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The Talisman #2
Black House
Black House is the second collaboration by Stephen King and Peter Straub, two of the most important writers in genre fiction, and the expectations of their first team-up were considerable. But despite its impressive sales, many were disappointed by The Talisman. Rather than a truly chilling epic, what we got was a rather derivative and by-the-numbers fantasy saga. So fans were reluctant to be too hopeful about their second collaboration... but we needn't have worried. Black House is much more like it, although even here King and Straub have not quite delivered the ultimate horror marathon--this is a psycho-thriller in the vein of Thomas Harris, but none the worse for that. And there are supernatural elements.
This is the tale of a small American town held in the grip of evil. Three children have vanished, abducted by a monster called The Fisherman (after a legendary murderer) with a craving for children's flesh. Ex-detective Jack Sawyer, dealing with his own personal problems (in which he is tormented by visions of another world), is keen to stay away from the horrors of this case, recognising how bad involvement will be for him. But--guess what?--Sawyer is soon supping full on the horrors, and the reader is in for an exhilarating (and highly disturbing) experience. Jack is a powerfully realised protagonist, and his journey into the dark world of The Fisherman is genuinely unsettling. Although more of King's fingerprints are on this one than Straub's (notably the conflicted hero, struggling with his own demons), the co-authors' individual styles merge indivisibly in this highly impressive chiller. --Barry Forshaw
819 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Stephen King
2,144 books899k 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 3,108 reviews
December 16, 2012
I hate that the first thing you see of a review is the number of stars it's given.
Someone's feeling about a book is not easily reduced to a five-point scale. And even once that is done, how do I know what five stars means to you? How do you know what five stars means to me?
For me, a five star book is a book that I believe is worth the time and energy you're going to spend reading it.
If, (and this is key) you're into that sort of book. (Horror, Mystery, Fantasy, Hardcore Gothic Gypsy Steampunk.)
A six-star book, is a book that I believe is worth your time and energy even if it's *not* the sort of thing you're into. (Generally speaking, this is the sort of book I'll give a promotional blurb for.)
Unfortunately, there isn't a six star option here on goodreads.
Generally speaking, a four star book is one that irritates me or disappoints me in one or two moderate ways.
A three star book has several moderate irritations, or one big one, or or something that was irritating all the way through.
Keep in mind that I can be extraordinarily critical of my books. Things that irritate me might not ever even show up on your mental radar.
Further complicating things is the fact that sometimes I'm willing to give a book a bonus star due to extenuating circumstances. If the writer is doing something new and exciting, for example. If they're trying something really difficult or if it's their first book, I'll often give an extra star.
So. To the point. Did I enjoy this book? Yes. I didn't know there was a sequel to the Talisman until I saw this in an airport a week ago. I enjoyed reading it. Held my attention. Pleased me with its craft.
Is it for everyone? No. So here's the breakdown.
** What I personally liked about this book:
It was told in present tense, and done well. Not a lot of folks can pull that off.
The narrator was almost an active character, almost like a tour guide through the story. He/she speaks directly to the reader at points, saying things like, "Let's see what's going on over at the old mill..."
Again, it worked well. Extra points for that.
Also, it was set in Wisconsin. Which is kinda fun for me.
**What you might like about this book:
Everything that you normally like about Steven King's stuff. Interesting characters. Alternate worlds. Nice tie-in with the Talisman and the Dark Tower stuff.
Nice description. Nice special effects. Nice tension and suspense. Nice characterization.
**What you might dislike about this book:
It's a large, rambly story. A lot of the book is spent in atmospherics, developing non-essential characters, and digressions, rather than action and moving the story forward.
The Talisman was a cool adventure story. A young boy goes out, explores a strange world on a quest to save his mom.
This book isn't that. There's no real adventure. They don't even get into the other world until the last 80 pages or so.
Children in danger. (I'm sensitive to this, having a kid now myself. It can be a dealbreaker for some folks.)
Extreme potentially even gratuitous violence and gore. (But again, we're in the horror genre, so....)
So there you go. Isn't that better than some arbitrary number of stars? Now you can make your own choice about whether you want to read it. Or not. It's up to you.
Someone's feeling about a book is not easily reduced to a five-point scale. And even once that is done, how do I know what five stars means to you? How do you know what five stars means to me?
For me, a five star book is a book that I believe is worth the time and energy you're going to spend reading it.
If, (and this is key) you're into that sort of book. (Horror, Mystery, Fantasy, Hardcore Gothic Gypsy Steampunk.)
A six-star book, is a book that I believe is worth your time and energy even if it's *not* the sort of thing you're into. (Generally speaking, this is the sort of book I'll give a promotional blurb for.)
Unfortunately, there isn't a six star option here on goodreads.
Generally speaking, a four star book is one that irritates me or disappoints me in one or two moderate ways.
A three star book has several moderate irritations, or one big one, or or something that was irritating all the way through.
Keep in mind that I can be extraordinarily critical of my books. Things that irritate me might not ever even show up on your mental radar.
Further complicating things is the fact that sometimes I'm willing to give a book a bonus star due to extenuating circumstances. If the writer is doing something new and exciting, for example. If they're trying something really difficult or if it's their first book, I'll often give an extra star.
So. To the point. Did I enjoy this book? Yes. I didn't know there was a sequel to the Talisman until I saw this in an airport a week ago. I enjoyed reading it. Held my attention. Pleased me with its craft.
Is it for everyone? No. So here's the breakdown.
** What I personally liked about this book:
It was told in present tense, and done well. Not a lot of folks can pull that off.
The narrator was almost an active character, almost like a tour guide through the story. He/she speaks directly to the reader at points, saying things like, "Let's see what's going on over at the old mill..."
Again, it worked well. Extra points for that.
Also, it was set in Wisconsin. Which is kinda fun for me.
**What you might like about this book:
Everything that you normally like about Steven King's stuff. Interesting characters. Alternate worlds. Nice tie-in with the Talisman and the Dark Tower stuff.
Nice description. Nice special effects. Nice tension and suspense. Nice characterization.
**What you might dislike about this book:
It's a large, rambly story. A lot of the book is spent in atmospherics, developing non-essential characters, and digressions, rather than action and moving the story forward.
The Talisman was a cool adventure story. A young boy goes out, explores a strange world on a quest to save his mom.
This book isn't that. There's no real adventure. They don't even get into the other world until the last 80 pages or so.
Children in danger. (I'm sensitive to this, having a kid now myself. It can be a dealbreaker for some folks.)
Extreme potentially even gratuitous violence and gore. (But again, we're in the horror genre, so....)
So there you go. Isn't that better than some arbitrary number of stars? Now you can make your own choice about whether you want to read it. Or not. It's up to you.
February 7, 2020
"What you love, you must love all the harder because someday it will be gone."
Twenty years ago, a young boy named Jack Sawyer travelled to a parallel universe called The Territories to save his mother's life. Now a retired homicide detective, Jack has no memory of these adventures. There is a sick serial killer on the loose, murdering and eating children, and the local chief of police begs Jack to help his force catch him.
I love Stephen King. I love serial killers. Combine the two and you have a book that is right up jobis89's street. The Talisman is an epic fantasy tale, spanning across our world and The Territories, as Jack Sawyer embarks on a mission to travel across the country to try and save his mother (and her Twinner) from death. Black House, however, is darker, much more of a horror novel, I feel, and it focuses on one small town - Coulee County. The Talisman is a great, great book, but Black House is just more to my slightly darker, slightly more murderous, cannibalistic tastes… sorrynotsorry *evil laugh*
There's so much to love about Black House. Other reviews I had looked at had pointed out the narrative style as something they did not like about Black House - well, I LOVED the narrative style. It's a bit slow and hard to get into at the beginning, but once I did I really enjoyed it. The narrative style is as if you're flying over Coulee County and you're allowed little snapshots into the lives of the residents through a bird's-eye perspective.
Yet more awesome characters… we had Wolf in The Talisman, and now we have Henry Leyden in Black House - a blind guy who has a keen ear for voices and sounds. I loved Henry so much!! And the bikers were cool additions too. I generally really liked a lot of the characters in this one. The villain in particular - The Fisherman - was fucking terrifying. King's villains can sometimes be pretty "grey", they aren't always definitively evil. However, in this case, he is evil incarnate, which is no surprise given his similarities to the vile Albert Fish (I could say more but don't want to give away potential spoilers).
I had complaints while reading The Talisman that it felt like the Dark Tower without actually being the Dark Tower - almost like a cheap imitation I guess. And finally in Black House my suspicions are answered as connections to the Dark Tower are made. Meanwhile I'm fangirling and getting all emotional over mentions of Roland Deschain and the rest of our beloved ka-tet. Link a book to the Dark Tower series and I. WILL. LOVE. IT. (Well, apart from Insomnia… I did love the connections, it just didn't save the rest of the book!)
As most Constant Readers will know, choosing your top 10 King books is pretty much possible, but I do believe this has now earned a spot in my top 10. It might not be for everyone, but it was really to my taste. It's difficult to review books you really loved, so I guess I'll wrap up here… 5 stars!!!
Twenty years ago, a young boy named Jack Sawyer travelled to a parallel universe called The Territories to save his mother's life. Now a retired homicide detective, Jack has no memory of these adventures. There is a sick serial killer on the loose, murdering and eating children, and the local chief of police begs Jack to help his force catch him.
I love Stephen King. I love serial killers. Combine the two and you have a book that is right up jobis89's street. The Talisman is an epic fantasy tale, spanning across our world and The Territories, as Jack Sawyer embarks on a mission to travel across the country to try and save his mother (and her Twinner) from death. Black House, however, is darker, much more of a horror novel, I feel, and it focuses on one small town - Coulee County. The Talisman is a great, great book, but Black House is just more to my slightly darker, slightly more murderous, cannibalistic tastes… sorrynotsorry *evil laugh*
There's so much to love about Black House. Other reviews I had looked at had pointed out the narrative style as something they did not like about Black House - well, I LOVED the narrative style. It's a bit slow and hard to get into at the beginning, but once I did I really enjoyed it. The narrative style is as if you're flying over Coulee County and you're allowed little snapshots into the lives of the residents through a bird's-eye perspective.
Yet more awesome characters… we had Wolf in The Talisman, and now we have Henry Leyden in Black House - a blind guy who has a keen ear for voices and sounds. I loved Henry so much!! And the bikers were cool additions too. I generally really liked a lot of the characters in this one. The villain in particular - The Fisherman - was fucking terrifying. King's villains can sometimes be pretty "grey", they aren't always definitively evil. However, in this case, he is evil incarnate, which is no surprise given his similarities to the vile Albert Fish (I could say more but don't want to give away potential spoilers).
I had complaints while reading The Talisman that it felt like the Dark Tower without actually being the Dark Tower - almost like a cheap imitation I guess. And finally in Black House my suspicions are answered as connections to the Dark Tower are made. Meanwhile I'm fangirling and getting all emotional over mentions of Roland Deschain and the rest of our beloved ka-tet. Link a book to the Dark Tower series and I. WILL. LOVE. IT. (Well, apart from Insomnia… I did love the connections, it just didn't save the rest of the book!)
As most Constant Readers will know, choosing your top 10 King books is pretty much possible, but I do believe this has now earned a spot in my top 10. It might not be for everyone, but it was really to my taste. It's difficult to review books you really loved, so I guess I'll wrap up here… 5 stars!!!
August 3, 2022
The weirdest thing about this and The Talisman is Peter Straub's involvement, as the books are so completely entrenched in the Stephen King universe - especially this one!
The beams are breaking, the end of the world could be nigh, Roland has formed a new Ka-tet - meanwhile in French Landing someone is kidnapping, eating(!) and killing children and the local authorities and FBI have no clue; enter Mr 'all grown up' since The Talisman, and also a retired hero cop, Jack Sawyer!
A quintessential Stephen King (and Peter Straub) read - a small town is under siege by a monster living among them; there's an outsider (Sawyer) who some love and some hate; there's a White Hat with a disability; there's kids in peril... oh, and at least one dumb cop :). More horror focused than The Talisman, and more compelling with a freer flowing story, the Detective Columbo-esque approach of identifying the killer very very early on fits well in the context of this story. All in all, a very good read, further enhanced by huge Dark Tower ties. 8 out of 12
2019 read; 2006 read; 2003 read
The beams are breaking, the end of the world could be nigh, Roland has formed a new Ka-tet - meanwhile in French Landing someone is kidnapping, eating(!) and killing children and the local authorities and FBI have no clue; enter Mr 'all grown up' since The Talisman, and also a retired hero cop, Jack Sawyer!
A quintessential Stephen King (and Peter Straub) read - a small town is under siege by a monster living among them; there's an outsider (Sawyer) who some love and some hate; there's a White Hat with a disability; there's kids in peril... oh, and at least one dumb cop :). More horror focused than The Talisman, and more compelling with a freer flowing story, the Detective Columbo-esque approach of identifying the killer very very early on fits well in the context of this story. All in all, a very good read, further enhanced by huge Dark Tower ties. 8 out of 12
2019 read; 2006 read; 2003 read
November 24, 2024
“Black House” by Stephen King and Peter Straub is the sequel to “The Talisman” and the final book of my pre-reading journey to The Dark Tower. You see, it’s been a goal of mine in 2024 to read King's Dark Tower series. For the most immersion, I spent a few months researching the best way to enjoy this series, and it required a ton of pre-reading.
Now that I have finished “Black House,” I am ready to jump into “The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger” since I’ve already read “The Little Sisters of Eluria” in “Everything's Eventual” many moons ago. This has been an incredible reading experience so far this year, and I aim to finish it before the end of 2024.
Before I begin my review, if you’re interested in reading The Dark Tower series like I am, check out my list below. Reading it this way will give you a reading experience you will remember for the rest of your life. Here’s the list I finalized with the help of several longtime Constant Readers, librarians, and those who have survived the journey to The Dark Tower and back…
The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Here are the trigger warnings I found while reading…
- Violence/murder against children
- Kidnapping
- Cannibalism
- Homophobic slurs
If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, the intro to “Black House” was nothing short of monumental. That’s how you start a novel, especially a sequel since it hooked me immediately with the Fisherman. Wow, talk about some wild events within the first 10% of this novel! The way he captured his victims, all the gruesome carnage, blood, and more, was all insane.
I loved the atmosphere, characters, and the pure horror King and Straub conjured up, especially around what happens to children throughout this novel. Compared to “The Talisman,” this novel's horror was amped up big time, with several elements of mystery. This was brilliantly written with so much suspense that I could not put this novel down. It was a genuine pageturner from beginning to end.
It was great to catch up with Jack Sawyer decades after the events of “The Talisman.” Seeing him older now, a retired detective, and jumping back into action to help catch the Fisherman was fun to read. The way he was introduced in this novel was fantastic. I also enjoyed all the little flashbacks to the original novel of Jack as a kid to tie everything together. The parts where past meets present with Jack were tremendous and helped fill in some of the gaps of the original.
Even though this novel is over 650 pages, it flows very well. The pacing was much better than the first novel, as it was a breeze to read through. The story is so captivating, especially the build-up around the Black House and the adventures heading into it. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for you, but the race to the end was awesome.
The plot twist involving Lord Malshun towards the end was epic! Again, not to ruin anything, I lost my mind about the events that happened with the ending. All the little references to what awaits me in The Dark Tower have me beyond excited to finally begin this epic series written by King.
I give “Black House” by Stephen King and Peter Straub a 5/5 for being a magnificent sequel that continues the story of Jack Sawyer as an older, retired detective. The horror here is top-notch, with a few evil antagonists that will leave their mark on you. I loved the mystery aspect of everything, on top of all the dark fantasy, to make this a memorable read.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I can finally leave this Black House, grab an iced coffee, and begin my journey to The Dark Tower, where The Gunslinger awaits me.
Now that I have finished “Black House,” I am ready to jump into “The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger” since I’ve already read “The Little Sisters of Eluria” in “Everything's Eventual” many moons ago. This has been an incredible reading experience so far this year, and I aim to finish it before the end of 2024.
Before I begin my review, if you’re interested in reading The Dark Tower series like I am, check out my list below. Reading it this way will give you a reading experience you will remember for the rest of your life. Here’s the list I finalized with the help of several longtime Constant Readers, librarians, and those who have survived the journey to The Dark Tower and back…
The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Here are the trigger warnings I found while reading…
- Violence/murder against children
- Kidnapping
- Cannibalism
- Homophobic slurs
If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, the intro to “Black House” was nothing short of monumental. That’s how you start a novel, especially a sequel since it hooked me immediately with the Fisherman. Wow, talk about some wild events within the first 10% of this novel! The way he captured his victims, all the gruesome carnage, blood, and more, was all insane.
I loved the atmosphere, characters, and the pure horror King and Straub conjured up, especially around what happens to children throughout this novel. Compared to “The Talisman,” this novel's horror was amped up big time, with several elements of mystery. This was brilliantly written with so much suspense that I could not put this novel down. It was a genuine pageturner from beginning to end.
It was great to catch up with Jack Sawyer decades after the events of “The Talisman.” Seeing him older now, a retired detective, and jumping back into action to help catch the Fisherman was fun to read. The way he was introduced in this novel was fantastic. I also enjoyed all the little flashbacks to the original novel of Jack as a kid to tie everything together. The parts where past meets present with Jack were tremendous and helped fill in some of the gaps of the original.
Even though this novel is over 650 pages, it flows very well. The pacing was much better than the first novel, as it was a breeze to read through. The story is so captivating, especially the build-up around the Black House and the adventures heading into it. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for you, but the race to the end was awesome.
The plot twist involving Lord Malshun towards the end was epic! Again, not to ruin anything, I lost my mind about the events that happened with the ending. All the little references to what awaits me in The Dark Tower have me beyond excited to finally begin this epic series written by King.
I give “Black House” by Stephen King and Peter Straub a 5/5 for being a magnificent sequel that continues the story of Jack Sawyer as an older, retired detective. The horror here is top-notch, with a few evil antagonists that will leave their mark on you. I loved the mystery aspect of everything, on top of all the dark fantasy, to make this a memorable read.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I can finally leave this Black House, grab an iced coffee, and begin my journey to The Dark Tower, where The Gunslinger awaits me.
May 23, 2011
(This review was originally published in the Washington Post in 2001.)
Black House is a novel of slippage. We learn about slippage (a secondary definition of which, we are told, helpfully, in the text, is the feeling that things in general have just gotten, or will shortly get, worse) at the beginning of the book as we travel, invisibly through the town of French Landing, Wisconsin, early in the morning, winding up in an abandoned shack where “limp flypaper ribbons hung invisible within the fur of a thousand fly corpses” and it is here that we encounter the mutilated body of ten-year-old Irma Freneau, and watch a dog attempt to eat her severed foot out from its running shoe.
Irma is the latest victim of a serial killer whom the local paper has taken to calling the Fisherman, after Albert Fish, a real-life child-killer and cannibal. Not far from the shack, down a road, behind a no entry sign, is a house all painted black; and that house is a gateway to somewhere else.
Slippage is what happens on the borders of things and places, and the town of French Landing is on many borders, one of which is the border between Stephen King country, and Peter Straub country.
The plot itself will revolve around the struggle between two men: the murderous Fisherman, and our hero, Jack Sawyer, known locally as “Hollywood”, a retired homicide detective from LA. Jack Sawyer retired young and came out to Wisconsin in search of peace and quiet. It is a truism and a genre obligation that retired cops in novels, even novels with slippage, must come out of retirement for their last case, and Jack does, although, as we know from the off, this will not be a simple police procedural or even a whodunnit (the identity of the Fisherman is given to us early in the text -- the “hook of his nose” followed by the “wormy lips” are a dead giveaway, if we’ve missed the hints about his awful deeds and secret pleasures); and it will have its roots in a previous novel.
Those who remember The Talisman, Straub and King’s first collaboration, have already met Jack Sawyer as a 12 year old boy who travelled a long way, across the US and across a distorted, magical version of America called the Territories, to find the Talisman that would save his dying mother’s life. The Talisman was a fantasy with dark elements: a fat book that could comfortably have been even fatter, with a winning young hero named after Tom Sawyer.
Black House is a sequel of sorts to The Talisman, although it also draws upon the mythology that King has been building in his Gunslinger sequence, and which surfaced most recently in his Hearts in Atlantis. It is a book that exists on the borders of genre – it’s not a serial killer romance, although the Fisherman is unquestionably a superhuman serial killer possessed of (and by) strange powers. It is too dark to be a fantasy but too light, too deeply sunny, to be, at its heart, a horror novel. Here also we experience slippage.
It can be a mistake to play hunt-the-author in any collaborative text. Collaborations work when two authors find a single voice for a story, and fail when they do not, and King and Straub create a mutual style that is clean and effective. It is knowing without being arch, and it does not read like either King or Straub. That there are dead giveaways in the text – the obscure jazz references that Straub delights in, for example, or some splattery scenes with a hedgeclipper that could only have been penned by King – is no help in the who-wrote-what game. (In fact I’d be willing to bet that most of the jazz references come from King, out to amuse his co-author and confuse reviewers, and that Straub took his turn at wielding the clipper.)
Initially, I found Jack Sawyer uncomfortable in his role as the book’s hero as he is in his retirement: surrounded by a magnificent supporting cast of colourful characters, Jack comes off as almost too pure, too perfect; he might have wandered into this July Wisconsin-Hell-on Earth from a better place. But as I read on, I began to realise that in many ways Black House (only one vowel away from Bleak House, the foggy opening of which is quoted in the text) is a Victorian novel. The authors cited, quoted from, glossed, in the book are popular writers who once were read and are now both read and respected, particularly Dickens, Twain, and Poe. The characters, too, have a Dickensian quality to them. They are the forces of darkness – The Fisherman, Wendell Green the grasping newspaperman, Lord Malshun (Sauron as used-car salesman); forces of light – Jack Sawyer himself; Henry Leyden, the blind man with the many voices; the magnificently filthy brewer biker gang who call themselves the Hegelian Scum; brave Judy Marshall, who is being driven mad by her visions of the truth, and her son, Ty, who will become the Fisherman’s victim, and on whose rescue the fate of the universe, quite literally, depends. And the plot, which roller-coasters forward through the Wisconsin July, has the easy comfortable quality of something built by two authors who are perfectly well aware of how good they are, even to the point of referring to themselves as a couple of “scribbling fellows” in the text. (“Always scribble, scribble, eh Mr. King?”)
Sometimes the collaborative process has its downside; on occasion the characters feel like counters being pushed back and forth across a board, and there is a final plot twist which smacks less of inevitability than it does of the authors checking off the last item on their to-do list. The use of the present tense, which could too easily get wearing over 600 pages, for the most part keeps the narrative voice supple, informal, and fresh, although it can, on occasion, make one feel as if one is reading a film script – and there is a sequence when Irma’s body is found, and the authors retread the same half hour from a number of points of view, in which it actively becomes a handicap.
Such quibbles aside, in Black House one is watching two master-craftsmen, both at the top of their game, collaborating, with every evidence of enormous enjoyment, on a summery heartland gothic. The book is hugely pleasurable, and repays a reader in search of horror, adventure, or of any of the other joys, both light and dark, one can get from the best work of either of these two “scribbling fellows”.
Whether King and Straub will reconvene for a final installment in another fifteen years, or whether Jack Sawyer’s tale has been subsumed into King’s Gunslinger series only time will tell. Either way, it is hard not to look forward to the eventual outcome.
Black House is a novel of slippage. We learn about slippage (a secondary definition of which, we are told, helpfully, in the text, is the feeling that things in general have just gotten, or will shortly get, worse) at the beginning of the book as we travel, invisibly through the town of French Landing, Wisconsin, early in the morning, winding up in an abandoned shack where “limp flypaper ribbons hung invisible within the fur of a thousand fly corpses” and it is here that we encounter the mutilated body of ten-year-old Irma Freneau, and watch a dog attempt to eat her severed foot out from its running shoe.
Irma is the latest victim of a serial killer whom the local paper has taken to calling the Fisherman, after Albert Fish, a real-life child-killer and cannibal. Not far from the shack, down a road, behind a no entry sign, is a house all painted black; and that house is a gateway to somewhere else.
Slippage is what happens on the borders of things and places, and the town of French Landing is on many borders, one of which is the border between Stephen King country, and Peter Straub country.
The plot itself will revolve around the struggle between two men: the murderous Fisherman, and our hero, Jack Sawyer, known locally as “Hollywood”, a retired homicide detective from LA. Jack Sawyer retired young and came out to Wisconsin in search of peace and quiet. It is a truism and a genre obligation that retired cops in novels, even novels with slippage, must come out of retirement for their last case, and Jack does, although, as we know from the off, this will not be a simple police procedural or even a whodunnit (the identity of the Fisherman is given to us early in the text -- the “hook of his nose” followed by the “wormy lips” are a dead giveaway, if we’ve missed the hints about his awful deeds and secret pleasures); and it will have its roots in a previous novel.
Those who remember The Talisman, Straub and King’s first collaboration, have already met Jack Sawyer as a 12 year old boy who travelled a long way, across the US and across a distorted, magical version of America called the Territories, to find the Talisman that would save his dying mother’s life. The Talisman was a fantasy with dark elements: a fat book that could comfortably have been even fatter, with a winning young hero named after Tom Sawyer.
Black House is a sequel of sorts to The Talisman, although it also draws upon the mythology that King has been building in his Gunslinger sequence, and which surfaced most recently in his Hearts in Atlantis. It is a book that exists on the borders of genre – it’s not a serial killer romance, although the Fisherman is unquestionably a superhuman serial killer possessed of (and by) strange powers. It is too dark to be a fantasy but too light, too deeply sunny, to be, at its heart, a horror novel. Here also we experience slippage.
It can be a mistake to play hunt-the-author in any collaborative text. Collaborations work when two authors find a single voice for a story, and fail when they do not, and King and Straub create a mutual style that is clean and effective. It is knowing without being arch, and it does not read like either King or Straub. That there are dead giveaways in the text – the obscure jazz references that Straub delights in, for example, or some splattery scenes with a hedgeclipper that could only have been penned by King – is no help in the who-wrote-what game. (In fact I’d be willing to bet that most of the jazz references come from King, out to amuse his co-author and confuse reviewers, and that Straub took his turn at wielding the clipper.)
Initially, I found Jack Sawyer uncomfortable in his role as the book’s hero as he is in his retirement: surrounded by a magnificent supporting cast of colourful characters, Jack comes off as almost too pure, too perfect; he might have wandered into this July Wisconsin-Hell-on Earth from a better place. But as I read on, I began to realise that in many ways Black House (only one vowel away from Bleak House, the foggy opening of which is quoted in the text) is a Victorian novel. The authors cited, quoted from, glossed, in the book are popular writers who once were read and are now both read and respected, particularly Dickens, Twain, and Poe. The characters, too, have a Dickensian quality to them. They are the forces of darkness – The Fisherman, Wendell Green the grasping newspaperman, Lord Malshun (Sauron as used-car salesman); forces of light – Jack Sawyer himself; Henry Leyden, the blind man with the many voices; the magnificently filthy brewer biker gang who call themselves the Hegelian Scum; brave Judy Marshall, who is being driven mad by her visions of the truth, and her son, Ty, who will become the Fisherman’s victim, and on whose rescue the fate of the universe, quite literally, depends. And the plot, which roller-coasters forward through the Wisconsin July, has the easy comfortable quality of something built by two authors who are perfectly well aware of how good they are, even to the point of referring to themselves as a couple of “scribbling fellows” in the text. (“Always scribble, scribble, eh Mr. King?”)
Sometimes the collaborative process has its downside; on occasion the characters feel like counters being pushed back and forth across a board, and there is a final plot twist which smacks less of inevitability than it does of the authors checking off the last item on their to-do list. The use of the present tense, which could too easily get wearing over 600 pages, for the most part keeps the narrative voice supple, informal, and fresh, although it can, on occasion, make one feel as if one is reading a film script – and there is a sequence when Irma’s body is found, and the authors retread the same half hour from a number of points of view, in which it actively becomes a handicap.
Such quibbles aside, in Black House one is watching two master-craftsmen, both at the top of their game, collaborating, with every evidence of enormous enjoyment, on a summery heartland gothic. The book is hugely pleasurable, and repays a reader in search of horror, adventure, or of any of the other joys, both light and dark, one can get from the best work of either of these two “scribbling fellows”.
Whether King and Straub will reconvene for a final installment in another fifteen years, or whether Jack Sawyer’s tale has been subsumed into King’s Gunslinger series only time will tell. Either way, it is hard not to look forward to the eventual outcome.
September 13, 2018
This is just further proof that Stephen King is a master author. Lots of action in this 2001 - 500+ page thriller and Frank Muller is incomparable as narrator. 9 of 10 stars
February 2, 2025
What you love, you must love all the harder because someday it will be gone.
Black House ~~~ Stephen King & Peter Straub
Last year, I finally made my first trip to Stephen King's universe by reading THE TAILISMAN . I wish I had read King's works in my teens. They would have been amazing trips for a 13 year old boy to take. Since visiting the Territories, I have journeyed to 'SALEM'S LOT & now, French Crossing. I have many more trips planned with King. Once more, I was completely absorbed in the worlds King created.
Stephen King & Peter Straub collaborated on THE TAILISMAN , a story about the fantastic travels of a young boy named Jack Sawyer. In Black House , King and Straub tell the tale of the adult Jack. Wisely, they revisited Jack Sawyer decades later in life, making him a creature of this earth due to an understandable, but selective amnesia where the Territories are concerned. Exhausted by the horrors he's encountered as a successful homicide detective, Jack has retired ~~ quite young ~~ to the hoped-for peace and obscurity of small town Wisconsin life. He's found a dear friend in an older blind man ~~ an oddly elegant music buff who anonymously channels a handful of divergent personalities to whom radio listeners for miles tune religiously ~~ think of him as Wolf in human form. And now, Jack is beginning to feel at home in his new surroundings.
The older Jack is a fascinating & complex protagonist. He is intelligent, compassionate, and confused, relying on intuition and luck to resolve conflicts. Once he understands what he must do, he never waivers, exuding confidence and leadership qualities around his companions. Jack’s numerous memories from the Territories, though rarely complete, set him apart from other humans. His fearlessness is both exaggerated and inspiring, yet he is impatient at times, losing his temper and hiding his past.
While Black House is considered to be a sequel to THE TAILISMAN . I’d be reluctant to describe it this way. The story-line is loosely connected to THE TAILISMAN in that it contains recurring characters ~~ Jack Sawyer & Parker/Parkus ~~ & features a few trips to the Territories but that's it.
Black House uses an unusual & distinctive narrative point-of-view. The story is initially written from the viewpoint of a crow ~~ a familiar the serial killer calls Gorg that lures children for him ~~ so everything’s written as if you’re flying above the action and swoop into to take a closer look ~~ moving towards the sun, we glide away from the river. Once Jack enters the story, the narrative changes & the story becomes easier to follow.
Part of the brilliance of Black House is how it works on several levels ~~ murder mystery, character study, fantasy, horror story; it is both separate from & bound to THE TALISMAN . Black House is an exciting read, & quite scary as well.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Black House is in its references to classic literature. THE TALISMAN relied heavily on the work of Mark Twain ; here, King and Straub reference both Poe & Dickens. The titles similarity to Bleak House is not incidental; the scarier sections of Black House parallels the foggy, damp descriptions of Dickens' ghost stories. Also similar to Dickens is the technique of establishing places, & in which the sprawling cast of characters is introduced. With Jack being introduced late in the story, we grow attached to these people instead of being shown who they are in relation to Jack.
Black House is a challenging, complex read ~~ much more challenging than THE TALISMAN & 'SALEM'S LOT . Readers are richly rewarded with an engrossing tale written by two masters at the top of their game.
Black House ~~~ Stephen King & Peter Straub
Last year, I finally made my first trip to Stephen King's universe by reading THE TAILISMAN . I wish I had read King's works in my teens. They would have been amazing trips for a 13 year old boy to take. Since visiting the Territories, I have journeyed to 'SALEM'S LOT & now, French Crossing. I have many more trips planned with King. Once more, I was completely absorbed in the worlds King created.
Stephen King & Peter Straub collaborated on THE TAILISMAN , a story about the fantastic travels of a young boy named Jack Sawyer. In Black House , King and Straub tell the tale of the adult Jack. Wisely, they revisited Jack Sawyer decades later in life, making him a creature of this earth due to an understandable, but selective amnesia where the Territories are concerned. Exhausted by the horrors he's encountered as a successful homicide detective, Jack has retired ~~ quite young ~~ to the hoped-for peace and obscurity of small town Wisconsin life. He's found a dear friend in an older blind man ~~ an oddly elegant music buff who anonymously channels a handful of divergent personalities to whom radio listeners for miles tune religiously ~~ think of him as Wolf in human form. And now, Jack is beginning to feel at home in his new surroundings.
The older Jack is a fascinating & complex protagonist. He is intelligent, compassionate, and confused, relying on intuition and luck to resolve conflicts. Once he understands what he must do, he never waivers, exuding confidence and leadership qualities around his companions. Jack’s numerous memories from the Territories, though rarely complete, set him apart from other humans. His fearlessness is both exaggerated and inspiring, yet he is impatient at times, losing his temper and hiding his past.
While Black House is considered to be a sequel to THE TAILISMAN . I’d be reluctant to describe it this way. The story-line is loosely connected to THE TAILISMAN in that it contains recurring characters ~~ Jack Sawyer & Parker/Parkus ~~ & features a few trips to the Territories but that's it.
Black House uses an unusual & distinctive narrative point-of-view. The story is initially written from the viewpoint of a crow ~~ a familiar the serial killer calls Gorg that lures children for him ~~ so everything’s written as if you’re flying above the action and swoop into to take a closer look ~~ moving towards the sun, we glide away from the river. Once Jack enters the story, the narrative changes & the story becomes easier to follow.
Part of the brilliance of Black House is how it works on several levels ~~ murder mystery, character study, fantasy, horror story; it is both separate from & bound to THE TALISMAN . Black House is an exciting read, & quite scary as well.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Black House is in its references to classic literature. THE TALISMAN relied heavily on the work of Mark Twain ; here, King and Straub reference both Poe & Dickens. The titles similarity to Bleak House is not incidental; the scarier sections of Black House parallels the foggy, damp descriptions of Dickens' ghost stories. Also similar to Dickens is the technique of establishing places, & in which the sprawling cast of characters is introduced. With Jack being introduced late in the story, we grow attached to these people instead of being shown who they are in relation to Jack.
Black House is a challenging, complex read ~~ much more challenging than THE TALISMAN & 'SALEM'S LOT . Readers are richly rewarded with an engrossing tale written by two masters at the top of their game.
August 10, 2026
As I said in 2017, the writing voice of King & Straub are unique to me once again. But unlike the first time, I do remember The Talisman because, yep, I just read it. I wonder if these two writers / friends, had a little pow-wow (sitting amongst a Speaking Ring) and decided to switch things up for Book 2, or if it simply came naturally after 17 years of living and writing. Now, after 25 years have passed, will Jack have once again forgotten the past in Book 3, or his own Ka-tet of four who crossed worlds to save a little boy? If not, I know he'll remember soon enough.
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2017 review
Each time I pick up a Stephen King book, I am struck by the different writing voice I find. Truth is, I had expected it with Black House, sort of, being co-written with Peter Straub, and yet I was struck all the same. King/Straub narrate much of this tale from a moving bird’s-eye perspective, floating in and out of each character’s stance and location, with a twinge of humor on the side. They don’t even try to hide the fact that this account has been written in a book, by two writers even. I thought this was funny, and I thought the style of writing was unlike many of the other King works before it. Believe me, I tried to deduce who wrote what. Was this King’s chapter, or was it Straub’s? “King-ism’s” came through of course. They always do. But overall, I could not tell. Then I found the reason why - while watching an interview of Stephen and his son Owen no less. Even they could not tell who had written what when looking back at their new book Sleeping Beauties. During their collaboration, they had edited and rewritten one other’s work along the way, thereby melding it. There was the answer.
How did Black House fare compared to The Talisman? Pretty well, I’d say. Here’s the part where I admit that I cannot remember much of The Talisman. I am bummed about that, but just a little. Although I think it’s more than a good idea to read The Talisman first, it’s not going to kill the story if you happened not to. Black House looks back at the twelve year old Jack Sawyer and his quest across America, while creating a whole new chapter in the process. Jack is now an adult with no memory of the long ago journey to save his mom’s life. (Don’t worry Jack, I forgot too!) But his memory will return, and with it will come the recollection of that other world called The Territories. And as I read about his recollection, these words came through:
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2017 review
Each time I pick up a Stephen King book, I am struck by the different writing voice I find. Truth is, I had expected it with Black House, sort of, being co-written with Peter Straub, and yet I was struck all the same. King/Straub narrate much of this tale from a moving bird’s-eye perspective, floating in and out of each character’s stance and location, with a twinge of humor on the side. They don’t even try to hide the fact that this account has been written in a book, by two writers even. I thought this was funny, and I thought the style of writing was unlike many of the other King works before it. Believe me, I tried to deduce who wrote what. Was this King’s chapter, or was it Straub’s? “King-ism’s” came through of course. They always do. But overall, I could not tell. Then I found the reason why - while watching an interview of Stephen and his son Owen no less. Even they could not tell who had written what when looking back at their new book Sleeping Beauties. During their collaboration, they had edited and rewritten one other’s work along the way, thereby melding it. There was the answer.
How did Black House fare compared to The Talisman? Pretty well, I’d say. Here’s the part where I admit that I cannot remember much of The Talisman. I am bummed about that, but just a little. Although I think it’s more than a good idea to read The Talisman first, it’s not going to kill the story if you happened not to. Black House looks back at the twelve year old Jack Sawyer and his quest across America, while creating a whole new chapter in the process. Jack is now an adult with no memory of the long ago journey to save his mom’s life. (Don’t worry Jack, I forgot too!) But his memory will return, and with it will come the recollection of that other world called The Territories. And as I read about his recollection, these words came through:
”There are other worlds than these.”That is not a line taken from Black House, although it could easily be one. The quote belongs to Jake Chambers from The Gunslinger. I bring this up because the story of Black House fits so well with The Dark Tower series. I don’t think there’s another book outside of the series that is closer to it than this one. The Talisman may be in some ways, but it seems to me that half the purpose of Black House is to tell a story of The Dark Tower that needed telling. Fine by me. Some of the things in those other worlds are a little bit “out there”, so to speak. Weird creatures. Wild ideas. And that’s fine too, cause the stories are always strong. Like this one.
December 17, 2025
Fantastică
January 15, 2015
Wow this book was, simply put, a mess and was very painful to read. Considering I totally enjoyed the Talisman, I expected this book to be just as mind capturing as its predecessor. I was very disappointed in just about the whole story. So it turned out to be 'just ok' for me.
The first half was drawn out and very wordy. The coming together of all the characters was quite confusing as well. It seemed to take half of the book before the story even got remotely interesting.
It would get good and then would settle back into the wordiness that I found throughout most of the story. Once it did finally reach its peak I was so exhausted, I just wanted the story to end.
However, I did enjoy several of the characters in the story. So that was the highlight of the book. If not for them This may not even have reached the 2 star rating I gave it.
At the end of the book it felt like it was left pretty wide open for more Of Jack and his adventures in the territories. All I can say about that is I hope King and Straub give us a better tale than they did with Black House.
The first half was drawn out and very wordy. The coming together of all the characters was quite confusing as well. It seemed to take half of the book before the story even got remotely interesting.
It would get good and then would settle back into the wordiness that I found throughout most of the story. Once it did finally reach its peak I was so exhausted, I just wanted the story to end.
However, I did enjoy several of the characters in the story. So that was the highlight of the book. If not for them This may not even have reached the 2 star rating I gave it.
At the end of the book it felt like it was left pretty wide open for more Of Jack and his adventures in the territories. All I can say about that is I hope King and Straub give us a better tale than they did with Black House.
December 2, 2017
Tremenda secuela de El Talismán. No esperaba demasiado de este libro y aun así logró sorprenderme, ¡y de qué manera! Desde ya puedo decir que es uno de mis libros favoritos de mi autor favorito. Maduro, con personajes fuertes y entrañables, y una escritura mataficcional que logró envolverme en la historia como pocas veces me ha pasado. Está de más decir que lo recomiendo sin lugar a dudas. De lo mejor que he leído.
April 4, 2023
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Mystery Thriller + Fantasy
This is the second book in the Talisman series. Black House is both a mystery thriller and a fantasy in terms of its genres. The mystery-thriller part is because it is the story of a serial killer called Fisherman (based on Albert Fish) who kills children and eats them! This happens in French Landing town. The fantasy part is because it is linked to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The Crimson King, who is jailed in the dark tower, tries to free himself by using his recruits (headhunters). These headhunters have the job of kidnapping children who have specific abilities in order to break the beams that hold the tower. The children who can’t help are killed and eaten by these headhunters.
Jack Sawyer in this book is an ex-detective in his thirties. He cannot remember anything about his quest to the territories, and through this book, he gradually remembers the events that took place in the previous book. Sawyer forms a team with the other folks in the town to solve the mystery of the missing children. The Black House is a known haunted house that opens up the door to other worlds, so that is where they will need to look.
I have mixed feelings about the story because the first half was too slow for my taste. I would rate it 3 stars. In the second half, things moved on fast and the pace became excellent. The second part is 5 stars. This inconsistency in pace lowered my level of enjoyment. And because of it, this book felt a lot longer than The Talisman, despite being around 200 pages shorter. However, I feel that once you pass the slow parts, things get so exciting and interesting until the end, which makes you forgive the slow parts. The narration style is also interesting here. It has this cinematic feel to it in which the narrator includes you in the story. Something along the lines of, “Now we will go there and see what happens to …”
This is a very important book to read if you are reading King’s Dark Tower series. I feel it is crucial to have some background on the Dark Tower series before reading this book, or else you will get lost. The book’s inclusion in the extended reading of The Dark Tower series is very essential. I loved how the story ended here. There were rumors of a third book, but I'm not sure if this is possible anymore due to Peter Straub’s passing. I really want to know what happens next to Sawyer.
Genre: Mystery Thriller + Fantasy
This is the second book in the Talisman series. Black House is both a mystery thriller and a fantasy in terms of its genres. The mystery-thriller part is because it is the story of a serial killer called Fisherman (based on Albert Fish) who kills children and eats them! This happens in French Landing town. The fantasy part is because it is linked to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The Crimson King, who is jailed in the dark tower, tries to free himself by using his recruits (headhunters). These headhunters have the job of kidnapping children who have specific abilities in order to break the beams that hold the tower. The children who can’t help are killed and eaten by these headhunters.
Jack Sawyer in this book is an ex-detective in his thirties. He cannot remember anything about his quest to the territories, and through this book, he gradually remembers the events that took place in the previous book. Sawyer forms a team with the other folks in the town to solve the mystery of the missing children. The Black House is a known haunted house that opens up the door to other worlds, so that is where they will need to look.
I have mixed feelings about the story because the first half was too slow for my taste. I would rate it 3 stars. In the second half, things moved on fast and the pace became excellent. The second part is 5 stars. This inconsistency in pace lowered my level of enjoyment. And because of it, this book felt a lot longer than The Talisman, despite being around 200 pages shorter. However, I feel that once you pass the slow parts, things get so exciting and interesting until the end, which makes you forgive the slow parts. The narration style is also interesting here. It has this cinematic feel to it in which the narrator includes you in the story. Something along the lines of, “Now we will go there and see what happens to …”
This is a very important book to read if you are reading King’s Dark Tower series. I feel it is crucial to have some background on the Dark Tower series before reading this book, or else you will get lost. The book’s inclusion in the extended reading of The Dark Tower series is very essential. I loved how the story ended here. There were rumors of a third book, but I'm not sure if this is possible anymore due to Peter Straub’s passing. I really want to know what happens next to Sawyer.
April 21, 2026
Let's take a ride on the back of Gorg the crow as he flies around the town of French Landing, Wisconsin. Let's visit some of the residents of this town, a town with an evil presence.
Here is Jack Sawyer, a young man we met many years ago when he was twelve. At that time he sought a talisman that could heal his dying Mother, but boy what a journey he had to find it.
As stated, here is Jack, still a young man, retired from the L A police force at just 31. 'Hollywood' Jack as he became known, shot up through the ranks with an amazing knack of solving murders, but he is all too aware that the touch of that talisman has never left him.
So Jack has retired to live a peaceful life in French Landing, has befriended the local police chief and his Uncle, and lives a normal life.
Although his life may be normal, the town he lives in is far from it and Jack will be pulled right in.
The sequel to the Talisman does not disappoint although it may mean a lot less to those who have not read King's Dark Tower seies. The Black House again surrounds the mysteries of 'The Territories' as did Talisman, although not as much. But, the connections to the Dark Tower are plentiful. It should be known the The Territories are just another universe, parallel to our own. And like all other universes they can be visited from the Dark Tower.
All ready for Other Worlds Than These, the third and final book of the Talisman series, due out in October 2026. R.I.P PETER STRAUB.
Here is Jack Sawyer, a young man we met many years ago when he was twelve. At that time he sought a talisman that could heal his dying Mother, but boy what a journey he had to find it.
As stated, here is Jack, still a young man, retired from the L A police force at just 31. 'Hollywood' Jack as he became known, shot up through the ranks with an amazing knack of solving murders, but he is all too aware that the touch of that talisman has never left him.
So Jack has retired to live a peaceful life in French Landing, has befriended the local police chief and his Uncle, and lives a normal life.
Although his life may be normal, the town he lives in is far from it and Jack will be pulled right in.
The sequel to the Talisman does not disappoint although it may mean a lot less to those who have not read King's Dark Tower seies. The Black House again surrounds the mysteries of 'The Territories' as did Talisman, although not as much. But, the connections to the Dark Tower are plentiful. It should be known the The Territories are just another universe, parallel to our own. And like all other universes they can be visited from the Dark Tower.
All ready for Other Worlds Than These, the third and final book of the Talisman series, due out in October 2026. R.I.P PETER STRAUB.
July 22, 2008
I loved The Talisman. I think I read it when I was 13 or 14. It was a great story about a boy who could cross worlds, and took on a quest to save his dying mom. There were scary parts, but nothing too bad. Also, the line between King's writing and Straub's writing was pretty blurred. Either they shared the load, or one of them wrote while the other edited. I dunno, I could only hear one voice.
Years later, I listened to the audiobook and it was still great.
Black House is the sequel to The Talisman. Now, I've been supping on a heavy diet of King over the past few months. I spent about six months listening to the Dark Tower books, and I took some time to fill in a few gaps in the story (I read Insomnia, Rose Madder and Everything's Eventual). So, Uncle Steve's voice is really strong in my head.
The Black House is almost all Straub. I can pick out the King parts, but those are brief nuggets of good in a soup of bleh. I hate the way that the book reads like a screenplay. I hate the second-person POV. I hate the fact that the book isn't about Jack Sawyer. Not really. I listened to about 8 hours and then I stopped. I had tried to read the paper book, but stopped at 30 pages. I don't know how it ends, and that upsets me a little. But not enough to keep pushing soup around looking for chicken.
May 20, 2024
I’ve heard it said that Straub and King balance each other’s style and keep each other’s worst impulses in check, creating a unique and unified voice in their shared works. I think this is exactly what I hate so much about both of them. I don’t want/need King to be checked. Unbridled and unconstrained King is the one I like the most. And I certainly don’t need to endure Straub’s meandering, overly-literary style, dripping with a forced sophistication and grandeur for 800+ pages.
I honestly disliked almost everything about this book.
Character I Loved & Hated
Not much for me to love. I maybe loved Burny for just being so unabashedly despicable? But, has there been a worse character created in modern literature than Jack Sawyer? From annoying, do-good, aw-shucks boy to blank stare, stand-for-nothing, empty void of an adult. This has to be the worst arc ever.
Themes
I don’t know? Two guys sending sections of books back-and-forth trying to one-up the other in overwrought and overly described scenes, inundated with characters doing dumb shit?
Thing I’ll walk away with
A reinforced knowledge that even my heroes are fallible
I honestly disliked almost everything about this book.
Character I Loved & Hated
Not much for me to love. I maybe loved Burny for just being so unabashedly despicable? But, has there been a worse character created in modern literature than Jack Sawyer? From annoying, do-good, aw-shucks boy to blank stare, stand-for-nothing, empty void of an adult. This has to be the worst arc ever.
Themes
I don’t know? Two guys sending sections of books back-and-forth trying to one-up the other in overwrought and overly described scenes, inundated with characters doing dumb shit?
Thing I’ll walk away with
A reinforced knowledge that even my heroes are fallible
October 9, 2022
This was one of the first King books I read as a pre teen and I read it not knowing it was the sequel to The Talisman. Now that I’ve read The Talisman twice and reread Black House again, it’s like all the puzzle pieces finally fit together just right. I loved Black House but reading it again with all the missing pieces filled in made me love it all that much more, even more so after reading both again. There’s something about this story that just gets under my skin and really creeps me the fuck out! It definitely beats out The Talisman in terms of horror and spook factor in my opinion, it feels like King and Straub really hit their stride as collaborators on this second book and I really wish we had gotten a third before Straub passed away. I could read book after book about this story and be perfectly content to stay immersed in this little dark, double world. Actually, I probably enjoy it so much because it’s really similar to Dark Tower in some ways and that’s never a bad thing.
April 24, 2016
It's been a long time since I read this book. I remember reading it when it first came out, when I was in my late teens, and really enjoying it, but it's clear that I forgot sooo much about this book. I remember this one having more to do with the Dark Tower - but just how much, and in what detail surprised me. I almost wish that I hadn't read it now, that I'd waited until later on in my upcoming Dark Tower re-read with my bookclub, so I could read it at a more appropriate place within the Dark Tower timeline.
But oh well. Sometimes one must live with the choices that are made.
It's not really fair to call this book a sequel to The Talisman. I don't know what else to call it, because it IS that... but it sets the expectation that it will be similar to The Talisman, and it's not at all that. Talisman was an adventure, a quest, and yes, there was some dark and grim stuff in there (The Elroy Thing, Sunlight Gardener, Morgan & Morgan, etc) and but it never felt hopelessly grim and depraved. This does. Not that I'm complaining, I loved it. But this is the evil twin that has been kept in the attic and fed fish heads making its appearance after 20 years. It came from the same stock, but it's not friendly or altogether sane.
This is a dark book. It's a slow burn of a book. It's a character study book. It's a police-procedural-in-hell book. It's a Dark Tower book. It's a Stephen King book... so I don't know why anyone would expect anything less than the previous statements.
We pick back up with Jack Sawyer 20 years after we left him, and he has made a career and a life for himself as a homicide detective. He's forgotten - or blocked - all memories of his previous quest to save his mother, and has tried to live as normal and mundane a life as possible, despite the fact that he had touched the Talisman, and it conferred a lasting good luck on him that made everything he wanted to do that much easier. However, Jack has pulled the plug on his career after seeing a black man murdered on the Santa Monica Pier and it dredges up some memories of Speedy Parker - and he gets the hell out of dodge. Moves to an idyllic little town in Wisconsin and never plans to be a cop again. Except of course for the fact that Ka is a wheel and he doesn't have a choice. Someone is killing children in his new hometown, and of course nothing is ever what it seems when King's writing.
What follows is a grim, but excellent story that builds and builds. We encounter some old friends, make a lot of new ones (and more than a few enemies as well) and shit gets real. And surreal.
I don't really want to talk too much about the plot or the story because it's best if one experiences it for themselves. It is a great book, and can stand alone - though you will get much more out of this if you are familiar with Jack's history.
I loved most of the characters in this book, even the ones I detested. Wendell Green and Charles Burnside, I'm looking at you. In that order. Charles is what he is, and he does what he does and there's no punishment harsh enough for that. But for some reason, my disgust and rage really homed in on Green, and I felt like he was the most shitty person in this whole book. All of the other evils were evil, pure and simple. They wanted to kill and destroy and tear down the walls of the universe because that's what evil does. But fucking Wendell Green is just a shitty human who thinks way too highly of himself and is out for blood because he thinks that he's King Shit of Turd Hill - only nobody else recognizes that yet. He's the Rita Skeeter of French Landing. The shitty fucker. Shoulda been left for the Sisters. Just sayin'.
ANYWHO... I loved Henry and Beezer and Mouse and Jack and Dale. All of these guys make me so proud of them. Even Bear Girl, in her small, small bit part, impressed me and kind of broke my heart. She's a rock, that girl. I would have liked a bit more about Mr. Munshun and The Big Combination. I wanted a bit more about what that was FOR. Obviously it was EVIL... but just what was it powering?
Still... this is a great book, if a little tiny bit draggy at times. Like I said, it's a slow burner of a book. It takes a bit of patience, as often King's books do, but I think they pay off in the end. If I had ONE complaint, it would be the romantic element of the story. Ugh. Come on. It was unnecessary and so obvious and blah blah blah skim. Yeah, I get it, she's pretty... he's pretty... they are "interesting" and now instalove. Gag me. Leave out the instalove, and I'm golden. I could not care less.
Otherwise, excellent stuff.
But oh well. Sometimes one must live with the choices that are made.
It's not really fair to call this book a sequel to The Talisman. I don't know what else to call it, because it IS that... but it sets the expectation that it will be similar to The Talisman, and it's not at all that. Talisman was an adventure, a quest, and yes, there was some dark and grim stuff in there (The Elroy Thing, Sunlight Gardener, Morgan & Morgan, etc) and but it never felt hopelessly grim and depraved. This does. Not that I'm complaining, I loved it. But this is the evil twin that has been kept in the attic and fed fish heads making its appearance after 20 years. It came from the same stock, but it's not friendly or altogether sane.
This is a dark book. It's a slow burn of a book. It's a character study book. It's a police-procedural-in-hell book. It's a Dark Tower book. It's a Stephen King book... so I don't know why anyone would expect anything less than the previous statements.
We pick back up with Jack Sawyer 20 years after we left him, and he has made a career and a life for himself as a homicide detective. He's forgotten - or blocked - all memories of his previous quest to save his mother, and has tried to live as normal and mundane a life as possible, despite the fact that he had touched the Talisman, and it conferred a lasting good luck on him that made everything he wanted to do that much easier. However, Jack has pulled the plug on his career after seeing a black man murdered on the Santa Monica Pier and it dredges up some memories of Speedy Parker - and he gets the hell out of dodge. Moves to an idyllic little town in Wisconsin and never plans to be a cop again. Except of course for the fact that Ka is a wheel and he doesn't have a choice. Someone is killing children in his new hometown, and of course nothing is ever what it seems when King's writing.
What follows is a grim, but excellent story that builds and builds. We encounter some old friends, make a lot of new ones (and more than a few enemies as well) and shit gets real. And surreal.
I don't really want to talk too much about the plot or the story because it's best if one experiences it for themselves. It is a great book, and can stand alone - though you will get much more out of this if you are familiar with Jack's history.
I loved most of the characters in this book, even the ones I detested. Wendell Green and Charles Burnside, I'm looking at you. In that order. Charles is what he is, and he does what he does and there's no punishment harsh enough for that. But for some reason, my disgust and rage really homed in on Green, and I felt like he was the most shitty person in this whole book. All of the other evils were evil, pure and simple. They wanted to kill and destroy and tear down the walls of the universe because that's what evil does. But fucking Wendell Green is just a shitty human who thinks way too highly of himself and is out for blood because he thinks that he's King Shit of Turd Hill - only nobody else recognizes that yet. He's the Rita Skeeter of French Landing. The shitty fucker. Shoulda been left for the Sisters. Just sayin'.
ANYWHO... I loved Henry and Beezer and Mouse and Jack and Dale. All of these guys make me so proud of them. Even Bear Girl, in her small, small bit part, impressed me and kind of broke my heart. She's a rock, that girl. I would have liked a bit more about Mr. Munshun and The Big Combination. I wanted a bit more about what that was FOR. Obviously it was EVIL... but just what was it powering?
Still... this is a great book, if a little tiny bit draggy at times. Like I said, it's a slow burner of a book. It takes a bit of patience, as often King's books do, but I think they pay off in the end. If I had ONE complaint, it would be the romantic element of the story. Ugh. Come on. It was unnecessary and so obvious and blah blah blah skim. Yeah, I get it, she's pretty... he's pretty... they are "interesting" and now instalove. Gag me. Leave out the instalove, and I'm golden. I could not care less.
Otherwise, excellent stuff.
October 22, 2022
Thoroughly enjoyed the sequel to The Talisman. Jack Sawyer now an adult goes to live in Wisconsin, French Landing. Here he becomes friends with the super cool blind Henry a DJ and Dale the local police chief. A serial killer called the Fisherman is killing children.
We then embark on an adventure with Jack as he tries to save Ty the latest kidnapped victim. We cross over to the territories and find the Black House a portal to another dark horrific world.
A real page turner with lots of links to the Dark Tower series.
We then embark on an adventure with Jack as he tries to save Ty the latest kidnapped victim. We cross over to the territories and find the Black House a portal to another dark horrific world.
A real page turner with lots of links to the Dark Tower series.
February 12, 2025
Continuing my journey of reading or in this case re-reading Stephen King's books in publication order. I read this years ago before I knew Goodreads existed and didn't realise it a second in a series. Having said that this doesn't really feel like a follow on from the Talisman, it does have some of the same characters and there are moments relating back to the Talisman but other than that they are completely separate books.
On a re-read of this book my rating didn't change, but my opinion did, I originally gave this a three because honestly I couldn't keep up with what was going on. I put a lot of that confusion down to not reading The Talisman first, however I don't think that was the case, this book leans heavily on The Dark Tower which is why I was so lost the first time around. I read this having never even heard of The Dark Tower. This is one of the reason I am doing this self-inflicted challenge, the SK universe is so intertwined, this book doesn't make sense unless you have read at least 3 or 4 of The Dark Tower books.
So why is this one of the lower rated SK books for me even now? Well there are a few reasons, one of the main ones is the way it's actually written, I didn't enjoy the authors breaking the fourth wall at all it was completely dragging me out of the story. I also didn't appreciate how long this book took to get going, I understand why this was done, to develop the characters but this book could have been 100s of pages less. Another niggle I had was that his book dipped into the territories, but we only stayed there for a few pages/chapters I would have liked a lot more.
There were some very likeable and unlikable characters, there was a pretty decent reveal and some tense and atmospheric moments. It did feel disjointed I could tell that this was written by more than one author, which I couldn't tell in the first book, this book just ran out of steam. It ended pretty basic too. I did like all the references to The Dark Tower and the Crimson King, but unless your a completionist I don't think this book, or this series for that matter is worth it. Too many pages with no enough pay off.
On a re-read of this book my rating didn't change, but my opinion did, I originally gave this a three because honestly I couldn't keep up with what was going on. I put a lot of that confusion down to not reading The Talisman first, however I don't think that was the case, this book leans heavily on The Dark Tower which is why I was so lost the first time around. I read this having never even heard of The Dark Tower. This is one of the reason I am doing this self-inflicted challenge, the SK universe is so intertwined, this book doesn't make sense unless you have read at least 3 or 4 of The Dark Tower books.
So why is this one of the lower rated SK books for me even now? Well there are a few reasons, one of the main ones is the way it's actually written, I didn't enjoy the authors breaking the fourth wall at all it was completely dragging me out of the story. I also didn't appreciate how long this book took to get going, I understand why this was done, to develop the characters but this book could have been 100s of pages less. Another niggle I had was that his book dipped into the territories, but we only stayed there for a few pages/chapters I would have liked a lot more.
There were some very likeable and unlikable characters, there was a pretty decent reveal and some tense and atmospheric moments. It did feel disjointed I could tell that this was written by more than one author, which I couldn't tell in the first book, this book just ran out of steam. It ended pretty basic too. I did like all the references to The Dark Tower and the Crimson King, but unless your a completionist I don't think this book, or this series for that matter is worth it. Too many pages with no enough pay off.
April 15, 2018
I actually enjoyed this a little more than The Talisman. However, I would say that if you did not like The Talisman, you may not enjoy this one either. It does have a darker, more horror-like feel to it. Overall, I enjoyed it. Liked getting back to see Jack Sawyer. I'm Looking forward to the third book, if it is ever written, although I probably would want to read the Dark Tower series before I read it. Overall, I would say 3.5/5 stars rounded up.
August 12, 2022
This book turned out to be absolutely amazing! It was written in a completely different style from any other Stephen King I've read before. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was really cool getting to know things as the reader that the characters didn't necessarily know. It was fun getting to know Jack as an adult. I thought this story worked really well as a sequel. There was lots of references to characters and events from The Talisman. There was also many references to The Dark Tower series which I always love! As always the descriptions and world building were masterfully done. King and Straub are both great at painting a truly stunning word picture. I thought Henry was a super cool character and he helped to make this book so much fun to read. Judy was a great character too and I started to feel so bad for her as the story went on. To be honest most of the characters were pretty awesome. Definitely a five star read! It was a roller coaster of an adventure and will be enjoyed by fans of both King and Straub.
March 31, 2026
I've read this book already, back when it came out and I only remember being disappointed with it.
Since I read that King has Talisman 3 coming out this fall, I thought I would re-read this one via audio. That way I will be refreshed and ready for the 3rd book later this year. I hope this time I enjoy it a bit more.
Since I read that King has Talisman 3 coming out this fall, I thought I would re-read this one via audio. That way I will be refreshed and ready for the 3rd book later this year. I hope this time I enjoy it a bit more.
Read
May 13, 2025Full video review here: https://youtu.be/3_ZaA6qzaes
I seem to be in the minority on my feelings towards The Talisman. It had all the things I thought I would love; coming of age in a supernatural setting. But something about it just never clicked for me. Therefore I was hoping Black House would be more to my liking. But, it's kind of more of the same.
While I never disliked it, I was never quite as engaged as I am in most King stories. I think at this point I can safely say I don't think I'm a fan of King with a collaborator.
I seem to be in the minority on my feelings towards The Talisman. It had all the things I thought I would love; coming of age in a supernatural setting. But something about it just never clicked for me. Therefore I was hoping Black House would be more to my liking. But, it's kind of more of the same.
While I never disliked it, I was never quite as engaged as I am in most King stories. I think at this point I can safely say I don't think I'm a fan of King with a collaborator.
October 4, 2013
In the early eighties, Stephen King and Peter Straub embarked on the ultimate coming-of-age tale. The Talisman easily solidified the collaboration's super status. Then, nearly two decades later, they returned to their literary roots. Black House portrays a different Jack Sawyer, now a semi-retired Los Angeles detective. He won't remain there much longer, though. By requesting his expertise in a major case, a colleague-turned-friend leads him to Wisconsin, where his life will be irrevocably altered...in numerous ways.
Black House is very different from its predecessor. One of the most significant changes is the unique writing style. Almost everything's shown by way of what I like to call "an eagle's eye" view. This can be somewhat difficult and frustrating to adjust to, and I completely understand that critique. It's also a little slow at first. We're not actually reunited with Jack until the first 60 or so pages.
My first time through the Coulee Country, I struggled with it a bit, too. But it being a King novel, I knew a big payoff was inevitable.
And maintaining his "I'm retired" mindset, Jack is reluctant to aid the local police investigation of a string of grisly serial killings. It's only until a young boy is abducted that Jack agrees to assist the authorities.
With the addition of a handful of eccentric characters (including the ever positive, delightful, and beloved Henry Lyden,) we're given recurring appearances of one or more characters from The Talisman.
One new addition, named Charles Burnside, alludes to a less than pleasant childhood, leaving something to be desired. I wanted to know more. For instance, how exactly was he mistreated (presuming, of course, that was the case,) what were his parents like? Who were his parents? What events helped form the individual shown throughout the novel?
More importantly, can he be empathized with, knowing what we do about him? Should we be expected to? I felt next to nothing for him, whatsoever. Unless my utter abhorrence of him is put into consideration. That particular emotion resonates in every fiber of my being. But if I may return briefly to the aforementioned alluding, my heart does go out to him. Though all too fleeting...
How about his time in Chicago? He displays an abundance of scorn which tells the reader of his pent-up resentment. What specifically happened there, though?
That being said, I love the duality of ol' "burn, burn's" voices and/or accents. (In general, it's always a pleasure to find elements of duality in fiction, but in this case, I think King and Straub pulled it off exceptionally well.) Reminiscent of some nefarious-yet equally skilled- ventriloquist, the sequence baffles the mind in every sense of the word.
Additionally, I think I probably would have been more impacted if our killer had been less supernatural and more human.
Why do I emphasize this point? Because, as of late, I've come to realize that villains who are more less fantastical (Rose Madder's Norman Daniels or The Shining's Jack Torrance, to name a few) have a much larger affect on me.
I almost wish that the killer's identity had been withheld a bit longer. I believe if they'd done so, it would have created a much more suspenseful, biting-your-nails quality. Then again, the story's pretty dark and creepy. King and Straub probably weren't very interested in its mystery; contrarily, this story is very horror-orientated.
All throughout, a recurring theme is explored in interesting way(s:) repressed memories. This literary technique is seen in multiple characters, primarily our protagonist, Jack Sawyer.
On a related note, scientific studies indicate that particularly traumatic experiences often result in repression, as a defense mechanism. And speaking personally, I'm a firm believer. I can recall very little of my childhood.
I'm not the only one, either. King and Straub said it best: "Amnesia is merciful." Indeed.
The final showdown (and the all-important journey toward that end,) felt slightly long-winded, but the psychological aspects almost demand it. As for the battle itself, I am torn. On the one hand, it is quite phenomenal. On the other, there's a comic book quality which renders it somewhat unrealistic. As a result, I'm left with many questions whose answers I'd be interested in learning.
Then, due to unforeseen events, Jack is inadvertently transported back to his past, so to speak. By taking their story in this direction, King and Straub present a few very suspenseful closing pages. I was literally holding my anxious breath and hoping for the best. I also realized the depth of my love and admiration for this amazing man. And through certain revelations, things are left open. There simply MUST be a 3rd book!!
Jack's story isn't complete.
May 26, 2021
Black House has blown me away. My most favourite King's adventure of all time!
And I can say with certainty that I would not be saying this if I hadnt of spent years within the weaved web of King's worlds. Its crazy that I have to remind myself that this was co written by Straub also because its had such a massive effect on me due to it been so strongly a part of King's multiverse, his linked novels and his mind.
I cant urge you enough to take that step into The Dark Tower series if you are yet to, I promise you it makes reading all King's books a step above any experience you have without doing so. To enter and understand the Black House fully, to gain that higher experience, to get the most enjoyment, you need the knowledge gained from time and years, (if thats what it takes) spent on the Dark Tower journey. And then of course The Tailsman needs to be opened up before finally taking the step into the Black House. Then and only then, I believe, you will be ready for this. Ready for the appreciation of a true authors remarkable craft. King. You really are the master of all masters...
For, what is an experience if you only have half the knowledge?
*A maybe crazy word to try to understand what it means to me to be a King follower...
There is a special feeling created deep within oneself when you are part of a specialised 'group' of people who hold a great understanding and knowledge of a subject. I imagine it to be the feeling created from spending a lifetime of following a religion with an almighty never faultering faith, a higher knowledge, a knowing, a certainty.
Okay, okay, yes... Im possibly terrible to compare been an avid Stephen King fan to a religion but thats how Im choosing to compare it. I cant think of any other way to explain how powerfully it makes me feel!
Reading the Black House has made me feel so nostalgic of my years gone by, of a much younger me who once decided to pick up the first of many books of The Dark Tower series. The me who over years became the girl who stood beside Roland Deschain and his Ka-tet, who learnt from a true, last surviving gunslinger himself, how to spot the evil eye of The Crimson King, how to be true to oneself on the journey and how to not forget the face of my father. There are not many people I have met face to face over my years in this world that have been on this same journey as I, and when I do come along that someone it creates such a buzz of excitement, a true connection, that I am in the presence of one that has also stepped into this multiverse, who has smelt the surrounding roses, who has rode alongside you on the insane Blaine, who has petted the little billy-bumbler-Oy, one who also knows that all things serve the beam.
You finally have someone beside you who understands just how many years you have put into the quest of the beam and the Dark Tower, as they have walked through the same dry and dusty footprints also. It all sounds crazy as Im writing how it makes me feel, many wont get it at all, but for my fellow ka-tet's...
I hope you understand.
'Long days and pleasant nights'
And I can say with certainty that I would not be saying this if I hadnt of spent years within the weaved web of King's worlds. Its crazy that I have to remind myself that this was co written by Straub also because its had such a massive effect on me due to it been so strongly a part of King's multiverse, his linked novels and his mind.
I cant urge you enough to take that step into The Dark Tower series if you are yet to, I promise you it makes reading all King's books a step above any experience you have without doing so. To enter and understand the Black House fully, to gain that higher experience, to get the most enjoyment, you need the knowledge gained from time and years, (if thats what it takes) spent on the Dark Tower journey. And then of course The Tailsman needs to be opened up before finally taking the step into the Black House. Then and only then, I believe, you will be ready for this. Ready for the appreciation of a true authors remarkable craft. King. You really are the master of all masters...
For, what is an experience if you only have half the knowledge?
*A maybe crazy word to try to understand what it means to me to be a King follower...
There is a special feeling created deep within oneself when you are part of a specialised 'group' of people who hold a great understanding and knowledge of a subject. I imagine it to be the feeling created from spending a lifetime of following a religion with an almighty never faultering faith, a higher knowledge, a knowing, a certainty.
Okay, okay, yes... Im possibly terrible to compare been an avid Stephen King fan to a religion but thats how Im choosing to compare it. I cant think of any other way to explain how powerfully it makes me feel!
Reading the Black House has made me feel so nostalgic of my years gone by, of a much younger me who once decided to pick up the first of many books of The Dark Tower series. The me who over years became the girl who stood beside Roland Deschain and his Ka-tet, who learnt from a true, last surviving gunslinger himself, how to spot the evil eye of The Crimson King, how to be true to oneself on the journey and how to not forget the face of my father. There are not many people I have met face to face over my years in this world that have been on this same journey as I, and when I do come along that someone it creates such a buzz of excitement, a true connection, that I am in the presence of one that has also stepped into this multiverse, who has smelt the surrounding roses, who has rode alongside you on the insane Blaine, who has petted the little billy-bumbler-Oy, one who also knows that all things serve the beam.
You finally have someone beside you who understands just how many years you have put into the quest of the beam and the Dark Tower, as they have walked through the same dry and dusty footprints also. It all sounds crazy as Im writing how it makes me feel, many wont get it at all, but for my fellow ka-tet's...
I hope you understand.
'Long days and pleasant nights'
May 13, 2026
(2026 Re-read)
I enjoyed this novel even more the second time. What is most striking to me is just how indulgent the authors are being, and writing in the lush omniscient voice that directly addresses the reader on multiple occasions. The novel takes nearly 100 pages before it even introduces its main character, instead giving a crow's eye view of the town and its inhabitants, setting up the story to be epic in shape and tone. I can entirely recognize that some readers may not be interested in this level of indulgence but for me it really does make the story feel welcoming and inviting, a proper epic being told that we have the opportunity to share in. Even with this chatty omniscient narrator filling out the world and commenting on events as we experience them the story moves incredibly quickly, without ever lingering and interjecting a number of really great action-filled and horrific set pieces.
This novel does lean into the horrific and the bizarre. It feels like it is a step away from reality, but that is on purpose. The small town is a location of slippage, where worlds are forming an unstable border. There is emotional growth and reclamation, colorful and entirely engrossing, larger-than-life characters, and antagonists that are absolutely despicable (and wonderful to spend time with).
For as wild of a ride as this is, this story is pure heart. It explores the ideas of family, responsibility, authenticity, self-sacrifice, service, legacy and community in beautiful ways. It eschews the fantasy tropes and styles from its predecessor but embraces its spirit, somehow being uplifting and buoyant while having a cannibalistic serial killer who kills and eat children as its central antagonist. It gets really dark at places but always glows with the intentions that Jack cannot help but embody, and that balance/blend is wonderful.
This novel really hits all my buttons. It has strong Dark Tower references, and it isn't afraid to expand its mythology in that way. It doesn't shy away from being wet and gruesome, darkly embracing its place in the "horror" section. It upholds some of the innocent fantasy of the first novel and the roles of magic, belief, and determination continue to play critical roles in the characters' journeys. I am happy to recognize how personable the writing is, or, as I said, indulgent, and that won't be everyone's cup of tea. But it never feels bloated or boring, it doesn't feel redundant, and for me the writing style just generates what seems like the infectious joy with which they wrote this novel.
I enjoyed this novel even more the second time. What is most striking to me is just how indulgent the authors are being, and writing in the lush omniscient voice that directly addresses the reader on multiple occasions. The novel takes nearly 100 pages before it even introduces its main character, instead giving a crow's eye view of the town and its inhabitants, setting up the story to be epic in shape and tone. I can entirely recognize that some readers may not be interested in this level of indulgence but for me it really does make the story feel welcoming and inviting, a proper epic being told that we have the opportunity to share in. Even with this chatty omniscient narrator filling out the world and commenting on events as we experience them the story moves incredibly quickly, without ever lingering and interjecting a number of really great action-filled and horrific set pieces.
This novel does lean into the horrific and the bizarre. It feels like it is a step away from reality, but that is on purpose. The small town is a location of slippage, where worlds are forming an unstable border. There is emotional growth and reclamation, colorful and entirely engrossing, larger-than-life characters, and antagonists that are absolutely despicable (and wonderful to spend time with).
For as wild of a ride as this is, this story is pure heart. It explores the ideas of family, responsibility, authenticity, self-sacrifice, service, legacy and community in beautiful ways. It eschews the fantasy tropes and styles from its predecessor but embraces its spirit, somehow being uplifting and buoyant while having a cannibalistic serial killer who kills and eat children as its central antagonist. It gets really dark at places but always glows with the intentions that Jack cannot help but embody, and that balance/blend is wonderful.
This novel really hits all my buttons. It has strong Dark Tower references, and it isn't afraid to expand its mythology in that way. It doesn't shy away from being wet and gruesome, darkly embracing its place in the "horror" section. It upholds some of the innocent fantasy of the first novel and the roles of magic, belief, and determination continue to play critical roles in the characters' journeys. I am happy to recognize how personable the writing is, or, as I said, indulgent, and that won't be everyone's cup of tea. But it never feels bloated or boring, it doesn't feel redundant, and for me the writing style just generates what seems like the infectious joy with which they wrote this novel.
June 24, 2017
Za početak, citat: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1299...
Ono što bih odmah volela da izdvojim je dinamika same radnje koja je toliko dobra da se ni u jednom trenutku ne oseti zamor i tenzija razvlačenja priče, što je bila moja glavna zamerka Talismanu. Iako se radnja ponovo plete oko više likova i teče kroz nekoliko paralelnih linija, naracija je izuzetna, a događaji se smenjuju bez naglih i nelogičnih prekida. Smenjivanje različitih motiva i efekata grabi čitaoca i ne pušta. Straub i King su nas odlično provozali - u jednom trenutku preovladava utisak tipičnog trilera da bi ga ubrzo zamenio jezivi događaj pun grozomornih opisa. Ovakvo mešanje motiva može biti mač sa sve oštrice jer, ukoliko se pretera sa njihovim uplitanjem, sama priča gubi na verodostojnosti i konzistentnosti.
Da, prvi utisak o priči jeste da je ovo početak samo jednog krimića gde se rešava nekoliko slučajeva ubistava i jedna otmica, no, to je varka koja biva momentalno rabijena uplivom neverovatnih motiva koji se ne dešavaju u svakodnevnom životu. Radnja je toliko bogata da potiskuje i samu završnicu koja je sa jedne strane možda mogla da bude spektakularnija, ali je u najmanju ruku zadovoljavajuća.
Ono što bih odmah volela da izdvojim je dinamika same radnje koja je toliko dobra da se ni u jednom trenutku ne oseti zamor i tenzija razvlačenja priče, što je bila moja glavna zamerka Talismanu. Iako se radnja ponovo plete oko više likova i teče kroz nekoliko paralelnih linija, naracija je izuzetna, a događaji se smenjuju bez naglih i nelogičnih prekida. Smenjivanje različitih motiva i efekata grabi čitaoca i ne pušta. Straub i King su nas odlično provozali - u jednom trenutku preovladava utisak tipičnog trilera da bi ga ubrzo zamenio jezivi događaj pun grozomornih opisa. Ovakvo mešanje motiva može biti mač sa sve oštrice jer, ukoliko se pretera sa njihovim uplitanjem, sama priča gubi na verodostojnosti i konzistentnosti.
Da, prvi utisak o priči jeste da je ovo početak samo jednog krimića gde se rešava nekoliko slučajeva ubistava i jedna otmica, no, to je varka koja biva momentalno rabijena uplivom neverovatnih motiva koji se ne dešavaju u svakodnevnom životu. Radnja je toliko bogata da potiskuje i samu završnicu koja je sa jedne strane možda mogla da bude spektakularnija, ali je u najmanju ruku zadovoljavajuća.
September 27, 2023
Update: I recently listed to the NYT Books podcast interviewing King about Holly, and in the course of the interview King indicated he is interested in completing this series on his own with the third Jack Sawyer book that he and Straub had originally planned for. Fingers crossed that plan comes to fruition
Wow. This book was so good!
I liked The Talisman, although it had a bit of a slow/awkward start for me. Black House is just something else entirely. Instead of a quest/portal fantasy centred on a 12 year old boy, we get Jack Sawyer 20 years older and involuntarily involved in a kind of supernatural procedural (with a small side of quest, of course). I loved the connections with The Dark Tower series, which were tantalizing yet inscrutable.
I’m so sad that there won’t ever be another book to follow this. There are characters and threads I’m finding it hard to let go of.
My first favourite of 2023.
Wow. This book was so good!
I liked The Talisman, although it had a bit of a slow/awkward start for me. Black House is just something else entirely. Instead of a quest/portal fantasy centred on a 12 year old boy, we get Jack Sawyer 20 years older and involuntarily involved in a kind of supernatural procedural (with a small side of quest, of course). I loved the connections with The Dark Tower series, which were tantalizing yet inscrutable.
I’m so sad that there won’t ever be another book to follow this. There are characters and threads I’m finding it hard to let go of.
My first favourite of 2023.
July 24, 2023
I have read many books by Stephen King and by Peter Straub and this was my first by them both. And I did not find it as satisfying as others. As usual I did not start with the first book - The Talisman. Although everyone says you can read the second as standalone I think I would have been better reading the first book. Also I took this book on a recent cruise and in between cocktails and tours didn’t really get any traction in reading much. On return, life events also got in the way slowing reading to a couple of chapters a day and just wanting to finish it.
This one is about a serial killer and three children murdered in the town of French Landing. It starts with a Crow called Gorg flying over the town and commenting on people and places. The narration reminded me of Muppet Christmas Carol and Gonzo narrating attached to Rizzo the Rat…but I digress.
Like a curates egg I found the story good in parts. But unfortunately for me a disappointment overall.
This one is about a serial killer and three children murdered in the town of French Landing. It starts with a Crow called Gorg flying over the town and commenting on people and places. The narration reminded me of Muppet Christmas Carol and Gonzo narrating attached to Rizzo the Rat…but I digress.
Like a curates egg I found the story good in parts. But unfortunately for me a disappointment overall.
March 19, 2026
The long-awaited sequel to the Stephen King/Peter Straub classic, "The Talisman", "Black House" is a superb horror/thriller that reunites readers with our hero, Jack Sawyer.
No longer the 12-year-old kid who went on a quest through the Territories to save his mother, Jack is now in his 30s, a retired L.A. homicide detective, and has no memories of that year he spent in another world. When a serial killer threatens the peace of the adopted small town he now calls home, Jack is torn between coming out of retirement and using his skills to help catch the killer or sitting on the sidelines and not getting involved. Of course, you can probably guess which side he comes out on. Because, as it turns out, his experiences in the Territories are vital to the solving of this case.
fan art by Rick Berry
Horror maestros King and Straub have reunited once again, and the literary world rejoices. They are both at the top of their game here, creating a taut serial killer mystery with a supernatural twist and introducing us to a slew of truly lovable and well-developed characters. And what has become a trademark for King: dropped references to some of his other novels. (Fans of his "Gunslinger" series will greatly appreciate the many tie-ins.) "Black House" could almost be read as a stand-alone novel, although I recommend reading (or re-reading) "The Talisman" to refresh one's memories about the Territories, Speedy, Wolf, the Blasted Lands, et al.
No longer the 12-year-old kid who went on a quest through the Territories to save his mother, Jack is now in his 30s, a retired L.A. homicide detective, and has no memories of that year he spent in another world. When a serial killer threatens the peace of the adopted small town he now calls home, Jack is torn between coming out of retirement and using his skills to help catch the killer or sitting on the sidelines and not getting involved. Of course, you can probably guess which side he comes out on. Because, as it turns out, his experiences in the Territories are vital to the solving of this case.
fan art by Rick Berry
Horror maestros King and Straub have reunited once again, and the literary world rejoices. They are both at the top of their game here, creating a taut serial killer mystery with a supernatural twist and introducing us to a slew of truly lovable and well-developed characters. And what has become a trademark for King: dropped references to some of his other novels. (Fans of his "Gunslinger" series will greatly appreciate the many tie-ins.) "Black House" could almost be read as a stand-alone novel, although I recommend reading (or re-reading) "The Talisman" to refresh one's memories about the Territories, Speedy, Wolf, the Blasted Lands, et al.
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