meg reads and reads

Title: Rose Madder Author: Stephen King I have complicated feelings about this one. I was a little disappointed after a couple of really awesome King novels, and this one ended up falling flat in a lot of ways. I think this is mostly because parts of it just seemed to drag out. I have seen other reviews of this book that thought it was good minus the fantasy element, and while the actual way the fantasy element enters the story a bit far-fetched, it's no more far-fetched than any other books or movies with the collision between "reality" and "fantasy." I honestly thought the fantasy portions were smart and are largely what ended up saving the story for me. The book centers around Rose, who has been married to Norman for about 14 years, and he is horribly abusive. Some of the descriptions of the abuse are graphic, including the description of when he caused her to have a miscarriage through one of his beatings. She finally gets up the nerve to leave him...

Title: Needful Things Author: Stephen King This book definitely had some really high moments, but overall it was a slow and uninteresting read. The main problem with this book is that there are just way too many main characters. I feel like we could have gotten glimpses of some characters--such as Sally, Lester, Frank Jewett, George Nelson, Rev. Rose, Father Brigham, and many more--without having to go too deeply into their personal stories. Their separate plot lines felt superfluous and made the book much longer than it needed to be. That said, this has one of the more gruesome scenes I've read in a Stephen King book thus far, the fight between Wilma and Nettie. The final showdown between Mr. Gaunt and Alan is pretty neat, though it is so outlandish that it takes a little of the spark out of it. All in all, it was decent, and I give it three out of five stars. ------------------------- QUOTE: "'Not everybody believes in ghosts, but I do. Do you know what they ...