Blog

Book: Dolores Claiborne

Author.

Genre: thriller

Feature: psychological realism

Rating (1 to 6): 5

Back when we created our instagram page @booksy0 , it was the first book I held in my hands then. I am a Stephen King fan, I can even claim that most of the books in my home library are his.

I love his stories because they make me cringe, there's always suspense and a moment of surprise, and after reading Dolores Claiborne I fell in love with his writing even more. The novel is quite different from what I was used to reading from the author. A mother's love rules, rearranges events and is a guiding force that no one can beat. In short, I can say about the plot that it is intriguing, different and quite realistic. Dolores is accused of murder. When her daughter Selena reads about her mother's arrest in the newspaper, she goes back to their Maine hometown and not because she thinks Dolores is innocent, quite the opposite, she has suspected her for 20 years. The book begins in the interrogation room where Mrs. Claiborne agrees to tell everything down to the smallest detail "This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." Slowly, past and present, memories and facts are unravelled, the terrible truth of two mysterious deaths is revealed. And as in most Stephen King books, there is a very big and long explanation for everything that cannot be understood from the first word or stanza. The novel is so detailed that it gives the reader a sense of being involved in the story, empathizing with it. Interestingly, mythical creatures do not appear, ghosts and possessed objects are not present. The monster that lurks in this book is the person close to us, the one we trust and rely on, which is the greatest horror. The heroine in the book relives the nightmare, over and over again, with the first rays that touch her face and until the last lamp goes out at night before she falls asleep. Everyday life is her nightmare, and the people in it are the real demons. When fear haunts you every day and you see it in the eyes of the person in your house it is scarier than one can imagine. Dolores's story is not fiction that scares more than the monster under the bed. The realism is what can make the reader hold their breath, feel horror, sympathy and sadness all at the same time. 300 pages that talk about life, women, men, children, everyday life - "Sometimes being a bitch is the only thing left to a woman".

There is a deep meaning in every Stephen King book besides horror and this one confirms that opinion of mine. I have read quite a lot of opinion about the novel in question. There are those who find this work of his weak, whether because of the lack of the supernatural, I can't say, but I'm definitely not of that opinion. You can tell a great author by how he handles words, how each of his works can be distinguished from the last, and Dolores Claiborne is just such a book - different and profound. It reads in one breath, despite the volume, and I'm not talking about the pages, but the volume of emotions it evokes - fear, laughter, regret, power, spark. If you haven't read the book, read it, I guarantee you won't regret it, you won't waste your time, and you will see another side of Stephen King who can write about a mother's love, about protecting those we love, about the fear and terror in people's eyes, and about the ability to hurt so that you don't get hurt because you have to fight and because everything has a cost and a reason.