Revival by Stephen King

Revival follows our main character Jamie Morton throughout stages of his life: childhood, teenage years, adulthood and even beyond. Through all of these stages, a man named Charles Jacobs, a Reverend at Jamie's church, has impacts Jamie, starting with when he met him as a young boy. When Jacobs' family overcomes a tragedy, the preacher curses God and goes against him, moving away from his local town. Fast forward about 30 years, Jamie is a heroin addicted and was kicked out of his long-time band, when he meets Jacobs again and they find out their bond may seem more devilish than the Devil himself.

This book is so freaking good.

I went into this novel not knowing anything; and honestly, even my review synopsis above doesn't even cover the whole story, because theres so much to it.

I want to start off with the characterization in this novel because that is one of my favourite things about any book, whether its a comic or a novel.

At the beginning of the book, we meet Jamie as he's a young boy; I believe he's around the age of five - he might be a little older or a little younger but I'm sure he's no older than 6.

Right off the bat, I fell in love with Jamie's character. I love King's characters especially his child characters because they are so realistic and easy to love, almost as if I see them as my own. We see Jamie's shy/humbleness as a kid, so innocent, meeting this new guy that he automatically already trusts. 

We also see his relationship with his older siblings; those who car for him, those who bicker with him, etc. and it seems like a genuine relationship between siblings.

I also absolutely love our introduction to Jacobs as well. He's so genuine, especially with Jamie and they seemed to bond together well.

In all honesty, typically in a book, I'll have at least one character that annoys the crap out of me and in Revival, I had none. Maybe Jacobs near the end but it's really his way of grief - which I'll dive into a little later. 

I loved seeing Jamie grow throughout the book with his angsty, bad boy self into a middle aged man, involve with the same girl he first fell in love with. It was also quite heartbreaking seeing Jamie go through this negative transition of addiction, which I wonder if King ever related himself through Jamie's character.

One of the things that really did interest me was Jacobs' engineer-esque builds. One of our first encounters of Jacobs building something to possibly cure is when one of Jamie's brothers loses his voice and he uses this homemade equipment to bring his voice back to life; which is quite interesting.

 This gives the reader an insight as to what happens in Jamie's future and near the middle to end of the book.

The book ends with a very old and dying Jacobs creating this new machine and using it on a technically, but not quite dead women in hopes that he can create a portal to where people go after they die, in hopes that he can talk to his wife and son.

In doing so, Jamie and Jacobs releases this paranormal being called Mother who is quite dangerous. 

I loved this element. It brings the classic King element into a coming of age story. But I was also quite mad at Jacobs - honestly, I strongly disliked Jacobs' character from when Jamie meets him again until this scene where I start to feel sorry for him. But seriously.

This element was also one of the only things I disliked about this book as well. I spent the whole book waiting for a supernatural element, and although the coming of age story was quite nice. I, personally, waited the whole book just to meet Mother and I noticed that was something I had to deal with, with other King novels I've been reading lately.

But other than that, I love King's writing as always. It was a fast read and I overall did love it, I just wished the supernatural element was added a little earlier.

Have you read Revival? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below or on my Instagram!