And I end my year of reading & reviews with a resounding “meh”. Stephen King’s latest, Revival, had some high points, but mostly it just seemed to drag on in a way that his other novels rarely do for me.
Jamie Morton was a six year old boy when he first met his church’s new preacher, Charlie Jacobs. Jacobs, who had an incredible fascination with electricity and its healing capabilities, took an instant liking to little Jamie and they became friends (well, as much as a six year old and an adult can). Their bond deepened when Jacobs applied his “secret electricity” to Jamie’s big brother, and they were connected from that point on. We follow Jamie Morton over the next sixty years of his life, through his various struggles and victories, and watch as he comes in contact with Jacobs at various periods of his life. Each time they meet, Jacobs seems more obsessed with electricity, and more sinister as well. This leads up to a final experiment one hot summer, and it changes Jamie forever.
Overall, it was a decent story. It’s not really horror — more like science fiction (though the truth of the so-called “”secret electricity” isn’t ever really revealed) — although some truly horrible things happen. It’s mostly about Jamie–his teenage obsession with the guitar, his addiction to heroin, and his experiences with Jacobs that teach him that every cure has its price. We get a lot of those rock n roll references that King loves to throw in his books (and which I normally enjoy). It just felt like it dragged, to me. It took a very long time to get to the climax, which was pretty predictable (Possible Spoiler: okay, so the whole book is discussing electricity, then towards the end, King introduces a family of characters named Franklin, Shelly, Mary & Victor, just before revealing the final act. Come on, really?)
Some of that dragging feeling may have been because I listened to the audio version, since I could download that on Audible instantly rather than waiting for the novel to come out in paperback (I hate buying hardbacks–they cost too much, take up too much precious space on my shelves and they’re too big to shove in my purse). As a result, it took me a week and a half to listen to something that probably would have amounted to two or three nights of reading in bed. Some books are better read aloud — my recent review of the full-cast production of American Gods will attest to that — but others, like Revival I suspect, don’t really need it.
And as much as I love David Morse (I really do, his turn as Tritter on House did nothing to stop my deep and abiding love for his role in The Green Mile, not to mention that he played grown up Bobby Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis and I’m still half in love with Bobby Garfield and my god I need to wrap this review up), he read the audio version and his deep, soothing voice (so in love, guys, it’s disgusting) was probably not the best selection for a book featuring human-sized ants.
There’s also a lot of religion bashing, mainly from formerly-religious characters. Not something that bothered me (in fact, some of it was pretty funny; see below), but just in case you’re sensitive to that sort of thing…
“Religion is the theological equivalent of a quick-buck insurance scam, where you pay in your premium year after year, and then, when you need the benefits you paid for so—pardon the pun—so religiously, you discover the company that took your money does not, in fact, exist.”