Return of the King

As I told you back in the day, Stephen King’s Duma Key came out a month ago. I bought immediately, but took my sweet time to start reading it. Once I started, however, I couldn’t put it down. Of course I could not.

Duma Key tells the story of Edgar Freemantle, a survivor of a horrible accident that moves from Minnesota to Florida as an attempt at recovery from his hideous wounds. There he meets new people, starts a new life, and discovers a new hobby that will change plenty of things for plenty of people.

I guess it’s hard to make a book sound interesting with such a vague (and lame) summary, but this book is amazing. The story is very interesting, the mixture of reality and art is electrifying, and the characters and dialogue are out of this world. Any exchange between Eddie and Wireman is a brilliant conversation, a true to life interaction, and both characters are solidly built and magnificently fleshed out.

Lots of things in this book reminded me of another King favorite of mine, Bag of Bones, but Duma Key never felt like a rehash or a repetition of Mike Noonan’s adventures. I would talk at length about these elements, but I’d rather not spoil anything for any potential reader.

To sum it up, Duma Key is ridiculously entertaining, and it’s full of heart and chills. The suspense keeps mounting up until the end, and the characters will stay with you for a long time after finishing the book. Will you enjoy it as much as I did? Maybe sí, maybe no.