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"Hey hey, Susan Day! How many kids did you kill today?"

July 14, 2016

Ralph Roberts cannot sleep, but that is going to be the least of his worries because his town appears to be breaking apart at the seams.

I really liked the book. I enjoyed reading about a main character who isn’t a young strapping male, but instead is a man old enough to be a grandfather. When the story opens, we have Ralph Roberts who is grieving the impending loss of his wife. He develops insomnia which starts out as irritating, but soon becomes horrifying.

During these periods of wakefulness he soon the discovers that all is not well in his town, and that someone/something has targeted a very important person within the community. If this wasn't bad enough, Susan Day (Pro-Choice spokesperson) is set to give a speech within the community. This causes deep divides within the community which makes it very hard for Ralph to figure out who the target is, and how exactly to stop his/her death from occurring.
Along the way, Ralph develops new relationships, and comes into contact with many horrifying people/beings. There are multiple Dark Tower references which actually went over my head because I have never read the main stories; I have only read novels and short stories connected to the series. I actually re-read the book because it only hit me near the end what some of the passages were referencing. For some reason it never dawned on me that Stephen King has been writing books for far longer than I have been alive.
My only negative criticism of the story is, Lois. She isn't a bad character, however she could have not been in the story and it would not have mattered. It felt like she was shoehorned in to give Ralph someone his age, and of the opposite gender, to connect with. The narrative kept pointing out that she was a woman of a different age, thus expected her "man" to take care of everything. Well, I've known many women who'd be from her "age" and most are very pro-active, so this character seemed to only function as someone to be rescued and told what to do.
Otherwise, the book is great. There is a lot of suspense and supernatural horror.

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Sade

Sade has been with Nashville Public Library since 2007. She started as a Page, and worked her way up. She loves reviewing books, movies, and restaurants. You can usually find her watching terrible movies and reading speculative fiction and comics. Sade is currently a librarian at the Edmondson Pike Branch Library.

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