Dreamcatcher (by Stephen King)
There are things I really liked about Dreamcatcher and things I didn’t care much for. I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since I was in the ninth grade and read Misery. I felt emotionally sucked into the story line of four childhood friends remaining bonded into adulthood. I was touched by their relationship with Duddits, another childhood friend with Downs Syndrome, who they saved from bullies. I kept thinking that this story was very reminiscent of an earlier King novel, also set in Derry, Maine. I was right, but I won’t say more as I don’t want to spoil anything for you, if you haven’t read Dreamcatcher yet.
There’s telepathy and aliens…the telepathy was pretty cool, but the aliens were quite strange. Well, I suppose aliens are supposed to be strange, because as humans, we don’t know much about aliens, do we? Aliens, specifically Mr. Gray, are taking another turn at trying to invade earth by infecting themselves into humans. It’s rather gross, but hey, it’s a horror novel. What’s a horror novel without some super creative, disgusting body functions?
As would likely happen in real life, the military becomes involved and tries to save the day. Sort of. This part was not interesting to me at all as I had a hard time following the connection between the military characters and the four childhood friends. There was a drastic shift in the beginning of the story. Eventually, it all came together and I was able to mostly make sense of the connection.
After completing the book, I decided I really liked it. I also concluded that it was way too long. There are parts in the beginning that dragged on FOREVER! While reading those parts, I just chalked it up to character building. And, it was. King tied things up in the end and brought it all together, which I appreciated. A lot of it could have been cut out though.
It’s been forever since I’ve seen the movie, but it definitely helped give my brain a visual reference while reading the book.
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