KJ's Book Reviews

  Insomnia Written by Stephen King About 780 pages Originally published in 1994 Rate 5/5 This is now officially the longest book I have ever read. Before Insomnia,  the longest book I had read was Midnight Sun . Even though this book was incredibility long and it was required reading, I really loved it. What is Insomnia about? Ralph Roberts is a 65 year old man. His wife, Carolyn, has recently passed away and he has been suffering with insomnia ever since. His symptoms have been becoming hard to ignore, the hallucinations are just the half of it. All of Ralph's friends offer some advice, but nothing works. It seems to Ralph that he will just have to endure it until the day he dies. One day as Ralph was walking around town, he witnesses a car crash and his one loving neighbor Ed Deepneau turns into a fiery ball of rage as he accuses the person who crashed into him of murdering babies. Confused by the accusation Ralph intervenes.  My thoughts on Insomnia There are qui...

  Blaze Written by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) About 260 pages Originally published in 2007 Rate 2/5 This book has a lot of really interesting lore to it. Hopefully my summary of the lore is as accurate as possible. Stephen King wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman because he wanted to be able to write stories without people knowing who it was. He did this as a sort of experiment to see whether his book sells remained the same, went down, or went up. No one really bought any Richard Buchman books at first until he was outed as Stephen King. When that happened, Richard Bachman literally died and they found an unpublished manuscript in a hidden box with his things. Pretty elaborate stuff. What is Blaze about? Blaze is a victim of domestic violence. After countless times being thrown down the stairs by his father at a young age Blaze gets a huge dent in his head that disables his mental abilities. Blaze eventually falls into the wrong crowd and learns that the easiest way ...

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Written by Stephen King About 110 pages Originally published in 1982 Rate 5/5 This is the third book on the required reading list for my Themes in Literature class. Click here to read the " The Shining " review and click here to read the " Carrie " review.  Like all the previous books, I didn't know anything going into this book and I am glad I didn't because I didn't know what was going to happen. That being said, here's a brief glimpse inside the story. Though the title of the book has Rita Hayworth in it, she's not really a character, but she is important to the plot. Shawshank is a prison where the story takes place. The story is told in pieces by a friend of the main character. He doesn't ever directly say his name, so be on the look out for that. What is Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption about? Simply put, this is a story about hope and the American prison system.  My thoughts on Rita Haywor...

  The Shining Written by Stephen King About 560 pages (mass market paper back ed.) Originally published in 1977 Rate 4/5 This is the second book my Themes in Literature class is reading. So far we have only covered Carrie ( hover over this to check out my book review for Carrie ). Though this story has been referenced in the media many times throughout my existence, I tried to avoid it at all costs because I wasn't a fan of horror. Junior year of high school I took a film studies class. The "here's Johnny" scene was briefly mentioned and I was so scared. After reading the book, I now realize how exaggerated my feelings about this story were. I haven't watched the movie and maybe if I did then I would side with my younger self, but right now I feel a little embarrassed. The book wasn't that scary. What is The Shining about? Jack Torrance has recently been fired. One of his good friends gets him a job at The Outlook Hotel, his job is to look after the hotel for...

  Carrie Written by Stephen King About 290 pages Originally published in 1974 Rate 4.5/5 This is the first time I have ever finished reading a horror book. Back when I was in elementary school, my peers read "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark". When I tried to read a couple of the stories in that book, I felt terrified and I remembered the stories for too long after so I stopped reading.  This year I decided to take a course called 'Themes in Literature'. This course focuses on Stephen King's stories. I knew what the course was about before hand, and I knew that I had never felt great about reading ghost stories, but I wanted to read some of King's work. Carrie is the first book the class is reading. We have a set required list, nine books in total so there will be an abundance of Stephen King's books on here in the near future. I had, of course, seen clips from the 2013 Carrie movie on social media and was intrigued. I was planning on reading Carrie b...

  Ugly Love Written by Colleen Hoover About 330 pages Originally published in 2014 Rate: 2.5/5 If you are looking for a really spicy book with little to no romance, this book is for you. Tate is an 23 year old working part time as a nurse and going to university. Her older brother works as a pilot, so when she shows up to move in, he's not there, however, his friend Miles is. Miles is drunk and terribly sad so after a phone call to Corbin, Tate's older brother, she brings Miles inside. As if that wasn't the most romantic meet-cute; they end up sneaking around having casual sex majority of the book. My thoughts on Ugly Love Majority of this romance book contained red flags. The sweet romantic moments were short-lived. Even though both people agree to the 'no strings attached' policy both seem to want more. This might have been somehow passionate, however, Miles just used it as an excuse to be a jerk to Tate. In the end, we realize that he has a very dark past, but so...

  Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot Written by Mikki Kendall About 260 pages Originally published in 2020 Rate: 4.8/5 "While the oppressed can and do fight oppression, what happens when the people who are supposed to be your allies on one axis are your oppressors on another?" (244) Mikki Kendall does a deep dive on how intersectionality has shaped the feminist movement. Through essays Kendall argues that white mainstream feminism isn't as helpful as it sought out to be. Kendall shares how issues such as poverty, racism, hunger, homelessness, and so many other issues are being forgotten when it comes to feminism. This is an excellent book about intersectionality directed towards women who want to become a better feminist. My thoughts on Hood Feminism I agreed with and understood most everything that Mikki Kendall mentioned. Hood Feminism felt very draining to read. Most of the book is about how terrible people are being treated and there's no ...