Review: Elevation by Stephen King

Elevation by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I delayed getting this book, because it's a novella which is being priced at the cost of a novel. This is the publisher's way of making money from the Stephen King Constant Reader and I don't like it - PLUS this book has been padded out with the first three chapters of his next release (The Institute) so I find this particularly scammy. Not a good look for Stephen King OR his publishers.

That said, I'm a lifelong fan of Stephen King's work. I own all his books - The Dark Tower in duplicate (hard and soft covers), so when I started reading this book, the opening was really familiar too me, like I'd read it somewhere before. It follows a similar storyline to Thinner, and the main character also talks in the opening about a doctor and him weighing himself. I wondered if this book was maybe a story Stephen King had written before Thinner and he'd pulled it out of his draw and decided to release it. I'm okay with that, but this one could have gone into a collection.

In terms of the story, it is classic Stephen King. It's been a while since he's brought one out that has this kind of storyline. Something unexplained but yet compelling, with a brilliant ending. His writing has been mixed these last few years, some has even be shockingly bad (Sleeping Beauties), with others going off the rails a bit (The Outsider). It's a light story with well developed characters, and he uses modern day themes like the changing attitude to same sex marriage, based on recent political agendas. It was refreshing, if brief.

I would recommend this one to those that enjoy his writing. But if you can find a second hand copy so you don't have to pay the extortionate price for something so short, I'd urge you to do so - or borrow it from a library.

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