Revival by Stephen King
On a sunny day in Maine six-year old
Jamie meets Reverend Charles Jacobs for the first time. Jacob’s becomes Jamie’s Fifth Business – the person
that you aren’t related to or even friends with that keeps showing up in your
life again and again and again.
Unfortunately for Jamie Jacobs is his Fifth Business and not someone,
anyone, else. Reverend Jacobs is an
inventor obsessed with electricity, not normal electricity mind you, but what
he calls Special Electricity. With
Special Electricity Jacobs is able to heal, and more. What exactly is Jacobs’ ultimate goal? Jamie knows he will find out, but he also
knows he really doesn’t want to know the answer.
King plays with the word of his
title throughout the book. Think of all
the ways revive and revival can be defined.
That’s the only clue I’ll give you about the novel. Well, okay, I’ll give you one more. Lovecraft fans will be thrilled, Uncle Stevie
finally “went there” in this one. I can’t
say anything else without giving away major plot points but I can say that the Necronomicon
is mentioned in this novel.
The novel starts off slow and you
have to wonder why King is telling you so much but as the plot starts moving
faster and faster it all comes together.
All those “extraneous details” surrounding Jamie’s life are important
once again. On audio the beginning was
particularly slow, but King keeps it entertaining and the dread builds slowly
as the plot moves faster. It worked
really well.
