“The road to hell is paved with good intentions…And lit with electric lights.”
My feelings about Revival are…complicated, to say the least. The premise is promising. The execution is so-so (the villain? He’s just not…BAD enough. He’s misguided and desperate and full of himself, but…)
“People have many ways to be lousy to one another, you’ll find out when you’re older, but I think that all bad behavior stems from plain old selfishness.”
Is this horror? I don’t know. It leans a bit more into the literary or commercial fiction realm, with some touches of sci-fi and a few horrific scenes. (And really, what IS horror? Is it a genre or a feeling? Both?) We have a “villain” who is obsessed with electricity. SERIOUSLY obsessed. He spends his life chasing…something (the reveal isn’t as terrifying as his dedication to it, trust me).
Jamie is a relatively likable main character, and although we only get bits and pieces of his life (primarily in relation to good old Reverend Jacobs…or whatever you want to call him) you can tell that he’s mostly a good man who has just made a lot of mistakes.
And this is one of those books where you can’t help but wonder if King has just been too mean to his characters – there’s a lot of tragedy and heartache and horror (the real-life kind) tucked into these pages and it can seem a bit heavy-handed at times. However, that writing can be SO good.
Should you read Revival? It’s a must (in my opinion) if you consider yourself a King fan. But if you’re more of a casual Constant Reader? Stick to the classics.
Read with Aimee 