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Zenith Rising
The Plant is a serial novel published in 2000 as an e-book by Stephen King.
The American author Stephen King wrote a few parts of a story by the same name and sent out as chapbooks to his friends instead of Christmas cards in 1982, 1983, and 1985. Only three installments were produced by Philtrum Press before the story was shelved, and the original editions are hotly sought-after collector's items today.
In 2000, King picked up The Plant again and started to publish it as an electronic serial. The first part (matching the 1982 story) was put on his own web site for anyone to download. He also said that he wanted everyone that downloaded the story to pay him $1 either before or after reading it.
The idea was that if enough people paid up, more parts would be published in the same way. The limit was set at 75% of payers versus downloaders. The rate of paying customers decreased over time, but at least the first parts were over the set limit. As of mid-2001, six parts have been published (making up the first somewhat self-contained part of the novel). King has said that there will be more, but that some other projects will be finished first. To date there has been no further mention of the story.
The story tells of a person working as editor on a paperback publishing house. One day he gets a manuscript from what seems like a crackpot. It's about magic, but it also contains photographs that seem very real. He writes a rejection slip about the book, but on grounds of the photographs, he also notifies the police where the author lives. This enrages the author who sends a mysterious plant to the editor's office.
The story is told in epistolary format, consisting entirely of letters, memos, and so on.
(Wikipedia)
The American author Stephen King wrote a few parts of a story by the same name and sent out as chapbooks to his friends instead of Christmas cards in 1982, 1983, and 1985. Only three installments were produced by Philtrum Press before the story was shelved, and the original editions are hotly sought-after collector's items today.
In 2000, King picked up The Plant again and started to publish it as an electronic serial. The first part (matching the 1982 story) was put on his own web site for anyone to download. He also said that he wanted everyone that downloaded the story to pay him $1 either before or after reading it.
The idea was that if enough people paid up, more parts would be published in the same way. The limit was set at 75% of payers versus downloaders. The rate of paying customers decreased over time, but at least the first parts were over the set limit. As of mid-2001, six parts have been published (making up the first somewhat self-contained part of the novel). King has said that there will be more, but that some other projects will be finished first. To date there has been no further mention of the story.
The story tells of a person working as editor on a paperback publishing house. One day he gets a manuscript from what seems like a crackpot. It's about magic, but it also contains photographs that seem very real. He writes a rejection slip about the book, but on grounds of the photographs, he also notifies the police where the author lives. This enrages the author who sends a mysterious plant to the editor's office.
The story is told in epistolary format, consisting entirely of letters, memos, and so on.
(Wikipedia)
270 pages, ebook
First published July 1, 2000
44 people are currently reading
3258 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,390 books890k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
March 9, 2025
Este es uno de los libros más aburridos que leí de King. La idea de la planta es muy buena, tiene mucho potencial y es usada para algo muy tonto. Claro que para los personajes salvar su trabajo y prestigio es importante, pero aun así.
En notas previas a cada parte se explica que es una novela por entregas y que esta incompleta, por tener el autor otros proyectos. Por ello el final queda con puntos suspensivos. Sin embargo, eso no sería un problema si lo previo tuviera más fuerza. En su lugar todo parece darse de forma natural, con los personajes dejándose llevar sin ningún momento destacable.
En notas previas a cada parte se explica que es una novela por entregas y que esta incompleta, por tener el autor otros proyectos. Por ello el final queda con puntos suspensivos. Sin embargo, eso no sería un problema si lo previo tuviera más fuerza. En su lugar todo parece darse de forma natural, con los personajes dejándose llevar sin ningún momento destacable.
March 1, 2019
First of all, you can get a free 2 part PDF of this story at StephenKing.com ( The Plant: Zenith Rising).
Second, be aware that this serial novel is incomplete. The two files contain parts 1-3 and parts 1-6 ONLY. There is no actual conclusion. King started on this around 1980 and has revisited it a couple of times since. It may be finished someday or it may not. NEVER. No way to know for sure.
On to the review...
This story is a whole lot of fun. The main gist centers around a failing publishing company. One of the editors receives a letter from an aspiring offer that intrigues him for some reason amidst the mounds of such letters and parcels. Going against the normal procedures for non-solicited submissions, he decides to take a chance on this one and contacts the author. From that point on, things go awry. I'll just leave it at that.
This story is told entirely through letters, inter-office memos, and journal entries. It gives it a really cool feel that's kind of fun and allows King to change voice and tone constantly whenever someone else is doing the "writing." I really liked it and truly hope that he picks it up again sometime because I really want to know how it all wraps up.
Second, be aware that this serial novel is incomplete. The two files contain parts 1-3 and parts 1-6 ONLY. There is no actual conclusion. King started on this around 1980 and has revisited it a couple of times since. It may be finished someday or it may not. NEVER. No way to know for sure.
On to the review...
This story is a whole lot of fun. The main gist centers around a failing publishing company. One of the editors receives a letter from an aspiring offer that intrigues him for some reason amidst the mounds of such letters and parcels. Going against the normal procedures for non-solicited submissions, he decides to take a chance on this one and contacts the author. From that point on, things go awry. I'll just leave it at that.
This story is told entirely through letters, inter-office memos, and journal entries. It gives it a really cool feel that's kind of fun and allows King to change voice and tone constantly whenever someone else is doing the "writing." I really liked it and truly hope that he picks it up again sometime because I really want to know how it all wraps up.
September 20, 2020
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, they say, with the possible exception of a wacko writer whose novel got rejected by the editor of a failing paperback publishing company.
This writer, who goes by the name of Carlos Detweiller, is plotting bloody revenge after receiving the rejection slip and the first step in acting out his revenge is mailing the editor a potted plant anonymously, a sickly-looking Common Ivy, which, it turns out, is anything but common...
The story is told in epistolary format, which, I have to admit, does not represent my favorite kind of story-telling. Maybe that was the reason why the two PDF files that make up the whole book (which can be downloaded from the author’s website) have been sitting on my hard drive for over seven years before I reluctantly “picked” them up in order to fill one of the few existing gaps in my King reading history. All my attempts of converting these PDF into something I can read on my Kindle failed, so I read this sucker on the PC screen in two and a half sittings. This might give you an idea how engrossing this was for me. I can say this story grew on me… along with the ivy.
Also, the “epistles” are not only letters, but all kinds of stuff people used to communicate (except for E-mails because it’s set in the dawn of time, in 1981, before the Internet changed all our lives for the better). There are some actual letters, but also interoffce-memos, personal journal entries, newspaper articles, mailgrams, dispatches, and diary entries. Especially some of the latter ones are quite long (longer than a short story), and contain everything you’d expect to find in regular prose. You could say this is an ordinary novel in epistolary clothing.
One of King’s strengths as a writer is drawing out his characters so well and the format he chose gives him great opportunity to write in different voices and he’s taking full advantage of that. One can look forward to an illustrious circle of some rather weird figures, including a retired WW2 General, Anthony “Iron-Guts” Hecksler [with the same pronunciation as the German work “Häcksler” for a chaff-cutting machine], a janitor who seems to be slow-witted but actually isn’t, an editor accused by his boss of prolixity (a claim that is not without some merit, I might add), another editor whose pastime it is sniffing the chair of his female co-worker when she’s not in the office, and quite a few more, including the aforementioned would-be author Carlos, who set the whole thing in motion with his novel True Tales from Demon Infestations.
Another thing that might be off-putting with this novel is, that it isn’t finished. THE PLANT was published as a serial novel in 2000 and after six parts it just stopped. King wrote on his website that he “reserve[s] the right to continue the story, and to continue posting further installments” but also that he “can’t guarantee you an ending, either happy or sad”. This actually didn’t sound too good to me and I had already prepared myself for a disappointment at the end. Luckily my preparation turned out to be unnecessary. The book does indeed have an ending! It’s just not a proper conclusion that ties up all the loose ends, but at least there’s no major cliffhanger one has to deal with. To me the ending is one that a responsible writer would put at the end of a first volume in a series of novels. Somewhat open, but not too much, satisfactory, although leaving the reader with an urge to read (and buy) the next volume. I’m happy the way it is and I had great fun reading THE PLANT.
Shelved under occult botany & horticultural horror.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
This writer, who goes by the name of Carlos Detweiller, is plotting bloody revenge after receiving the rejection slip and the first step in acting out his revenge is mailing the editor a potted plant anonymously, a sickly-looking Common Ivy, which, it turns out, is anything but common...
The story is told in epistolary format, which, I have to admit, does not represent my favorite kind of story-telling. Maybe that was the reason why the two PDF files that make up the whole book (which can be downloaded from the author’s website) have been sitting on my hard drive for over seven years before I reluctantly “picked” them up in order to fill one of the few existing gaps in my King reading history. All my attempts of converting these PDF into something I can read on my Kindle failed, so I read this sucker on the PC screen in two and a half sittings. This might give you an idea how engrossing this was for me. I can say this story grew on me… along with the ivy.
Also, the “epistles” are not only letters, but all kinds of stuff people used to communicate (except for E-mails because it’s set in the dawn of time, in 1981, before the Internet changed all our lives for the better). There are some actual letters, but also interoffce-memos, personal journal entries, newspaper articles, mailgrams, dispatches, and diary entries. Especially some of the latter ones are quite long (longer than a short story), and contain everything you’d expect to find in regular prose. You could say this is an ordinary novel in epistolary clothing.
One of King’s strengths as a writer is drawing out his characters so well and the format he chose gives him great opportunity to write in different voices and he’s taking full advantage of that. One can look forward to an illustrious circle of some rather weird figures, including a retired WW2 General, Anthony “Iron-Guts” Hecksler [with the same pronunciation as the German work “Häcksler” for a chaff-cutting machine], a janitor who seems to be slow-witted but actually isn’t, an editor accused by his boss of prolixity (a claim that is not without some merit, I might add), another editor whose pastime it is sniffing the chair of his female co-worker when she’s not in the office, and quite a few more, including the aforementioned would-be author Carlos, who set the whole thing in motion with his novel True Tales from Demon Infestations.
Another thing that might be off-putting with this novel is, that it isn’t finished. THE PLANT was published as a serial novel in 2000 and after six parts it just stopped. King wrote on his website that he “reserve[s] the right to continue the story, and to continue posting further installments” but also that he “can’t guarantee you an ending, either happy or sad”. This actually didn’t sound too good to me and I had already prepared myself for a disappointment at the end. Luckily my preparation turned out to be unnecessary. The book does indeed have an ending! It’s just not a proper conclusion that ties up all the loose ends, but at least there’s no major cliffhanger one has to deal with. To me the ending is one that a responsible writer would put at the end of a first volume in a series of novels. Somewhat open, but not too much, satisfactory, although leaving the reader with an urge to read (and buy) the next volume. I’m happy the way it is and I had great fun reading THE PLANT.
Shelved under occult botany & horticultural horror.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
March 4, 2023
3.85
Hasta que me topé con el audiolibro de esta historia, nunca la había visto u oído mencionar antes. Fue una rareza para mi enterarme qué iniciando el nuevo milenio, King había decidido incursionar en el naciente mundo de internet, con una novela epistolar publicada por partes sin una edición física como sus anteriores historias. King nos presenta una historia diferente. Una obra inconclusa porque el mismo King así la define, no obstante, varios de sus personajes logran tener un desarrollo y un cierre.
Valiéndose de diarios personales, trozos de prensa, mensajes en maquinas contestadoras, memorándums internos etc. King nos sumerge en la historia de una pequeña, y aún insolvente, casa editorial llamada Zenith House Editores. En ella nos encontramos a Roger Wade como el editor en jefe, John Kenton; a quién le debemos varios de los memorándums más largos, Sandra Jackson como una de las editoras, y personaje que aporta varias de las escenas eróticas más estimulantes de la obra junto a sus compañeros Herb Porter y Riddley Walker. La cotidianidad de nuestros personajes se ve abruptamente interrumpida cuando un peculiar y siniestro personaje llamado Carlos Detweiller intenta impulsar su nombre a la fama literaria con un libro esotérico de su autoría al cual lo acompañaran unas "hiperrealistas" fotografías perturbadoras que encenderán las alarmas de Kenton y Wade. El libro es finalmente rechazado pero las consecuencias de ese desaire son insospechadas para nuestros protagonistas. Especialmente cuando una inofensiva planta es recibida en las oficinas a forma de obsequio por parte de una tal "Roberta Solrac" aka Carlos Detweiller.
Paralelamente a lo anterior, un inesperado antagonista se suma a las preocupaciones de los habitantes de la casa editorial cuando el General Retirado Hecksler, logra escapar de su cautiverio con las mayores ambiciones de destruir al "judío señalado" de Herb Porter, quién en años anteriores viviría un incomodo momento al comunicar el rechazo editorial del manuscrito presentado por el veterano de guerra. Debo confesar que el desenlace de este personaje en particular
ha sido uno de los mejores que recuerde haber leído de King hasta ahora. En conclusión, una muy disfrutable historia con un inicio quizás algo confuso dado el formato y la forma intempestiva que se nos presenta, pero que te deja lo suficientemente satisfecho como para lamentar que el autor hubiese olvidado por completo continuar la historia en aquel ya lejano 2000
Hasta que me topé con el audiolibro de esta historia, nunca la había visto u oído mencionar antes. Fue una rareza para mi enterarme qué iniciando el nuevo milenio, King había decidido incursionar en el naciente mundo de internet, con una novela epistolar publicada por partes sin una edición física como sus anteriores historias. King nos presenta una historia diferente. Una obra inconclusa porque el mismo King así la define, no obstante, varios de sus personajes logran tener un desarrollo y un cierre.
Valiéndose de diarios personales, trozos de prensa, mensajes en maquinas contestadoras, memorándums internos etc. King nos sumerge en la historia de una pequeña, y aún insolvente, casa editorial llamada Zenith House Editores. En ella nos encontramos a Roger Wade como el editor en jefe, John Kenton; a quién le debemos varios de los memorándums más largos, Sandra Jackson como una de las editoras, y personaje que aporta varias de las escenas eróticas más estimulantes de la obra junto a sus compañeros Herb Porter y Riddley Walker. La cotidianidad de nuestros personajes se ve abruptamente interrumpida cuando un peculiar y siniestro personaje llamado Carlos Detweiller intenta impulsar su nombre a la fama literaria con un libro esotérico de su autoría al cual lo acompañaran unas "hiperrealistas" fotografías perturbadoras que encenderán las alarmas de Kenton y Wade. El libro es finalmente rechazado pero las consecuencias de ese desaire son insospechadas para nuestros protagonistas. Especialmente cuando una inofensiva planta es recibida en las oficinas a forma de obsequio por parte de una tal "Roberta Solrac" aka Carlos Detweiller.
Paralelamente a lo anterior, un inesperado antagonista se suma a las preocupaciones de los habitantes de la casa editorial cuando el General Retirado Hecksler, logra escapar de su cautiverio con las mayores ambiciones de destruir al "judío señalado" de Herb Porter, quién en años anteriores viviría un incomodo momento al comunicar el rechazo editorial del manuscrito presentado por el veterano de guerra. Debo confesar que el desenlace de este personaje en particular
ha sido uno de los mejores que recuerde haber leído de King hasta ahora. En conclusión, una muy disfrutable historia con un inicio quizás algo confuso dado el formato y la forma intempestiva que se nos presenta, pero que te deja lo suficientemente satisfecho como para lamentar que el autor hubiese olvidado por completo continuar la historia en aquel ya lejano 2000
April 3, 2023
What's all this about this book being unfinished, incomplete, without a conclusion? It has a pretty decent climax there at about ninety percent, though with a whiff of deus ex machina (or maybe I should say deus ex planta), and it has a pretty great denouement scene when they dispose of the body and discuss the implications of what they have been through. To my mind this is a completed novel, and a pretty great one at that. It is weird and alive. The language is exuberant, pungent, and sort of organic.
By the way, as of this I have now read everything by King, including 16 uncollected stories that were resonably easy to find, except the short story "Man With a Belly" which I'll read in late summer when it will be published in the cemetery dance anthology Killer Crimes. I have also read all the yet to be collected stores, nine I think, that has been published since Cookie Jar in 2016. I know I'm bragging, but it feels nice.
By the way, as of this I have now read everything by King, including 16 uncollected stories that were resonably easy to find, except the short story "Man With a Belly" which I'll read in late summer when it will be published in the cemetery dance anthology Killer Crimes. I have also read all the yet to be collected stores, nine I think, that has been published since Cookie Jar in 2016. I know I'm bragging, but it feels nice.
November 14, 2025
A publisher rejects the wrong story at the right time.
The first three chapters were awful. I would rate them one star. I could tell they were written at an earlier time.
The last three chapters were better. I would rate them three stars. I could tell they were written at a later time.
There was one character (Riddley Walker) that bothered the hell out of me. He is the part of the story my mind won’t let go of because of how he was written. I could see what King was trying to do, but it failed miserably. What the reader ended up with was an outdated and offensive caricature. I did note that it was worse in the first three chapters, which marks it as a thing that might have been changed had this serial novel been officially published.
“I was silent. Stunned to silence. Filled with that horrible, deathlike emotion that comes when someone finally spills out the home truths. When you finally understand that the person you see in the mirror is not the one others see.”
I would only recommend this one to diehard Stephen King fans. It is a rough draft, and it is unfinished.
The first three chapters were awful. I would rate them one star. I could tell they were written at an earlier time.
The last three chapters were better. I would rate them three stars. I could tell they were written at a later time.
There was one character (Riddley Walker) that bothered the hell out of me. He is the part of the story my mind won’t let go of because of how he was written. I could see what King was trying to do, but it failed miserably. What the reader ended up with was an outdated and offensive caricature. I did note that it was worse in the first three chapters, which marks it as a thing that might have been changed had this serial novel been officially published.
“I was silent. Stunned to silence. Filled with that horrible, deathlike emotion that comes when someone finally spills out the home truths. When you finally understand that the person you see in the mirror is not the one others see.”
I would only recommend this one to diehard Stephen King fans. It is a rough draft, and it is unfinished.
April 7, 2018
Was loving this story. It was quirky and fun. I bought all the sections for a dollar way back when and even printed a “hard copy” out so I didn’t have to read it on the computer screen. Sure wish King would pick the story back up. But understood. Between the freeloaders unwilling to pay the dollar on the honor system and instead stealing the story, and King just losing his desire to continue the project, I imagine it’ll go unfinished.
October 12, 2020
This King took some mulling over. The rating, I mean. Should read 3 and a half. In terms of his range, The Plant isn’t the sort of supernatural story that serves as a backdrop for something else (reflection, melancholy, social commentary, it’s not a short list). It doesn’t dissect a character’s psychology and draw the horror from there, either. It’s meant to be a frivolous little exercise in King being King and loving it, period. What he does experiment with is narrative device.
Overall, it was a delight to read. The story is certainly engaging, I was sold on page 1. Glad I didn’t research in advance and find out this was a serialization that got released in installments over a period of… well, a whole lot of years. In short, he took long breaks and never finished it. Had I known that, I’d have picked something else and missed out on some delicious prose and a LOT of giggles. King doesn’t hold back the attitude and witticisms here.
Not saying he ever does, bless him. However, this time the whole narrative takes the form of a group of editors in a publishing house writing to each other or in their diaries. There’s also a black janitor who, when talking to anyone who isn’t family, insists on coming across as anything but the aspiring writer he is. Writing is in these people’s marrow. That’s a given with writers, but ideally, it’s also why an editor becomes an editor. (At some point, the damn carnivorous telepathic plant takes over, for all intents and purposes, and we find it’s missed its calling. It should have become an editor too.)
Anyway, the thing about most people I know who eat and breathe the written word is that even when typing out an email (in this case, an inter-office memo; The Plant takes place in the early 80s), they can’t help funning around with it and turning it into A Piece of Writing. Their personality, humor, and current mood have no trouble coming through, in fact, they mean them to, they have what it takes to pull it off, and they revel in the process. Consequently, the fact there’s a character here with a flare for the dramatic, plus one who’s overtired and pissy (to name just two examples), and ALL of them have a great handle on irony, sarcasm, and all things delightful, is very hard to miss.
To sum up what I enjoyed so much about this little book that I can’t stop smiling two days after I finished it: When your characters are poor mortals as opposed to professional writers, you have to watch how they express themselves. Many find King tends to fail in that department. "Let’s be honest, NOBODY talks like that in real life." (Tragic news, if you ask me.) Whatever "that" is, I can never get enough of it, and with a premise like The Plant’s, he officially gave himself full freedom to be as self-indulgent as he pleases. All over the place. Rejoice or consider yourself warned, that’s your business.
Since this is a tapestry of 1st person POVs (whatever dialog there is is recounted by whoever’s got the pen at any given moment), he tries to make sure they all sound different. With some characters, he succeeds. (There’s a couple of vocabulary challenged antagonists who can’t write worth two dead flies. Getting in THEIR heads couldn’t have been too easy for somebody as pathologically eloquent as he is, but he managed it.) With others, he slips, and their voices sometimes become interchangeable. With the black janitor, he goes completely overboard (unless the fella is talking to himself in his diary). There’s this demented, stunningly ham-fisted rendition of black slang King used to do when he was young, and it filled me with utter cringe whenever he saw fit to inflict it on his readers. It’s in The Dark Tower, it’s in The Stand, it rears its ugly head here as well, but shockingly, I couldn’t care less. I was in it for the general hilarity, and it wasn’t affected, except in parts 5 and upwards. That's where things start getting dark and heavy.
Pity The Plant’s unfinished; I’d love to find out how it ends. I suppose King never figured that out either.
Overall, it was a delight to read. The story is certainly engaging, I was sold on page 1. Glad I didn’t research in advance and find out this was a serialization that got released in installments over a period of… well, a whole lot of years. In short, he took long breaks and never finished it. Had I known that, I’d have picked something else and missed out on some delicious prose and a LOT of giggles. King doesn’t hold back the attitude and witticisms here.
Not saying he ever does, bless him. However, this time the whole narrative takes the form of a group of editors in a publishing house writing to each other or in their diaries. There’s also a black janitor who, when talking to anyone who isn’t family, insists on coming across as anything but the aspiring writer he is. Writing is in these people’s marrow. That’s a given with writers, but ideally, it’s also why an editor becomes an editor. (At some point, the damn carnivorous telepathic plant takes over, for all intents and purposes, and we find it’s missed its calling. It should have become an editor too.)
Anyway, the thing about most people I know who eat and breathe the written word is that even when typing out an email (in this case, an inter-office memo; The Plant takes place in the early 80s), they can’t help funning around with it and turning it into A Piece of Writing. Their personality, humor, and current mood have no trouble coming through, in fact, they mean them to, they have what it takes to pull it off, and they revel in the process. Consequently, the fact there’s a character here with a flare for the dramatic, plus one who’s overtired and pissy (to name just two examples), and ALL of them have a great handle on irony, sarcasm, and all things delightful, is very hard to miss.
To sum up what I enjoyed so much about this little book that I can’t stop smiling two days after I finished it: When your characters are poor mortals as opposed to professional writers, you have to watch how they express themselves. Many find King tends to fail in that department. "Let’s be honest, NOBODY talks like that in real life." (Tragic news, if you ask me.) Whatever "that" is, I can never get enough of it, and with a premise like The Plant’s, he officially gave himself full freedom to be as self-indulgent as he pleases. All over the place. Rejoice or consider yourself warned, that’s your business.
Since this is a tapestry of 1st person POVs (whatever dialog there is is recounted by whoever’s got the pen at any given moment), he tries to make sure they all sound different. With some characters, he succeeds. (There’s a couple of vocabulary challenged antagonists who can’t write worth two dead flies. Getting in THEIR heads couldn’t have been too easy for somebody as pathologically eloquent as he is, but he managed it.) With others, he slips, and their voices sometimes become interchangeable. With the black janitor, he goes completely overboard (unless the fella is talking to himself in his diary). There’s this demented, stunningly ham-fisted rendition of black slang King used to do when he was young, and it filled me with utter cringe whenever he saw fit to inflict it on his readers. It’s in The Dark Tower, it’s in The Stand, it rears its ugly head here as well, but shockingly, I couldn’t care less. I was in it for the general hilarity, and it wasn’t affected, except in parts 5 and upwards. That's where things start getting dark and heavy.
Pity The Plant’s unfinished; I’d love to find out how it ends. I suppose King never figured that out either.
February 17, 2016
Zenith House, una pequeña editorial de Nueva York que publica originales en formato bolsillo, no está pasando por su mejor momento. Estamos en el año 1981, y Apex, la corporación dueña de Zenith, les lanza un ultimátum: o consiguen libros y autores de éxito, o cierran. John Kenton, que trabaja como editor en Zenith, recibe un manuscrito de Carlos Detweiller con el título de Verdareros cuentos de las plagas demoníacas. Cuando Kenton muestre interés y solicite a Carlos más información, se dará cuenta del tipo con el que está tratando.
‘La planta’ (The Plant: Zenith Rising, 2000), del gran Stephen King, es una novela epistolar (formada por cartas, memorándum y diarios). King, que la empezó en 1982, la iba escribiendo sobre la marcha, utilizando los extractos como tarjetas de felicitación. No sería hasta el año 2000, que King decidió publicarla por entregas en formato electrónico. Pero como las descargas iban disminuyendo, decidió cerrar el proyecto en el sexto capítulo, con un final cerrado, y dejar la obra en hibernación. Y así sigue hasta hoy.
Personalmente, me ha parecido que empieza bien, pero que se estanca por la mitad, y el final no ha sido todo lo redondo que esperaba.
‘La planta’ (The Plant: Zenith Rising, 2000), del gran Stephen King, es una novela epistolar (formada por cartas, memorándum y diarios). King, que la empezó en 1982, la iba escribiendo sobre la marcha, utilizando los extractos como tarjetas de felicitación. No sería hasta el año 2000, que King decidió publicarla por entregas en formato electrónico. Pero como las descargas iban disminuyendo, decidió cerrar el proyecto en el sexto capítulo, con un final cerrado, y dejar la obra en hibernación. Y así sigue hasta hoy.
Personalmente, me ha parecido que empieza bien, pero que se estanca por la mitad, y el final no ha sido todo lo redondo que esperaba.
June 27, 2018
This was originally released in installments downloadable on the honor system. It was an experiment of a kind. King has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to books and this was no exception. Unfortunately, he tired of writing before he finished so we are left on the hook.
The setup is pretty phenomenal coming from an established writer. A wackado submits the idea for a book about the occult. When encouraged by the publisher he submits the document in full along with some troubled photos to go along. When a little investigation work is done the photos turn out to be fake, but this just enrages the submitter and the story is promised to document his… revenge.
We only get the beginning of what could obviously be a very juicy tale. There is anger, fear, panic, paranoia, lost love, all the underpinnings of a great drama. There is even a character that simply must be the foundation King used for Jerome in his much later Bill Hodges trilogy. Hilariously written and super smart, getting over on “the man.”
I think if King had gone on to finish this we would have been treated to a five star read. I’m sure the ending would have been unsatisfying, but any true King fan reads him in spite of his endings, not because of them. I’ll keep hoping…
The setup is pretty phenomenal coming from an established writer. A wackado submits the idea for a book about the occult. When encouraged by the publisher he submits the document in full along with some troubled photos to go along. When a little investigation work is done the photos turn out to be fake, but this just enrages the submitter and the story is promised to document his… revenge.
We only get the beginning of what could obviously be a very juicy tale. There is anger, fear, panic, paranoia, lost love, all the underpinnings of a great drama. There is even a character that simply must be the foundation King used for Jerome in his much later Bill Hodges trilogy. Hilariously written and super smart, getting over on “the man.”
I think if King had gone on to finish this we would have been treated to a five star read. I’m sure the ending would have been unsatisfying, but any true King fan reads him in spite of his endings, not because of them. I’ll keep hoping…
July 28, 2012
I remember reading this as it was coming out and being incredibly disappointed that it wasn't going to be finished. As with everything else he writes/wrote/has written, part of the fun was dissecting it for references to The Dark Tower. I'm really happy I found another copy of it (um...I may have printed it when it first came out and had a 3-ring binder, reinforcing the pages and everything [shut up]) because I'm curious to see if I still enjoy it. Now that I've read the ending of DT, I wonder if I'll find any further allusions?
January 1, 2019
Este texto viene en una secuencia de entregas (seis hasta el momento). El argumento es definitivamente surrealista. Los personajes, ambientes, diálogos, conflictos están bien escritos. No obstante el argumento no termina de cautivarme. La lectura se hizo poco llevadera y forzada. Es claro que hay mejores textos de Stephen King que este.
Diría que es uno de los textos que, si alguno debería leerlo, es porque está atacando por todos los flancos los escritos de King.
Diría que es uno de los textos que, si alguno debería leerlo, es porque está atacando por todos los flancos los escritos de King.
January 18, 2022
The Plant is actually Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
July 27, 2018
interesting story by King...
August 21, 2018
Some parts of the book were really interesting and some parts I was bored to death.
January 9, 2022
First a PSA: Even though it’s incomplete, it had a satisfying last act and can be enjoyed as is.
So what was good? The plot, the epistolary format, the stakes and some genuinely creepy moments. Plus references to a certain favorite character from Thinner.
Not so good? A lot of King-being-King tropes to the Nth degree: Writers and editors with lines like “I have decided to let it all ‘hang out’ like we did in the Sexy Sixties when we all thought we had at least one major novel in us.” (cringe). And the less that can be said about Riddley the Janitor, the better. You’ll know what I mean. Just … don’t do that anymore, Mr. King. Not in 1981, not in the Mercedes trilogy. Please.
So what was good? The plot, the epistolary format, the stakes and some genuinely creepy moments. Plus references to a certain favorite character from Thinner.
Not so good? A lot of King-being-King tropes to the Nth degree: Writers and editors with lines like “I have decided to let it all ‘hang out’ like we did in the Sexy Sixties when we all thought we had at least one major novel in us.” (cringe). And the less that can be said about Riddley the Janitor, the better. You’ll know what I mean. Just … don’t do that anymore, Mr. King. Not in 1981, not in the Mercedes trilogy. Please.
January 7, 2026
This was an excellent story. While it was a bit hard to follow at times, the narration jumps between characters, it was well-written and an easy page-turner. I had heard that it was unfinished and had an ambiguous ending, but I quite enjoyed the ending and did not feel robbed in any way. The characters were likeable, in fact VERY likeable, and it was easy to root for them and have an emotional stake in the outcome.
November 20, 2014
I loved this book. It kept me there till the end of the story. Was not one of those books that loses you around chapter 4
August 5, 2022
Definitely wishing I’d come across this work sooner. It’s undoubtedly a must-read in King’s well-furnished bibliography.
March 14, 2025
The Plant, Stephen King [Philtrum Press, 2000]. (Ebook edition)
The Plant is an unfinished serial novel by Stephen King, comprising six installments, available for free on the author’s website. The protagonist, John Kenton, is a Brown University graduate with literary aspirations, who works for a barely solvent publishing firm, Zenith House, that specialize in low quality paperback original genre fiction (Rats from Hell is one sensationalistic title). Kenton receives an unsolicited book proposal from Carlos Detweiller, a florist’s assistant in Central Falls, Rhode Island, for a supposedly nonfiction book about witchcraft and the occult. Kenton (desperate to bring his firm some success), encourages Detweiller to send him some sample chapters, hoping it can be doctored into something resembling The Amityville Horror, but cautions him that Zenith House will probably ultimately pass on the book. Instead of a few chapters, Detweiller sends Kenton his book in its entirety, replete with photographs that appear to show Detweiller engaged in human sacrifice(!). Kenton notifies the local police, which enrages Detweiller (who convinced the police the photos were staged), and who unleashes a revenge plot against Kenton and Zenith House, involving a carnivorous plant which bestows telepathic abilities. The Plant, though unfinished, is great fun.
***
Stephen King is one of the world’s most popular and prolific authors. His upcoming projects include a thriller Never Flinch, scheduled for publication in Spring 2025, a new adaptation of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel (with art by Maurice Sendak), and an anthology by various writers, The End of the World as We Know It, stories inspired by Stephen King’s The Stand.
The Plant is an unfinished serial novel by Stephen King, comprising six installments, available for free on the author’s website. The protagonist, John Kenton, is a Brown University graduate with literary aspirations, who works for a barely solvent publishing firm, Zenith House, that specialize in low quality paperback original genre fiction (Rats from Hell is one sensationalistic title). Kenton receives an unsolicited book proposal from Carlos Detweiller, a florist’s assistant in Central Falls, Rhode Island, for a supposedly nonfiction book about witchcraft and the occult. Kenton (desperate to bring his firm some success), encourages Detweiller to send him some sample chapters, hoping it can be doctored into something resembling The Amityville Horror, but cautions him that Zenith House will probably ultimately pass on the book. Instead of a few chapters, Detweiller sends Kenton his book in its entirety, replete with photographs that appear to show Detweiller engaged in human sacrifice(!). Kenton notifies the local police, which enrages Detweiller (who convinced the police the photos were staged), and who unleashes a revenge plot against Kenton and Zenith House, involving a carnivorous plant which bestows telepathic abilities. The Plant, though unfinished, is great fun.
***
Stephen King is one of the world’s most popular and prolific authors. His upcoming projects include a thriller Never Flinch, scheduled for publication in Spring 2025, a new adaptation of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel (with art by Maurice Sendak), and an anthology by various writers, The End of the World as We Know It, stories inspired by Stephen King’s The Stand.
September 10, 2020
The general idea of the story and its execution were pretty innovational. At first, the characters seemed distinct and the storytelling interesting. However, soon after, the characters merged into one voice telling the story, and the execution turned out to be inconsistent. After I was done with the first half of the book, everything became pretty much predictable. It still was a fun read, but it could've been made much better. In fact, one of the reasons I rolled my eyes a couple of times while reading is because it held a lot of parallelism with King's other story, It. For example:
Furthermore, while the dark humor was nice and the story was more or less light, there was a lot of unnecessary chit-chat.
In summary, while this was a light read, it was lacking in many ways.
1. The past somehow found its way to the present.
2. The main characters were a group of people who spent a lot of time together and eventually found themselves tied together by a game of fate.
3. There was only one female and one black.
4. There was a character who spoke differently, and eventually changed.
Furthermore, while the dark humor was nice and the story was more or less light, there was a lot of unnecessary chit-chat.
In summary, while this was a light read, it was lacking in many ways.
December 27, 2024
I enjoyed this book overall although I’m not sure I could explain to anyone what it’s really about (lol??). I like the epistolary style with varying POVs. The beginning was very strong and reeled me in, but then it did start to slow down at some point after about halfway through.
The book is only available an as e-book and I’m not a fan of reading electronically, so this adds to some of what I didn’t enjoy about the book.
The book is only available an as e-book and I’m not a fan of reading electronically, so this adds to some of what I didn’t enjoy about the book.
February 14, 2022
It’s not hard to see why King shelved The Plant for twenty years. This is a sloppy, garbled mess, though a lot of its problems could be remedied by some restructuring and not making it epistolary! On the other hand, King is great at writing crazy people manifestos. So there’s that, at least.
2 out of 5
Bright-red Pennywise Clown Noses
2 out of 5
Bright-red Pennywise Clown Noses
May 16, 2024
3.5 - starts off really strong and creepy - meanders a bit in the middle, and then hits its stride later. obviously unfinished, so hard to judge overall but one note -- i really can't stand when king goes into eye dialect mode with his non-white characters.
July 3, 2025
Una entretenida novelita que se escribió para venderse exclusivamente de forma digital. No tuvo el éxito esperado Pero fue un buen experimento comercial para King. El relato parece de la dimensión desconocida y está bueno
February 19, 2022
Book 47 of 2022
The unfinished story ends on an episodic finish but I still want more. Liked this way more than I expected. Classic Stephen King style that I didn't know existed until a minute ago.
The unfinished story ends on an episodic finish but I still want more. Liked this way more than I expected. Classic Stephen King style that I didn't know existed until a minute ago.
January 29, 2026
Lo empecé pensando que iba a ser una po***ga. Pero zafa recontra bien.
September 25, 2016
I read The Plant in preparation for THE POEMING 2016, a 31/31 challenge taking place in October in which 56 poets will be creating found poetry from Stephen King's 56 books.
An editor of a paperback publishing house gets a fascinating manuscript from someone who he believes to be a crockpot. Although initially interest, after seeing a series of disturbing photographs accompanying the manuscript, he calls the police. The author is enraged and sends death threats along with a strange plant that is more than it seems.
Having read two handfuls or so of King's books, I have to say The Plant is far from my favorite. I'm not sure the epistolary style works — and that's in part because it's a hard style to work with anyway, because of being limited to letters, new clippings, diaries, and the like. Diaries are by far the most annoying to me since they often fall into a standard first person narrative, rather than feeling like a diary — for example, I don't know many (or any) people who include full dialogue scenes complete with quotes in their diaries. King does the same thing here, which might have made sense for one of the characters, but not several of them. Plus he sort of breaks with style at one point when the action gets going, switching to an omniscient third person that's explained as being a found fictional account written by the characters (technically okay, but feels like a cheat).
In general, I wasn't that interested in any of the characters, most of whom are jerks.
It also doesn't help that the novel is unfinished, so I can't see what it might have built to, how it might have ultimately paid off.
But since my main focus in reading this book is to ultimately create found poetry from it at TendrilsOfLeaves.tumblr.com, it doesn't really matter if I dig it. Should be an interesting month of poem making.
An editor of a paperback publishing house gets a fascinating manuscript from someone who he believes to be a crockpot. Although initially interest, after seeing a series of disturbing photographs accompanying the manuscript, he calls the police. The author is enraged and sends death threats along with a strange plant that is more than it seems.
Having read two handfuls or so of King's books, I have to say The Plant is far from my favorite. I'm not sure the epistolary style works — and that's in part because it's a hard style to work with anyway, because of being limited to letters, new clippings, diaries, and the like. Diaries are by far the most annoying to me since they often fall into a standard first person narrative, rather than feeling like a diary — for example, I don't know many (or any) people who include full dialogue scenes complete with quotes in their diaries. King does the same thing here, which might have made sense for one of the characters, but not several of them. Plus he sort of breaks with style at one point when the action gets going, switching to an omniscient third person that's explained as being a found fictional account written by the characters (technically okay, but feels like a cheat).
In general, I wasn't that interested in any of the characters, most of whom are jerks.
It also doesn't help that the novel is unfinished, so I can't see what it might have built to, how it might have ultimately paid off.
But since my main focus in reading this book is to ultimately create found poetry from it at TendrilsOfLeaves.tumblr.com, it doesn't really matter if I dig it. Should be an interesting month of poem making.
April 29, 2019
As a finished piece this would be great! I was fully involved with it all and with all its crazyness, but, as I got further in, the knowledge that I was not going to be getting an end to it did begin to play on my little mind.
I enjoyed the playfulness of the writing, the different narrators through different mediums was great! Lots of great little sayings and proverbs to keep me entertained along the way, filling my mind with such wiseness!
'The time to think about tomorrow is yesterday'
'He who takes the tiger by the tail dares not let go'
All that said it ended at a pretty good part, leaving me with a pretty good knowledge to where it will pick itself back up from to get onto that beam, if ever... ALTHOUGH!... I did let out a little shriek of 'wwwhhhaaattt!!!' When it ended part way through a blooming sentence!!!! I at least was waiting for a full stop ending!!! ... King you are naughty and you know it!!!
I did pick up my new favourite book quote!!!...
'You think you are so smart but you are nothing but a warped plank in the great floor of the universe' ... Genius 🤣
I enjoyed the playfulness of the writing, the different narrators through different mediums was great! Lots of great little sayings and proverbs to keep me entertained along the way, filling my mind with such wiseness!
'The time to think about tomorrow is yesterday'
'He who takes the tiger by the tail dares not let go'
All that said it ended at a pretty good part, leaving me with a pretty good knowledge to where it will pick itself back up from to get onto that beam, if ever... ALTHOUGH!... I did let out a little shriek of 'wwwhhhaaattt!!!' When it ended part way through a blooming sentence!!!! I at least was waiting for a full stop ending!!! ... King you are naughty and you know it!!!
I did pick up my new favourite book quote!!!...
'You think you are so smart but you are nothing but a warped plank in the great floor of the universe' ... Genius 🤣
Read
July 25, 2022Plays out like a rough draft (which is kind of what it is). There's a reason King has made this available for free on his website - it's really sloppy and scattered and only coheres through an injudicious application of narrative force. You can feel King bending the pieces into place in ways that feel unnatural, even for someone who openly admits to making things up as he goes along. When his approach works, you get something that feels like it was inevitable, conjured from the collective unconscious, etc. When it doesn't work, you get something like this.
I don't think this is the earliest instance of King having black characters speak in a comically-affected cadence intended to parody the harshest racist tropes imaginable, but it might be one of the worst (and most symbolically loaded). The whole thing just feels like it gets away from him in the end, but especially regarding this particular character.
I don't think this is the earliest instance of King having black characters speak in a comically-affected cadence intended to parody the harshest racist tropes imaginable, but it might be one of the worst (and most symbolically loaded). The whole thing just feels like it gets away from him in the end, but especially regarding this particular character.
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