Dreamcatcher by Stephen King Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dreamcatcher
Book Review: A Painfully Obvious Lack of Ideas and Suspense
Summary: 3 Stars
It was definitely good for Stephen King to write this book while recovering from his catastrophic accident, and he has translated some of his pain and agony in the book, especially in the form of one of the main characters, Jonesy, who has also been hit by a car. True King fans will send their best wishes in this regard, but unfortunately, "Dreamcatcher" is one of the weakest King books I have read (and I've read at least 22 of them). The problem here is a major shortage of ideas, believable characters, and suspense.First, this book is basically a rehash of several earlier King works. Once again we get to sit through the concept of childhood friends with a special, psychic bond that lasts into adulthood. King has already beaten this concept to death in "It," "Stand By Me," and who knows where else, and here he destroys this tired concept once and for all (I hope). This book also displays one of King's longtime weaknesses - telling big chunks of the story through flashbacks. The main plotline of aliens attempting to take over humanity, but being thwarted by their own weaknesses and the unexpected resilience of humans, was already used in "Tommyknockers," and much better. The main characters here (except possibly Duddits) are very narrowly defined and stereotypical, and are hard to empathize with. Worst yet are the two useless bad guys, the military commander Kurtz (ridiculously insane and narrow-minded) and his assistant Freddy (completely devoid of independent thought). These two guys are completely impossible to believe, and their presence doesn't even make that much sense to the story line. It's as if King felt the need to add two bad guys just because he thought it was necessary, and their function in the story seems like little more than a weak afterthought.
This book is also annoyingly slow-moving and devoid of suspense, especially with the tedious and never-ending chase scene that makes up a large portion of the book. King attempts to add suspense by moving the action along very slowly. That sometimes works (in the King classics), but here it's just tedious and misguided. You will also be distressed by this book's reliance on gross-out tactics, with belching, farting, and puking being major parts of the plot. "Dreamcatcher" would be a presentable novel by most other writers. But as part of King's fearsome overall career, it's mediocre at best.
Book Review: A Worthy Effort, If Not His Best
Summary: 4 Stars
3.5 stars, round to 4
Reading Dreamcatcher is like watching a whole season of X-Files all at once, except without Fox and Dana. And with some scenes thrown in that would be too gory for television; and all wrapped up in the psychological suspense that Stephen King does so well.
The monsters and gore don't do much for me, but the psychological suspense and depth of characters make the book worth reading. I was especially intrigued that King chose a person with Down's Syndrome as one of the main characters, the one around which the entire story revolves. Perhaps the best passage of the book is a short one that is told from this character's point of view. It is fascinating how differently Duddit's mind works from the way he comes across to others - how much more "normal" he is inside his own mind. It shows a great deal of insight on King's part, and accords with current medical knowledge about Down's Syndrome.
The high level of suspense keeps you reading and makes this easier and quicker to read than you might expect for a book of such length. It isn't really a mystery, in which a big surprise answer is revealed at the end. Instead, there is a constant turnover between revelations of pieces of the puzzle along with new questions that are always arising. This keeps the tension level consistently high pretty much throughout the entire book. It does drag a bit towards the end, though. The final chase scene goes on too long and in too much detail. The book's length could have been significantly shortened if the chase had been pared down to only those parts of it that added important information. However, fans of action and adventure might consider the chase the best part of the book.
Dreamcatcher is highly atmospheric. The vivid depiction of the wild and bitterly cold Maine woods during a big blizzard, together with the culture of the hunters and fishermen who make up the small and mostly transient local population, is one of the strong points of the book. In fact, for me the spookiest part was towards the beginning, where the hunters become increasingly aware of their isolation and remote location as things begin to go wrong. The realism of this part made it much scarier to me than the later sections with the monsters.
I also found it both interesting and moving that Stephen King wrote this book while recovering from critical injuries following a car accident that very nearly killed him. One story line in the novel closely resembles King's own experience. The autobiographical quality of that thread adds to the realism of the story and the way that King is able to almost make the reader feel the character's pain.
The "voices" of the characters are authentic and consistent. Although some readers may find the crude language of some objectionable, there is no question that it is part of the authenticity of those characters.
Although horror novels aren't really my thing, Stephen King's intelligence as well as his experience and competency as a writer are quite evident in Dreamcatcher. His books are the best in the genré.
(882 pages)
Quotes from Dreamcatcher:
"You can't make yourself be lucky."
". . . men . . . When you thought about it, it was sort of a blue-eyed wonder that women could love the best of them, let alone the rest of them."
Book Review: A good effort
Summary: 3 Stars
Dreamcatcher is a good effort by King, but its not a great book. But before I get to my issues with it I want to say that Dreamcatcher has a lot of things going for it. The characters are interesting, the plot moves at its own steady rate, and I really liked how the military was involved.
However, Dreamcatcher is a unnecessarily lengthy book, and even though it develops its characters that doesn't justify the books length. In all honestly I got sick of it around the 400 page mark and literally skipped 200 pages, and I didn't really miss a single thing. (And I don't typically skip pages in books, I read Under the Dome without skipping a single page)
Aside from the books length though I don't really have too many qualms with Dreamcatcher, and its not one of his worst books or anything its just not as good as his others. It started well, but it slowly went downhill.
Book Review: A lot of recycled garbage ...
Summary: 2 Stars
For the first few pages I entertained the hope that SK might be back to something of his old form. However I soon noticed that no sooner had the story started to get interesting than King would switch away to another storyline, completely killing the suspense. The plot lacks originality and owes a great debt in particular to the Alien films. It is rambling and incoherent and I suspect that without the King name it would have never seen the light of day. He has managed the feat of writing a book which is way way too long yet failing to fill in many important details of the past which are hinted at all the way through the novel. The so-called plot twist at the end was just confusing and left me wondering why I bothered to finish the book.Book Review: A riveting guilty pleasure
Summary: 5 Stars
What a great read! I could not put this book down. I'm a 40-year old working mom, and I don't have time to read much anymore, but with this book, I found the time. I've been a Stephen King fan from the beginning. I read Carrie before Stephen became a household word, but I had to stop reading him after Salem's Lot because I just got too darn scared. I picked up Dreamcatcher after reading an intriguing review in the local paper, and what a delight to be back into Stephen's easy-to-read, everyman style. It was like reuniting with an old friend! I hate self-indulgent writers, and Stephen is the opposite; his characters are down-to-earth, real people with faults we can all relate to. A riveting guilty pleasure! I'm reading "On Writing" next.