Stephen

This is a book that I approached thinking that I wouldnt enjoy, based on the premise. Still, I heard it was good and so I gave it a go as I wait for Kings new book next month.

The book is in first person which most of the time I don't like, though there are exceptions, luckily this was one of them. King is such a good writer that I actually enjoyed the basic premise of Edgar painting eerie pictures that foretell the future and also have powers of their own.

The thing I did not enjoy was the fact that this is essentially a ghost story, which I wasn't aware of when I started reading. Now I am not keen on ghost stories, not because they are scary, because they rarely are, but because there always seems to be some element which seems too far out. In this book I didn't like how Edgar knew everything he was supposed to do and knew everything that had happened in the past.

My main problem with Duma Key is that it gradually built and built and got more intriguing and exciting as it went on...only to just drag and bore me with the final act. I was expecting an exciting conclusion to the story but in the end it didn't interest me much at all. If it had ended strongly then I would have given this an extra star but it let me down, unfortunately.

Duma Key is still a good book though, King has several good characters, the best being Wireman, and as always his writing is strong. Lovers of ghost stories will absolutely love this book.

I was enjoying this book quite a bit, then it lulled slightly. I had about a week or two off from reading and when i came back I just couldn't bring myself to get back into this. There are some bits that are very well done but there are plenty of needless parts that slow everything down too much. I want to finish but at the moment Westeros will have to wait.