By: Stephen King
Overweight and recently divorced, Scott Carey is a web designer who has stumbled across the opportunity of a lifetime. However, he soon discovers that his life might not be taking the course he had hoped as he has developed a unique problem, the kind doctors can’t fix. Scott has been steadily losing weight everyday which doesn’t seem strange until he realized that no matter what he wears or what he holds, his weight doesn’t change on the scale.
Meanwhile, he must try to overcome the tension with his next-door neighbors, two married women newly arrived in Castle Rock. The two ladies run a local vegetarian restaurant which has been shunned by the locals who don’t feel two women should flaunt their same-sex marriage. One wife is kind while the other is hostile, so Scott has his work cut out for him.
Elevation started out so strong. The premise was fun, the characters seemed okay, and it was going to be a short read. However, as the story progressed, I realized I wasn’t going to get what I hoped for out of novella. For starters, the details and plot were rushed which would have benefited greatly from a little TLC and some fleshing out. This is the fluffiest story I have yet to read of King’s. An attempt at being impactful and heartwarming while missing the character development and emotion I’m used to from him.
The characters, especially the lesbian characters, were shallow caricatures at best. I respect what King was trying to do. This is a story about overcoming adversity in a conservative setting, but the execution left much to be desired.
Other than the novel Bird Box, I also don’t tend to like stories that introduce a mysterious and/or paranormal element that never gets explained. I need at least some details when it comes to the origin of a character’s circumstances. Do you want to know why/how Scott is losing weight? Sorry, you’ll never find out. If that’s a deterrent for you, then I’ve spared you purchasing a $20 book that’s only 146 pages.
That’s another thing that irritates me. Why the crap was this novel the same market value as a hardback of a considerably larger size? I was glad that I got my copy at HPB for $7. I would have been angry to have forked over full retail price for this story.
At least the illustrations were cute. The story is too I guess if you are looking for a lighter read (no pun intended). Don’t know how much you will get out of the plot though.
Overall rating: 3
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