★★★☆☆ | Horror | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
My journey to read all of Stephen King continues. Normally, I enjoy the supernatural aspects of King’s novels. In this case, I think the story would have been better without any of the other-world part. Rosie is an abused woman who digs deep and finds strength to leave and ultimately confront her abusive husband with the help of her new friends. Having to rely on the supernatural powers to ultimately defeat her beast of a husband felt like a let down.
I did appreciate the Dark Tower Easter eggs: the painting that turns into a portal to another world, Ka, and the reference to the city of Ludd.
I think Mr. King may have outgrown this, but why do the evil characters in his earlier novels always have spiders coming out of their faces???
Highlights
It’s best to be ruthless with the past. It ain’t the blows we’re dealt that matter, but the ones we survive.
Should we rage against ka? No, for ka is the wheel that moves the world, and the man or woman who rages against it will be crushed under its rim. But rogue beasts must be dealt with. And we must go about that task with hopeful hearts, for the next beast may always be different.
Once you got started killing people it never seemed to stop; the first one spread like ripples on a pond.
She looked like a woman mentally counting the choices of a lifetime and discovering that the wrong ones outnumbered the right ones… and not by only a few, either.