Corey's Reviews > The Tommyknockers

Man, Stephen King has written some good but bizarre stuff, and I gotta say The Tommyknockers is by far the most bizarre I've read by him, but good, I know it's very controversial and it gets a lot of hate, even by Stephen King himself, that's the reason I've been putting off reading this for the longest time. But I went into it with an open mind and I really ended up liking it.

The Tommyknockers takes place in the small, isolated town of Haven, Maine, local woman and writer Roberta "Bobbi" Anderson stumbles upon a mysterious object buried within the woods near her house. Bobbi begins digging, and soon discovers that the object is an abandoned alien spacecraft that has been buried for nobody knows how long. Soon the residents of Haven become affected by the object, becoming possessed and doing terrible deeds.

The central character, James Eric Gardener (goes by Gard), a poet and alcoholic is the only one who seems to be immune to the effects of the spacecraft, and he sees Bobbi begin to decline rapidly and slowly become less human. Bobbie, Gard and the townspeople continue to unearth the ship and learn it's secrets. Slowly the town of Haven becomes under siege by it's supernatural force, except for Gard.

The first half tended to drag a bit but during part 2 is when it really starts to pick up. I can understand after reading it why it's so controversial. I did some further reading on the background, found out that King was still going downhill with his drug addiction when The Tommyknockers was published, and his wife Tabitha had had enough and demanded he get his act together. Stephen King, even though he bashes The Tommyknockers, calling it an awful book, also quotes There's really a good book in here, underneath all the sort of spurious energy that cocaine provides, and I ought to go back.

It's not everyone's favorite SK story, but I enjoyed The Tommyknockers for what it was, a good mix of Horror and Science Fiction!