Clare > Recent Status Updates

Now we're diverting the entire story to discuss the pediatric dental hygiene of a minor side character? This is tedious. I really do not care about all these characters.

This is A LOT of tangents and side stories. I really don't need any of them. I'd say you have to choose: either lean into it, and make Tommyknockers an actual anthology, or cut it down drastically.

I agree with Steven King: this novel needed a ton more editing.

I dislike Gard and resent having to read a book from his perspective. That said, I want a rewrite with the Gard character as a woman. Keep the alcoholic writer at rock bottom bit, but ditch the history of abuse and assault. Keep the weird Lovecraftian aliens. Keep the anti-nuke thread. Hell, keep it in Maine. But just make Gard a woman. The word needs more 1980s cocaine-fueled lesbian sci fi.

Another King novel where I'm left wondering why I'm in the position of reading a story through the eyes of an alcoholic asshole who shot his wife and thinks juvenile fatphobia is the height of wit. Especially when there's a perfectly interesting, competent woman in the mix. This is more of a theme than I realized.

"She had never even given Jack the benefit of the doubt, not even the smallest."

Right. Because she shouldn't. This whole thing about Wendy being jealous is totally inconsequential. It literally doesn't matter: Jack is physically abusive due to WILDLY out of control rage issues, and that hasn't improved. Even the alcohol is a red herring. She shouldn't ever give him the benefit of the doubt, not even once.

"He had done terrible things, breaking Danny's arm had been a terrible thing, but if a man reforms, doesn't he deserve to have his reformation credited? And if he doesn't get it, doesn't he deserve the game to go with the name?"

Nope. Not even a little, you self-pitying asshole. It's so hard to tell where King thinks the Overlook's influence begins or ends, because Jack is kind of just constantly terrible.

Powering through this. I get the sense that King wants Jack to be flawed, but ultimately redeemable. Honestly, though? He just seems like a run-of-the-mill idiot abuser. Like, yeah, don't put a wasp nest in your son's room even if you bombed it. That's just plain stupid, and the fact that you'd be angry at anyone but yourself about that means you're just a narcissist asshole. I think Kubrick was right.

I don't know if I can read this. This is a seriously upsetting start. I knew Jack was abusive, but shit. As a mom of a small child, I don't actually know if I can stomach this.