This week for the Fiction Friday feature, I am reviewing the horror novel, Black House by Stephen King & Peter Straub. This book was published in September 2001 by Random House and has a page count of 625 pages. This book is a continuation of The Talisman. The audiobook is read by Frank Muller and is 26 hours & 27 minutes in length. The following overview is provided from the B&N page: Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her Territories “Twinner” from an agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world. Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the nearly nonexistent hamlet of Tamarack, Wisconsin. He has no recollection of his adventures in the Territories, and was compelled to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to awaken those memories. When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades ago by a madman named Albert Fish, the killer is dubbed “the Fishman,” and Jack’s buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help the inexperienced force find him. But are these new killings merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleashed in this quiet town? What causes Jack’s inexplicable waking dreams—if that is what they are—of robins’ eggs and red feathers? It’s almost as if someone is trying to tell him something. As this cryptic message becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, Jack is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he may find the soul-strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted tract of forest, there to encounter the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it.
After finishing The Talisman, I didn’t feel the need for a sequel to the book. However, this sequel was everything I didn’t know I needed. I loved this book. I think I enjoyed it more than the original. It did tie up a few lingering questions I had. If you wanted to know what became of the characters after the events of The Talisman this is a must-read for you. There is no loss in the magic from the first to the second. I will always love the way King and whoever his co-author is writes the characters.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Tomorrow for the Missing Person Saturday feature, I am highlighting the missing person’s case of Barbara Vaita Semi. Next week for the Fiction Friday feature, I am reviewing the young adult science fiction novel, Tarnished are the Stars by Rosiee Thor. Until then keep reading on; Nerd out!
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