Kalliope

This is my second Stephen King since The Shining in high school. Of the two I think I prefer this one; it is just as horrifying but has the advantage of being closer to home (possibly making it more horrifying?). Good horror, in my opinion, always has a sliver of sorrow included in it, and Carrie definitely has that. The thing that sometimes took me out of the story, though, was the interspersed in-universe pieces of writing (e.g. news articles, book excerpts, etc.). I much prefer to just read a straight narrative of events, rather than “accounts” of events, but that's just me. Happy Halloween!

Awful, juvenile, lazy, and insulting. I'm glad I didn't spend money on this. I wouldn't recommend this even to someone who has never read poetry before.

Incredible poetry, the type I aspire to write myself. This is very much the type of poetry I enjoy, though I can't put my finger on why exactly. VERY triggering, though, at least for the first half. It deals with a lot of heavy topics like sexual assault, and for my own sense of peace at the holidays, I hope to conquer the second half some other time.

Quite disappointing, actually. Almost no conflict and all the action felt like Cliff's Notes. :( However, there are lots of George scenes, which warrants a star all on its own!

DNF'd at 56%. This book isn't long but I simply couldn't take it anymore. This was a miserable sit. There is no joy or hope or spirit in this book. I think it wanted to be sort of like the film “It's a Wonderful Life,” centering on one community and its varied interesting characters. Imagine “It's a Wonderful Life” if every character was either Potter (mean and cruel) or Uncle Billy (miserable and pathetic). Story after story about miserable adults cheating on their miserable spouses, miserable adults who die from eating disorders, miserable adults miserable adults coping with the health decline of their miserable spouses, miserable pointless story after miserable pointless story. Olive herself being the most miserable of them all. Somebody really needed to smack the shit out of her. Am I supposed to feel bad for her, when she overhears her daughter-in-law saying how much she doesn't like Olive? And am I supposed to have a “you go, girl!” moment when Olive rifles through this woman's closet and vandalizes her things? I can't tell how the author wants me to feel about her, or any of them. Everything that each of them say and do leads me to scratching my head or outright hating them. I'm also scratching my head at the constant and distracting use of adjectives to describe how fat people are. I hated this book. I'm baffled that this won any award, let alone the Pulitzer. Do not recommend.