Saturday, October 27, 2012

In the Tall Grass; Stephen King and Joe Hill


Author:  Stephen King and Joe Hill
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Edition: audio
Reader: Stephen Lang
Source: publisher
Date Completed: October/2012
Rating: 3.5/5 
Recommend: yes

I began the collaboration by Stephen King and son, Joe Hill without knowing very much about it and was immediately drawn into the story by the audio book reader, Stephen Lang, and by the end....it is really short, just (2) discs, I was pretty grossed out but I'm still recommending it to horror fans.

Obviously, "the tall grass" is significant, but the main characters in this story are a brother and a sister, Becky and Cal DeMuth; the two are very close.  Becky is expecting a baby (unplanned), and she and her brother decide to take a cross county trip.  As the two are traveling down a Kansas road and decide to pull over at a rest stop. Their windows down, they hear a voice, what sounds like a child's voice calling from the "tall grass" along the roadside. The child sounds like it is lost or in trouble so they decide to try and help, but then they hear what sounds like a woman scolding the child for calling out for help. His mother?

It is at this point that I started to get an unsettling feeling, and he it got progressively dark, twisted and evil from that point on, oh and I have to mention the word "gross" yet again. This story was certainly resonate of the earlier horror-fests of the 80's that King had written.  Try it if you dare.

11 comments:

  1. Just reading your description already sends a chill down my spine. That's why I'm not a horror fan. I've read only one Stephen King book: On Writing. ;)

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  2. I'm so glad you are willing to read gross books and warn me ahead of time.

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  3. Two discs sounds pretty short then, right? Stephen King scares me to death, so I'd have to bolster myself a bit. :)

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  4. I don't think I could do horror on audio - I can barely do it in print.

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  5. I am truly a scaredy cat so I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for this one but I'm almost tempted because I want to know what is really in the grass!!!

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  6. I had the same reaction... gross. Not scarey so much as, well, nauseating. I did like it though. And I'm pretty sure I know which elements of the story were King's doings!

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  7. Well, I love both father and son, so I'll have to give this one a try. As I mentioned on Leslie's blog, I remember the Dreamcatcher was quite gross, but scary, as well. What a family!

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  8. Since I often listen to audios while walking the dogs at night, I don't think I could do this one!

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  9. Might be a bit too gross for my taste but I love the idea of the collaboration between father and son!

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