Review - Black House

Black House is the sequel to The Talisman. It doesn't feel like it, though. The style is very different, and slightly odd, emphasising the nature of the reader as observer. It feels to me like that gimmick gets fairly tired and also made me keep some distance from the characters, instead of losing myself in them as usual. It's also different in tone to The Talisman: it feels darker. I know a lot of bad things happen in The Talisman, but Black House has more of it. I didn't like it as much, even though I read it much faster. It was nice to see Jack Sawyer again, but so much time has passed for him that he doesn't quite feel like the boy we knew at all. I didn't really care about his love story, either: I didn't really see the point in it, plot-wise. That goes for several other points in this book -- sometimes it was just too wordy.

One thing I loved a lot about this book, though, was Henry Leyden. I believed in him as a character, and in Jack's feelings for him, and I nearly cried when he was hurt. Some of the deaths in this book do still hit you hard, but I didn't find many of the characters all that memorable. More could have been done with Dale and the Beez, etc. But Henry was brilliant.

I also didn't like the constant references to the Dark Tower. Maybe if I'd finished reading that series, I'd enjoy the little nods to it, but it felt like it wasn't necessary for this story, didn't quite fit, and I feel like Stephen King is far too much in love with that creation of his.

I feel like if this book had been pared down a bit, or characters like Henry getting bigger parts, or more characters like Henry, I'd have enjoyed it a lot. As it was, it was fun enough to read, but it wasn't The Talisman or particularly like The Talisman, and I'm not sure if I'd have read it without that connection.

(Probably. Who am I kidding? I'm reading basically everything Stephen King has written.)