Black House: A Novel
4.0
370
5
1
Paperback(Reprint)
USD
17.99
$17.99
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781501192296 |
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| Publisher: | Gallery Books |
| Publication date: | 04/17/2018 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 672 |
| Sales rank: | 89,812 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.90(d) |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Black House
4 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
372 reviews.
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If you're a fan of The Talisman and The Dark Tower series, this is the book for you. I agree with most of the people on here, it does start a little slow in the beginning, but if you continue past that then you are most definitely in for a treat. The plot is dense and gruesome, each twist and turn completely unexpected. By the time I finished I was unable to sleep with some terribly gruesome images spinning in my head. A great tale, possibly even better than The Talisman (which I absolutely adored).
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Wait til it is cheaper. Not worth 12 bucks. Not at all.
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I can understand other people's thoughts (it's moving too slow and the jargon), but actually after the first chapter, which I had to urge myself to get through, it starts to pick up a litte. A lot of it is truly gruesome and this is the first book to hit me on such an emotional level. The Marshall wife's torment and the sinister Charles Burnside only start it off. Four stars only because of the extremely slow beginning.
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You're never going to go completely wrong when buying a book written by Stephen King, but this one isn't one of his better efforts.
His collaboration with Peter Straub worked much better with The Talisman. Here, the voice of the narrator is so odd, it's off-putting.
I just couldn't lose myself in the story. It also takes quite awhile to get going, taking a very leisurely time setting up the characters and
town. If you want to try King at his best, go with something like It, 'Salem's Lot, or The Stand instead.
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The book is very slow at first and dare I say a tad boring but if you can get bast the first 100–150 pages it is well worth it.
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Well kind readers I'de just like to say that this Stephen King book is sub-par as far as I'm concerned....You start reading and you get to abut page 100 and you find yourself saying "WHERE IS HE GOING WITH THIS"....THE STYLE OF WRITING SEEMS TO BE IN THE 3RD PERSON ABOUT HALF THE TIME WHICH SEEMS A LITTLE MIXED UP TO ME....And I'm telling you by the time you get to around page 200 you may just put the book down for good....King and Straub may have had an idea where they were going but to me they were just writing plain old filler....I read a lot fokes and flat out this is not an easy read, you almost haft to write down on a piece of paper all the people they have in this book, just try to keep track of 25 people in this book and you will see what I mean....Oh well to each there own I guess.
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I've told a few of my friends to get this book as it keeps you on the edge of your seat. I hated to put it down as I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Excellent reading!
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The+story+was+good+but+dragged+in+a+few+spots+with+excessive+descriptive+writing+that+didn%27t+add+to+anything+but+the+word+count.+Stephen+King+is+one+of+my+favourite+writers+but+this+is+one+facet+of+his+writing+style+that+at+times+can+slow+down+a+well+paced+story.
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My only complaint about the book is the opening chapter and the occassional parts where the story is written as if we are hitching a ride on a crow. I feel that these parts have been made unnecessarily wordy and are a distraction from the flow of the story. The best parts are when Mr King and Mr Straub is simply telling a story about wonderful characters such as Jack Sawyer and his best friend Henry Leyden. Honourable, dependable Jack and wise Henry.
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Sometimes I like King, and sometimes I like Straub, but together they make pretty good reading. Straubs poetic imagery mixed with King's blatant in-your-face punches really compliment each other. Black House started very slowly and didn't really pick up until the middle - I much preferred The Talisman, but this wasn't bad. Not as good as I remembered it the first reading, but not bad.The story picks up Jack Sawyer's life after forgetting his experiences in the Territories, and after a successful career as an LA cop. He retires to a small town, where he is once more required to save the world through his specialized knowledge of the Territories. There is a visit from Speedy/Parkus from The Talisman, and of course, many references to The Gunslinger series. If you like either The Talisman or The Gunslinger, this should appeal. Not nearly as horrific as many of King's other novels . . .
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Although the book starts out just a bit slow, the story drew me in quite soon. If you are unfamiliar with Stephen King's other novels involving his "otherworldly" characters and settings, then this book may not make a whole lot of sense to you. I recommend that at the very least you read "The Talisman" prior to reading this book as well as "The Black Tower" series as "Black House" makes several references to topics and characters introduced in the series. My favorite character in "Black House" was Henry Leyden. King and Straub describe him so richly and make him such a unique character from his "personalities" to his multi-faceted intelligence, to his manner of garb, it made me sad that I could not know the man in person. In fact, the entire book is written this way-drawing you in and making you feel as though you are experiencing everything along with the characters being described. All in all, a great read.
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Having just finished The Talisman, I decided to jump into the sequel. This book surpasses its predecessor in every way possible. The writing style is mature and polished. The horror is truly horrifying. The plot is captivating. The character development is rich, without slowing the pace of the narrative.To make things even better, there are no subtle allusions to the world of the Dark Tower: it¿s explicitly part of the plot. Hearing about the beams, the Crimson King, the Gunslinger, and the breakers all over again brought me right back into that world.If that last sentence made no sense, you should really read the Dark Tower books followed by The Talisman before opening up this one. It¿s worth the time.Now we wait for the anticipated third book of the trilogy.
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In this novel, King returns to his classic style of storytelling: an epic tale, a band of great heroes, a powerful child, parallel worlds and enormous stakes. The added bonus is that it returns us to the world of the The Dark Tower saga, adding another important piece to that super-epic tale. In fact, I find it hard to believe that Straub wrote more than the first 20 pages or so, since the style is so clearly vintage King.Billed as a sequel to The Talisman, Black House doesn¿t really continue that story so much as pick up the thread of its main character¿s (Jack Sawyer) life as an adult. King aficionados will relish this novel as a full-force return to the type of story King tells best.
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Interesting read. It might have been useful to have read Talisman first, which I haven't.
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this book is supposedly the sequel to the talisman - sure if you say so...i was expecting to be riveted, horrified, swept away. instead i was just expectant.and ultimately disappointed.a dull read considering the powerhouse authors involved. peter straub obviously penned the lion's share of this tale. he should have let stephen take the wheel a bit more. talisman was a five star read. this one, sadly, a three.
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** spoiler alert ** I was really looking forward to reading this book since I loved The Talisman so much. But I was kind of disappointed. The Talisman was written in King's voice which is part of the reason I loved it so much. But King's voice is somewhat absent at the beginning of Black House. It steadily grows stronger throughout the book though and it made the ending great although sad. I've never read anything else by Straub and I don't think I will. His writing just sounds so.... fake. And forced. And the beginning doesn't flow like it did in The Talisman.Black House is also mostly horror unlike The Talisman, which was sci-fi. It's incredibly gory.The storyline was amazing. I felt all the feelings I'm sure the authors wanted the reader to. I could have cried when Henry died and at the end when Jack couldn't go back to his home world. And every time they mentioned Black House or Burnside eating all those kids, I got chills up my spine.If it wasn't for Straub this book would have gotten five stars. That said, everything else earned it four.
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Started out very, very slow. I was afraid I would not be able to get into it, but it turned out to be an engaging story. I cared about the characters and I would love to read more about them.
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Dark Tower, without being Dark Tower. Held the space between books well.
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You can feel the hands of both Straub and King on this work, and it's the stronger for the combination. From the beginning, this is a creepy and engaging exploration of believable characters in the horrifying and beautiful world King and Straub created with The Talisman. You CAN read this without reading their earlier collaboration (and I did), but I think you might as well start with The Talisman since I'll be venturing their next. The book might be a bit longer than it needs to be since there are moments when it drags, but on the whole, this is a graceful and perfectly executed horror novel with engaging characters, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Enjoy.
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An alright sequel. The novel makes a good connection with The Dark Tower. King's novel's are all intertwined.
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Some of Stephen King's books are interesting. None of Peter Straub's books are the least bit interesting. The problem is that neither of them can use one word when 400 will do. Every boulder, stone, rock, pebble, and grain of sand is described in excruiating detail. You just wish they would get on with the story, but then again, probably not, when the story involves implacable evil doing the most gross and disgusting things (especially to children) that they both could think of. I have no problem with graphic detail, but it seems that graphic detail is all that the book is about. If you are interested in the mythos of The Dark Tower, read the Stephen King books about the Gunslinger, but skip this book.
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After reading this book, which I loved, I wished I had read the Talisman first. The characters are great; a blind deejay, genius bikers? The bikers were my favorite and I would definitely want them on my side.
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I didn't realize when I started this book that it was a sequel to The Talisman. I kind of figured that out part way through reading it, but kept on reading because it really didn't seem to matter that I hadn't read the first book. Overall, I thought it was a good read, and there are several scenes that still stick out in my head, even though it has been more than a year since I read the book.
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For a Stephen King novel, this took me forever to get through. Mostly because it started out so slowly. 100+ pages into it and still nothing had happened. Then when things finally did get going, they got bogged down again in trivialities. I found the ending to be very hurried and kind of unbelievable.
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