GENERAL INFORMATION
TITLE: THE DEAD ZONE
AUTHOR: STEPHEN KING
PAGES: 467
PUBLISHER: WARNER BOOKS
YEAR: 1979
GENRE: HORROR FICTIO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_(novel)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_(film)
BLURB FROM THE COVER
Awake in the dead zone and awake – to a nightmare.
Recoil in horror as you are touched by a young man cursed with the power to perceive the evil in men’s souls. And whose ability to see into the future forces him into a terrifying confrontation with a charismatic, power-hungry and infinitely dangerous man.
EXTRACT
By the time he graduated from college, John Smith had forgotten all about the bad fall he took on the ice that January day in 1953. In fact, he would have been hard put to remember it by the time he graduated from grammar school. And his mother and father never knew about it at all.
REVIEW
The Dead Zone is one of King’s oldest novels, first published in 1979 (before I was born – now there’s a scary thought). The Dead Zone is almost one of my favourites. I’ve read this novel eight or nine times though not for ten years or more. I love the movie starring Christopher Walken. I’ve never seen the mini-series. The Dead Zone is one of King’s novels that deal with people with ‘wild’ psychic talents. Firestarter and Carrie are other novels in this vein.
The Dead Zone is well written, engaging, the sort of book that gets its hook in you and refuses to let go until the final word has been read. I love King’s concept for this novel. I find it perfectly believable that John Smith could wake from a coma after five years with psychic powers. Better than being brain dead or in a vegetative state. He’s lucky to be alive. I find it believable that his car accident could have could have caused a part of his brain most people never use or have no awareness off to wake up. The human brain is still a bit of a mystery.
Characterisation is one of King’s strengths as a writer. The Dead Zone is no exception. John Smith is a nice guy, the kind man, the teacher his pupils respect and love with a pretty girlfriend. You are instantly rooting for him. I got all teared up when he ended up in a coma. My heart went out to him when he wakes from his coma after five years and discovered the world had moved on without him. I felt his pain when he discovered the pretty girl was someone else’s wife and had a child. The other characters were as equally well-written. Greg Stillison makes a great villain. I loved John’s mother Vera and her religious mania was a little heart-breaking to read.
There are some great moments in The Dead Zone. I loved the way King opens it with John having a serious fall on the ice when he is a child. This leads to a head injury that will become the part he injuries years later in the car accident. I thought the scenes leading up to the accident and the accident itself were great. John is in a coma for five years. I like how King makes this time pass without The Dead Zone becoming boring.
I thought the ending of The Dead Zone was great. I found John’s decision when he shakes Stillison’s hand and finds out how dangerous he really is completely believable. He believes he awoke from his coma with these strange powers to stop Stillison. He justifies his actions by telling himself if people had a chance to stop Hitler before his monstrous actions they probably would. I cried when I discovered John had a tumour in the place where he had been injured in the accident. I had forgotten this part so actually cried a little.
The Dead Zone ticks all the boxes for me and is an example of just how great King can be.
RATING
