Stephen King’s Revival

Revival is Stephen King’s latest novel. A story full of nostalgia and what it is to get older. It spans several decades, with our narrator Jamie first meeting Rev. Jacobs when he’s 6  years old. The story itself is told as a narrative that Jamie is writing.

Stephen King has always been a master at writing about nothing. I don’t mean that in a bad way by any means. What I mean is he can take simple mundane things like working up the nerve to ask a girl out, or learning how to play the guitar, and make them a complete page turner.

He’s also a master at crafting rich characters. Jamie here is like any old drug addicted guitar playing nobody, and you can’t help but love him from page one on. Jacobs on the other hand goes through a transformation that isn’t quite as lovable. I’m not sure you could say he’s the books villain, that title I’d say probably goes to death itself.  Jacobs goes  from an amazingly generous, sweet and trustworthy minister, to a guy that although he still generally cares about helping people, has a much darker ulterior motive, making him the creator of a lot of destruction that he become completely ambivalent to. Jamie and Jacobs weave in and out of each others lives, from the early 60’s to present day, leading to an ultimate ending that I’m honestly surprised didn’t give me a nightmare the night I finished reading this book.

Speaking of nightmares, Stephen King is of course well-known for his horror. Revival isn’t what I’d call a horror in the classic sense, but it’s definitely sprinkled with enough horror here and there to keep any fan of the genre hooked in my opinion. The end, though, is full on Lovecraftian goodness!

On Goodreads I rated the book 5, because I didn’t want to give it a 4. Truthfully though I’d say this book is more deserving of a 4.5. It’s definitely a good book, but for me the 5 star Stephen King novels are ones like The Stand and The Dark Tower.

Now, for the crochet!

The major theme running through this novel was lightning and electricity. When Jamie was a little boy, Jacobs used electricity as a hobby and a way to teach religion to the kids of his church. As Jacobs aged, though, he became more and more obsessed with electricity and this power he kept referring to as “secret electricity”.  So, without further ado, I give you a cute little blue lightning bolt, as inspired by Stephen King’s Revival –

The pattern for this little bolt of electricity can be found – here –

Read – December 31st, 2014- January 4th, 2015.
Goodreads Reading Challenge – 1 book down, 49 to go.
9gag’s Reading Challenge – A book with a one-word title.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars