I recieved an 86 on this as a Book Review

The Regulators

In The Regulators Richard Bachman, pen name of Stephen King, is taking on the ever so used and abused subject of a neighborhood gone-bad. It is a novel falling into the horror genre because of its graphic and horrific murders and punishments by Tak. Tak is an inner being of an autistic child living in the peaceful neighborhood of Wentworth, Ohio. King takes on the neighborhood gone-bad scenario with an original science fiction element.

The Regulators, being my first Stephen King novel, was disappointing. The characters in the book were hardly developed and I was confused through the entire book. King kept jumping around in the plot and setting making the book choppy. In each chapter it was divided into sub chapters, but each sub chapter didn't always pertain to the rest of the chapter. In the novel King would change the scenery with the intention of Tak changing it but no explain is given for why it is changing and what specifically was changed. The greatest disappointment was the fact the King left several of the conflicts unresolved at the end of the book.

Although the book was an overall disappointment there were a few elements that King included in the novel that made the story a worthwhile read. King included an original idea of including newspaper articles, journal entries, letters, and drawings at the end of each chapter to give a good background of what was happening in the story and to the characters. The book did appeal to me due to the fact that King included elements of a science fiction novel as well as those of a horror novel. King used the characters of a science fiction cartoon that came to life and terrorized the neighborhood of Wentworth. When describing the characters and props of the novel, King created a clear and concise image of the elements he devised. Without these elements of the book it would have lost my interest quickly. Thankfully King was consistent with these throughout the novel and that held my attention long enough to finish the book.

There are many things that King could have done to make this book a better and more easy to follow novel. For one thing he should have used less characters and gone into more detail in characterization of those he did use. When he wanted the scenes to be changing he should explain to the reader what is changing to provide clearer imagery of the setting. The most obvious improvement that King should make is to resolve the conflicts presented by the minor characters, while some of these would be omitted if he were to reduce the number of characters introduced into the story.

This book was hardly worth reading due to the poor organization of the story. I would rate this book at a generous three out of five only because of the originality presented by King. Originality is including the excerpts at the end of each chapter and the inclusion of a science fiction and horror theme. I would recommend this book to a Stephen King fan, but discourage any new readers looking to begin reading Stephen King and horror books.