Black House (Paperback)

This book was a lot darker than The Talisman. The subject matter was quite intense (a madman is killing children and eating parts of their bodies) and graphic at times (the description of one of the dead children is painted far too realistically for reader's with vivid imaginations and weak stomachs), but that only adds to the dark theme of the story. Where The Talisman was essentially all about childhood and how everything seems wonderful, Black House is definitely about the adult experience and how hard life can get from time to time.

What I enjoyed the most about this book was finding out what happened to all the characters from The Talisman. We are re-introduced to Jack Sawyer (the 13-year-old hero of The Talisman), now a 35-year-old retired L.A. cop living in Wisconsin. He has no memory of ever being in the territories. I really liked seeing Jack as an adult. As a kid he was disrespected by many of the central characters and it was great to see how intelligent and take charge he became. He was more compassionate and more friendly than he was as a child as well. We also discover what happened to the likes of Lily Cavanagh-Sawyer, Speedy Parker, and Richard Sloat.

In addition to this we are introduced to some fantastic new characters, such as Henry Leyden (my personal favorite), a blind disc jockey with a ton of personalities; Breezer St. Pierre (the father of one of the murdered children) and his biker gang posse (all very intelligent college graduates); Dale Gilberson, the hard-working and disrespected chief of police; Judy Marshall, the beautiful and confident mother of on of the missing children; Ty Marshall, her brave and powerful missing son; Wendell Green, a smarmy news reporter who will stop at nothing to get his story; Gorg, the evil talking crow; and Charles Burnside, an insane old man who has a little bit of knowledge of the territories. And of course the Black House. An evil house that is the gateway between this world and the world of The Crimson King.

The actual story does start a little slow. The reader is transported into the story via narration and we spend the first 70 pages meeting some of the central characters I just mentioned. I thought it was a good way to start the story because we knew who everyone was and there was no confusion as the story continued. Once Ty Marshall disappears the story really picks up. We journey with Jack as he interviews Ty's friends and his mother about his disappearence, as he re-enters the territories and meets the love of his life, Judy's twinner Sophie, and we are there as he tries to save Ty. We are also there to witness his horrifying ending, but it's not my place to give that away what happens. While there is some light humor in the story, it is very dark. There is a lot of blood and a lot of gore and not everyone survives to the end of the story.

With several references to King's Dark Tower series and The Talisman, you will probably need to be a King fan to understand all the references. However, you don't have to read these stories to enjoy the richness of this story.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today! You won't be disappointed!

To start with, the third person narative style, whereby the author is seemingly taking you by the hand and leading you through the book like some lost child is EXTREMELY tedious. Every time I felt the book lean in that direction, I could almost feel myself cringe. "Now lets go see whats happening here boys and girls." I am sorry, but if the Mr. Rogers analogy doesn't indicate what age group that style of writing is geared for, I am not certain what will.

Secondly, there was no real apprehension in this book. I never felt the type of genuine concern that is supposed to be instilled onto the reader when characters in the novel are in peril. The book seemed to just slowly trudge from one page to the next as our protaganist moved forward in his quest.

Finally, this book was clearly nothing more than sheer marketting. A way for King to generate additional revenue by bringing in the tie in to his Dark Tower series. (Which I am also reading by the way)

The ironic thing is that The Talisman (which Black House is the sequel to) was my all time favorite King novel. It was a taut, suspenseful and thoroughly enjoyable novel. Fortunately, Black House's drivel did not tarnish my minds image of it since other than the resurgance of the main character (who was a young boy in the first novel) is the only real linking point. That, and the concept of the alternate universe, "The Territories" which is now the underlying premise in the Dark Tower series.

For die hard King fans, I think you may want to leave this one on the shelf. I am not sure who to cast the blame on, King or Straub, but it is more than evident that the writing style is clearly NOT King.