Book: The Dead Zone

 Book: The Dead Zone

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 528

This s my 138th read for the year

This is the story of Johnny Smith.  He is a young teacher who has a new girlfriend and a new job.  One night after taking his girlfriend to the fair, he is hurt in a car accident and is in a coma for almost 5 years.  When he wakes up, his girlfriend has moved on and his mom has become a really religious person praying everyday for Johnny to wake up.  Johnny wakes up and suddenly has abilities to see people's futures and past - but only if he touches them or they touch him.  He starts to get mounds of mail - fans and hate mail alike - and he wishes everyone would just leave him alone.  He is released from the hospital and has to come to terms that his long ago girlfriend is married with a child, his job is gon, and now he feels cursed with information he wishes he didn't have.  When he finds out the future of a politician running for office, he decides he needs to take action before this politician does something that could hurt the country.  However - he continues to get more and more out of control - not sleeping or eating - as he plans how he is going to stop the politician.

This was a pretty good book.  I loved the idea and the writing overall was very good.  I kept wanting to return to the book to finish it, which I took as a good sign.  Johnny is an interesting character.  There were a lot of interesting characters in the book.  I really didn't like his mom, but she wasn't central to the book.  I didn't really like the section about the politician and Johnny's planning.  It just seemed to drag on.  It was such a slow build that it bordered on rambling.  But overall a good read.

Stars: 4