Sunday, May 03, 2015

Review: Revival



Revival by Stephen King


My rating:



But who is screenwriting our lives? Fate or coincidence? I want to believe it’s the latter. I want that with all my heart and soul.


Jamie Morton's life is about to be changed when a new pastor – Charlie Jacobs - gets to his town. Charles Jacobs is a singular man, really... except he likes to play with electricity. Everything is normal with him until one day his beloved wife and son dies. That's when things get messy in his life. He stops believing in God and he starts to take his little experiments more seriously.

Religion is the theological equivalent of a quick-buck insurance scam, where you pay in your premium year after year, and then, when you need the benefits you paid for so—pardon the pun—so religiously, you discover the company that took your money does not, in fact, exist.


The book is narrated by Jamie. I was kind of surprised when I saw it was 1st person POV, because I was accustomed to SK's flawless omniscient narration, but it did well for me. In fact, I think I liked it better, but that's mainly because my favourite kind of narration is 1st person, past tense POV.

It has a really slow start, but trust me when I say it is worth all the wait. Jamie starts the book by telling us how he met his “fifth business” and from there he tells us his entire life up until the point in which he meets Jacobs again, which is when things started to get... let's say... interesting.

This is how we bring about our own damnation, you know - by ignoring the voice that begs us to stop. To stop while there's still time.


You'll never look at life and death the same way after reading this book. I'm not going to spoil people who haven't read this, but trust me on that. I read the same thing in many reviews and all I though was “please, a damn book is not going to change my view of religion and death”. How wrong I was.

The writing and characterisation was as perfect as ever. All the characters were flawed and realistic and well-developed. No complaints about that. As for the writing... as I said, it was amazing. Vivid descriptions, with passages in which the narrator seemed to ramble (only later you would discover the ramblings were necessary) and start talking to you, easy to read, etc.

Something happened. Something, something, something.


I'm not going to get over this book any time soon. Right now, I'm going to try to go to bed and I just know I'm gonna have a very philosophical night. Tomorrow I'll probably wake up in an existentialist crisis (another one), but you know what? It's totally worth it. If my Twitter feed tomorrow is filled with philosophical, nonsensical, depressed ramblings, Stephen King is to blame.



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2 comments:

  1. Ooooh, existentialist crisis. Do want. And by that, I mean I want any book that will make me feel that way.

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    1. YAS! You should really read it. It's slow as a slug at the beginning, but it's totally woth the wait. I didn't write the spoiler here, but when/if you read it, you HAVE to tell me what you thought. And also, yes: Damn existentialist crisis. Can't stop thinking about this book.

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