Stephen King "Desperation"
As a huge Stephen King fan I just picked up this relatively new novel (I heard they are making it into a movie right now). It is about a small Nevada mining town named Desperation. It is the story of a "crazy" cop who stocks his jail full of random people he arrests on the highway passing outside the town. The cop is also literally falling apart and bleeding at the seams. No one has any idea what is going on with this cop. He's also killed everyone else in the town in cold blood. So the jail is full of random out-of towners having no clue what is going on. The story also has a religious little boy who has some connection he developed with God when his friend was in a coma. With the boy's help the people escape from the jail while the cop is gone, only to find out how crazy the town is. The cop has control over snakes, jackals, spiders, scorpions, wolves, and every other creepy animal he can get his mind on. From here I can't say much more but you can get an idea that this ain't no regular cop. More like a bat out of hell. It is a very well written story (as always Mr. King!). It has about 8 people's perspectives it follows. So as you get into how one character sees it, another character gives you a different perspective. Definitely a horror novel but it's exactly what you want more of from Stephen King. The book also has a large dose of religion as the characters grapel with their faith in God. And God isn't described as all good and mighty. The story shows how only the young boy has a new gained faith where all of the older charcters have lost theirs'. Probably better then the movie even though it isn't even out yet so read it if you would go see this in the theater.
5 out of 5 Page-Turns