Read: On Kindle
Paid:£4.99
Reason I choose it: Someone at work recommended it after I finished reading The Shinning.
Summary
Castle Rock is a small town in Maine where people make it their business to know almost everything. So when a new shop is opening in town everyone is curious, the phone lines are buzzing and the tongues are wagging about what might be opening.
Little do they know how much distraction this little shop is going to cause which is owned by what they think is a perfectly kind, caring and somewhat hansom (in their mind) sales man, the only thing they do know is that they don't like being touched by him as it makes their skin crawl, this man is called Leland Gaunt!
Leland Gaunt has an almost empty shop but even more strange is that the living space within the shop is also empty but the people visiting his shop do not know this and are often drawn in by something that reminds them of their past or that their heart desires and can not leave the shop without it. There is a small price to pay for the items but only if you agree to play a little prank on someone when Gaunt requires it. These little pranks are intended to go out of control but the person doing them, though weary about what they are doing first but are overcome by the power of what ever Gaunt holds over them to see it through, in some cases he may even blackmail you into thinking that he's going to take your precious item.... some people can't even bare to leave the house and sit with it in their lap all day...
The item purchased by the buyer is not at all what it seems....
My opinion
I absolutely loved the idea of this book and in parts really enjoyed it but it took me nearly all my holidays to read it because it dragged. It should have been half the length as a lot of it was repetitive... Polly's arthritis, Casino Night, some people's possessiveness to their item, 2 different views of the same event, Alan's wives accident, Danforths gambling addiction.....I only need to read it once! There were just too many people to get to know, you got used to one character and then it moved to someone else and it could be a a couple of chapters before you heard about that person again and it was the same thing all over again.
The end of this book was so disappointing too as I imagined that Leland Gaunt would have been taken care of once and for all so he couldn't continue ruining lives the way he was but it wasn't the case, it was a joke the way he left.
Over all though this book just freaked me out, it was so damn creepy, its scenes too graphic in detail that I was cringing and the sexual scenes were.... I can't even describe them. I don't like them in books anyway but these were just odd.... I won't be forgetting this book for a long time.
Rating
Rating
Have you seen the film?
