Dead Zone

by Stephen King and Darieck

Awake in the dead zone and awake...into a nightmare. Recoil in horror as you are touched by a young man cursed with the power to preceive the evil in men's souls. And whose ability to see into the future forces him into a terrifying confrontation with a charismatic, power-hungry and infinitely dangerous man.

• ISBN10: 0451155750
• ISBN13: 9780451155757
• Publish Date: 1 August 1980 (first published 30 August 1979)
• Publish Status: Temporarily Withdrawn
• Out of Print: 1 February 2010
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

Another okay King read for me. It definitely has some parallels to the current political climate which made it more engaging than I think it would have been at any other point.

Full review to come.

[kimbacaffeinate]

I read THE DEAD ZONE by Stephen King in the summer of 1979 and watched the movie in 1983 starring Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith. So it only made sense to revisit this classic on audio especially when it's narrated by James Franco. Franco nailed it, and it was delightful to revisit this classic. Are you planning a road trip this summer? Spend it listening to THE DEAD ZONE.

THE DEAD ZONE shares moments in Johnny's life before an accident and after the crash that left him with the gift/curse of psychometry. It is the ability to touch someone and immediately know things, sometimes terrible things. No one tells a story like Stephen King, and Dead Zone was an addictive listen from beginning to end. While I had previously read the book, saw the movie and caught episodes of the TV series based on the book, it still felt fresh listening.

The tale doesn't have real horror or gore, but that doesn't mean King didn't manage to creep me out. The book is broken into stories that feature different events in John's life. The tale is twisted and springs to life as you listen. I could smell the carnival, see the spinning wheel and feel Sarah's waves of nausea. Don't even get me started on Johnny's crazy mother who seems to grow more frantic in her religious zealot as the book progresses.

Folks fear Johnny's gift; they also fear Johnny. If he knows of an event, he must have been involved right? You could feel the fear from the nurses on the floor where he is cared for after awakening from the coma. King's prose will make your hairs stand on end.

When Greg Stillson, enters the picture Johnny finds himself back in the limelight. When Johnny shakes his hand and discovers a future that cannot be allowed to happen it sets into motion events that kept me listening into the wee hours. When I declared to my husband that I had to stay up to see what happened, he laughed and reminded me that I already knew what happens. *Shrugs* All I can say is that King is brilliant and despite my familiarity, it became all very real again as I listened.

James Franco was the PERFECT narrator for THE DEAD ZONE. From the voices to the eerie tone of his voice he added depth to the story that I didn't experience when reading it the first time.

I think my experience was enhanced by the age difference between reading then and now. After all, I was just in middle school. For me, the DEAD ZONE was brilliant this go round from the writing to the mentions of music and the twists and shocks only King can deliver.

Audio provided by the publisher. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

[remo]

En general, estimados lectores, odio a Stephen King [SK]. ¿Por qué? Porque siempre pico. Una y otra vez. Soy incorregible y no aprendo de mis errores. Stephen King escribe como quiere, es algo que no puede negarse. Tiene un estilo fluido que sabe llevar al lector a donde le dé la gana al autor en cada momento. Y esa es mi perdición. Todos los libros de SK que he leído tienen comienzos soberbios. Impresionantes. De estos comienzos que lees y te relames diciendo "vaya pedazo de libro que ha caído en mis manos, me lo voy a pasar pipa". Y de repente, en la página 80, aparece la maldita niña que puede ver el futuro, o el demonio, o un tipo que puede curar con las manos, o unos bichitos de otra dimensión, y se acabó la fiesta. Porque a mí la literatura sobrenatural no me acaba de convencer. Creo que es más difícil terminar una novela sin recurrir a lo sobrenatural. SK escribió, por ejemplo, El resplandor o Cadena perpetua, una obras maestras de las que luego se hicieron películas, de nuevo obras maestras, con Jack Nicholson en uno de sus mejores papeles o con Tim Robbins y Morgan Freeman. Y en ninguna de las dos hay nada sobrenatural. Bueno, en el resplandor quizá un poco, pero para dar miedo, no para sacar adelante la historia. Por eso, tras haber disfrutado tanto con esos libros, sigo leyéndome otros de SK esperando encontrar de nuevo una obra de arte. Pero por lo visto a SK la va más el rollo paranormal. En la novela que nos ocupa, un joven tiene un accidente de coche que lo sume varios años en un coma. Al despertar descubre que (sí, por desgracia) tiene poderes y puede ver el pasado y el futuro de las personas al tocarlas o tocar algo que perteneció a ellas. Intenta aislarse del mundo, que lo acosa con miles de cartas pidiéndole milagros, pero hay algo que le impulsará a salir de su reclusión para nada menos que salvar al mundo (o a los EE.UU, que para SK son isomorfos al planeta Tierra).
La novela, qué les voy a decir, está muy bien escrita. Como todas las de SK, se lee de un tirón, aunque uno esté desencantado con el enfoque que el autor le da a todo. A la gente que disfrute con estos temas les debe de encantar SK, porque es el amo. Mi nota: Entretenida, aunque SK tire siempre del mismo recurso para sacar adelante la historia.