Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Dead Zone

I’ve had this book for a few years, never touching it. Brought it with me this summer to read while off-grid doing field work. I didn’t know anything about the book besides the first few pages. Coincidentally, I finished reading it a week after Trump’s attempted assassination. Weird.

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t3ssygirl16's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

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jenniferbbookdragon's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Reading this 45 years after publication, I can say it made my heart pound. Stephen King somehow managed to anticipate our political future, and create a compelling story of the nightmare of knowing too much. His hero is cursed with an ability to read people and their pasts and futures. Others don't believe him, and he is driven to act.
I appreciated the complexity of John and the important people in his life. King takes the reader in quickly and doesn't let go. I read this in 2 days because I couldn't put it down.

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asourceoffiction's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

As is pretty standard for King, this delves deep into the human side of the horror with incredible levels of detail that would be mundane if handled by anyone else. In fact, it almost does in this case. Then, for about the last third of the book I couldn't put it down and was completely swept up in the story.

Johnny's journey is pretty heartbreaking, and there's a sense of inevitability to it all that only worsens as the book goes on. His moral burden and the way he's treated by those around him are enough to leave him no real choice in his actions, and there's such a sadness in it. He's one of King's inherently good characters, an easy man to get behind. But as usual that makes the emotion hit so much harder.

I love how this ties into the real political situation in the US in the '70s, although I suspect a lot of the nuance and relevance has been lost over time. More thriller than horror, I'm not sure it'll stick with me the way a lot of King's other books have done. But for me, Stephen King on a bad day is still a pretty darn good read.

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