Initially, I thought this book warranted a three or three and a half star rating. But I think that's just because it felt like this book took forever to read and that's only because I've been distracted by a video game lately and haven't been reading as much. Every time I did take the time to read this book I enjoyed it thoroughly and therefore give it four stars.

I am beyond excited to hear that this series will finally be adapted to the big screen and I can only hope they don't ruin it. This is one of my all time favorite series and hopefully the movies will do it justice.

3/5 stars, "liked it" (am I just too nice to give it two stars "it was ok"??)

Kind of feel like 2.5 stars is more appropriate.

This book, more than any of the previous in the series, made me very READY for a break from this saga when I was finished.

In the end, I kind of felt like I spent 600 pages reading slow build up to a final 20 page climax. Which is fine if that's what you want. It just takes a loooong time to get there. And, this story doesn't really feel (of course, I haven't read the future books, so I could be wrong about this) like it was necessary at all to move the larger plot along. It felt like one giant diversion that could be been avoided, or at the very lease, greatly abbreviated.

King's writing is still fun, detailed, and creative. I just felt like there was no way this book needed to be anywhere near as long as it was, and as such, I was tired of it by the end. My least favorite book in the series so far. There were about 30 pages near the end that were gripping, but the rest of the book did not feel that way.

I'm new to Stephen King, so the meta stuff so far has been mostly over my head. I've noticed a few homages and more than a few outright references, but if King was calling back to some of his other books I didn't notice. By the end of this one the level of meta-ness in the universe is way too hard to ignore. Coincidences or Ka? For the first half of the book I tried to think it was all coincidences, but that doesn't really add up. So I'll bite, I'll believe that this universe is an amalgamation of whatever Mr. King likes most about his work and others.
One thing that these last two books has impressed me with is the language and the slang that is so effectively introduced. It took a quarter of the book for the characters to start using the local figures of speech. It took me until three quarters, but still, internally I'm saying these weird things. I keep on almost saying "say thank you" instead of "thank you". I want to end sentences with "for the sake of your father", or "remember the face of your father". I'm still thinking "so it is", and that book was a month ago. I honestly want to use words like "sy", "palaver", "cousin" (the verb) and ka. They just feel so right. That's good writing.

This book was a beast to get into. If I weren't so invested in the Dark Tower series, I probably would have quit. It ended up being good - I'd probably give it 3.5 stars - but it just took forever (300-400 pages of its 709-page girth) to get going.

Part of that, I think, is because I literally picked this up the same week Game of Thrones Season 8 was kicking off and a lot of my entertainment time and focus was dedicated to that obsession (reading reviews, blogs, fan theories, etc.). But still - a book should not take 300+ pages to warm up.

On an up note, it ends well and the next book (Song of Susannah) is off with a bang. Have it ready, because you'll want to dive right in immediately after finishing Book 5.

Wow, so good. One of my favorite volumes of one of my favorite book series narrated by my absolute favorite audiobook narrator. It's wonderful to have "cry your pardon" become the most natural thing in the world to say, for a few weeks again.

If you've read this book already, you should see if you can get ahold of this, because it was a good book, right? And George Guidall is (as always) amazing.

I want an Oy.