Reading the Chunksters discussion

The pace is really picking up and we aree now 75% complete with this read!

all I can say is AHHHHH!!!!!!!

don't want to have spoilers but I think that chapter 58 was incredibly well built up. and ah I can't believe it. I was so sad when certain things happened.

It's all starting I guess...the stand that is. I hate/love how king slides in dramatic sentences. "He'll never see blah blah again" (that was random, but he does it quite frequently)

Anyways, I just finished the book about 10 minutes ago so going back to this section is just so intense.

Oh wow! I had to put my book down last night because I could have easily stayed up all night reading it. I would be a bad leader if I skipped ahead to the end....lol

I just finished this section. I will wait until tomorrow afternoon to post my thoughts, as I don't want to spoil for anyone because I read ahead a little. I'll admit that now that we're close to the end, I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to stop myself from getting ahead... especially as we're now entering Book III.

Loretta, I had to put it down so I wouldn't go ahead. I'm going to limit myself to 10 pages a night...lol

Okay, my comments for this week, with full spoilers in effect:

- Harold is dead to me. He killed Nick. I can't freakin' believe it. I saw so much potential in him, and apparently I was completely wrong.

- Nick!!!! :( :( :( I guess we know why he wasn't such a prominent character in the last 200 pages or so. That is so sad; I thought Nick was a natural leader. He'd been through so much in his life that he had this natural strength, despite being so young. I was looking forward to an America run (in part) by Nick. Plus, he was one of the first to arrive at Mother Abagail's so, despite his skpeticism, I feel like he had a deep spiritual connection to her that not many others had. And we all know (if you skip back to threads from 2 months (!!!) ago) that he was one of my favorites right from the start. Damn it.

- F*** you, Harold. Nadine, too. (Sorry for the implied profanity.)

- Sue's gone too. We didn't know her that well, but I remember liking her.

- Teddy Weizak, of the burial committee, died too. Wasn't he the one who started calling Harold Hawk? I feel like there's something symbolic to Harold killing one of the people who first reached out to him. And it was at that point that Harold almost considered letting all his grudges go....

- Mother Abagail is gone too. :( I have to say that, like Larry and Stu, I wonder about a God that would force her to endure such troubles. Poor lady. I hope she's found her rest now.

- So Nick was supposed to be leader. If not him then, Stu, then Larry, then Ralph, then Glen.

- I was expecting the battle to be a full group of "good" guys versus a full group of "bad" guys--instead it seems that it's going to be just the group of four. David versus Goliath in the end.

- Mother Abagail says one will not survive. My guess is that it's going to be Glen. My reasoning: several chapters ago, when Kojak came back, King dropped one of his hints, saying something along the lines of "Kojak would outlive Glen by a number of years." So my guess is Kojack will return, but Glen will not. :( Too bad, I really, really liked Glen.

I'm 1/2 way through this weeks reading and I knew I had to come and see if anyone was posting! I knew I could count on Loretta!!! I CANNOT believe that Nick (and Sue) are dead. King made us fall in love with Nick and then just thought nothing of taking him from us!!! Then again, maybe he thought a lot and knew the strong impact it would have on readers.

I am glad that Franny and the baby are okay. I know Mother Abigail is not looking long for this world but I think that woman still has work to be done and will not go without more fight.

Just devaststed.......

I finished this section a few days ago, but haven't had a chance to comment yet. Here they are:

Somehow, at the beginning of the book, I just expected Mother Abigail to survive, but as the book went along, I realized she probably wouldn't. It is sad, yet somehow fitting.

Nick's death really caught me by surprise. I really thought King was setting him up as one of the final characters. I have been trying to reason why King would let Nick go, but haven't quite come up with his reasoning yet. Other than the fact that he was too much of a "good" leader. I think the winners in the end are going to be more "normal" people.

I am beginning to wonder if either group will end up being "good" in the end. There are starting to be some behaviors manifested by the Free Zone people that make me wonder whether they will end up being "good" regardless of their intentions. It seems that King is trying to make a statement about human nature.

At this point I am picking Stu to be the leader/survivor of the whole thing. Maybe he and Frannie? I just wonder what the outcome of Frannie's pregnancy is going to be. Savior or Sinner?

Harold and Nadine are complete washouts as far as I am concerned, and they deserve whatever they get. I know King has foreshadowed that R F is just using them. I sort of think it will be poetic justice if after all they did, he betrays them in the end.

I was interested as I was reading this to see King mention several young Free Zone inhabitants. Some children, some teens. It is almost like he heard us wondering about it a few sections ago. So it turns out that there are younger survivors, they are just not main characters.

I am also surprised by the fact that only 4 will end up fighting. That it will be Stu, Larry, Glen and Ralph is not at all surprising, though.

Yes, Mother Abagail's death was surprising to me too. I was sure the "Stand" was going to be between her and Randall Flagg. And I thought Nick would be at her right hand. That one took me completely by surprise.

Teal wrote: "all I can say is AHHHHH!!!!!!!

don't want to have spoilers but I think that chapter 58 was incredibly well built up. and ah I can't believe it. I was so sad when certain things happened.

It's a..."

I KNOW!!! I can't figure out whether I love it or hate it. He hints at something and then seemingly forgets all about it, just to let it pop up in your face and scare the living hell out of you! :)

What I clearly remember from the 'bomb' chapter, is mentally trying to persuade Fran from connecting A and B when she and Larry broke into Harold's house and found the wiring. I knew what was going to happen, but I somehow wanted to change the ending.

The return of Mother Abigail at the moment the bomb went off, must have been some way to preserve the men who must go west (almost a Pet Shop Boys song, isn't it?).
God is still playing, but he has lost a knight to the dark man.
I'll miss Nick, it breaks my heart thinking that Tom doesn't even know Nick is gone.

The atmosphere during the post-bomb meeting was to be expected. Everying is excited and optimistic as long as all goes well, but with a turn of events, you get the wrong people saying the wrong things.

I'm glad the core of the good side will fight the battle at Flagg's side, because if the commitee would have to accept people like Ted Frampton, things would go downhill faster than the eye can see. They've been dealt a hard blow and in a way I'm glad they'll personally hand out the right uppercut on his doorstep.

And with mentioning Kojack. I remember genuinely laughing of sheer happiness when Sue found the little pup. Kojack will make a wonderful dad :)

Post bomb free world is bound to be a little less happy go lucky! Something of such a significant tragedy is going to shift the peace and security that people were starting to find comfort in.

Absolutely, Andrea! The survivors have finally started recovering from the virus and starting new lives, when this occurs. This will definitely shakes their lives up all over again!

As much as I hated the bomb, I guess we needed something to shake things up from how complacent everyone was getting in their new world. Still an evil to be faced and all that.

She said one of them would fall before getting there, but I wonder if that means "dead" or just not make it there? And I just don't know enough about King's writing to know what's going to happen with Frannie's baby. No way to predict that yet, I suppose. It's getting late in the story, though, so my gut feeling is that he survives and thrives, the new generation. Plus, we've all become so attached to him that losing him would just be bizarre. But, it's a King novel, so who knows.

Nick! Poor Nick! At least he went out taking care of everyone, as always. He probably saved lives by going for the bomb. Still, makes me sad.

And I figured Mother Abigail wouldn't make it, but her disappearance into the desert for that amount of time was surprising. I like the thoughts about the wanderings of a prophet and all that. Seemed fitting.