Stephy Read The Stand by Stephen King

 “That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery.”

 

About/Summary

A superflu hits and wipes out the majority of the population of the world. Now the survivors must deal with the aftermath. Oh, and there is a whole Good vs Evil thing happening.

Content/Trigger Warnings

There are soooo many, and I know I will forget some (a lot...). Sorry. 

Death

Gore

Sexual Assault (both offscreen and onscreen)

Nice Guy ™

Murder

Racial slurs

Abelist slurs

Major Character Death

Minor Character Death

Suicide

Animal Death

Cannibalism

Physical Abuse

Okay. I might have gotten most of them. For reference, most of my notes for this book were trigger warnings. Cause godsdamn. Just... If you have triggers, assume they are in this book.

 

Characters

Stephen King is very good at writing characters that I want to die. But he's also good at writing characters that I don't want to die. And then he just kills them all. 

There were a lot of characters in this book. I forgot about a few. But it's fine, a lot of them died. Still sad about some of the deaths. Still celebrating some.

 Kojak was my favorite character... Yes. The dog. And (spoiler) he lives through the whole book. In case anyone was worried (I know I was). The dog lives!

 I also liked Glen, Nick and Stu. 

Fucking hated Harold. Fuck him.

Writing

Very typical Stephen King writing. If you like his stuff, you'll like the writing of this one. If you don't like his stuff, you're not gonna like this one. I liked it well enough. 

Plot

As I said in the first little bit, a superflu hits the world and the majority of the population is dead. So, the first part of the book is dealing with that. The flu, how quickly it spread, and a lot of people dying. The second part has the survivors traveling. One group is going to where Mother Abigail lives. The other group is off to Vegas and Randall Flagg. 

Romance

Let's just say Stephen King is not a romance writer. Aside from a couple toxic relationships, I felt nothing for the romances. 

How diverse is it?

Not very.

Overall Thoughts

Y'all, it took me six months to get through this book. 

Six.

Months.

I will say that it didn't take me this long because I didn't like the book. It is a good book. But it is fucking heavy, so i had to take a lot of breaks and read something easier for a bit. There was no moment where I wanted to stop reading the book completely, I just needed some breaks.

 It's not my favorite Stephen King book. Carrie still holds that honor. But it's still a good read. 

 

That's all for this one.

6 Things I Did That Won't Get Their Own Blog Post

 Hello There!

I try to keep this blog pretty positive. So, if I watch or read something I either dislike or I just can't come up with a lot of good things to say about it, no blog post for it. But, negativity sells. Or something. Mostly I just like to share my thoughts, even though no one really wants that. And I will be clumping them together because I don't have enough thoughts about these things to fill out a whole blog post.

Now, let us begin.

Goosebumps: Say Cheese and Die 

by R.L. Stine

This book wasn't bad, really. Quite good for what it is. What it is being a horror story for kids. I just didn't want to focus an entire blog post to it. I mean... It's a story about kids going into an abandoned spooky house and stealing a camera. Then bad things start happening. Sorry kids, but you brought this on yourselves.

Goosebumps: How to Kill a Monster 

by R.L. Stine

Again, not a bad book. Quite good horror story for kids. I was just annoyed by the kids for most of the book and I sort of hope they got eaten in the end. Dog was okay though. And those grandparents, what the fuck? Oh, by the way, the book is about two kids who have to stay at their grandparents house while their parents go... off on a business trip? I can't remember. Grandparents tell the kids to stay out of a certain room. Which, of course the kids go into. And find a monster. And then the grandparents just kind of ditch the kids in the house with the monster.

Return to Salem's Lot

I watched Salem's Lot and figured I should watch this "sequel" as well. Nope. Just don't. It is bad. So bad. The main characters were... Some... Guy... And his son... I cannot remember their names. Let's just call them Asshole and Dipshit. Dipshit is in trouble so his mom sends him to live with his dad, Asshole. Or something. And... They go to Salem's Lot... For some reason? The whole thing was just bad. And not hilariously bad. Just bad.

The Way of the House Husband

I watched the anime. And fucking loved it. The basic plot is a retired gangster decides to become a househusband. And he takes his new job very seriously. I watched the entire anime twice in one day. Episodes are short and fun. Highly recommend if you like humorous anime with no real plot.

Stephen King's Rose Red

I love this movie... mini-series? Whichever. Anyway, basic plot is this: There is a haunted house, Rose Red. A college professor takes a group of psychics to try and get proof of... ghosts I guess? There is an autistic character in this, but I am not sure how good the representation is. I prefer haunted house horror movies to any other kind and this is a fun haunted house movie. It gives me Winchester House vibes. It's not a cinematic masterpiece, but a fun haunted house movie. Also, for some reason my brain thought the asshole professor and the asshole journalist student guy were having a secret affair. I think I've been reading too much fan-fiction...

Good Eats

I used to watch this show all the time when it was on Food Network. I'd just be channel surfing, see it was on and be like "Oh, let's see what Alton's cooking". It is a good show. I probably will never use any of his recipes, but he gives some good cooking tips. And he does it in a fun way. Totally recommend this show to people.

Well, that's all for this one. Go watch The Way of the House Husband. Don't watch Return to Salem's Lot. 

Stephy Watched Salem's Lot (1979)

 Hello There! Time for me to ramble about another movie! And to finish out spooky month, I actually watched something spooky!

No picture this time. For reasons. Reasons that are I didn't have a picture this time...

You'll enjoy Mr. Barlow. And he'll enjoy you.

- Straker

no I won't...

About/Summary

A 1979 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's novel. 

A novelist returns to Salem's Lot, where he lived as a child, to write a book. But things begin happening to the residents soon after he arrives.

Content/Trigger Warnings

Violence

Non-graphic deaths

Lying about rape (a woman is cheating on her husband and when caught, says the other man was raping her. It is very obviously a lie)

Child Death

Characters/Casting 

Casting was pretty good. Though almost none of the characters were how I pictured when I read the book. Not sure if it's because Stephen King described them differently, or if my brain just came up with my own descriptions. 

Susan and her mother were less annoying this time. Which was nice. 

Atmosphere/Setting

The setting is a small town named Salem's Lot (actually, it's Jerusalem's Lot but it got shortened) in the 1970s. I enjoy fictional stories set in small towns because, unlike Jason Aldean, I actually live in a smallish town (not sure what counts as a small town, but the town I live in has less than 3,000 people). I always find it a bit interesting to compare fictional small towns to my own. My small town is lacking once again because it does not have a spooky house on the hill. But I feel like the movie kind of got the small-town vibe down pretty well. I feel that the book did a better job, but the book had entire chapters dedicated to telling you about the town and the people in it. A lot of which was cut in the movie, but I understand. Couldn't fit all that into three hours. If they tried there would have been at least one hour of just that. So, good job with the setting. 

The atmosphere was spooky. Which was good. I really got nothing else to say about it. Sorry? not sorry

Writing

Stephen King wrote the novel. Paul Monash wrote the screenplay. And both did a damn good job. Five stars, sirs.

Adaptation

This is a weird adaptation. There were a lot of odd little changes. Like, character names were changed. Some of the changes were okay. The combination of characters was a change. For example, Bonnie Sawyer was having an affair with her boss, Larry Crockett, instead of a random teenager (did he work for the phone company or something? I can't remember). It worked because it was one less character to introduce. And there were a lot of characters in the novel. So, those changes worked for me.

One change that did not work for me was Barlow. Just... Nope. Did not like that.

But otherwise, it was a pretty good adaptation, in my opinion.

Plot

The plot was really good. I mean, the whole plot was "Dude moves to small town then weird shit happens, and look at that, vampire." And the mini-series (and yes, I keep referring to it as a movie and as a mini-series because my brain refuses to pick one...) did well to convey that plot over three hours.

Costuming

Is this how people dressed in the 70s? Interesting 🤔

Larry Crockett's suits, though. Why? Was that fashionable back then? Way too much white.

How diverse is it?

I think I saw a black man. Not sure though cause it wasn't a long shot and I think you just see his back.

Also, everyone is straight... Boring.

Overall Thoughts

Quality mini-series. Pretty good adaptation. Four out of five stars. Y'all lost a star for that Barlow change. I did not like it. Sorry. not sorry this time either.

And that's all I got for this one. See y'all on Saturday for the post that makes me realize I did nothing once again for an entire week.

Stephy Reads Salem's Lot by Stephen King

 Hello There!

Oliver has no idea why I do this to him.

Trigger Warnings:

Child Abuse

Animal Death

Homophobic Slurs

Child Death

Death

Blood

Ableist Language

Rape (mentioned, slight description, implied)

Salem's Lot is about Jerusalem's Lot. Which is full of a lot of shit people. Ben Mears, a writer who once lived in the Lot when he was a kid, returns hoping to get some inspiration. Which is the first of a long list of Bad Ideas. Well, maybe not the first. The first was probably building the town... Ben arrives in town at the same time as two other men. Business partners. And I don't mean that as some sort of innuendo. They ain't fucking. Which... Yeah, I'm okay with that. Straker and Barlow, are their names. They open an antique store. They also buy the spooky old house on the hill. Which most fictional small towns seem to have one of those. Is that just a fiction thing? Do real-life small towns all have a spooky house on the hill that teenagers dare each other to go into at night? If so, I am once again very disappointed in the town I live in. Not a single spooky old house, on a hill or not.

Soon after Ben arrives in the Lot, he meets Susan Norton and they begin dating. Then a dog is murdered. A kid goes missing after that. And ya know what, it just starts going downhill fast after that. 

I really enjoyed this book. Even though it took me over a month to read. But that's my fault. I read it before and I was constantly like "Oh, bad part is coming up" and I'd go read fluffy fan-fiction for a few days. Last time I read it, it only took me a couple days. I enjoy Stephen King's writing. And I really enjoyed that even though Ben was the main character, we got chapters that dived into the other characters. Which most were shit and deserved the deaths they received. 

There is a hint that the people in town are shitty because there is some Evil in the old spooky house on the hill. I'm not sure if that is actually something or I was reading a bit too much into it.

Most of the characters in this book are horrible. I hate them. I think they're supposed to be that way, though. Well, for the most part. I did really like Matt and Mark though. Matt was totally my favorite character. 

The first time I read this I remember being on the edge of my seat needing to know what happened next. It was suspenseful and terrifying at times. I only remembered big plot points this time, so I was still on the edge of my seat about things. Though, like I said earlier, sometimes I would remember a bad thing was going to happen and then I avoided the book for a couple days. 

This probably isn't my favorite vampire book (oh yeah, forgot to mention, there are vampires). But this ranks pretty high on the top ten list. And the only reason it doesn't rank higher is because I do prefer romance shit. So give me those pretty vampires that want to make heart eyes at each other. But as far as horror vampires, yeah this book is pretty high on the list. 

One terrifying point is how quickly the vampire practically took over the town. Dude worked smart and fast. So, good job.

Aaaand... That's really all I got. 

If you follow me on Tumblr, I will be posting some Things I Say While... about this book. I've been kind of slacking on those. I apologize. I really miss doing them.

Support me on Ko-fi!

And see y'all on Saturday.

Night Shift by Stephen King

Night Shift is a book of Stephen King's short stories. It was originally published in 1976, so these are some of his older stories. Was gonna just give y'all a paragraph of which stories I really liked, but, that is boring (or something) so have my opinions of each story. Enjoy. Or don't. I don't control you. 

Jerusalem's Lot

This one was really interesting. Made me want to read Salem's Lot again. It is a prequel to the book and is told through letters. 

Graveyard Shift

Ugh. Rats. Not a bad story, but ugh, so many rats.

I started this movie recently and didn't finish it. Wasn't in the mood for rats. Though, Brad Dourif (good old Grima Wormtongue) is in it!

Night surf

I had to look this up to make sure it wasn't a sequel or something to another book. It is not. Good story. A bit depressing.

I Am the Doorway

Eyes in his fingers! Eyes in his fingers!

The Mangler

This story totally deserved a "Crack Treated Seriously" tag. And I found it fantastic. 

The Boogeyman

I hated the main character in this one. Fuck him. 

Gray Matter

🤮🤮🤮

Battleground

Again, Crack Treated Seriously. And fantastic.

Trucks

I probably laughed too much reading this. But seriously. Trucks are killing people. My kid said this is probably how Cars started. They brought up theory videos on YouTube that I will not be watching.  

Sometimes They Come Back

Probably my favorite in the book. I own the movie, but haven't watched it since I was in high school. I remember loving the movie. Didn't realize it was a Stephen King movie until I saw the DVD on sale somewhere and I bought it. I remember nothing about the movie. Aside from someone comes back from somewhere. So I had some nostalgia going into this story, and was not disappointed.

Strawberry Spring

Oh, this one was great. Loved the ending. Which I hear is not something Stephen King is good at. 😂

The Ledge

Not a bad story.

The Lawnmower Man

I don't even think this crack was treated seriously.

Quitters, Inc

Stephen King has this habit of mentioning something in the beginning of a book or story and then calling back to it later. Which I enjoy. But with my shit memory I'm constantly like "Hey... Wasn't this mentioned before?" and I have to go back and find the bit to make sure I remembered correctly. This story did that. But overall a good story.

I Know What You Need

I watch a lot of True Crime stuff and expected the girl to get murdered. She did not. Made me happy.

Children of the Corn

I feel bad saying this, but I prefer the movie. The story was good, I'm not saying it was bad. I'm saying I preferred the movie based on my own personal preferences. The character of Burt was less of a douche in the movie. The movie had a happier ending. And I liked the inclusion of the two kids in the movie. Again, it wasn't a bad story. 

The Last Rung on the Ladder

Okay, this one was just sad.

The Man Who Loved Flowers

True Crime by Stephen King.

One for the Road

This one is a sequel to Salem's Lot (which, thanks to Ryan I actually knew that because I probably would have looked it up to figure out where it fit in). Pretty good. Made me want to read Salem's Lot even more.

The Woman in the Room 

This one was just sad, too. Stop making me sad, Mr. King!

All in all, great book. Highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys King's work.

“Chicago is known as the Windy City, and Montana is called the Big Sky State, so I think that we should somehow combine the two to create the ultimate kite-flying experience.”

-Mitch Hedberg

The Shining by Stephen King

 

The Shining 
by Stephen King

Warnings:

Language

Racist language

violence

abuse

magical negro trope

homophobic language (I think there was some in there, if there was, it wasn't enough to register in my memory banks very well)

Been a while since I did a book review. Let's see if I can remember how to talk about books... 

Fair warning: I will be mentioning the movie. 

So, the Shining is about the Torrance family (Jack, Wendy, and Danny) and their winter stay at the Overlook hotel. Which, I won't say it went badly. But I will say it went very, very, very not good. 

Jack is a short-tempered recovering alcoholic. Wendy, his long-suffering wife. And Danny is their young son that has psychic powers. Jack was a teacher, but lost his job after he lost his temper and beat the shit out of a student. So... he seems like a fun guy. Jack is in need of a job so his buddy Al recommends him to take a post as caretaker for a fancy hotel in the Colorado mountains. The book opens with Jack's job interview with the hotel manager. And we get a pretty good feel for Jack's character pretty quickly. He's an angry man (though Ullman's kind of a prick so being angry is understandable). But, he does love his family. 

As the story progresses, Jack becomes obsessed with the Overlook. Which, hey, I would be too. That place has a hell of an interesting history. But... Jack took it about five steps too far. And while he is all "This place is great!" Wendy and Danny are less excited. 

Now, I am going to assume everyone knows how this book ends. Well, sort of. Hell, I knew how shit was gonna go down before I even knew what The Shining was thanks to The Simpsons parody of it. Which, yeah, because of that, the first time I read this book (this is the second time I've read it by the way) I could not read anything that Dick Hallorann said without hearing Groundskeeper Willie's voice. So, thank you The Simpsons for making this a slightly weird read that first time. Even knowing how things are going to go down, the book is suspenseful as hell. It is drawn out enough to be suspenseful but not too much that it becomes annoying. Which is perfect. 

Now, I said I was going to mention the movie. So... The movie. I don't like it as much as the book. I will not say it is a bad movie, because it's not. It is a good movie. I just find the book way better. To me, the movie kind of just feels like a dude got some extreme cabin fever while stuck in a hotel for the winter and tried to kill his family. The book goes into more of the supernatural things that are happening. Which I prefer in fiction. I want some spooky shit as opposed to dude goes crazy and tries to kill people shit. You get a vague feeling that something supernatural might be going on in the movie.  But in the book it is very obvious that supernatural shit is going down. 

I love Stephen King's writing. This book has multiple POV characters. Jack, Wendy, Danny, and Dick (he was the cook for the Overlook and also has some slight psychic powers). And they all feel very different as they tell the story. Child characters always seem to be written weirdly. A lot of writers just can't seem to grasp how to write a believable child character. Mr. King does pretty well with Danny in this. Danny seems a bit smart for his age, but not to an extreme that makes it unbelievable. 

I highly recommend this book. If you have read it, read it again. If you watched the movie but haven't read the book, read the book. If you haven't watched the movie, read the book. 

Also, thank you Stephen King for making me afraid of topiary animals. Good fucking job, man. Though... Not afraid of hotels. Both times I have read this book my brain is like "Oh, spending three months or so in an empty hotel with just a group of my closest friends would be fun! As long as there are no topiary animals..." 

If you're interested: 

Lost in Adaptation video

The Dom Reviews The Shining

The Magical Negroes of Stephen King

“A book is a dream you hold in your hands.” 

– Neil Gaiman

What I'm Watching

Photo by Nothing Ahead

With the new year, I got back into scheduling what I watch. By that I mean, each day I focus on one streaming service, watching DVDs/blu-rays I own or watching things on my DVR. I started doing this years ago and it really helped me to actually finish watching shows instead of just starting something and then going back and watching random shit on YouTube for the next month. Which is what I’ve been doing for the past year, really. It also spread out longer shows and movie series so I didn't get burnt out on them. So, I’m going to start some posts talking about what I’m watching for each day and my thoughts, and my expectations to actually finish it.

Disney+

Had to cancel our Disney+ subscription for a bit, so nothing is being watched there.

DVD/blu-ray

The Shining and Doctor Sleep

I have mixed feelings about The Shining movie. It’s a good movie, but the book is so much better. Which means I started reading the book again (I will hopefully post a review of that when I’m finished). Doctor Sleep was fantastic. I read the book around the time it was released (Thanks for letting me borrow that, Erica). My memories of the book were a bit spotty. And maybe after I read the book again the movie will not be as great to me, but for now, I think the movie was excellent and totally worth watching.

DVR

Trying to catch up on the Daily Show. I had episodes on my DVR from October… And I’m also really sad to see Trevor go. I love him.

HBO Max

Prodigal Son

I watched most (if not all) of this show when it was on the air and fucking loved it. The cast is great and the characters are so interesting. I can’t remember if I actually finished watching the second season, I’m pretty sure I did but my memory sucks, so I decided to give it a rewatch. Do not regret the decision. If you like detective shows with a bit of a twist, I highly recommend this one. Just… Don’t expect much as it only had two seasons. I wanted more but what can ya do?

Hulu

Elementary 

I loved Elementary from the first episode. I think it’s a great adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. I never finished the last season, so I am determined to actually do so now. I think Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes is a fantastic choice. And the supporting cast of characters are also fantastic. I highly recommend this to anyone that likes Sherlock Holmes stories but doesn’t need an exact replica of an adaptation. Also, great diversity.

Netflix

Lucifer

I watched the first couple of seasons back when it was first aired. And then just… stopped for some reason. I really enjoy the show though. Love Maze. I give her heart eyes every time she is on screen. And Trixie, the detective's daughter, is one of the best child characters I have seen on TV.

Prime

Grimm

I watched most of the first season before, I believe. I remember very little. I’m not loving this one as much as I’m loving other shows I’m watching. It is cool enough, but… If I was going to recommend a detective show with supernatural elements, I’d recommend Lucifer first. I’m going to keep with it, though. We’ll see how I do. My issues with the show are very nit-picky so I’m trying to look past them. Monroe is great though. I love him.

Roku

I can’t remember what I watched on Roku… Did I watch anything on it?

Tubi

Boogeymen: Monsters Among Us 

When this popped up while I was scrolling for something to watch I thought it was going to be a murder show. It is not a murder show. It is a cryptid show. Second episode is about Mothman, and as a West Virginian who loves cryptids, Mothman is my bro. Also, I met a few of the people that were in that episode, which was cool. And all the episodes seem pretty interesting. Especially if you like cryptids. If you like those shows where dudes go into the woods or whatever to prove these things exist, this is not the show for you. But if you like learning about weird shit in a documentary style, definitely check this show out.

VUDU

Supernatural

Oh, Supernatural… I can’t remember when I stopped watching this show before. I know plot-wise around when I stopped, but no spoilers so… Who knows when I stopped watching. I’m going to give it another go. I know I will at least make it through the first five seasons with no problems. After that is anyone’s guess.

YouTube

Started watching a bunch of North of the Border’s stuff. His sculptures are just so awesome and his sense of humor is hilarious. Also watched some Lazy Game Reviews futzing around with weird computer shit. Both channels are oddly calming and if you’re into nerdy shit, I highly recommend them. North of the Border makes tiny nerdy things, usually with clay. And Lazy Game Reviews does a lot of computer related stuff. His technical jargon goes over my head but I still find his videos enjoyable. 

And that's what I've been watching for the past 10 days (maybe nine? What the fuck did I watch on the Roku channel?) Anyone else watch any of these shows/movies? Any recommendations for things I should check out?

Sometimes I like to challenge myself by being an idiot and doing things the hard way.

-North of the Border (YouTube channel - I made Steve and a Warden video.)