Stephen King 2025 read-along discussion
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Four Past Midnight
March 2023 Discussions
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March Madness!!!!
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As for the main pick of this month Secret Garden, Secret Window. Definitely a great book and movie. I saw it in the theater.
Good luck to all our Constant Readers out there!
March is flying by:( I just got around to looking at the march post .. I have never read this one so it will be fun to try .
This March pick will of course coincide with Kayla from BooksandLala's Buzzword Readathon prompt which is "secret". What better way than to read "Secret Window, Secret Garden" from Four Past Midnight?
Four Past Midnight is a collection of four different novellas published in 1990. Many have compared it to it's predecessor, Different Seasons, but the two are not connected in content. It's comprised of "The Langoliers", "Secret Window, Secret Garden", "The Library Policeman", and "The Sun Dog". While we encourage everyone to read as much King as their heart desires and would love to discuss the entirety of Four Past Midnight if you so choose to read the full book, this month we are focusing on "Secret Window, Secret Garden".
"Secret Window, Secret Garden" follows successful writer Mort Rainey who is dealing with a nasty divorce and a bad case of writer's block. While sequestered in his vacation home in Maine he is confronted by a man from Mississippi named John Shooter who claims that Mort has plagiarized a story that Shooter himself penned years earlier. While Mort is confused, shocked, and angry John Shooter makes it very clear that he is going to get what he believes is owed to him one way or another.
"Secret Window, Secret Garden" is similar to King's earlier novel The Dark Half. Both are about authors who are thinly veiled analogues of King himself. King has been the subject of unfounded accusations of plagiarism. A woman claimed that King stole several of her story ideas and based characters from his books on her. All of her cases have been dismissed. In another incident, a deranged man broke into King's home, and when discovered by King's wife, claimed that King stole the plot of Misery from the intruder's aunt and that he had a bomb in the shoe box he was holding and was going to blow up the house. The fake bomb was made of pencils with paperclips wrapped around the erasers.
In 2004 a film adaptation was made aptly named "Secret Window". Starring Johnny Depp as Mort, John Turturro as John Shooter, and Maria Bello as Mort's ex-wife Amy. It was met with mixed reviews from critics but was a moderate box office success even though it veers off from the original story. Very much of it's time and slightly cheesy, but honestly one of my favorite films adapted from King's work. It's such a fun psychological thriller.
Who's excited for this month's pick? Are you going to be an overachiever and try to read the whole book or just stick with "Secret Window, Secret Garden"? While we are happy to break up some months with just a short story here and there, we won't police you lol. So excited to see what everyone thinks! I remember seeing the movie first when I was younger and being obsessed. I tried to read the story right after but my eleven year old brain wasn't ready for King yet. I had to wait another few years to introduce myself to his work. Share your thoughts down below! And as always, happy reading!