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Kevin Jenkins

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Kevin is Currently Reading

Kevin Jenkins is currently reading

House of Open Wounds (The Tyrant Philosophers, #2)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, 2025, buddy-reads, fantasy

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Sep 23, 2025 07:47AM

Kevin Jenkins is currently reading

The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand

by Christopher Golden (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, 2025, horror-no-king, stephen-king

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Aug 26, 2025 07:02PM

Kevin Jenkins is currently reading

by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: stephen-king, 2022, rereads, 2024, coming-of-age, currently-reading

Reading for the 4th time

read in October 2017

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Kevin Jenkins said: " 94/100

first read in 2017. reread in 2022. reread in 2024.

So. My third reread. And unfortunately, it's gonna drop a couple points this time around. This shifts 11/22/63 into the number one position for my favorite King book, and The Shining up to numb 94/100

first read in 2017. reread in 2022. reread in 2024.

So. My third reread. And unfortunately, it's gonna drop a couple points this time around. This shifts 11/22/63 into the number one position for my favorite King book, and The Shining up to number two, while this will fall back to third place.

These characters are still very near and dear to me. All three times reading this I've been completely immersed and really felt like I was part of the Loser's Club. However, especially now being older, this book has some glaring problems.

In the first fifty pages you get a child murder, a gay hate crime, and a character monologuing about how they feel like a "dirty Jew" (their words, not mine). King lets you know upfront that this is gonna be a pretty dark and messed up book at times. And there's a lot of it. Setting aside the child murders (crazy thing to say), this book has a lot of racial and antisemitic stuff in it. And I know that's probably an accurate portrayal of 1958, especially in Maine, but man, it really wore me down this time through. Being from a very conservative small town myself, this is stuff I hear a lot, so I'm not a stranger to it. But goddamn, it just kept goin. And that's not even to say anything about Patrick Hockstetter (some real messed up shit) and the train ran on Beverly at the end, which while there is a reason or explanation for it if you squint hard enough, should have never been included in the book.

It's also just a little too long. I like long books, but parts of this one (Six Phone Calls, Walking Tours, In the Watches of the Night) felt a bit more drawn out than they necessarily needed to be. But that's like, not really a big deal, cuz the book still bangs even with my criticisms. You could also argue that the Derry Interlude sections don't need to be there, but every time I've read this book I just think that they're awesome. Derry holds a dark past, and getting those stories from Mike's perspective as he goes around to these old dudes and asks them questions about Derry and different events that happened over the years is just so cool.

Everyone knows I really love coming of age stories, and luckily, there's quite a few of them in here. The childhood sections of this book have always been my favorite, and they remain so now. One thing I really love about King is that he is always able to transport me back to these times and places and make me nostalgic for something I've never experienced. I also just really really love books set in the 50s and 60s; literally haven't not loved one yet. So, easy points there.

This time around I also got a lot more out of the adult sections, too. All of them reuniting and talking about the good ol days and going on their walking tours and reminiscing on the old Derry and how much things have changed really resonated with me a lot more. Still not as good as the childhood stuff, but good nonetheless. I'm sure when I'm 37/38 like the characters are and come back to read this book again I'll connect even more with them.

I know a lot of people don't like the ending, and while it isn't like, the best thing ever, I have no problems with it (except for the aforementioned train). And Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (II) will get me every single time, no matter how many times I read this book.

So, still a fantastic book, still five stars, just with a couple more criticisms and some points knocked off. Definitely worth reading if you can stomach all the content warnings (and you can completely skip the Beverly train, you won't miss anything there), but it's important to know about those things before going in. ...more "

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(page 541 of 1157)
— Aug 23, 2025 10:51AM

Jul 28, 2024 02:47PM · see review

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