Best examples I can think of are Stephen King’s The Gunslinger and The Stand. His George Lucasing killed the vibe in the Gunslinget to make it look like he had everything planned out ahead of time and the Stand was already too long but now it’s way too f**king long. The best part is how you cant get the originals in any modern edition, hooray

That’s pretty much Rouge by Mona Awad, aka “this is why we can’t have nice things” the book

Every time I have to read “eyes one color with flecks of another” it sears off another layer of my brain

Project Hail Mary just by virtue of not having any romance side plot (and only one shittily written sex scene but what good is a chicken salad without that one ingredient you wish they’d leave out but never do). Not gonna lie bar is pretty low this year I’ve had some bad picks, 37 books so far and about 9 good ones

holds up Valley of the Dolls

I just think it’s neat

Liked Ninth House fine but Hell Bent kind of ruined it for me

I could write a damn college thesis about how much I hate 11/22/63, Tender is the Flesh or anything by Grady Hendrix

One time I was working at an art festival and didn’t have anything to do until it was time to take tents down so I read all of Stephen King’s Desperation in like seven hours. It was the mass market paperback and was around 800 pages. Yeah, I can’t read that fast anymore now I’m happy if I can do 100 pages a day

That’s on my radar but I’ve got to be the right mood for a long book like that

I think I just don’t like a bunch of kid characters but tbh after dropping In the Lives of Puppets I think TJ Klune was a one hit wonder with Under the Whispering Door

11/22/63 was the book that made me finally quit Stephen King

Song of Achilles was like watching paint dry

House on the Cerulean Sea was a huge letdown after Under the Whispering Door (and after not even finishing In the Lives of Puppets starting to think Klune was a one and done)

Hell Bent pretty much dropped everything that made Ninth House good because this one guy was so special and important and we just have to get him and his big glowing dick back

The Great and Secret Show was great until the main characters were introduced

Whalefall was a two short stories in a trenchcoat pretending to be a novel

Not even going to comment on Prince Lestat it knows what it did

1. Hugo and Wallace from Under the Whispering Door (still think that book took the cowards way out tho)

2. Lyon and Anne from Valley of the Dolls (she needs to wise up and leave his worthless ass and he needs to stop gaslighting her into thinking he ever wanted anything more than a hit and quit)

3. Pat and Tiffany from The Silver Linings Playbook (mostly because nobody else is going to put up with their shit)

4. Darlington and Dawes from Ninth House (unfortunately Dawes has a severe case of “not the main character” syndrome