The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Mass Market Paperback, 770 pages
Published March 15th 1987 by Berkley
First published November 8th 1984

Jack Sawyer (#1)


Officially the worst book I've read by King as I continue to reread his books in chronological order. First, while I do distinctly remember owning this book when it came out, I had absolutely no recollection of the story whatsoever and now I understand why as it is so forgettable. This book needs to loose 400 or so pages to make it a decent YA fantasy. The book is indeed very adolescent, coming mostly from a 12-year-old's perspective there is hardly anything in the majority of the book to offend anyone. I'm surprised at how cliched the story is. Jack finds out there is an alternate world. His mother is dying in this world and the Queen, who is his mother's twinner, is dying in the other. He has been chosen to be the one who must travel west across the country to find the talisman which will rescue the Queen and his mother. So off he goes on a journey with pages and pages of nothing happening. Even the big showdown at the end with good vs evil was more campy than anything else. I really had to force myself to finish this book, and then only for the sake of my chronological project.