Thursday, November 22, 2018

Fall Reads: Elevation by Stephen King


AMAZON
I was constantly reading Stephen King horror novels back when I was a teenager in the mid 1990s. While I still read his books from time to time, I haven't had the chance to read his last three or four books, though I do own them. However, I did find the time read Mr. King's newest title Elevation, which is a very short novella.

Set in Castle Rock, Maine, Elevation centers around an overweight middle-aged divorcee named Scott Carey, who finds himself in a strange situations. According to his Ozeri scale, he is losing two or three pounds per day, but he hasn't psychically lost any weight. Well, at least to the naked eye he he hasn't.

Scott's bizarre weight problem has baffled his longtime friend Bob Ellis, a retried doctor, who doesn't have any real answers to why he's losing weight.

The more pounds he drops on the scale, the lighter Scott becomes, which isn't a totally bad thing at first. He uses his newfound lightness to enter a 12k run, so he can "fix" the rocky relationship he has had with his new neighbors, Deirdre McComb and her wife Missy Donaldson, who own a local restaurant.

While Scott's lifestyle has improved since he started losing weight, he knows his happiness will be short lived, as his ability to stay grounded to Earth will not last forever.

Final Thoughts


The plot reminds me of Stephen King's Thinner, where a curse was put on an overweight man to make him lose weight extremely fast. It's odd Mr. King wanted to tell another tale about a man losing weight, though the character in Elevation is losing gravity instead of actual weight.

The story is well-written and edited, like most Stephen King novels, but the plot didn't feel original to me. Not a whole lot actually occurs in this short tale, which is under 150 pages.

Overall, Elevation is a fun, fast-paced read. While it's not Mr. King's best work, I still enjoyed reading it.



*Note : I received a complimentary copy for review purposes. 
All opinions are my own.

4 comments:

  1. I totally agree. Fun while reading but not all that exciting.

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    1. I was expecting more of a horror tale, but instead it's a weird modern fairy tale.

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  2. Stephen King was pretty much the only author I read when I was a teenager. I burned myself out on his books and now have a lot of catching up to do. I’m glad you mostly liked this one. I’ll get to it someday. Probably 10 years from now. :)

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    Replies
    1. Elevation isn't King's best work. I'm not sure why the publishers decided to release it as a standalone novella. The short story would be better suited as part of an anthology. Don't get me wrong, I did like reading Elevation, but in the end I was left wanting more.

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