Book Review
Title: The Dead Zone
Author: Stephen King
Published: 1980
Rating: 40/100
Review:
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| The Dead Zone Cover |
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| James Franco in 11/22/63 |
When I found out James Franco, star of Stephen King's 11/22/63 recent TV show adaption, had narrated an audio book version The Dead Zone (DZ), a classic King novel from 1980, to freshen it up for today's audience, my interest was sparked and I downloaded it on a whim, hoping for something that was on par with 11/22/63. What I got was the complete opposite.
11/22/63 is an absolute whopper of an audio book, coming in at the 30+ hour mark. DZ comes in at almost half that, 16+ hours. Despite this, DZ feels like it's twice the length of 11/22/63... it's that boring and slow. It chugs along at an unbelievably sluggish pace. In the car, I found myself actually choosing to listen to the radio instead of battling through another chapter and I'd only switch to DZ if a song came on I didn't like. While running, DZ was so slow, I almost drifted off to sleep and sent myself crashing into the pavement.
Now, I'm not suggesting that all books have to race along at a roadrunner's pace, but if you are going slow, just like on a road trip, you need to give the reader something good to look at, something to distract them. When the pace is slowed down, the reader has more time to concentrate on the little things. All of a sudden, characters and dialogue matter more. King can get this right - The Green Mile - but I don't think he nailed it with DZ. DZ just hasn't got enough meat on the bone to go with it's thick mash potato pacing.
DZ's protagonist, John Smith, is an interesting and captivating character, who somehow kept me clinging onto the book, instead of chucking it in the 'could not finish' pile. The book begins with Johnny getting involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, that puts him in a coma for many years. When he wakes up, he discovers he has the ability to see parts of the future when he touches people - their future. It's a great premise and King had me hooked in the first 1/4 of DZ.
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| Christopher Walken as 'John Smith' in the 1984 movie adaptation |
The second quarter of DZ is it's pinnacle, as King takes you on the journey of Johnny discovering his scary-ass new found power. At this point, I knew Johnny would use this 'super power' to do something amazing and I had to know what that was. So I kept reading. Along the way, King made me feel for Johnny. I felt sorry for him. His story is a sad one, depressing even, and I pitied him. I almost felt like I owed it to him to finish his story, to find out what would happen to him in the end.
Then, at the 50% mark, King puts Johnny head-to-head against one of the sickest and most depraved killer psychopaths he has ever dreamed up in that deranged head of his, Frank Dodd. My ears were perked up. King had my full attention. All of a sudden, it was a traditional good vs evil story, physic vs psychopath. It becomes a cop story, with some intriguing detective work. But then, it's all over in a few chapters. Obviously, Johnny prevails (kind of) and King takes the story off on a wildly different political tangent and this is where DZ slows right down, crashing and burning like that poor taxi Johnny took a ride in.
At this point, King pits Johnny against a dirty politician, Greg Stillson, who he knows will one day become the President and use his influence to start World War 3. Sure, the stakes are raised, but the meat King attempts to put on the bone just falls off in sloppy slithers, ending up in a boring heap on the floor. The quest to stop Stillson just failed to grab me like Dodd's story did. It felt like King had served the main meal first and appetizer second, instead of it being the other way around. In the end, DZ fizzled out with a whimper and left me wanting more, a lot more. With King's legendary name attached and 11/22/63 being such a fantastic book, my expectations for DZ were raised to an impossibly high level and maybe that's why DZ didn't live up to them.
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