Duma Key by Stephen King

[thartley]

A friend here on the forum recommended this book to me before I left the states, but it was so big, my luggage couldnt handle it.  So, no that I've read everything around me and am starting to recycle the books (try and act like I've never read them before) I have asked a friend from home to get this book and send it to me.

Wish I had remembered to also ask for a couple of seashells.

[thartley]

This one is now on its way to me.....

[thartley]

Got it.  Read it.  The first 608 ages were FANTASTIC.  Maybe some of the best King story since his accident and semi-hiatus from writing.  I've read online elsewhere that King's style of "creepy" has changed somewhat since he was nearly killed in that accident.  And I tend to agree.  He is more....almost cautious, with his stories.  Not cautionary, but cautious.

Still a good read. 

My real complaint if I have to have one is that there is no  mistaking the product placement going on in the text of this story.  I'm not liking the name brand usage in the story.  Its one thing to say "I browsed the internet looking for the history of this place", but its another to write "I pulled up my friend "Google"..."   

It wasnt just Google, it was naming Microsoft, Dan's Fan City, designer clothes (which served no purpose to the story to use the brand names), just a bunch of stuff.  Big turn off for me.  Keep it generic and keep me in the story.

[thartley]

Oh, the story.... haha!  Yeah.....I kinda forgot that part.

Edgar is a very successful contractor in Minnesota (?), making massive buildings and structures in big cities.  One day, he is unfortunate enough to park his work truck behind or near an operating crane on a jobsite as the ball swings back.  Something was broken on the crane so the warning beeping noise that should have been sounding wasn't going off, and Edgar literally gets smashed.  The accident should have killed him, but it crushes his skull on the right side, he loses his right arm, his legs are badly damaged, but its the head injury that plays the biggest part, I think.  Because he is left with an inability to connect thoughts and words quite properly and he has a new tendency to go into rages.

On advice from his doctor/friend, he moves to a totally different locale and takes up an old hobby that once brought him joy.  This is how he comes to be an artist on Duma Key in the Florida Keys.  And all the eerie and creepy thus ensues as there could be supernatural factors involved with his painting and/or the place itself.  Excellent story.

[Nick Lane]

Is thartley having a conversation with herself?

[thartley]

Not anymore.  Care for some cookies?   

[Ginafish]

It wasnt just Google, it was naming Microsoft, Dan's Fan City, designer clothes (which served no purpose to the story to use the brand names), just a bunch of stuff.  Big turn off for me.

You know, it's that sort of subterfuge marketing that I hope I would see, but probably wouldn't because I'm so immersed in marketing ploys already. I wonder if he wrote the products in unconsciously or consciously... have you Isara'd any background on that?