The Dead Zone

Okay, another King book, here's another list of things I knew about The Dead Zone before reading it: psychics, it got turned into a semi-successful tv series, and it's generally well-regarded among King fans. This one was a bit shaky for me, with parts I loved and parts that kinda bored me. A young teacher in Maine goes out on a date with a colleague, and on his way home later that night he gets into a car accident and goes into a coma for five years. When he wakes up he struggles with the fact that five years of his life have just passed him by; not only that, but some very latent psychic powers he had got turned way up over the course of the coma- merely touching people will often result in a psychic premonition. First thing, this book probably would have still been pretty great without the psychic angle. It was heartbreaking watching his girlfriend wait for years before moving on, and seeing him eventually deal with the fact that she has. The coma basically turned his mother into a religious nut, and combined with five years of hospital bills he now has to pay it's easy to feel for the guy. It's interesting just watching him try to put his life together in unexpected ways after a horrible accident. But King also throws in the whole "he's a psychic" thing and for the most part that's pretty great too- another unwanted change in his life that he's forced to deal with. But the whole thing ended with a kinda weird subplot that King had alluded to throughout the book but never really caught on for me. I mean, this book was great when it focused on a guy trying to push forward after his life is changed in big ways, so ending it with a political plot didn't make much sense to me. The last third of the book probably would have worked better as a sequel. Still though, I liked The Dead Zone.