Duma Key by Stephen King

NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . .

A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a "geographic cure," a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else.

"Edgar does anything make you happy?"

"I used to sketch."

"Take it up again. You need hedges . . .

hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural--Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.

The book starts out a bit slow, which may be why I wasn’t able to get into it the first time I tried reading it when it was first published. But this time it pulled me in, albeit slowly, and never let me go. After that, there was no turning back. A book that I had once put back on the shelf, has become one of my favorite King novels.

Edgar’s journey, through his art and through his evolving relationship with his neighbors, is at times wonderful, at times frightening. Even without knowing where that journey is leading him, the reader is slowly drawn into the history of Duma Key, along with its terrors.

The three main characters are wonderfully drawn, so I couldn’t help but become entwined into their stories. All three have had stunning losses, yet all three still have the strength to carry on. Their tragedies are real; they draw them together in ways both real yet mystical.

In a way, I felt that the horror in this horror story wasn’t really the issue. Though there is horror, I felt that the burgeoning relationships, especially between Edgar and Wireman, were the true heart of the story. It’s a wonderfully powerful novel, and one well worth reading even if you’re not a horror fan.




( TBR Book Links 1-20 )

21. Roses are White by Lesley Lambert
22. Giants' Star (Giants #3) by James P. Hogan
23. Duma Key by Stephen King









Read a Book Featuring Water/Rain




I Read Horror Year-Round List

*Winter Theme, or winter appearance on the cover (snow, ice, etc.) - Ararat by Christopher Golden

*Ghosts or spirits - The Family Plot by Cherie Priest

*Psychological

*Monster or Monsters - Snowblind by Christopher Golden

*A body of water (featured in story, on cover, or in title) - Duma Key by Stephen King

*Really scary book cover

*Woman on cover

*Written by a woman

*Written by a best-selling horror author - If It Bleeds by Stephen King

*Written by an indie author

*Historical horror (must be an historical novel written by a contemporary author)

*Folk horror