can't remember his name!)

Yes I read the 2nd one too - and thanks for the reminder that the 3rd comes out soon. Yes, June 7th, per Goodreads. Perfect timing for my work trip where I'll be on the plane for a ton of time. 

I liked the 2nd one a lot too - we get more background / character building with some of the characters, of course, which is great. I wish I could remember more but sometime in the past two years I got lazy about GR and haven't been updating with ratings & notes. UGH. I need to start doing that again. 

[susiebw]

May 12, 2016 10:23:42 GMT -5 leeba25 said:

May 12, 2016 9:33:18 GMT -5 susiebw said:

leeba25 , have you read the sequel? I think the third book in the series comes out next month, right?

It's amazing how he even comes up with some of the character flaws! That dude was SO MESSED UP!

do you mean Bill Hodges, the MC? Or the guy with mommy issues? (LOL but I can't remember his name!)

Yes I read the 2nd one too - and thanks for the reminder that the 3rd comes out soon. Yes, June 7th, per Goodreads. Perfect timing for my work trip where I'll be on the plane for a ton of time. 

I liked the 2nd one a lot too - we get more background / character building with some of the characters, of course, which is great. I wish I could remember more but sometime in the past two years I got lazy about GR and haven't been updating with ratings & notes. UGH. I need to start doing that again. 

The dude with the mommy issues.  Brady something-or-other.  Hodges has some issues of his own, but nothing like the bad guy. 
God, SK is so good at character development.

[snshne322]

Thanks for the suggestion. I feel like the only SK that I've read are long epic tomes like Under the Dome, It and 11/22/63. They were all excellent, so damn long. It's good to be reminded that they aren't all 1000 pages long.

[ufcasey]

Confession: I have never read a SK book. I'm just such a wimp when it comes to scary books and for whatever reason when I was much younger I decided that must be the only kinds of books he writes. I know that is not true now, but still haven't gotten around to reading anything by him. So what's a good book to try for a SK newbie? Preferably not a million pages long or overly frightening lol

[Nonny]

May 12, 2016 16:10:22 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Confession: I have never read a SK book. I'm just such a wimp when it comes to scary books and for whatever reason when I was much younger I decided that must be the only kinds of books he writes. I know that is not true now, but still haven't gotten around to reading anything by him. So what's a good book to try for a SK newbie? Preferably not a million pages long or overly frightening lol

My favorite is The Eyes of the Dragon, which is a fantasy novel, and pretty short for SK (Goodreads says 427 pages, but I don't feel like it's nearly that long.. Amazon says 384... so somewhere around there).

Have you seen any of these movies, made from his books?  If there is a movie you like, you could read the book.

stephenking.com/library/movie/

The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies ever, and in a very rare book -> movie translation, the movie is actually phenomenally better than the book. The book isn't told in a linear time frame, and the screenwriter changed the ending* and made it a LOT better.  But it's still a solid story on it's own (the other 3 novellas in the book are scary/creep - don't read The Breathing Method if you are pregnant).

Is there a particular horror genre you definitely want to avoid, or one that you think you wouldn't mind?  For example, I don't particularly find things dealing with the supernatural scary, so The Shining feels suspenseful, but it doesn't scare me.  Under the Dome on the other hand, deals with the rapid breakdown of society in an unknown situation, and even though it had a ridiculous ending* the build up majorly messed with my head because it felt so real.

*You'll see us SK fans bitch about his endings pretty regularly.  The man can weave a tale and build characters like nobody's business, but his endings tend to be... um... lackluster, I guess, is a polite way to put it. LOL!  I actually understand why some of his endings feel like cop outs now that I've finished The Dark Tower series, but it takes some getting used to. (Dark Tower isn't particularly scary IMO, but definitely do NOT start with that, it's a 4000 page rabbit hole you only want to go down knowingly.)

[susiebw]

Joyland was a pretty quick read and not too scary. I wouldn't call it "typical" SK, but it was a good story for sure.

Mr Mercedes wasn't overly frightening, either. More suspense than really scary, IMO.

Same for Revival, which I also read fairly recently.

11/23/63 wasn't scary either and it was SO GOOD, but it was about a million pages long, so maybe don't start there.

[susiebw]

Joyland was a pretty quick read and not too scary. I wouldn't call it "typical" SK, but it was a good story for sure.

Mr Mercedes wasn't overly frightening, either. More suspense than really scary, IMO.

Same for Revival, which I also read fairly recently.

11/23/63 wasn't scary either and it was SO GOOD, but it was about a million pages long, so maybe don't start there.

[susiebw]

Oh! Or the Green Mile!

[sweetpea508]

He wrote a short story named The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. It's not too terribly creepy and I really liked it. If I remember correctly, a little girl gets lost while on a hiking trip and she has to find her way back to civilization and all she has is a small am/fm radio. I've been reading his books since I was a kid. I just can't get into the Dark Tower series for some reason, it's just so weird

[ufcasey]

I had no idea that the movie Shawshank Redemption was an SK book! That is one of my favorite movies ever! I even own it (and I own very very few movies). Funny! Thanks for ask the recs! My idea of scary is a book that gives me nightmares about the villain coming after me lol

[anglashly]

May 12, 2016 21:09:08 GMT -5 sweetpea508 said:

He wrote a short story named The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. It's not too terribly creepy and I really liked it. If I remember correctly, a little girl gets lost while on a hiking trip and she has to find her way back to civilization and all she has is a small am/fm radio. I've been reading his books since I was a kid. I just can't get into the Dark Tower series for some reason, it's just so weird

This was my first SK book at the recommendation of my old co-worker that loves him. I'm now reading through his books slowly and love them all

[leeba25]

May 12, 2016 16:10:22 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Confession: I have never read a SK book. I'm just such a wimp when it comes to scary books and for whatever reason when I was much younger I decided that must be the only kinds of books he writes. I know that is not true now, but still haven't gotten around to reading anything by him. So what's a good book to try for a SK newbie? Preferably not a million pages long or overly frightening lol

I have a friend who works at Simon & Schuster, the publishing house for Stephen King. She said that they often refer to 11/22/63 as  the Stephen King gateway book, or a book for people who didn't know they like SK. In other words, it's a great first read of his. The only thing is, it's a bit long. Not ridiculously, but pretty solidly long. I want to say it's 750-800 pages. 

So worth it, imo. 

[Nonny]

May 12, 2016 21:09:08 GMT -5 sweetpea508 said:

I've been reading his books since I was a kid. I just can't get into the Dark Tower series for some reason, it's just so weird

I've also been reading his books since I was a kid, and for decades I avoided the Dark Tower. I remember trying to read it when I was young (tween probably) and I didn't know what the hell was going on, and it made zero sense. But this last year I decided this was a story that he spent 30+ years writing, and ties in to so many of his other books, that I should probably give it another go.

At some point the original first book, The Gunslinger, was revised (partially re-written, re-edited, and re-issued) and it actually made sense when I read it as an adult!  I continued on from there, and I won't lie, it was a long slog - I think it took me 6 months to work my way through all 8 novels, and there were definitely lulls (some weirdness around the Wizard of Oz story (book 4) when it ties into The Stand, and Wolves of the Calla involves an overly long retelling of 'Salem's Lot). 

In the end I was glad I tackled it, and found it to be a great story.  It gives a really unique insight into SK as a person and an author, and it was fun to see how so many of his other works are interwoven with this magnum opus.  Like, I always knew his novels were all intertwined, but this is kind of the backbone of all the connections.

[aurora]

I really loved Mr. Mercedes! And the sequel. I actually liked them better than It and some of his older, more famous books.

King is truly a genius at character development.

[ufcasey]

May 13, 2016 13:27:37 GMT -5 anglashly said:

May 12, 2016 21:09:08 GMT -5 sweetpea508 said:

He wrote a short story named The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. It's not too terribly creepy and I really liked it. If I remember correctly, a little girl gets lost while on a hiking trip and she has to find her way back to civilization and all she has is a small am/fm radio. I've been reading his books since I was a kid. I just can't get into the Dark Tower series for some reason, it's just so weird

This was my first SK book at the recommendation of my old co-worker that loves him. I'm now reading through his books slowly and love them all

I just finished reading this and I really liked it! The audiobook was particularly fantastic. I think I shall try another SK book soon I am no longer a SK virgin lol