The Dark Tower

7/10

I have a lot of complicated feelings on this book and on this series as a whole but I am ultimately left dissatisfied. King does a familiar thing at the end here that he LOVES to do that I absolutely hate, and I wanted to lower the score on principle at that point. But there was a lot here I did like.

Ultimately it's very clear this book was mostly conceived of much later than the beginning of the story, and so much of the plot beats of this book felt like not organic parts of the Dark Tower Saga but moreso King working out some personal stuff. I don't mind the meta components to the story but I wish they were secondary or tertiary and not so central. I also think most of the character arcs were not wrapped up in a satisfying way for me. The villains in particular were very unsatisfying.

I think while writing this I may have talked myself into a three star but I will let the book settle and see how I feel.

There are other worlds than these.