Desperation
1996
- fiction
- travelers
- traffic police
- american fiction
- horror tales
- horror
- suspense
- psychological fiction
- spanish: adult fiction
- horror fiction
The story
Located off a desolate stretch of Interstate 50, Desperation, Nevada has few connections with the rest of the world. It is a place, though, where the seams between worlds are thin. Miners at the China Pit have accidentally broken into another dimension and released a horrific creature known as Tak, who takes human form by hijacking some of the town's residents. The forces of good orchestrate a confrontation between this ancient evil and a group of unsuspecting travelers who are lured to the dying town. This rag-tag band of unwilling champions is led by a young boy who speaks to God. ([source][1]) [1]: https://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/desperation.html
What it’s like
Stephen King's Desperation reads like a sunbaked nightmare of dust, heat and empty highway, its prose loose, colloquial and restlessly conversational, sliding between shifting viewpoints the way a camera would drift through a sun-bleached town. The mood is sun-bleached unease that tips toward dread: dead mines, a silent jail, a motel where nobody should be awake, and a sense that ordinary Americana is going wrong one small detail at a time. Its pace is shaggy and expansive, with long digressions into characters' histories before the horror snaps in, so it suits a slow weekend afternoon, a long-haul drive, or a late night alone with the lights on. Violence is frequent and often graphic, including gore, child peril and the grisly deaths of supporting characters, and the supernatural menace is intense and unsettling rather than gentle. Emotionally it is warm toward its misfit band of travelers and their bond, especially around a sharp, faith-tinged boy, so it appeals to readers who like big, sprawling horror with heart and a strong sense of place, not to those seeking something light.
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