Kennie

This was such a great book. It's in a pretty unique format in which the story of the main character is told through letters for the reader to receive.

I found the writing to be very enjoyable and easy to read. The author, Chbosky, is incredibly talented and gives the character such voice and personality that the letters feel like they were truly written by the MC and that they really existed.

Even though my non-American background doesn't allow for much relatability to some of the pop culture / American references being made, I still felt like the story was just as charming and engaging.

Incredibly well-written book, real-feeling character and storytelling and an overall amazing experience.

This is a very fun book. The author employs such excellent pacing throughout the whole story that it always feels exciting when beginning a new chapter. The mob drama is all there too, complimented by the dashes of humor throughout the story.

The only reason why I give it 4.5/5 instead of a full score, is because there are certain parts of the story where the protagonist does something so incredibly strong and unlikely that I had a hard time imagining the scene in my head without it feeling silly. Additionally, there was also a point in which the pacing did feel a little strange. These are small gripes though, and it doesn't take that much away from the creative writing overall.

Genuinely a fun, thrilling and at times hilarious novel.

This was my first Stephen King book. As many others have said, King's writing is superb and it's quite easy to get pulled into the book and read for a while. The story is interesting, unique and definitely attests to Stephen King's special mind that comes up with horrific tales and novels.

Although this isn't 'scary' in the traditional horror sense, it was a disturbing read. The book deals with death and grief, while twisting it and making it into something very wrong and disturbing.

The ending does feel a bit short and there's limited closure but I feel that this is a book that's about the journey, not the destination. However, some of the thoughts that reoccur in Louis' mind feel repetitive and after a while it gets old. These moments pulled me away from the story and they felt rather jarring when the same few thoughts repeated in Louis' head five or six times over the course of twenty or thirty pages. Because of this, I couldn't give it a full five stars.

Overall, though, this book is great. King himself considers this to be his scariest book, as mentioned in the intro, but I, as most people, don't find it extraordinarily scary. If you're into more psychological, grief-ridden suspense, this one's for you.

Writing this review 'halfway' through the book. In reality, this book places the Dunwich Horror story at the front with 'other stories' bundled in. I only read the Dunwich Horror and The Dreams in the Witch House and I have some thoughts.

I likely won't continue reading this bundle because I feel content with the two stories I chose to read while knowing that I want to read The Colors Out of Space next. I hear good things about that one.

I personally didn't like the Dunwich horror all that much and I'm a little disappointed that it was my introduction to Lovecraft's novels. It felt very drawn out and the dialogue is genuinely annoying to read. Lovecraft writes the way these poor smalltown Massachusetts villagers would speak, and it's downright obnoxious. From all the "leetles" to the "ruds" and the "daown" and "abaout", I found it extremely difficult to get into it all.

I'm glad I read the Dreams in the Witch House (DintWH), because that redeemed some of the negative feelings that were forming about Lovecraft's obnoxious dialogue writing. DintWH was a much better story with better writing and atmosphere. The characters were creepier, the cosmic horror was well described and the idea of 4th dimension traversal from weirdly strong angles in a crummy apartment gives the sense of mathematical plausibility and realness.

I'll be sure to review the Colo/urs Out of Space when I read it. So far, though, the HP Lovecraft experience has been relatively lukewarm for me. So, I'm hoping this next story will brighten things up for me and creep me out.