Dow Jones’s Reviews > The Dead Zone > Status Update

Johnny gets his first two operations and the pain afterwards is crippling. Weizak calls his long-lost mom & hangs up. Sarah comes to visit & she has a bit of a breakdown when Johnny tells her where her lost ring is & she finds & flushes it. Depression is rough & he’s pissing himself frequently now that he’s awake.

Herb puts his foot down after Vera tries to sell their house and Goodwill everything. Sarah marries Walter Hazlett and they quickly have a baby on Halloween. Two boys discover the killer’s 4th victim in snow. Johnny went almost fetal then slowly recovers & wakes up. Herb & Johnny’s parts bring up profound thoughts and questions on life/death/limbo. Really interesting read.

Vera falls down the spiritual rabbit hole and Sarah opts not to spend Christmas with them. Their letters back and forth begin to slow. The killer strikes his first kill in the town commons. Clothespin on his dick as punishment for boners from his mom is wild and now he’s lashing out. Greg Stillson 16 years later meets his biker bodyguard Sonny. Scary guy, Stillson.

Sad to see all the students show up to visit Johnny while he’s in a coma and then Sarah having breakdowns at school, but at least they’re all supporting her. Herb is a great dad and encourages her to keep in touch. Vera comes around too. Not sure why they’re the only ones paying for life support, what about the cab company or the kid’s parents?

Johnny takes a cab home and as they climb Carson’s Hill, his high school students are drag racing and they collide head on. His student and his gf died, Johnny’s in a coma, and cabbie died. His mom, Vera, takes the news hard and wants to pray and repent while dad, Herb, tries to stay levelheaded and call the hospital. Spanish teacher Anne calls Sarah who knows nothing and passes out from the shocking phone call.

I love the dialogue and Sarah and Johnny’s rapport. They’re great. The wheel of fortune gamble was so exciting. I loved their tall tales of carnival mishaps too. Sarah’s afraid of Johnny a bit when he’s in the zone and she throws up a bunch. Bad hot dogs?

Loved the movie and already enjoying the book so far. As a kid, the backwards skating hockey body check led to Johnny’s first vision of the future of Chuck getting electrocuted. Greg Stillson at 22, scamming bibles door to door in 1955, was already evil as fuck. Slapped the girl around, sprayed ammonia in a dog’s face and kicked it to death. Now the film’s urgency to kill him makes sense. Need more time to read