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Cyril Araneta _ycy2 — I remember when Black House was released, in 2001, I was working as a porter – trolleyboy! – at Asda supermarket and they had a display stand by the checkouts filled with two colour variants; black with white writing, and white with black. Despite professing to be very anti-Stephen King since I had attempted to read two of his novels previously, before I got my ‘adult reading-head’, and never made it passed the first chapter on either and so deemed him over-rated, I thought this latest novel looked amazing. I especially liked the white cover variant, maybe I have a thing for white novels – I felt the same way when I first saw From the Corner of his Eye by Dean Koontz in Borders –one of the best books I’ve ever read! And besides, maybe it was more of a Peter Straub novel than King, not that I had a clue who Straub was either. I cannot remember how I came to own a copy of Black House, the black cover variant, I assume I bought it myself but it may have been a gift. Either way I had never experienced a first chapter like it. Until that time no book, well maybe one, had given me what I now call ‘that 5 star feeling’ – when you know from the first few pages that you will love every minute spent reading it, and rate it five stars on Goodreads! It had me hooked straight away, I remember thinking as I read it that this was story telling at its’ very best; the way we are given a crows-eye view of the town of French Landing and learn of the slippage – such a fantastic term – from which it is suffering. I didn’t realise until some time after finishing the book that Black House was a sequel to another King-Straub collaboration, The Talisman, and so there was some confusion felt when reading it. I knew nothing of Jack Sawyer’s boyhood adventures in The Territories, and I had never heard of The Dark Tower. So this novel was my first brush with The Crimson King, ‘breakers’, ‘twinners’ et al, and I no doubt would have appreciated and enjoyed it even more – if that were possible – had it not been. I would certainly recommend anyone who hasn’t done so to read, at the very least, The Talisman before reading this one. So without wanting to give away too much, what did I love so much about this book? The story-telling, as I’ve said, is amazing. The characters, especially the villains, are brilliant too. Charles Burnside, otherwise known as The Fisherman, is one of the most sinister characters you will ever read. One of the scenes I remember most is where he disappears from the lavatories in the retirement home where he lives, just his slippers remaining on the floor by the toilet. So creepy and, If I remember correctly, is the first time it is shown there is an unnatural power behind the child-murderer. This takes me to another villain of the story, Lord Malshun. I would have to reread the novel to be sure why, but for some reason whilst reading about him I pictured The Judderman from the old Metz drink advert. It is probably nothing like the image King and Straub intended for their readers but served me pretty well – it was always an advert I found pretty scary! There are far too many great characters in this novel for me to cover every one, so I will only mention one other, that of Henry Leyden/George Rathburn, the blind disk jockey that features in possibly the most memorable scene of the whole novel. I will not spoil things for anyone who has yet to read it, but will just say that Leyden encounters The Fisherman, who is wielding a pair of sheers, and reading what happens is one of the most tense literary experiences I’ve had – real edge of your seat stuff, if that were possible with a book! If I am entirely honest, the ending did leave me a little disappointed. But then that is often the case with the best of novels – how can a destination live up to such an incredible journey? I felt at the time that King had influenced the novel too much at the end, and that everything I enjoyed was the work of Straub. As I’ve said, I didn’t have my ‘adult reading-head’, or more accurately I hadn’t fully developed it yet. I have since read many Stephen King novels and he is without a doubt my favourite author. And, having since read The Talisman and The Dark Tower novels, I feel the ending would have done anything but disappoint were I to read Black House for the first time now – I’m jealous of anyone who gets to do that! So if you are lucky enough to be a Stephen King fan, or even if you aren’t, who hasn’t read Black House, enjoy! I guess I still think of it as a King novel, but I should really look into reading some Peter Straub too. By the way, the two King novels I had tried and failed with before were IT and The Stand, two epic novels that I have read since and loved as much as this one – they both gave me that 5 star feeling! The possible one novel that gave me that feeling before Black House, was Daemonic by Stephen Laws – if you haven’t read it, please do, though you may have to find a second-hand copy online as I’ve never found a Laws book in a shop. Also, I recently read NOS4R2 (NOS4A2 in the US) by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King. The villain of this novel, Charlie Manx, reminded me so much of Charles Burnside. And that is another novel I highly recommend.