Elevation by Stephen King

Elevation follows our main character Scott as he's noticed he's been continuously losing weight. No matter how many layers he wears and how heavy his clothes are, he still seems to weigh the same weight. A short bind up novella, Scott tries to figure out what's wrong with him whilst trying to mend his rocky relationship with his same sex relationship-neighbours. 

If you're a Constant Reader like myself or have a very good knowledge on King, I know what you're thinking; "Isn't that a similar plot to Thinner?"

Yes. Yes, it is.

I haven't actually read Thinner yet, I've just watched the movie but I can most definitely find the similarities within the two plots.

Although, from my perspective, it seemed like this element wasn't a huge part of the plot. I mean, yes, it's a huge element especially during the end of the book - which I'll talk about later, but realistically, Elevation is based more on Scott's relationship with his lesbian neighbours.

If you don't follow Stephen King on social media, he is very vocal on his political views and I feel like Elevation was just a way to shine light on his acceptance of diversity per se.

I don't disagree with Stephen King's political views, in fact, I believe we have very similar views. But, I can see how a lot of King fans were not a fan of this book because of their political opinions.

He shines a lot of light towards Scott's lesbian neighbours which isn't something that King has added in any of his novels from my knowledge.

I didn't actually mind his element, I was actually quite excited to see a level of diversity added to King's work in which we don't see very often.

Writing-wise, I think it might be a little hard to detect that this is a King novel. Like I said earlier, there aren't very many horror elements that are added besides the excessive losing weight that Scott is experiencing.

Character-wise though, I did end up liking all the characters.

At the beginning, I really disliked Deirdre, one of Scott's neighbours, mainly because she was so aggressive, almost and demanding. She didn't give Scott any opportunity to explain himself when the dog situation occurred (his dog constantly takes a dump in her lawn - nothing too huge, don't worry.) Yet, as he tries to mend the relationship, she doesn't give Scott much of an opportunity at the beginning.

But, I'll have to admit that I do start to end up liking her after we really get to know her backstory which is definitely incredibly sad.

Throughout the novel, you get to know all the characters and their stories, and although this is a short novella, King does an amazing job at allowing the reader to become attached to these characters in the short period of time.

At the end of the book, Scott eventually disintegrate into the air which was incredibly heartbreaking to me. Mainly because we become so attached to this character only to have him "die."

When I went looking for this book on release date, I was hoping for a huge, hefty book; not necessarily the size of IT or The Stand but maybe the size of Desperation or Dreamcatcher, maybe even the size of Mr. Mercedes or Revival.

This book is smaller than Gwendy's Button Box and for those who don't know King books that well, size-wise, this book is smaller than an average paperback book, and is about 150 pages long.

It also runs for $25CAD (It was on sale when I purchased this book on release date so thankfully, I only had to pay $10.)

I feel like King should have kept this novella in a future bind up instead of actually publishing this as a book itself.

It's a well done story, not my favourite King book but also not my worst King book, but I feel King should have published this alongside other short stories together.

I did really enjoy Elevation, maybe more than my fellow peers, but I wouldn't recommend it for all King readers or readers trying to get into King.

 With that being said, I do think this is a great story to read as our world is falling apart.

What do you guys think? Do you think King should have published this in a short story bind up? Or do you like the fact that he published this on it's own? I'd love to hear your thoughts!