The Dead Zone: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – November 29, 2016

I found the novel read like the first and second novels in a two part series. The first half of the novel tells a story about a serial killer. The second half tells a story about an evil self-serving politician. Steven King seemed to be prescient in writing the seance half of the novel, foretelling so perfectly the era of Donald Trump, of his mindless minions, of a press that is more interested in getting a story that sells than in protecting our democratic system, of a political party that cares only about winning and virtually nothing about serving the people of this country.

It's Stephen King. You either like his writing, or you're not even reading this review, because you'd never buy something of his. I saw that some other reviewers complained that this book was slow-paced or boring. I did not find that to be the case, but the thing I've always loved most about King's writing is the care he puts into crafting his characters. They are real people, who live on in your mind, with all their virtues and flaws. For the ultimate example of this, I always cite King's The Stand, whether we're talking about Stephen King or not. Masterful. Just masterful. So, I didn't mind that we didn't jump right into the precognition stuff. I had watched the movie with Christopher Walken many years ago (I know, sacrilege to watch the movie first.), as I slowly built up my King library (ultimate goal--everything King has ever written), but hadn't read the book until now. I don't remember how the movie wrapped things up, so am trying not to write any spoilers, but that intense character building King does paid off in a big way at the end. I was wrecked, emotionally wrecked, and cursing Stephen King's name, even as I was saying, "So good. So freaking good. You got me again, Mr. King."The takeaway is that, if you have a King section in your library, this deserves to be in it. If you're a King fan and haven't read this, you should. If you feel like I do, that one of King's greatest strength is his character development, then, I think you'll enjoy this.

I know that I read this novel years ago but it had faded in my memory. When I was re-reading it, I was struck with not only how well written and engaging the novel is but also with how spookily relevant for our times some of what King talks about is.If you have never read this work and you are a King fan, it is most certainly worth your time. If you HAVE read it, a re-read might be worth it for you, too.

The only criticism I have of this book is that I wish I had read it sooner. It was recommended to me by a Stephen King fan that caught on to his brilliance as an author before I did. When I asked which King novel I should read next, he replied "in an election year, The Dead Zone of course". So happy I took his recommendation. It is eerie how relevant so much of this novel is given that it was 40+ years ago. Well developed, well written, several twists, I missed the characters being part of my day when I finished. Highly recommend this book, especially when we have an election coming our way! It would be interesting to see the same story told with the invention of social media and all news all the time.

James Franco nailed the narration on this one. Stephen King’s subtle humor was emphasized well, much better than it comes off when reading it, and the characters’ personalities were portrayed closely to how I’d perceived them to be. Hearing Tommy Wiseau’s voice as Dr. Weizak was the best surprise (unintentional, I know, but awesome). Made me want to rewatch The Disaster Artist.The only thing I wasn’t psyched about was that hearing the book read aloud accentuated how heartbreaking parts of it is, especially the interaction between Sarah and Johnny’s parents at the hospital. While it’s true that great writing/acting is meant to elicit that type of response, I hadn’t picked up on it so strongly when reading the book. It caught me off-guard to have Stephen King make me feel sad.Stephen King’s novels translate well to audiobook. Campbell Scott (The Shining) and James Franco are the best narrators of his work. The Dead Zone is always a great read and I’m glad I took a chance on the audiobook. So good.

Great book. I watched the movie numerous times before ever reading the book & loved the movie. Now that I have read the book & then watched the movie, I hate the movie. Its like the director took tiny little bits from the book & threw them in. Example: the 1st 20 minutes of the movie you would be over half way through the book. There was more direct relation from the book in the Shining movie than there was with the Dead Zone movie. As I said though, GREAT book. If you have ever seen the movie, read the book & watch the movie right away. You'll see exactly what I mean. :)

Arguably my favorite by Stephen King, who's writing I have long been a fan of.A clear message, which is not unusual for him, but this was a message that for some reason, really resonated with me.If you are1) A Stephen King fan,2) Get more out of trying to find the 'meaning between the lines' and3) are able to maintain a perspecte that will allow you to find value in the lesson, even if learning it proves a painful process,then I recommend you read The Dead Zone.If you do NOT fall into any or all of these categories, the I recommend you give exploring them some honest thought!

I haven't read this book in quite a few years, but, in my opinion, it is timeless.Poor Johnny Smith has two brushes with death, one as a child and a more serious one as an adult. He is in a coma for four and a half years before he wakes with precognitive power.He helps a few people along the way, including a sheriff from Castle Rock catch a murderer.Then he sees Greg Stillson on TV and just seeing him makes him uneasy.When he goes to one of Stillson's political rallies, he shakes his hand and sees the future. How far in the future, he doesn't know, but he does know that he must stop him.I have read all of Stephen King's books, starting with Carrie way back in 1974, and have been a fan ever since.This book and The Stand are my absolute favorites, since the events in them could really happen!

In The Dead Zone John Smith wakes up from a 4 year coma with the ability to see the past and the future of the people he touches.Some people see this ability as a gift from God. But for John, he sees it as a curse.It all started 4 years ago when John, a Teacher, took his date Sarah, also a Teacher, to the Fair.John is also known as Johnny in The Dead Zone and these names will be used interchangeably throughout this review.All was going well until John tried his luck on The Wheel of Fortune. The first time he wins. Then the second and third time to. Again and again he wins. He just can’t loose, despite his head feeling like somebody is going at it with a jack hammer.Meanwhile Sarah has become ill and is being violently sick after eating a bad hot dog. Johnny takes Sarah home and then calls a taxi.Johnny’s taxi journey home is where it all goes wrong. A car driving on the wrong side of the road crashes into the taxi at speed, causing the deaths of the boy driving the car on the wrong side of the road and the taxi driver. John is propelled out of the taxi through the windshield and goes into a coma.When Johnny wakes up, he discovers that everything has changed. His body is weak, despite being exercised with physiotherapy while he was comatose. His mind has a Dead Zone, a microscopic part of his brain that has been damaged. This Dead Zone causes him not to be able to imagine certain things and is perhaps also causing his new found ability to see people’s past and future by touching them.John’s father seems to have dramatically aged much more than the 4 years that has passed. His mother who was always a religious woman, has become fervent religionist. Sarah is now married to another man and has a child.As Johnny works hard to recover and rebuild his life. As he does so, he makes some startlingly accurate predictions including: finding the location of his Doctor’s lost mother, preventing a fire from becoming serious in his Physiotherapists house, telling Sarah where her lost wedding ring is, identifying a serial murderer and predicting a serious fire caused by lightening. Johnny soon makes news with his predictions and rides out the media storms the best he can.Johnny doesn’t really want any of this. He just wants a normal life and more importantly the normal life the car accident robbed him of. But he knows that this is not possible. Too much has changed.Johnny does various bits of work and creates a little hobby of shaking politician’s hands to see the future of election results. That is until he shake that hand of Greg Stillson. John sees Stillson becoming President and what a dangerous one he’ll be.John becomes obsessed with Stillson and starts getting head-splitting headaches. John finds himself debating whether he would kill Hitler if time travel was possible. He decides that he would and that the same action needs to be taken to prevent Stillson from ever becoming President.Every element of The Dead Zone was excellent and enjoyable. The description pulls the reader into the story from the beginning and until the end. The characters were charming, cunning and crafty. Johnny was particularly appealing and interesting, with the reader feeling for and relating to this character from the start of the book.The plot was intriguing, fascinating and full of unpredictable, but perfectly pleasant twists and turns. The pacing was perfect at all times and felt like a car with cruise control doing 70MPH on the motorway.The only tiny criticism of The Dead Zone was John’s name. John Smith. The story makes clear from the outset that John is an average guy, who happens to have something that’s both bad and brilliant happen to him. So using such a common place name to represent that he’s an average guy was not required. It stuck me as either lazy or uninventive on King’s behalf.The Dead Zone is without any doubt a King classic.

One of his best. Let’s be honest: for such a good writer most of his books are very bad indeed. Not this one. Good, interesting characters, a really good story, and a very satisfying, if sad, ending. Real horror is nothing to do with silly monsters like werewolves and vampires. Real horror is a poisoned gift that brings no good to the recipient. Real horror is an impossible choice, being forced down a path you’d give anything to avoid. Real horror is looking at inescapable doom, and the fact that at any second live can swat you out of existence like a fly. How many people are capable of a truly selfless act of sacrifice that the world will see as evil? How many people would tarnish their name and legacy for an act everyone will misinterpret? It didn’t work out like that but Johnny wasn’t to know that. This is an intelligent, grown up book that shows what King can do when he stays away from his usual silly, supernatural tales for overgrown children.

With girlfriend Sarah in tow, Johnny Smith has a run of luck at the Wheel of Fortune, but after dropping his girl off at home, Johnny’s cab is involved in a head-on collision, killing the driver and leaving Johnny in a coma. Waking up almost five years later, Johnny is shocked to learn how much things have changed. Aside from his mother’s raging religious mania and his girlfriend’s new husband, he finds he is now cursed with the ability to see into the future. Though these ‘hunches’ have always been with him in some form since a childhood accident, these new experiences throw him into a confrontation with a dangerous and power-hungry politician.I first read The Dead Zone as a teenager, though my memory of it tends to fixate on the movie version (starring Christopher Walken), so I thought it was time I gave it another look. Though it’s perhaps not one of Stevie’s best works, I really enjoyed it, particularly the depth he goes into with each of his characters. If you’ve read his book On Writing, you’ll know about how his writing has changed over the years and might notice some early mistakes in this one – such as an over-reliance on adverbs. But apart from that, it’s a great read and kept me going all the way through, even though I knew the ending.Another classic from the King of horror (see what I did there?)

Halfway through The Dead Zone I thought, 'god I love this book'. Johnny had an excellent outlook after a terrible thing, and it really left you thinking about how you would handle something like that. However, it was around that point that I felt the book should have been coming to a conclusion. This is one of the few books I've read where the climax seems to have come in the middle of the book rather than the end. Sure the journey continues, but honestly, the second half paled in comparison to the first. As King books go, this is written in his classic style and was easy to read and follow along with. However, I really felt like it was lacking towards the end, so just 3*'s for this one.

My first King novel. And not a bad start, I've seen it written somewhere that this is his best. I spent most of the novel wanting to see how Johnny and Sarah would finally get it together - but the finale had a ring of truth, and the surprise of his underlying condition suddenly caused things to fall in place.It's a very enjoyable read, and while it has strains of the supernatural, it's also very believable in many ways. Highly recommended