My Feelings Are Mutual With The Author - The Tommyknockers Review

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The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

The Tommyknockers is about our main character Bobbi Anderson who stumbles across this box in the ground and decides to dig it up. With help from her friend Jim, they decide to dig up what they realize is an alien spaceship, uncovering the mysteries of the town and how the ship got there.

It was.. okay.

Originally on my GoodReads, my review for this book was 3.5 stars. But after thinking about it, long and hard, there isn't much I really enjoyed, so I'm changing it to a 2.5 stars instead. So far, the lowest I've rated a King book.

Personally, I don't think The Tommyknockers was one of King's best books. Just like Christine, I felt like this book ran on for a long while.

There was a base to the plot that I understood and could grasp onto, yes. But there were so many elements in the plot that I feel like were adding side stories to the novel that weren't really necessary or ran on for more than what was needed.

This book is about 700 pages (I believe) long and I feel like if King condensed this novel, it would have been amazing.

The beginning was very slow for me. Up until about the end of the first book, the novel was so slow and hard to get into. It starts to pick up a little after then goes slow again. Honestly, the book was a rollercoaster between great plot delivery and pretty boring.

Character-wise, none of the characters really stuck to me. That is quite a bummer for myself because characters are one of the first things I look into while reading but with the novel, I can't really say if I love them or not.

One of the coolest aspects of this novel is the connections with Pennywise from Stephen's well-known novel IT.

If you don't know or aren't a "Constant Reader," Stephen King likes to somehow connect all his novels together, making minor references to his other books in the books you are currently reading.

With the Tommyknockers, there were many instances where there was Pennywise references included in the novel. For example, at one point whilst the family is in Derry (where IT is based), one of the kid's is placed in the hospital. From there, while laying in his hospital bed, he admits he hears laughter coming from the sewer and although he wishes he were dreaming, he wasn't.

I think that was one of my favourite elements in not just this book but in all of King's book as well.

In an interview with Rolling Stones, Stephen King says this:

I mean, The Tommyknockers is an awful book. That was the last one I wrote before I cleaned up my act. And I've thought about it a lot lately and said to myself, "There's really a good book in here, underneath all the sort of spurious energy that cocaine provides, and I ought to go back." The book is about 700 pages long, and I'm thinking, "There's probably a good 350-page novel in there."

And I agree. I see a lot of potential in this novel, but I feel like it's a little too lengthy and added too much detail that shouldn't have been added.

Overall, it was more of a fun read because of the reference aspect. But I don't think this would be the type of book I'd recommend to readers who are new to King and want to get into it or are looking for King's best work.