The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)

About the book: By nightfall, almost everyone in the quiet town of Wentworth, Ohio will be dead, and the survivors will be whisked away to the world of regulators--where terrifying nightmares come true. The impending carnage seems to revolve around an autistic 8-year-old; but until he speaks, the residents of Wentworth will never know why the regulators have come, what powers they possess, how far they will go, and how they can be stopped.

First line: Summer's here. Not just summer, either, not this year, but the apotheosis of summer, the avatar of summer, high green perfect central Ohio summer dead-smash in the middle of July, white sun glaring out of that fabled faded Levi's sky, the sound of kids hollering back and forth through the Bear Street Woods at the top of the hill, the tink! of Little League bats from the ballfield on the other side of the woods, the sound of power-mowers, the sound of muscle-cars out on Highway 19, the sound of Rollerblades on the cement sidewalks and smooth macadam of Poplar Street, the sound of radios - Cleveland Indian baseball (the rare day game) competing with Tina Turner belting out "Nutbush City Limits," the one that goes "Twenty-five is the speed limit, motorcycles not allowed in it" - and surrounding everything like an auditory edging of lace, the soothing, silky hiss of lawn sprinklers. (That's one long sentence.)

My thoughts: I found this to be a scary fun read. It took a little to get going but when it did it didn't let up till the end. What amazed me was that this chunkster took place over the course of 2 or 3 hours one afternoon. King did his thing here placing normal, everyday people in a horrific situation. There were a lot of characters but I found them surprisingly easy to keep straight. Maybe it was that they kept getting killed off. The evil force known as "Tak" that takes over Seth is well written and I found it interesting and disconcerting that it was so evil yet loved such childish things: chocolate milk, a certain cartoon, old cowboy movies and shows etc. It (Tak) used these things it loved to decimate the neighborhood. What could be scarier than knowing you were being attacked by a cartoon character with Hoss Cartwright riding shotgun? It was rather gory in places but that is to be expected. If you are a fan of King or horror fiction you'll like this book.

Rating:

Quote: And, far back in the network of caves and tunnels and boltholes the boy had constructed 9the part of him that did not want Tak, the part that was horrified of the stranger now living in his head,) Tak caught a glimmer, a faint pulse, that it recognized.

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Stephen King