Book Review: The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

The Tommyknockers is a wild ride from start to finish. I wanted to get off so many times, but the sheer insanity had me holding on white-knuckled until the very end.


“Late last night and the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door.”
Bobbi Anderson is out walking her dog in the area behind her house one day when she trips over a metal object buried in the ground. She becomes compelled to dig it up, discovering a flying saucer that has been buried for thousands of years....

The Tommyknockers is a bit all over the place - and this is of course easily explained by the fact that King wrote this under a haze of cocaine and alcohol, it was at the height of his addiction - some parts were SO GOOD, and I could easily fly through huge chunks. And then the pacing would slow waaaayyyy down, pages bloated with lots of unnecessary descriptions of batteries and Jim Gardener’s conspiracy theories... it was painful.

I feel like there’s a good story in here. Somewhere. I love when King focuses on a small town and all its inhabitants, and the potential is there in Haven, but it’s never fully executed for me. A lot of the characters simply merged together and I couldn’t differentiate one from the next, apart from Bobbi and Jim.

I have to say though, I thought the ending was fantastic. The book is split into three parts and the final section was the strongest, I felt. King also managed to use a vending machine in one of the most entertaining ways possible - and there were SO MANY fun Easter eggs! From The Talisman to The Dead Zone to IT and so forth. I enjoyed the hell out of these!

However, to be honest, as I was writing this review and thinking back over what happened in this novel, I’m still fucking confused as to what the hell was going on...my brain just didn’t retain some parts? I’d say a reread would really help, but I can’t look at this one for at least another decade... 2.5 stars.

Thanks to @skipbassman for the most well-coordinated buddy read! I’m glad we had each other during this one!

Johann
x

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