The Dead Zone

This is a classic King novel with superbly written support characters especially John's father Herb, and girlfriend Sarah letting you really feel the emotions of what they are all going through.

John Smith is a popular high school teacher and with a beautiful colleague as a girlfriend life couldn't be better. In fact Sarah has promised him he will get lucky with her for the first time once their date at the county fair ends. On the way out the Wheel of Fortune beckons and John is on the luckiest streak of his life. For Sarah though a bad hotdog means John's lucky streak has hit a hurdle and after seeing her home and to bed postpones their first time and gets in a cab home. The taxi never makes it there and for six years John lies a coma where everyone except his extremely religious mother assumes he will eventually die, in fact most wish for his sake that he mercifully will. They all know that even if he does awake he will be a vegetable with severe brain damage and not the bright intelligent man before the accident. Of course they are 99.9% sure he won't make it at all. Sarah reluctantly moves on with her life, gets married and has a child.

One night John shocks doctors and wakes up, what is even more shocking to John is that he can see glimpses of the future through touching those around him. John has to not only learn to walk again, get his life back on track and cope with the fact that Sarah has moved on, his father has aged and his mother has gone insane but also deal with the burden of this new power. Amongst other things John always pondered the question to his students, if you came across a time machine and could go back in time, with all that you now know would you kill Hitler before his rampage of evil started? John learns a lot about people he shakes hands with and has to decide on the answer to this question for himself.

There are always those who do not want to read Stephen King because they simply do not like horror novels. They do not want to read about killer cars or killer clowns, vampires or the walking dead, or any of that fun stuff that many of us absorb like candy on Halloween night. Fortunately, King does right other tales from time to time, which, ironically, tend to get their names changed when they are made into major motion pictures that refrain from prominently mentioning the authors name in their television commercials (which, of course, is how we know when it is a "good" movie of a Stephen King story). Of all those "safe" Stephen King books (relatively speaking), "The Dead Zone" has the virtue of still being fairly representative of King's entire body of work. That is why when people shy away from reading his work, I insist that "The Dead Zone" is the Stephen King book for people who do not want to read Stephen King.
Like King's epic "The Stand," the story of Johnny Smith takes as its genesis the idea of "not the potter, but the potter's clay." Johnny Smith is just a young school teacher out on a date with Sarah Hazlett at the cheap carnival that has come to town. Things are going well for the couple when they stop to play the wheel of fortune and Johnny predicts the number that is going to up next, time and time again. The experience upsets Sarah, but things go from bad to worse: on the way home Johnny's cab is in a horrible accident and he goes into a coma. When he comes out of it five years later he discovers the world has changed: Nixon has resigned, Sarah has married someone else and there are strange new devices called Flair pens. But Johnny has changed too. Now when he touches somebody he can tell them things, such as where they lost their wedding ring, that their kitchen is on fire, that their long lost mother is alive and well. Johnny Smith is an ordinary man with an amazing gift that terrifies not only others but himself. Certainly, this is an engaging premise: if you were a mind reader what would you do?
But what makes this one of King's best novels is that he ups the ante for his reluctant hero. At a chance meeting during the New Hampshire primary Johnny shakes hands with Greg Stillson, a political thug who is running a low brow populist campaign. In that moment Johnny knows, he absolutely KNOWS that Stillson is going to become President of the United States and start a nuclear war. "The Dead Zone" now becomes about the fact that with great power comes great responsibility as Johnny has to convince himself not only that he should act, but that doing so would be any good. The narrative/argumentative structure of this novel is one of King's best as events concerning Johnny's power lead him step by step to his fate. This is a compelling tale, well told (with the exception of an unnecessary mention of "Carrie"), and more than adequate evidence of why King is one of the best selling authors on the planet.

The Dead Zone by Stephen King is a suspense novel about a man named John Smith. He lives a normal life with a normal job as a teacher. He also has a girlfriend named Sarah. One night Jahn and Sarah go to the carnival in the next town over, and something very strange happens. Johnny walks up to the Wheel of Fortune, a wheel to make bets on and places his money down. Sure enough, the number spun was his number. He contunues to place bets and wins each time. To everyone's amazement, John wins five-hundred dollars before stopping. After dropping Sarah off at her home, John gets in to a taxi. At this moment, his luck starts to change. He gets in to a horrible accident that leaves him in a coma. He finally wakes four and a half years later to a totally different world. Sarah has married another man and his mother has become a religious lunatic. Even more different are Johhny's visions of the future, which he gets when touching people. This first occurs in the hospital when he tells a nurse about her house which is on fire. After this, Johnny helps solve a stirng of murders taking place in Castle Rock, Maine. Johnny's most horrific vision come afterwards. He has a vision of the end of the world when he shakes a local politician's hand.
I believe that this is an excellent book with a great story line. The way the autor uses symbolism and thrilling sub-plots to move the story along is amazing. With all these subplots the story still moves along very smoothly. It remains suspenseful and entertaining until the very end. My favorite part of the book is when Johnny experiences his first vision, of the nurse's sone in a burnig house. This like many other parts of the book is very compelling. King made sure that you would never get bored while reading this book.
I would recommend this book to almost anyone. If you enjoy an interesting and suspenseful story, than this is for you. Also if you are a fan of horror or suspense then this is a "must read book". stephen King's The Dead Zone is a great book that will definately not let you down.

What's left to say about a book that was a bestseller, was later made into a hit movie with major stars, and is currently cashing in as a popular (but cultish) television show? Only this: the book is still the best incarnation of these creations. And it is unique among King's novels.

But first, here's the setup: Johnny Smith, a popular English teacher soon to be wed to a beautiful co-worker, has a very bad ending to what started out as a great night. After courting his lady and winning big on the wheel of fortune, Johnny is involved in a cab crash that leaves him broken, comatose, and upon awakening, permenantly psychic.

He's been out of it for nearly five years, and during that time, he's lost his job, his girl--pretty much everything. Even his parents are on the outs, thanks largely to the financial and emotional stress brought on by his accident. And this "gift," this ability to see the future, torments Mr. Smith, threatens to tear apart what's left of his sanity. He's quickly famous and infamous, savior and freak, less human with each new revelation. And the final one will force him to make an easy, but terrible, choice ...

The things about THE DEAD ZONE that makes it unique among early King books is that it's more dramatic than frightening, more empathetic than kinetic. THE DEAD ZONE makes it as horror, thriller, and mainstream fiction, an important step (along with DIFFERENT SEASONS) towards works in his later career that were similarly rich in a dramatic sense.

(This review has been posted by Marcus Damanda, author of the vampire novel "Teeth: A Horror Fantasy.")

I have heard this book described as "scary" or "terrifying," or whatever other adjective you can use to describe the feeling that makes you sleep with the lights on because it makes you feel more safe. Well, it's not really scary. But, it is an excellent story. It follows the lives of two men who are destined to have an encounter that will change both of them forever. John Smith or "Johnny" is the protagonist and his nemesis is Greg Stillson. After having an incredible run of luck at a state fair gambling table Johnny Smith has to take his girlfriend "Sarah" home because she ate a bad hot dog. After seeing her to bed he takes a cab home and they get in an accident because of some drag-racing teenagers. The cab driver dies and Johnny is left in a coma...for nearly five years. After he wakes up alot has changed, his girlfriend Sarah is now married, Watergate, and other things. He has also changed. His psychic feeling has become stronger in that he can see into people's lives and into their futures by simply touching them. This gift is a blessing and also a curse because it makes him feel that he has a duty once he knows the future of someone. Greg Stillson is an ambitious politician who's "apt to be president." The reader sees that he is not the most kind man in the prologue when the then 22 year-old has a revealing encounter with a farm dog in Iowa. These two characters' fates are intrinsically entwined with each others'. I really could not find any thing in this book that could be described as a fault or a weakness. The characters are interesting and the story is paced exactly right. King also raises some philosophical questions about whether or not to change the future if you could. In the end a gift such as Johnny's is so powerful and extraordinary that it ends up being a curse.

I've always been a Stephen King fan, and this novel ranks right up there on my favourites list. The main character, Johnny Smith, is very strong and is given relatable and lengthy characterization. The format is also quite good. King allows the piece to fall as they may, showing hints of things to come, but never giving too much away. Early in the novel we're introduced to a lightning rod salesman at a bar, but this isn't pivotal until a great deal later (between 250 and 300 pages later, actually). And pivotal is it.
Two things that bugged me, though. King sometimes seems to foreshadow way too much. I know it's just his style -- as I've seen this used in all of his great books, particularly "Eyes of the Dragon", my favourite of his -- and I don't generally mind it too much, but he'll often end several consecutive chapters with clear indication of what happens in the next. In a society that dwells on cliffhangers to keep on reading, I suppose that is one of the reasons he's so popular, but I personally would prefer him allowing the story to tell itself rather than having to end chapters by telling us that the main characters would not meet for another four years. Sure, it gets the reader's interest, but only if the reader's supposed to be uninterested in the first place.
Also, the ending fails to be as universal as it could have been. I loved the questions it raises about assassination, but by having Johnny unsuccessful, King fails to keep the question on a real level, something that could be used in consideration of Lincoln or JFK. If Johnny had succeeded without the speculation, notes and scandals associated with it all afterwords, it would have kept the motives mysterious, something which real life assassins are in many cases.
Matty J

For some reason, my recollection of reading this book before was very vague. Therefore, I went into the rereading process without knowing what to expect at all. Boy, was I surprised. After finishing it, I think that The Dead Zone is one of King's best novels.

The character development is superb and I think that Johnny Smith is possibly one of King's best developed characters. We also spend considerable time with his family members and the principle villains and these characters are all strongly developed and quirky in their own ways.

The story, while not action packed, takes the reader completely into the world of Johnny Smith, a regular guy with a bit of psychic ability and some incredibly bad luck. A big part of the storyline revolves around the political climate of the 70's but it is written in such a way that it stays interesting throughout. I honestly did not experience any moments of boredom with the story.

As I'm finding with several King books that I've re-read lately, The Dead Zone is not really a horror novel at all. There's a little bit of gore and graphic violence and of course King's choice of language is a bit colorful at times, but really this is a good suspense story with a bit of politics and psychic powers thrown in for good measure.

All in all a GREAT novel. I highly recommend it.

For years my mother wouldn't read any Stephen King novels because she was convinced they were all too weird. However, I did convince her to read this one and she was instantly smitten as a fan by the time she was done. The only "weird" aspect of this tale is that the hero is clairvoyant. His powers become hyper charged when he is in a horrendous car crash that leaves him in a coma for four and half years. When he finally wakes, he discovers that just by touching someone or some object, he can see exactly what happened or will happen to that person. The story is about all of the events that happen to him when using this new power.

There is also a love story aspect, which is unusual for King. It's not a major part of the story but it is nicely done what is there. This was made into a movie starring a young Christopher Walken before he became typecast as villains and mobsters later in his career. Walken did a great job and "Dead Zone" is as different for him as it was different for King. Both the novel and the film are excellent and you can't go wrong with either. I recently saw the film on DVD again and it held up beautifully to when I'd seen it when it first came out decades ago.

Visit my blog with link given on my profile page here or use this phonetically given URL (livingasseniors dot blogspot dot com). Friday's entry will always be weekend entertainment recs from my 5 star the store reviews in film, tv, books and music. These are very heavy on buried treasures and hidden gems. My blogspot is published on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

The Dead Zone caught me by surprise by its psychological insight, deep characterizations, and lack of superstitious evil that have been more prominent in King's later novels.

King's "The Green Mile" is the only subsequent novel that has come close to evoking such elemental and emotional turmoil in the reader.

The "Wheel of Fortune" of life has robbed Johnny Smith from leading a normal and quiet life with his girl-Sarah- and instead has dealt him a cursed hand: a hand that has the ability to see brief glimpses of people's lives and occasionally their futures by a mere touch or handshake.

King's prose slowly drugs you into the story with deliberate, methodical pacing by showing you the eerie psychological minds of Johnny's visions and depression, the evil sicknesses of the killer, Johnny's religious zealot of a mother, the corruption and insanity of one man campaigning to one day be the president of the Unites States, and most importantly the mind of Sarah's ruminations of a lost love that could never be but should have been if only that "Wheel of Fortune" on that fateful night had dealt them a different and fair hand.

Although The Dead Zone is classified as a psychological thriller, I also viewed it as a strange, eerie, and tragic love story that never came to fruition due to cruel circumstance, and as Johnny aptly put it:

"We all do what we can, and it has to be good enough.....and if it isn't good enough, it has to do."

I think I would probably put this up as my favorite of all King's books. It has one of the most memorable characters, John Smith, and one of the most intriguing plots.
From Johnny's childhood skating accident through the end of the book, we are completely hooked by this character and what is happening to him. If you liked The Dark Half, you will certainly like the Dead Zone. Both feature essentially good people that we find ourselves really liking, but that become the central focus of the evil as well, thrown into situations that they have no control over.
But one thing that makes the Dead Zone so compelling is the central question that comes...would you sacrifice your own life to save the rest of the world? Johnny's torment is very real because it is so very human. No one can easily walk into the fire, and we'd all like to think that when push comes to shove, we would make the right decision. I loved the fact, though, that even the way things are resolved sort of takes you by surprise. No easy answers or simple solutions in the end, Johnny is above all just an average man who tried his best to do right.
Everything in this book is done just right, from John's relationships with other people, his reactions to his *power*, the development of the essential conflict, the final courtroom transcript to tie up loose ends. Wonderfully written, this will always have a spot on my bookshelf.

The Dead Zone starts out with a bank, then fizzles in the end. John Smith is on the verge of becoming romantically involved with Sarah when he is in a tragic car accident that leaves him in a coma. Smith wakes up 4 1/2 years later with the ability to see a person's past and future by touching them. King does a great job of describing Smith's reentry into the world that had gone on with out him. As King does so well, he makes us feel Smith's pain at losing the years of his life and losing Sarah to another man.
John Smith just wants to lead a normal life, but he still manages to use his power to help people in need. I kept wondering where Smith's power would lead him, and that question was answered when Smith shook the hand of politician Greg Stillson. This is where the book starts to lose its power. Smith obviously gets a vision from shaking Stillson's hand, but King doesn't tell us the exact details of the vision. Instead, King describes Stillson's life in every detail even though he provided plenty of characterization earlier in the book for us to already despise Stillson.
Once you realize what Smith plans to do, you can guess as to his motivations. After the climax, King ties up loose ends by revealing the letters John wrote to his dad and to Sarah before the final climax occurred.
Sarah and Johnny put an end to their relationship in a morally questionable way yet highly understandable. Throughout the book, King hints that Johnny's gift may be from God. King never really finishes that line of thought, but it does make the reader think that Johnny could live with his actions knowing he was sacrificing himself for the greater good. This is a great book except for about 40 pages that are devoted to Stillson, a character we already know enough about.

This one is about a man who, after suffering a childhood head injury and then spending five years in a coma as an adult (what luck!), develops a psychic power. Specifically, when he touches people or objects he can see into the past as well as glimpse the future. The power proves to be both a gift and a curse, and the protagonist's struggles are interesting and believable. The story mostly takes place during the Nixon hangover of the 1970's and the theme of political corruption is dominant. King is a phenonmenal storyteller but this book occasionally illustrates why some do not consider him a first-rate writer. For example, consider this excerpt from the novel's major love scene: "Her fingers dug into him like spurs. Rider and ridden. Old wine decanted at last, a fine vintage." If that doesn't induce a cringe, you probably need to read more. In the end, though, King delivers what you expect: a fun, easy read.

Johnny damages part of his brain while inadvertently interfering with a hockey game. He goes down hard and blacks out. Some years later, he has a mysterious incident with his girlfriend at the time, Sarah. They are at the local fair and he decides to try his luck by playing The Wheel of Fortune. As the wheel spins, it continuously lands on the number he chooses, as the money gets higher and higher in his favor, but apparently this symbolizes that his luck is going to run out sooner or later. Run out it does, as the taxi he is coming home from his girlfriend's house gets into a head on collision with another vehicle, leaving the taxi driver dead, and Johnny deep in a coma.

The Dead Zone begins strong, fast paced and entertaining. We are pulled into the surreal fascination of the carnival, the wheel of fortune, and how this is all going to play out. King uses language brilliantly in the novel's opening scenes, leaving the reader with a desperate need to find out what it really going on with Johnny. After Johnny awakens some years later from his coma, he finds out the whole world has changed. His girlfriend is now married, his dad had given up home, and his mom has gone a bit off her rocker in dealing with religious cults. All of this comes as a shock to Johnny, but the biggest shock of all is his extraordinary gift that he has. He can, by touching a person, or something belonging to them, see into their future, or see what has already taken place, but certain aspects of his clairvoyant vision are blocked, and he can't always figure out the whole picture. This is the area of his psychic vision Johnny calls "the dead zone". Most of the time the things he sees are not positive, which is a sure indicator that danger is coming. Basically there are two remaining plots from here: 1. Johnny's attempt to find a serial killer, and 2. Johnny's battle to stop someone from becoming president. I dare not give anything else away.

The Dead Zone is much like a roller coaster ride, with a highly charged beginning and ending. The ending is fantastic, which makes the book much better than it would be otherwise, due to King's unflinching message coming through at the end. Aside from the beginning and the ending, the rest of the plot is fairly conventional, with not a whole lot of originality. It definitely has its ups and downs. I don't know how effective the book is in dealing what appears to be two totally different stories. One plot is about a murderer in New England, and the other is with an "aspiring to be" president, who could do much damage if elected. I think The Dead Zone would have been stronger if King would have just focused on the latter. That is where the majority of the power in the novel comes from. Yet, it does work both ways and having said that, I did enjoy reading The Dead Zone. Exciting, entertaining, and among King's better works It certainly is no masterpiece when compared to books like The Shining, The Green Mile, or Pet Cemetery. It does have one of the better endings I have read in his books, uncompromising and honest. Unless you were Johnny, you probably would have never seen it coming.

Grade: B+

Once you start reading this book it just grabs you and you'll stay hooked from start until finish. All the characters are so real and amazing. King is the true maestro of horror-thriller fiction. Unbeatable. Ignore his newer works like Gerald's Game, Rose Madder (the worst!), Insomnia or The Green Mile. The Dead Zone is THE Classic Stephen King masterpiece. I've read it 3 times over the last 5 years, and frankly I wouldn't mind picking it up again. The story is very original - the villain in the book was is so evil and real, you just pray you would never meet such a person in real life. And the main character/hero, you just emphatize with him - he who lost years of his life due to a coma and when he woke up was "rewarded" with a cursed psychic power he couldn't control and which he dreads. If you've read the book, you could compare it with the movie starring Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen. Excellent movie! I highly recommend this book to all fiction-enthusiasts. This book ranks among my all time favourites. Other King's books which are similarly well written are Firestarter, The Dark Half, It and Misery. I'm a quarter into his latest book - Bag of Bones. It's OK so far but nothing like The Dead Zone. You really must read it to know fully what I mean.

At its heart, The Dead Zone isn't a horror novel at all. It's a love story, a bitter-sweet tale of a love that might have been. Johnny's relationship with Sarah runs through the middle of the story, the glue that holds Johnny together when everything else seems bleak and hopeless.

I think everybody knows the plot - Johnny wakes from a long coma with the ability to see the future - and what he sees is bleak - unless a single man can be taken out of the equation early. The moral implications, the 'would you go back and kill Hitler if you could' argument drives the story along.

Several themes that would recur in later King novels turn up here - the roads not traveled, a good man trying to do the right thing against seemingly impossible odds, and the corruption of the soul that comes with power. But it is Johnny, the broken man, that gets our whole attention. He's a fully realised individual, one of King's great strengths, and we feel his pain and confusion, firstly after the accident, and then, with increasing hopelessness and horror as his 'gift' demands its price.

I first read this on its initial publication, more than 35 years ago now, and I wasn't sure about going back to it. I was worried that my feelings for it might have been colored by repeat viewings of the Cronenberg movie, and also by the somewhat lacklustre TV series from a few years back. I needn't have worried. As ever, King pulled me in, and I got through it in two sittings with just a coffee break in the middle.

I believe I enjoy it more now than I did then - back in '79 I was only a lad of 21 and I didn't really identify with Johnny's lost years, lost love or fear for the future. An older, more cynical me saw much more of myself in Johnny than I did then, and I do believe it's risen up the ranks in my list of favorite King novels to somewhere near the top five.

Stilton is a great, slimy, villain in counterpoint to Johnny's inate goodness, Sarah is as sweet as I remembered her, Johnny's sacrifices tugged at the heartstrings, and the grace note at the end at the graveside did something it hadn't managed before - this old cynical fart had a wee tear in his eye as he put the book down.

Five out of five stars, and I definitely won't wait another 35 years before reading it again.

NOTE This review first appeared in the KING FOR A YEAR blog review project on 23rd March 2015

http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.ca/2015/03/the-dead-zone-reviewed-by-william-meikle.html

This is my favorite Stephen King novel. Johnny is so vividly portrayed. However, in King's novel, Johnny believes that Stillson's career is tanked after he uses a child as a human shield. However, in reality, America elected a president who once cut off his sick baby nephew's health insurance after a dispute with the baby's parents ([...]). Maybe King could work on a rewrite where America elects Stillson after all? Because we kind of have.

There isn't one King book that I haven't absolutely loved...

It must be old age, because no joke, I think I wept from the beginning to the end.

John Smith was an easy character to fall in love with.

The tragedy of falling in and losing a love meant to be sucks beyond all reason!

I love Stephen King’s talent. Everything he writes has specialness to it. But some of his books have more negative than positive and on balance I end up not liking them much – for example this book.

The first half was engaging. I liked reading about Johnny discovering he had psychic abilities. He hated having them. He was forced to act on his visions like warn someone their house was on fire. The last third of the book was a downer. I was feeling so sad for Johnny. He had a vision of a politician who was going to be worse than Hitler. He asked a few people what they would do if they could go back in time and be near Hitler before he got power. The last part was about that. There were many parts of this book that were wonderful because King wrote it. But I don’t want to read this book again.

The author was too vague with Johnny’s last vision. I did not understand what Johnny saw. The ending was not happy enough. I cried.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
The narrator James Franco was good. This was a sad story and his tone was sad - which fit the story. I was pleased his breaths were removed.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook length: 16 hrs and 11 mins. Swearing language: strong but rarely used. Sexual content: 4 scenes vaguely described (includes one rape murder scene). Setting: 1953 to 1979 mostly Maine and New Hampshire. Book copyright: 1979. Genre: paranormal fiction.

I found this to be a haunting and sad story-- a love story. John Smith has met the love of his life, and is probably on the verge of tying the knot with her. His life is interrupted by a terrible auto accident that leaves him in a coma for 8 years. When he comes out of the coma, his girl is married to someone else, and the world has moved on without him. And when he awakes he has a powerful psychic ability to see the future, evidently triggered by the accident, and activated by touch.
John Smith tries to adapt to his new life and his new power. The rest would be telling. However, it is fair to say that the book moves at a pretty good pace, with a decent storyline and good prose. This isn't one of those King novels that gets bogged down with far-out stuff--it is rooted essentially in reality except for Smith's psychic power. Even that is presented in a pretty believable way, not wildly different from the documented ability of psychic Peter Hurkos.
This is my favorite King novel. I found it to be believable, moving, and upsetting. And a ripping good read.

The hero, John Smith, due to an accident in his youth, is endowed with a special visionary power when he touches someone, a power that was activated by a car accident in his early twenties that caused a long coma of five years. When he comes out of his coma he discovers his power with a nurse. He helps her infant-daughter to be saved from a blaze at her home when the child is alone while her mother is working. This power reveals the present. But then the power his enlarged with the doctor, Dr Weizak, a Polish Jew who survived the assault of Hitler on Poland in 1939. The doctor thinks his mother is dead. But the vision reveals she is alive, living in the US, married under another name. The doctor will call her but will not talk to her, because « it was not meant to be ». This power thus reveals the past and the present. This historical event and the beginning of the Shoah, at least for the Polish Jews, is essential in the dramatic construction of the book. In another case, John Smith will be able to reveal the future, and hence influence the present to change it, and along with the present to change the foreseen future. A young boy he is tutoring in English would die in an ice-hockey event. The boy is advised not to go and he doesn't go, though his father is sponsoring this event. The father does not cancel the event. The accident on the ice takes place , but the boy is safe. So John Smith can change the outcome of an event, hence the future, quite naturally by having an influence on the decisions of the protagonists in the present. This sounds like Back to the Future, but it is not the same thing because in another novel, The Langoliers, in Four Past Midnight (New American Library, New York, 1990), Stephen King shows his vision of time : there is no past because everything is eaten up by the langoliers and there is no future because the future is just the waiting for the coming present. Hence the past is death and the future is the promise of life, but life is nothing but the present. So the past is memory and the future is imagination. You cannot travel in time. But the real core of the book is his meeting with a candidate to the Senate. It appears, in the subsequent vision when John Smith shakes his hand, that he will be President of the United States and will start the final atomic holocaust, the total human Shoah, out of pure craziness, pride and egocentric selfishness. Then John Smith asks for advice from Dr Weizak and the question is : « If, knowing what you know now, you, could go back to 1933, would you kill Hitler ? » The answer is, without any hesitation : « Yes I will kill the son of a bitch. » on the ground of his medical mission to protect and save human lives. Then John Smith prepares the killing of that politician. He will not succeed and he will be killed by the bodyguard. But the politician will reveal himself as a coward by protecting his life with a baby used as a human shield. The picture of this stance published on the cover of Newsweek will destroy his political future and he will shoot himself. This last means to achieve such a goal (the destroying of the politician), the use of the press is common in Stephen King's novels. Let's quote : Firestarter (The Rolling Stone magazine), The Stand (a local TV station that is captured by US military forces), The Running Man (a TV game show that turns sour for the organizers in a clearly science-fiction book), etc. But, in The Dead Zone, the Shoah is used as the dramatic turning point in the novel, justifying the right for a citizen to kill a dangerous politician when he knows the latter shall jeopardize the whole of humanity in the future.

Not as per se scary as his horror novels, but gripping and prescient. Per usual with SK, there could've been some trimming done, but we fans don't much care about that snark anymore, do we? I know I'm over it. Without the extra fat, I'm not sure it'd be a Stephen King book anyway. The extra fat that coulda-shoulda-woulda been trimmed out of any debut writer's book, especially today, it burrows in and goes to work on you, in the end, enriching the tale though it may slow it down or make you sigh a bit in the reading. The terror here was in the mood, the suspense building and percolating, that modern, ungothic horror hiding right there in plain sight, in the daylight given a surreal cast, that scrim between real and unreal that SK invented. Not my fave of his, but a necessary intake for us Constant Readers. Vote Greg!

I was excited to finally read The Dead Zone (one of the few early Stephen King novels I haven't yet read). I'd seen the David Cronenberg movie, so I was already familiar with the gist of the story: Young Johnny Smith is a popular teacher with a bright future when an accident puts him in a coma for four years. He awakens to find that the world has changed and he has changed. Touching another person will give him uncontrollable psychic flashes, which turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing.

This felt like Stephen King's first crack at a 'mature' novel. The pacing was much more deliberate than in his earlier books. Not to say that the book is boring. Just that King invested a lot more time in developing his characters (something he'd been very good good at since 'Salem's Lot at least), making them feel ever more real.

Johnny's mother Vera (for example) goes through a religious mania in the book, grasping at some pretty outrageous beliefs regarding aliens and U.F.O.s. It would have been easy to make this character comic relief, even unintentionally. Yet King handles her so well, making her very sympathetic even when you become exasperated with her.

The other major characters of the novel; Johnny, his one-time fiance Sarah and his father Herb are all adeptly handled.

Stephen King's writing is in top form here. There's a section early in the novel where he plays a wheel of fortune at a county carnival. This scene is written with the level of page-turning intensity of a heist scene. Though The Dead Zone is less blatant about its horror and suspense than Carrie, 'Salem's Lot or The Shining he was still able to keep me eagerly reading. I would be totally enveloped in the book on a break at work and would be angry that my break was over.

I also appreciate that King seems to have done his homework. When he writes about something, it never feels like he's winging it. For instance, when reading about Johnny's recovery from the coma he puts in enough detail to show that he has done his research and knows what he is talking about. There is enough detail of various medical procedures given to give the book a sense of verisimilitude that is often missing from horror stories. Yet he doesn't bog down in useless trivia.

The Dead Zone seems to be the first novel where SK started openly linking his works. He doesn't bang the reader over the head about it, but fans will spot offhand references to Jerusalem's Lot, Flagg Street, Richard Dees and Inside View, Stovington Prep and of course we pay our first visit to Castle Rock.

Yet for all the good stuff here there was something just... off about the novel. The structure of the novel seemed really weird. As I read it I felt like I was reading a novella that had been uncomfortably expanded into a novel by jamming another novella into the middle of it.

In the beginning we follow Johnny and we follow a deranged Bible salesman named Stillson. Then there's a series of murders in Castle Rock that takes up the middle of the book and goes away again. Then we follow Johnny and Stillson again. The whole Castle Rock section of the book (while interesting) really it could have been cut and the book probably wouldn't have felt vastly different.

King's writing is the saving grace here. Even with the trouble I had the book is well worth reading. But I can see why it isn't mentioned as often as The Shining or The Stand.

This is not the favorite book of most Stephen King fans. I know. I know. They all like THE STAND or, more recently, THE GREEN MILE. Those books are great, too, but I'm lobbying for my quiet favorite, the book I keep coming back to, the one that is not even horror in the truest sense. More than anything it's freshman-comp-one-in-class-essay-time philosophical: what if you had the power to see the future, would you kill a madman before he started World War 3? The character development and subplots in this book are so good, one has to forgive King for naively over-simplifying the answer to the question as posed. Yes, kill the madman, is his answer. The problem is that the madman in the book is predicted to start A WAR, not THE WAR, and I don't want to be nit-picky, but this is a critical difference. King's answer resonates of Sixtie's idealism: all war is bad! Maybe. Perhaps. But what if one fights a war to STOP a madman ala Hitler? Hmmm.

The man is a genius. I have never cared for Horror or Sci-Fi and didn't read Stephen King for many years because I thought that was all there was to his writing. I WAS WRONG. For years, I didn't know he wrote Shawshank redemption that is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. I began reading his short stories and was led to The Dead Zone. I can't say enough about how good he is, I'm just sorry it took me so long to discover him.

Johnie Smith just wants to have an ordinary life, doing a job he loves, married to the girl he loves, maybe having a couple of kids, and being happy. All that changes one night on the way home from the State Fair when a car accident puts him into a long coma and disrupts his world and that of the people around him.

Johhie Smith has a sweet, kind personality that really comes out of the pages as the sense of forboding grows. He tries to live his life and go on with his original plans, but a new found talent surfaces and makes that difficult, yet he hopes it's still possible. He does not become bitter or much more cynical. He still has faith and hope in people, even through some horrifying experiences. And his new unwanted talent gets stronger and stronger and leads to not just actual physical pain, but also emotional pain as well.

There are enough scary and eerie episodes in this novel to satisfy the horror fans, yet what makes this book unique in the King pantheon is the fact they're filtered through Johnie's essentially decent personality---and King makes Smith's reactions recognizable as something anybody reading the story would feel and and find familiar. The character is not a thrill seeker or a fame hound. He's got humble ambtions that anyone might recognize--and appreciate. The more horror he's exposed to--and some as a result of the change in his life---the more desperately Johnie clings to those hopes and desires, even as they recede further and further from his grasp, till he comes to several painful revelations, and that's when the story turns to tragedy. Maybe that's why it's truly a horror novel. This most decent of characters is placed by Fate into a position that he cannot bear and must fear that he won't survive.

As usual the story has the King advantages---the fluid storytelling and almost effortless flow of the writing, and here the ordinary man character does not become petty as do others in the King oeuvre, because the protagonist is so unselfconsciously ordinary; the vivid imagery, and the fast moving pace---but it also suffers from the King flaws that taint some of his best books. The story suffers from visions----aside from those that afflict the lead character---and which eventually make you wonder exactly how many people in town have suffered from raps on the head. Apparently everybody in the King universe suffers from Sylvia Browne disease, where they think they're psychic, yet in King's books, their predictions come true. Even for a horror/supernatural novel, this is pushing it, and the atmosphere---which could be so much better---suffers from it. In King novels this kind of thing is used too often as some king of shortcut and here, were the protagonist not so affecting, it would have sunk the book.

I give it a four to reserve the five for truly amazing works, but this book is going to be on my Kindle.

I finished reading Stephen King's "On Writing" and decided to read "The Dead Zone" next, since he wrote about its genesis at some length. What interested me in particular is that he commented that "The Dead Zone" was one of the only novels for which he ever wrote an outline.
I could almost feel that structure as I read the book. The action is well-paced, and unlike many other King novels, it doesn't really stray too far from its purpose. From the beginning, you are almost certain of what will happen, but you are compelled to read anyway. And, of course, there's a twist. There has to be in a story like this.
This book is a great exploration of the age-old cocktail party question: "If you could have killed Hitler as an infant, knowing what he would do when he rose to power, would you do it?"
I think Stephen King may have an answer.
Recommended to SK fans and suspense fans.

Overall, this book was very good. As I was reading it, I never wanted to stop. The main character was described very well, and his actions seemed to have merit. I had no problem with the basic premise of the story. The one problem I had was his ability to sense things by touching them. If he had this power he would have gone mad with images from everything around him giving him signals from the past or future. He would of had to live in a bubble to not get totally engossed by everything. Besides that one thing that annoyed me, I enjoyed this book fully. I put that flaw aside, and read the story for what it was, and it was very good reading. The author has characters you love or hate immeadiatly, and you remember the characters when you put the book down. I always thought that if you put a book down and think about the story weeks later, then it must have been a pretty good book. This novel is one of those books. The ending took me a little by surprise, but then I thought of who the author was, and thought that to myself that the ending he came up with was approriate. A book well worth reading.

In the Dead Zone, we find a different Stephen King then one is accustomed too. Gone is the sometimes wordy, (sorry Steve, but you knew that, right?), and clustered, apocalyptic, monster filled tales that one generally associates with Steve King, (which is a shame really, he is quite frankly a much better writer than most of those ignorant minds tend to believe, (I'm talking to you English Teachers!!!). Present here is a more restraint Mr. King, a softer, less horrific one, and the result is one the best novels ever written by Mr. Boogeyman, or any other author now that I think of it. The story of the painfully ordinary John Smith, (the name tells you how ordinary he is), and the tragic results of a car crash and the birth of his new power/curse is definitely Essential King. It's less scary than, say, Pet Semetary, or The Shining, but in my opinion, a much better read than them, (well maybe not the Shining, that kicked). Anyway, enough of my banter, pick yourself up and go read this book already!!!!
- [email protected]

*spoilers included*
When discussing the best of King's early novels, many point to CARRIE or 'SALEM'S LOT.
I point to THE DEAD ZONE.
THE DEAD ZONE--which introduces us to a little town called Castle Rock--is simply marvellous. Taking place years before I was even born, this novel contains one of King's best protagonists, the aptly-named Everyman John Smith. John has suffered two accidents, one as a young boy, the other as a young man. As a result, he gains various psychic powers. However, he is also sent into a coma that lasts four and a half years. As John struggles to readjust, he tutors a young man, helps to capture a serial killer, and tries to stop a madman from achieving high political office--which would doom the world.
This is magnificent, moving book, about the tragic story of a young man who spun "00."
Highly recommended!

The Dead Zone is quite possibly Stephen King's most moving work. Only a short way into this novel, written early in his career, the kind of sentimental and sympathetic characterizations that King would later use to great effect in the Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis is easily apparent. In fact, he very likely succeeds better with this work than in the latter two.

One thing to keep in mind if you're planning to start on this book (and I highly suggest you do so, the characters are the most real and heartbreaking that you're likely to find in a King novel) is that it is not horror and it is, in the end, an account of the life and times of Johnny Smith.

To my mind, this entire story is a study for loss and the terrible, painful, necessary trait we humans have of moving on, forgetting those we have lost and... replacing them. Johnny experiences this first hand, and much of the story revolves around his attempts at reintigrating himself into a world that kept going without him and couldn't care less if he lived or died.

Many are annoyed by the subplots in the story or by the rather brief resolution of the Greg Stillson story thread. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the entire Greg Stillson "problem" was placed in the story simply to aid Johnny in coming to his final, inevitable conclusion to the answer of what to do with his new, nearly empty life. Could there be any other outcome? Stillson is almost a deus ex machina in what he ultimately provides for Johnny.

In the end, this is one of King's best novels. The reader can easily see themselves in Smith's shoes and can experience through him the realization of fears we all have: of being forgotten, of having the world pass us by.

The First thing we realize after reading Stephen King's 5th novel (and the first of many Castle Rock tales) is that the master of the macabre has outdone himself and churned out a classic. Is it horror? Here and there, but it's more than that. More a statement of its time than a book filled with boogeymen.

Johnny Smith is a high school teacher that takes a tumble in a car accident and loses several years of his life to a coma. When he awakens he is greeted with the facts that his former girlfriend is married with child and his life is somewhat skewed. ...and he has brought back a gift....or is it a curse? He see things. Clairvoyance? Yep. Throw in a crooked, evil, sociopathic politician named Greg Stillson and a serial killer named Frank Dodd and you have Stephen King's The Dead Zone.

This is prime King. Rich in story and feeling and coming off the effects of The Stand, Stephen King explores the story of an average man in the most extraordinary circumstances. Brilliant. Poignant. Definitely on the list of must re-read.

Dig it!

I am in awe of Stephen King. He is a master writer and storyteller. This is another great book in his catalog. Although King is usually classified as writing "horror", his ability to create believable and sympathetic characters is what makes his books so compelling. Wonderful book !

Johnny Smith is a twenty something New England school teacher with an attractive girlfriend and a promising future. But a terrible accident leaves him in a 4 and a half year coma. He wakes up to a much different, post Watergate world. But he also wakes up with the ability to see the destinies and the pasts of people he touches. Johnny struggles to adjust to his post coma life. His wacked out ultra fundamentalist mom gives him some sane advice: Don't be like Elijah and Jonah. "Don't hide in a cave or in the belly of a huge fish. God has special plans for your talent."

Stephen King wields an impressive knowledge of the Bible as weaves together a classic psycho-spiritual thriller that you will want to keep reading even when you have other things to do. One of King's classics.

Johnny Smith is a seemingly normal guy -- who becomes psychic! He's an English teacher in a small Maine town called Castlerock, and he's one of those guys that more straight-laced teachers tend to dislike as a fellow teacher, but the kind'a guy that the kids really love. He's funny, sincere, sensitive, intelligent -- something of a goof -- but an all-around really great guy. "The Dead Zone" is a very readable melodrama of his descent into a world where he can see people's future just by touching them. If he touches you and sees that you are gonna die in four days!....he can tell you not to go into work -- because he knows a gunman is gonna open fire on you and your fellow employees!

That is his dilemma. And the engaging depth to The Dead Zone is that it becomes a moral dilemma of severe proportions. Because when Johnny touches a state politician and sees that this buffoon of a politician will get elected president and will cause a massive war -- the question becomes: is it better to kill this one person and save the lives of millions, or to let nature take its course and let millions and millions of people die. And of course no one would understand Johnny if he explained that he saw the future and saw that this politician was gonna cause a nuclear holocaust. King builds to this crescendo of a moral nightmare by constantly showing Johhny being torn between living up to his gift and being viewed as a tabloid psychic, a total hokester, and a creapy guy whom people don't even wanna get near. It's the story about living with an abnormal mental gift.

One of the more compelling sub-plots involves Johnny's love story with Sarah Hazlett -- a woman herself torn between waiting nearly five years for Johhny to come out of a coma and getting on with her life with the very normal Walt Hazlett. It this respect, The Dead Zone blends the elements of a psychic phenomenon story and a compelling love story.

All-in-all this story reads like the perfect synthesis between King's "The Shining" and "Shawshank Redemption." And may well be a great place for folks who wanna read a King novel but don't want the blood n' guts of Cujo, Pet Semetary, Salems' Lot. On the other hand, if you want a real nightmare story The Dead Zone is not the place to start. Now, go ahead, and click that "helpful" button! Afterall, one of my major concerns in writing this review is knowing that I am helpful:~) Peace, love, and happy reading!

Stacey Cochran
Author of CLAWS available for 80 cents

This is not Stephen King's best-written novel, but it is yummy as a story with loads of kinky ideas. It has...well...atmosphere! You do not forget this novel, and then, if you see the movie with Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, you are guaranteed never to forget it. It has a true nightmare quality. As a writer it hs stayed with me as far as the ideas go. And when business is bad I always say I'm going through a "Dead Zone." And when I say that, I am definitely referring to this book, because I'm a professional psychic whose clients, though they often ask for revelation, don't really want to hear it when it comes! Stephen, dear friend. What a fun companion you have been. Feel great, man, and know this: if you never write another word, I, for one, will always be grateful, if only for The Dead Zone.

Wow, this novel was excellent from start to finish. I haven't read for a long time, because I am always so busy. I used to read Stephen King's novels all the time in high school, but ever since I graduated, I've stopped. The Dead Zone, is the first Stephen King book I have read in almost 5 years! I am so glad that I chose this one first. The story line is excellent, and the characters are very memorable! I even cried a little bit in some of it, because of how much emotion I felt from the characters and story. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader. This book got me back into reading, and I have already started The Stand! :)

9.3 STARS OUT OF 10!!!

Stephen King released The Dead Zone directly after his greatest book, the epic, magnificent, The Stand. It would have been easy to come back down to earth after the last work of art, but not in this case. While 800 pages shorter then the Stand, the Dead Zone packs quite a punch. Forget about the plot twists and different themes. The best part of this story is the hero Johnny Smith and his endeavors.

First year teacher Johnny Smith has everything going for him. Loving parents, an awesome girlfriend, and a pretty good job he excels at. Suddenly, a vicious car accident puts him in a four year coma, and when he wakes up things have changed. Nixon is no longer President, his girlfriend has moved on, his father is broke due to Johnny's hospital bills, and his mother has become a religious freak who is pretty close to the loony bin. Oh yeah, Johnny also has phychic flashes sometimes when he touches people where he can see the future.

I feel like I may have already spoiled too much so I will leave it at that, but Johnny's story at times is bittersweet, happy, sad, tragic, and grueling. One of King's better books.

Its not as good as I thought it would be but like Pet Sematary I thought it over and realized it was very well written. The story could have been used for an episode of the Twilight Zone maybe. I really like Stephen King and so far I have only encountered one or two dissappointing books. This is not one of them by far. I would say that my top 10 favorite King books are in this order:
1. The Shining
2. The Stand
3. The Green Mile
4. The Dark Half
5. The Running Man
6. The Long Walk
7. Skeleton Crew
8. Pet Sematary
9. this book
10. Road Work

The Dead Zone is Stehen King's fifth published novel, it's a shorter novel only about 400 pages (in this virson) but it's still a great novel.

"The Dead Zone" Tells the story of a man named John Smith (no last name, But who needs one right) When he was younger John got and injury while skateing, it was a small one that not even his parents remember but for that one moment that he blacked out he was plunged into the dead zone, he reall didint know it then but he would come to relize it later.

Later someting happens to Johnny an acident that again plunges him into The Dead Zone.

And This if from the summary in the inside of the book. "John Smith, who awakened from a seemingly interminalbe coma with and accursed power: The Power to see the future and the terrible fate awaiting mankind in The Dead Zone."

during the novel Johnny has to go through quite a few things, things he might regret you can never really tell in the The Dead Zone

Overall Stephen King has given us a great novel here one that can be enjoyed any time 5/5

I liked the story but couldn't help comparing it slightly unfavourably to the tv series based on the book. In the show Johnny uses his psychic ability a lot more to help the town sheriff solve any cases that he comes across. In the book Johnny only helps the sheriff with one case, I like it better when Johnny helps with police cases because it makes him seem a lot more human and makes his ability seem much more like a gift than the curse it is in the book. I was confused when I read that the man Sarah married was Walt Hazlett, a lawyer on his way to being an important politician, and that the sheriff Johnny helped wasn't the sheriff of his hometown but of a town some miles away and his name was George Bannerman. I was confused because I realized that for the tv series they merged the "George Bannerman the town sheriff who was helped by Johnny's psychic abilities" character with the "Walt Hazlett married to Sarah" character to create a new character with pieces from the two separate characters. Walt Bannerman, the town sheriff where Sarah and Johnny live, who is helped by Johnny abilities. Johnny always helping with police cases also keeps Sarah in the story, which she wasn't in the book (they hardly speak or see each other in Johnny's last few years of life. Greg Stillson is on the TV show but they take a lot of episodes to work up to him bringing about the destruction of the planet. In conclusion I like the TV show better.

... but have you also seen the movie with Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, directed by David Cronenberg? Well I think the movie is probably just as good, if not maybe a tad better, but that is because it just works so well on the big screen and is one of the better Stephen King movies out there, although it is a little dated, great none the less. The premise of the Dead Zone is a smashing one about the power of second sight, a man wakes up from a coma and starts to see glimpses of the future where it becomes a two-fold story, the first is a hunt for a serial killer, the second is a looming crisis to do with the President. Amazing stuff right up until the shocking climax, read this and then watch the film, it is not exactly horror, more a top notch King THRILLER.

"The Dead Zone" is my second favorite novel by Stephen King. It's about a man named Johnny Smith who gets in a car wreck, which leaves him in a coma for five years. In that time, he has lost his job, his girlfriend...but gained the ability of second sight. Whenever he touches someone, he sees there future. The sherrif comes to him for help in catching a serial killer, and one day he shakes hands with a politician at a political rally, and sees the horrible future involving the politician. This is a great book by Stephen King, and it is also the book that introduces the town that King has made real in the minds of his fans, Castle Rock. I definitely recommend this novel, because it is one of the best books by Stephen King, and will not disappoint you.

The Dead Zone suffers from serious pacing issues. I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the book, but then it slumps so badly that it almost caused me to put it away. After a thrilling hunt for a murderer at the end of Part 1, the book launches into Part 2. And suddenly...nothing is happening. We learn more about antagonist Stillson, we learn how Johnny occupies himself with tutoring, but it's all very slow and pedantic after the intruiging first section of the book.

For a good 100 or more pages Part 2 of The Dead Zone lumbers along before finally picking up a little momentum for the finale again. It's almost like Part 1 and Part 2 are two different books and like the development of the Stillson character into an off-the-wall and dangerous politician was just tossed in there because King got halfway through the book and realized the story was going nowhere and he didn't have a strong anatagonist.

A decent read for the most part, but somehow forced and disjointed. Hardly a King classic and one I won't be revisiting a few years down the line like I have done with numerous of his other books.

i started this book on 10/12 that's when i picked it up from my teacher's libaray. this book is so interesting that i can't hardly put it down. it's a pretty long book and that is why it is taking me a while to finish it. This is my first book by stephen king and i can't wait try the others. in this book i can give you review of the book till the page i am up to. this book is about a guy named johnny who gets into a car accident and injures his head. he does survives but stays in a coma for four and a half years. when he finally wakes up he sees that a lot of things have changed around but he also realizes that he has gotten a second sight meaning that he could predict a person's future by justing touching their hand. this is the part where i am to right now. i just can't wait to see what happens. and also i think all you people out there should try it.

I like Stephen King's writing a lot and in my opinion this is his best work. The Dead Zone is a preety good book that displays all of King's virtuoso writing talents. King knows how to write memorable and engaging characters. In the Dead Zone he creates his best progtagonist yet, Johnny Smith.
Besides all the memorable characters King has written, I also like the pacing of his storytelling. There is nothing rushed or hurried, nor slow or contrived about it. It just has a natural flow to it. King might be the best natural writer on the market today. When you read King's work you almost feel like your watching a movie play out in your mind. He creates atmosphere and mood so easily and effortlessly you wonder how he pulls it off.
I recommend this book if you're new to Stephen King. It's a compelling read that is enjoyable from the first page turned to the last. Also, I recommend his latest memoir, "Stephen King On Writing".

Like the other works I've read of King's, I enjoyed The Dead Zone. I really liked Johnny's character, and I found following his life to be easy and entertaining. The ending,while not ideal, was realistic and satisfying. King made me think how I would deal with having Johnny's condition.

The idea that what's meant to be will be comforts some, who see it as a release from worry about the future, but John Smith is fated to worry about the world's future, because on waking up from a long coma he knows more about the future than he wants to. For him the very things that his ultra-religious mother cites as proof that this is God's work--the odds against waking up from so serious an accident with this "gift"--point to the randomness of life, and he just wants to get on with his. but it's not that simple because he had an earlier accident as a child and earlier flashes of second sight, and in fact in the end he becomes sure that his accident "never stopped happening". His attempts to throw himself back into his normal life of teaching just seem to result in increasingly compelling calls to fulfil his destiny. He seems to have been loaned some extra time to fulfil his destiny, which hinges on a decision of whether or not to assassinate a rising politician destined to start world war three.

In keeping with the book's theme of predestination, the descriptions are usually drawn out past the point where you know what's going to happen, but King changes styles from letters to newspaper clippings to interior monologues to nice descriptions, and unlike some of King's other books, this novel never drags. Some of the references to American political history went over my head, but I like the idea of a destiny to choose to change the seemingly ineluctable path of the world. I could think of a few solutions other than the given ending but I guess it was the most dramatic option for King to choose and it was pretty satisfying. Unlike other King stories, I had the feeling that it ended where it was supposed to rather than 50 pages later.

This is one of those books that I put off reading for a long time, but was immediately sucked in a soon as I started. King is at his best here, creating believable characters and putting them through the wringer.

I really liked how he incorporated true history into the story. The only part that didn't ring true to me was that the main character, having already decided he didn't really like his power, decides to go out and use it on politicians, just to see what they are like. It is required for the story, but felt like it wasn't set up enough in the story.

This book is one of King's best, right up there with The Shining, The Stand, and It.

Back when King was, well, you know. It shows signs of his later bloat but at least in this case he keeps the excesses relatively relevant. Small town teacher Johnny Smith crashes his car and wakes up with powers that put him on a course to intercept bible salesman-turned-Presidential hopeful Greg Stillson. Global consequences abound. A grand premise but one that is played small and tidy and generates a real sense of intrigue along the way. Also, one of those rare cases of the movie not only surpassing the book but simply being a brilliant King adaptation. (Shining is the other, amen.) This being so, the book probably holds a steadier fondness for me but don't be dismayed - one of the reasons the movie was so fantastic was its source material. Unfortunately, King tries to outsmart himself and delay the inevitable end (bloat, bloat) but in that end, is something beautiful and bittersweet and for me, anyway, a story I've enjoyed revisiting on the page as well as the screen for years since.

Occasionally a book will come along and it'll affect you in a place you had completely forgotten about. It'll leave a feeling behind that will encompass everything, like a hit below the belt. One of the first books I read for personel pleasure was Crime and Punishment, to this day I consider it the best ever written. Not for any real reason other than it hit me below the belt harder than any other book, and it was the first time for me. I was like a blushing bride on her wedding day...Anyway.
Every so often I'll run into a book like that, that hits me somewhere that doesn't get hit too often. I won't bore you with the names of those books, but this one, this "horror" novel did just that. I'm not an emotional guy, but I could feel tears welling up near the end. The only other time in my life that's happened (besides when I was a little tike, ya know) was when Raskolnikov and Sonia professed their love for one another. That was powerful for a thirteen year old boy. This book was no less powerful for me, and I'm a little older than thirteen; not much, but older still. I won't reveal too much of the story, I'd hate to ruin it. God, I wish I could be more expressive, but we all have our deficiencies. I guess.
Use your own judgement. If you want a book that will move you, a book that will make you feel alive, a book that you will remember for the rest of your life if you're anything like me, pick up the Dead Zone. It's as close as you'll get.
At least in my experience.
I've read a large assortment of books, about as ecclectic as you can get, or at least as ecclectic as I can get. My personal library is over a thousand volumes, and I've read just about every one. I say this not to boast, but to put in perspective how much I love reading. I abhor TV, and I'm privileged with the ability to read exceedingly fast. It took me three hours to read this novel, THREE HOURS! I don't know about you, but I can't say I've read a 400+ page book in three hours.
I'm sure in the future I'll return to this novel many a time, but it'll never have the affect on me like the first time. It's like heroin, a good book: the first time is the best.
And it hits you before you know it.
Enjoy. I truely hope you buy this book, you won't regret it.

Despite being a book of fiction, about a paranormal occurence unlikely to be found in real life, Dead Zone almost made me believe that this was a story about a real person. The main character's description is incredibly rich, and the sympathy that S. King evokes for him makes one yearn for a happy ending. It was one of the very, very few fictional books that ever made me cry. Not only is it an engrossing, thrilling, and a beautifully written drama, but it also asks some interesting moral questions. Dead Zone made me a fan of S. King and though I think some of his other books are even better written, i.e. "The Eyes of the Dragon," "The Dark Tower," it remains my most favorite, still.

First I just wanna say that I LOVE Stephen King novels. I think he is a spectacular author and I have read tons of books by him. However, I absolutely HATED this book. Here's why:

1. It was way too long. Even for a Stephen King book. I thought it would never freaking end.
2. There was no action. Or suspense. Or anything worth reading at all. There were just a bunch of pointless words.
3. There wasn't enough psychic-ness for me which is what I thought the book would be mostly about.
4. Just plain boring and a waste of time to read.

However, I have to admit that the concept of this book is good I just did not have the attention span to read all the boring parts. (Which occupied pretty much the whole book.)

If you want to be bored to death, go right ahead and read it. (But actually, don't waste your money.)

the main character is a man with potential psychic powers. sometimes he get visions. then he falls into a coma after an accident. wakes up after a few years. his psychic powers truly awakened. there is a lot of things that happen, so i won't go into detail. mainly in this story he gets to know that a certain man will become president and start nuclear warfare. and he must stop it. there is a lot of things happening before this, as he gets to know a lot of thing. there are some good details here. and i enjoyed the basic plot. but there should be but one plot here. the other things happening are not really sub-plots, just happenings, losing their relevance as we get to know what is really important here. so reading this the first time is interesting, re-reading it has always been a downer for me. kills a little of the suspence too. a murderer has relevance e.g., but considering nuclear warfare he is a boring sidetrack. i got into the characters, nothing to complain about there. the ending worked well.

For those of us who appreciate the more literary novels King has written (e.g. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon), this is one of the best. There's tight, controlled writing; consistent characterizations; believability; and plenty of literary allusions for those of us who enjoy them. And not too many superfluous characters.

Some people might be put off by the political subplot, but it's interesting to me how it presages the political strands in Under the Dome, not to mention the Tea Party movement!

This is about the 20th King novel I've read, and I would rank it easily within his top 5.

The Dead Zone by Stephen King tells the story of a boy named Johnny who gained the ability to see limitedly into the future. He went into a coma for a long time after being in an automobile accident. When he woke from the coma and began physical therapy, he grabbed his trainer's hand and could see that the trainer's house was burning. This was his first experience with seeing something that was not right in front of him. Johnny has several experiences where he tries to prevent something bad from happening. Sometimes people listen to him and sometimes they don't - but those that don't, regret it. Johnny's girlfriend is not a very nice character. She was in love with Johnny, but after he goes into a coma for such a long time, she marries someone else. When she sees the news article about him, she goes to visit him. He holds her hand and is able to tell her where she lost her engagement ring. The most important experience Johnny has is when he shakes the hand of one of the candidates for president of the United States and sees the problems the U.S will experience when he is elected. Johnny finds a way to prevent Stilson from becoming the president. I really did not like the character of Johnny, because outside of his unusual ability, he was a little boring. When he wasn't using his special power, his role was pointless. The character of Stilson brought action and violence into the book and made it more interesting. One of his more vivid acts was when he was counseling a young boy about his attire and took the boy's shirt and lit it on fire - then threatened to kill the boy. Overall, I would give this book a six out of ten, because there were interesting ideas in the book but I found it a little boring to read.

This book kept me up at nights until I finished it in record time. Not because it was so scary but because it was such a good story. The main charecter seems so familiar to somebody you know ,especially growing up in a northern town in the 70's. The part of the book that talks about being in the coma, and walking up and down the hallways with the dead man,THE HALLWAYS OF ALWAYS. That part still sticks with me today,and maybe the scariest thing is always being alone with death. The scope of the story was huge, save the world, but the main charecter was a small average Joe. Pure Stephen King at his finest. Normal people in an extreme situation.

You'll find that people regard Steven King books as good or bad, depending on how good or bad the movie was. And we've all seen the movies. Dead Zone is not a popular movie (Rightfully so because it's so terrible), but the book however is great. It's one of my favorite works by King. There are no ghosts, no clowns in sewers... it's a very human novel whose carachters you can feel for. though you don't hear this book noted that often, I recommend giving it a try. Read a few chapters into it. I definitely think they should remake it and have someone better play the lead role. I'd say it's the only movie I've ever seen ruined by Christopher Walken.

Of all of the King book's I've read (about 15 or so), this is one of my favorites. I feel King's misery (pun intended) that he got "chained" to being a horror writer...because in my opinion, his strength lies in his ability to write suspense and to narrate on the human condition. The Dead Zone has a foundation full of symbolism and theme that carriers well throughout the entire novel. The characterizations are fantastic! And the tragedy of the love story is very touching, albeit sadly so. At it's length, it makes a good weekend read.

Also, if you've seen the movie and haven't read the book - I suggest you do so. The movie is good, but as is the case with most film adaptations of novels, it's missing so much!

This novel is enjoyable because it puts you in the perspective of an assassin, but you never really realize it until the end of the book. Johnny Smith is just a regular Joe who by a freak of nature is given the power of seeing the future. Whenever he comes into contact with someone, he is able to glimpse something of their life. When he comes across Gregory Stillson, a politician, he knows what he must ultimately do.
This book is a great read, and I highly suggest getting it. I have never really given Stephen King a chance (although the Shawshank redemption is my favorite movie of all time) but I will be reading more of his works in the future!

The Dead Zone is one of Stephen King's best novels, a tale rich in every way. It's well-told, with excellent characters, loaded with symbolism and shocking events (oftentimes both), and full of the plainspoken yet lyrical prose that is King at his best. There is little in King's long and excellent list of titles that can surpass this novel.
We'll start with the basic story. A young teacher named Johnny Smith is "gifted," through a car accident that leaves him comatose for nearly five years, with a strange precognitive/telepathic ability. And here's the catch, evidence of King's genius if ever I've seen it: He has to be touching a person or object for the power to work. King takes this startlingly simple (and original) idea, and weaves it into the most complex, and intriguing, tapestry of his career.
King does a lot -- and I mean a LOT -- with this novel. Take the prologue, which so expertly sets mood, and tone, and character -- Johnny shows early flashes of his power, while the villain of the piece, Greg Stillson, kicks a dog to death in a dooryard outside Ames, Iowa. King literally takes you from one extreme to the other here, does so brilliantly, and continues to do so for the rest of the novel, as Johnny and Stillson are set on their inexorable collision course. But the novel is much more than that, as well. It's the story of Johnny and Sarah, who might've been his wife if not for intervening circumstances; it's the story of Johnny and his parents, Herb and Vera, a loving couple who find separate ways of dealing with Johnny's misfortune; it is the story of Johnny and the Chatsworths, a rich New England family whose son Johnny tutors ... and it is the story of Johnny and one Frank Dodd, a character as frightening as any King has created.
All the way through, of course, this is Johnny's story -- and in John Smith, King has outdone himself. Johnny, in just about every way you'd care to imagine, represents us, the average person -- the name alone is a dead giveaway. (Some have said the symbolism of the name is crude -- absolutely not! King has always gone for the larger symbols along with more subtle ones.) His reactions are our reactions -- never made more clear than during the press conference at the hospital, where he looks on in abject horror at what his own power has done to a reporter there. It's a tense moment, in a novel full of them.
King deals in many levels of symbolism in The Dead Zone, symbols of fate, fortune, and God's will (the three being interchangeable in King's Calvinistic view); fortune wheels, omens, Vera's obsession with the more hysterical and relevatory aspects of Christianity (she could've stepped out of a Flannery O'Connor story), the seller of lightning rods (used, much as Bradbury used him, as a harbnger of doom), the mythical resonances of Cassandra and the abiguity of the Delphic Oracle, the Biblical references to Jonah as Johnny runs from himself, his power, and finally from fate and God -- again, interchangeable from King's point of view. There is also the brilliant use of the Jekyll/Hyde mask, one of the most elegant pieces of symbolism in the novel.
But let me get back to the Calvinist attitude here -- which I've mentioned a couple of times, and by which I don't mean conservative and/or repressed. Instead I refer to the Calvinist notion that everything that happens, even things like "luck" and "fortune," is predetermined, willed by God. And though we as human beings have free will to defy or not defy our fates, the fact remains (as Mother Abigail pointed out in The Stand) that this is what God wants from us. That's the statement at the heart of The Dead Zone; it is what John Smith, King's reluctant hero (another powerful myth-figure) miust face at last, in what is one of King's most powerful novels. It is a cornerstone of an King library, and should definitely be in yours right now. Think of it as -- Fate.

I am a huge fan of Stephen King, and The Dead Zone is indeed a wonderful novel. It is especially good for those who want a taste of King's excellent story-telling without the blood and guts and monsters (also try The Green Mile and Different Seasons).
Somehow it fails to ascend quite to the heights of my absolute favorite King novels (The Stand, and [believe it or not] Wizard and Glass, among others). Maybe I like the ultra-bizarre, perhaps I found the pacing a bit off, maybe I just have bad taste... For whatever reason, the Dead Zone joins the ranks of the second most adored group of King novels I have ever read.

The lead character of "The Dead Zone," the tragic hero Johnny Smith, is one of the most memorable that King ever created. This is not a pure horror story, it reads more like the anti-"Its a Wonderful Life." Smith has a near fatal accident, spends years in a coma an awakes with the ability to see the future (or at least, the bad things). He becomes convinced that a rising politician will one day set off global armageddon and tracks him across a mid-1970s landscape which even brings him into contact with a startled dark horse Presidential candidate named Jimmy Carter. Even though it may lack the gutteral horrors of some of his other novels, this is still one of King's best.

This novel was great until the ending. Very well done. But, I was surprised the character did what he did at the end, even though I recognized his reasoning. Yes, some people deserve to be taken out, but that doesn't mean we should do it. Okay, it's just a novel, but one of King's iconic ones at that. I guess I just have to remind myself that we live in a barbaric world. I just thought King's main character had more character than that. I wonder if King ever regretted he didn't write it differently. Perhaps there are some interviews with him on YouTube ....

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=ZikvWB48LCQ
Please people with the money, if you buy a new book, include a used one in your shopping cart. That will help the store enormously in their storage, and it can help you too. At some places the price can’t lower to lesser a penny. Take a used book for a 0.01$ anywhere.
It has many usage including, “Cash4Books.net”
Recycle or Burn it for survival heat. Use two books as spacers to raise your monitor because it’s always better to view at eye leveled to the center of your screen. Even better, send it to donation, any library would take it, or the third world too.
Do not fear a book because it has no teeth!!
When you open your used book, wear gloves if you have to, then you’ll realize, “This book ain’t that back after all.”
Good read and peace!!
- Ricky

When I was reading this book while working at a retail store, a customer came up and noticed it and told me it was classic Stephen King and an excellent read at that. I gave him a quizzical look if only because I had been less than enthralled with this 1970's book about a man with special cognitive powers that allow him to see the future when he is physically engaged with an object or person (ie: touching them).

The thing about Stephen King books, and many of the same genre, is they fail to really challenge the reader other than to try and retain certain clues and hints as to what might happen in the future of the plot. Why are we being introduced to a lightning rod salesman? Why do we see a blue and yellow filter in a vision? What is the significance of the main character's interest in meeting politicians?

Well for the most part, the big hints were pretty easy to pick up on in this wide-sprawling tale. The main character's gift of predicting the future remains dormant for most of his life until a near-fatal car crash puts him into a coma for four and a half years. When he wakes up he finds most of his old life - and his old self - has wasted away, except for this newfound gift that continually astounds people, but more importantly freaks them out.

I guess my beef with the book was how much of it felt like filler and fluff. Even the more exciting parts of the book didn't reallllly contribute to the so-called climax of the story. I guess in reflection the story is a lot about checks and balances - ironic since a good deal of it deals with politics. An eye for an eye and all that..the big twist kind of falls in line with other elements of the plot but I can't say it was a BIG twist like say, in Secret Window. The characters fell flat, the descriptions were tideous to get through (and were often skipped), and good portions of the book failed to ignite tension, while others forced it.

I know this is classic Stephen King and I'm sure for the time it was written it was quite a remarkable, exciting book...but it felt flat and pulpy to me unfortunately, and just wasn't my cup of tea overall.

In his book "On Writing" King mentions at one point his disdain for plotting. He cites "The Dead Zone" as one of the few novels he has actually plotted and liked. The evidence that he has plotted is strong in this book as it is his most well written and adequately paced. For the first time ever reading a King novel I didn't feel like the book was 200 pages too long. He does very little of the needless rambling and description here that he does in many of his other novels. There was also another first for me while reading King...I didn't have to skip pages! While the actual concept of the story itself isn't as interesting as some of his other novels like "The Stand" or "IT", it is much better written and cuts the fat to a minimum. I can only imagine if he had taken a little extra time to plot the stories I previously mentioned how much more amazing they would be.

I picked up The Dead Zone right after trudging through Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty. Within minutes, I knew that The Dead Zone was a far better book. My favorite thing about this book and for the most part, other Stephen King books is his ability to craft real, well-rounded characters. Johnny Smith, the hero, recieves a gift he doesn't want or enjoy, the gift of second sight. He learns to live with this gift and try to help those around him. However, he is shunned. As you read this book you will feel Johnny's pain and suffer with him as he is slighted by almost everyone who is important to him. You will fell the loss he feels as he tries to move on with his life. One of the best Stephen King books by far.

During the summer of 1992, I read all of the Stephen King books that were in print at that time. The Dead Zone was one of the standouts for many reasons, such as the things it DIDN'T have:
NO merry band of main characters. NO precocious children with paranormal abilities. NO "phantasmal Greek chorus".
I'm sure these sound familiar. The things the Dead Zone DOES have are a fascinating plot, a strong main character, and a conclusion which actually has implications to the "real world". Hmm... I wonder what Oswald was thinking?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the concept: If you could see into the future and saw that someone was destined to start a nuclear holocaust would you do anything to stop it? This book had it all. It had excellent pacing, great character development, suspense, drama, and a riveting storyline. I personally recommend checking it out. You will not be disappointed.

If the definition of a good book is one that gives the reader a powerful emotional experience, then The Dead Zone is a great one. John Smith is a popular young teacher with a bright future ahead. His relationship with Sarah Bracknell is moving forward. Life is looking good. Then John is involved in a terrible accident, putting him in a coma and shattering his life. But when John wakes up, he has gained a psychic ability. John now faces a difficult road to recovery... and the terrible responsibility of his newfound power.

King's storytelling is superb as usual. The characters feel real and the story is deep and touching.

Dead Zone is not the type of scary that Stephen King is generally known for, but that doesn't take away from its greatness. Its power is in its emotional nature. It's bittersweet, but highly readable and well worth the while.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was very well paced and creepy. The character development wasn't as complete as other King books i.e. It, The Stand, etc but enough was put into them to make each one real and believable. Every time the book seemed to tail off something exciting happened to grab my attention back. While The Dead Zone is not as scary/creepy as a lot of his other novels, it has just enough to fit into the horror genre. I would rate this book as a 4.5 out of 5.

I finished The Dead Zone a few weeks ago. I did enjoy and thought it was really good. The only thing stopping me from giving it a better rating was at times I felt it dragged a little and I was kind of like "thats it?" at the end. I'm currently reading all of Stephen King's great works, so I cant tell you where this one ranks just yet. I would recommend this book to someone who wants to give Stephen King a shot but doesnt want a horror novel. I kind of felt this book was a nice twist and different look on a political thriller story. Overall, I enjoyed the story and would recommend it, but, feel that some of King's other stories I've read are far more superior.

I enjoyed this novel. I always wondered what it would be like to have a gift like this, not really a gift I guess. Great job letting the reader know the characters, especially the politician, and now is a good time to read or reread this because of the man running for office in America and the similarities between the two and you have to ask, would I stop it if I could?

I'll never forget the first time or the tenth time I read this book. It is a true classic, a wonderful saga of human emotion, compassion, and sadness. Stephen King possesses a unique gift of touching the soft, warm places of humanity, while paralleling the dark and less attractive, deceptive sides. This book grips you from the very beginning, and you will find any other activity, other than reading, an annoyance. Johnny pulls at you in so many ways and leaves an indeliable mark on your psyche and soul. TRUE GENIUS!!

This book displays all of King's usual strengths. A sense of place (Castle Rock seems completely real), believable characters, and a seamless integration of fantasy and reality.

Unlike some other King books, the story maintains interest right through to the end, and isn't overly long.

My one criticism is that the book doesn't feel like a single piece of work, but more like 2 or 3 novellas stitched together. The last third, about the presidential campaign, hasn't much connection to the earlier parts.

"The Dead Zone," by Stepehn King, is a book unlike the others i have read. He takes in the common ideas of a car accident, a psychic, and a coma and turns it into a suspenseful story. It begins with Johnny Smith, a young man who loses the prime of his life to some wild teens. As the story unfolds, Stephen King will capture your breath and thoughts. The way he makes this story seem so believable is quite remarkable. The subplots are guaranteed to keep you at the edge of your chair. The suspense delivered by this book is one unlike anyother. It shows a different side of Stephen King. It shows that not all his books are of the unthinkable, but rather this book shows the true creativeness of Stephen King. Only Stephen King can make an everyday occurrence seem remarkable, as you will see as you are unable to put this spellbinding book down. Its resemblence to reality will make you wonder, "Is this actually a true story?" I was very impressed with the way this book was written. The description and detail made me feel like i was there to witness the talents of Johnny Smith. The nature of people also captivated my attention, as when Stephen King portrayed the persistent news reporters. We all know how they crowd the space of the famous, but Stephen King tells of the complexity of being famous, how it may actually feel. Another example is how he shows the heartbreak to see your child in a coma, the pain and agony that people go through. Overall, I was most impressed by the way this book could have been a true story. A few parts may make you think otherwise, but who is to say what is reality. Whether or not it is, this book still recieves praise from me as I rate it fairly high.

The psychological thriller aspect of The Dead Zone is great. The concept is great. John Smith as a hero is great, if not tragic. What prevented the book from being great, in my opinion, was the lack of peripheral character development. Too many characters, not enough time, I suppose, which is probably a hazard of the trade. Other than that, however, the storyline was very interesting and thought-provoking, a welcome diversion from King's usual fare of gore-splattered horror (which I'm a sucker for as well). I'd recommend it.

to be honest i only saw the movie. but it was good and i am contemplating going through the book. It wasn't that the guy had abnormal powers that inticed me, alot of his book sare about paranormal powers. like most horror writers. what was fascinating was how king, probably intentionally, portrayed stillson as the hitler of today. he was heavily pro nationalistic, a great orator, started small and worked his way up the ranks, and was very violent. I can't say that the plot was extremely fascinating, its typical king. good, but i guess writing horror is hard when you are the no. 1 guy. with all the pressure to be perfect. but, take a look at the movie, and the book. Maybe king was trying to tell us something about ourselves. About how we would support a new hitler, a new narcissistic, violent, mass murderer. Who was a great orator, kissed babies, had his goons take care of his enemies, set his enemies up. I think king had a message beyond just anohter book. That we need to watch ourselves. That evil changes texture as political correctness changes. Hitler would never make it in todays world, but stillson would. But both were the same. Narcissistic mass murderers who were really great oraters. think about it.

I first started watching the TV series "The Dead Zone" on USA. It had me hooked. As I am constantly reading, I naturally decided I should read the book that the television series is based from. The book left me feeling saddened and depressed, but at the same time very pensive. The novel had a great affect on me, which is a good thing. It was moving and kept me emotionally involved in the story line. Although my review may sound depressing, I feel that if one is moved by the novel they read, no matter what emotions are involved, it is well worth the time. Of course, it's not all sad and deep. There is definitely the thrill of finding out where his visions are going to lead him.

After a serious accident, a man awakes from a coma of several years.

Everything is different, including his own self. He now has precognition. An isolated figure already, this new power isolates him further.

At a meeting he gets a precognitive reading off a low level politician, and realises the man has truly evil ambitions, and that he is the only man that can stop him.

John Smith has to decide how far to take this role of possible hero/assassin.

I think King is unfairly labeled & dismissed as a mere "horror" novelist. The truth of the matter is that he is simply one of the greatest and most gifted popular novelists of our time. The Dead Zone illustrates this fact more than any King novel I have been exposed to. I have read just a handful of King's novels, but am always surprised at how much they stay with me after the fact. This story was no exception. The characters are exceedingly well crafted -- particularly the protagonist Johnny Smith. King is very adept at creating a sense of time and place. In this case: the Seventies in Maine, of course. The plot is fast-paced and forces the reader to focus on one central theme: If one has the power to see the future, how would one use that power? Johnny Smith (a likeable, very typical individual if there ever was one) takes a sharp blow to the head as a small boy and is doomed to struggle with that question from that point on. There are no ghosts, witches, vampires, etc. in this book. This is not a "horror" novel in the traditional sense, which is precisely why it will scare the living hell out of you. Just a plain man with a power he doesn't want. The results are gripping and chilling. The bottom line is that King (God bless him) makes you want to read. James Joyce is still on my bookshelf... unread. Do yourself a favor and read the first 10 pages of the Dead Zone. You will be on page 404 two days later.

I must have read this book 6 or 7 times and I still enjoy it and find new themes each time I re-read. It will not be loved by those who are addicted to the horror/weird aspects of Stephen King's books. However, it is a masterful psychological 'thriller' in the development of the plot and the main characters, with excellent insights, too, into modern life and some of it's conundrums and misunderstandings. The minor characters, such as the Vietnamese gardener, are also well developed and offer interesting and thought-provoking insights. John Smith suffers a head injury in a car crash and lies in hospital in a coma for years. Upon awakening, he can accurately 'predict' events for individual people after touching them. Not unnaturally, this causes him pain and 'agnst' and notoriety. I can't go into much detail without giving away the story, but his pursuit of one individual leads him to difficult and ultimately agonizing decsisions. I consider this novel King's 'tour de force' and would recommend it to those who enjoy suspense and the study of the human psyche - you will enjoy. (And if you can't put ti down - don't blame me - you are warned!)

I believe that Stephen King considers this his best book. I'm not sure I can go that far, but it is very good. I assume you know the plot, what with the TV series and movies and all. I just re-watched the movie (which is one of the better King adaptations, by the way) and I realized why so many King movies turn bad: King movies are about scary things - the books are about people, who scary things happen to. If you ever doubt King's mastery of characterization, read this book.

Mr. King surely has come a long way since "King's Garbage Truck" back when we both attended the U of Me Orono back in the late sixties. Now we're both old men and I'd like to think we both know a lot more than we did back then

Stephen king has the ability to cast spells. From time to time I find myself picking up one of his books for some "non-academic" reading. The only problem is, my mind often works harder on a King novel than on "more academic" writing. I like THE DEAD ZONE because it is not a traditional horror story at all. In fact, few incidents in the story are truly frightening. The most frightening things about this book are the ideas that it presents. Every thing in the book COULD happen as another reviewer stated. King often uses horror as a mask when he wants to discuss social issues. (See "The 10 O'Clock People" from NIGHTMARES & DREAM SCAPES) THE DEAD ZONE is a prime example of this. King's social commentary is as compelling as Kurt Vonnegut's (I have a habit of comparing everyone to Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite contemporary writer) Only with King, nobody's laughing!!!

I read the Dead Zone after Mr. Kings "On Writing". I have read a few of his other books but did this more in a textbook study. It was all I could expect. He has a grasp on his genre of writing no one else currently could come close. I learned a lot from his " On Writing" and this book as a example of writing with a outline. I will read more because of this example.I know that he is a writer that works from a mind and heart that is one of a kind.

One of his better books. Not scary or spooky in any sense, but the story was woven very well and the ending tied up everything very well. By the end of the book I was very happy how it turned out despite being sad.

The Dead Zone is one of my favorite Stephen King novels. Like many of his other novels it is a non fictional plot that gets the reader hooked in the beginning. The main character Johnny Smith wakes up 5 years later from an accident with special powers of being able to see the secrets of others with a simple touch. These powers made his life much more complex, the visions he sees of others' past, present, and future lead him into troublesome situations that change the lives of many. This novel is a great read for bookworms who are interested in fantasy/suspense and science because it intellectually challenges them with the elevated themes and highly detailed happenings that may contrast with the beliefs' of the readers'.

The Dead Zone is the book I would recommend to anyone who has never read a book by Stephen King because they think, "he's too scary" This book was written during the four or five years that King put out his best work...Salems lot, The Shining, The Stand. All are beyond classic but the Dead Zone is one of the more interesting ones in that the reader really gets to love Johnny Smith and is pulled in and totally encapsulated by the story.

The Dead Zone is an excellent book about Johnny Smith, a young man who wakes up from a four and a half year coma and has the ability to se the future, or know unknown things about people. There are many subplots in this book, some of them including a disturbing serial killer and a psychotic politician named Greg Stillson. Stephen King makes sure we hate this man, for in the prologue he brutally kills a dog, and does other evil things.
This book was very suspenseful and fast-paced, although it got overlongish in some spots, and when Johnny shakes the hand of Greg Stillson, it is not clear how Johnny comes to know about certain events, but overall The Dead Zone was an excellent book, and the characters are all likable enough: Sam Weizak, Sarah Hazlett, and Johnny's dad Herb. We of course hate the psychotic Stillson. Recommended

Here's a complex, layered and lush story that takes its time unfolding. I liked the pace. I liked getting to know each character awhile and feeling invested in them prior to anything severe or overt occurring to them. So that when those things happen, and they do, you actually care about them as people. The plot is meaningful and this book could be a 1000 pages longer and I'd be happy to read it.

Like all his stuff, I looked forward to reading this and enjoyed it. It's a page turner.
Not as scary as IT but still has its good parts. King's got a problem with bloat. I seem to have been able to stomach it more in my youth. Now, I just flip through chapters and STILL know exactly what's gonna happen/what's going on.
The whole Sarah love story was a little lame. No real point and it didn't seem like either one of them was better off knowing the other.
I don't think I'll read this one again.

Great characters and story, but I wish King would have spent more time with the assassination. I will say that I really enjoyed the story the book had to tell, but felt that I needed more of the main story.

first off, i had trouble deciding whether or not to give this 3 or 4 stars. its a slid 3.5 stars. this is a really quick reading book for those who are not too angsty about getting to the ending. Like "salems lot" the book is pretty slow for most of the book, but in still a very enjoyable fashion. I have to say i IMMENSLY enjoyed the first 2/3rds of this book. My only gripe is that I would have like the plot thread of the strangler to have continued for longer and not gone off on the political tangent. the characers are great and I think thats why they ended up making a TV show based on the book. it could have gone on for so much longer! if only he would have accepted his gift.

The first thing I want to say is that the story is very good. It is clever and keeps you wondering what happens next. King is a great writer and really paints a clear picture of every scene. At times, I found that I couldn't put this book down, as I wondered what would happen next. Unfortunately, the story does get pretty slow around halfway through it. Some scenes get drawn out way longer than they should be, and King's use of repeating sentences gets very annoying after the first few chapters. Plus, random and unnecessary political comments fill the book. They don't really matter to the story, it is just King trying feed us his point of view on Vietnam and whatnot. All this aside, the story still is good and a Stephen King fan would defiantly like this.

I have read many stephen king novels,somei liked (pet semitary,the shining,night shift,christine,4 past midnight)some I did'nt(cujo, the dark half)but still I must say this was a very gripping,narcotic like story about religious fanaticism,and a man who can tell the future after a 5 year coma. His power begins to save people but many don't want to be saved and grow to hate him.Totaly engrossing,I loved every minute of it.

Ah, the infamous Dead Zone. And no, I'm not talking about the hit USA Network TV show, either. Though it's based off of the King Novel, The book reads just a bit different than the adapting the TV screen.
Still, this was something good to read and made you really understand what King was thinking about when he wrote it, you get to be Johnny Smith for a little while and feel everything he's feeling in the beginning.
Now, if only someone would write media tie-in novels of the TV show, then we'd be good-to-go.

--Joseph McGee, author of In the Wake of the Night, Phil's Place and Darkness Won't Rest: Phils Place II

The Dead Zone by Stephen King is a fabulous book. From the very beginning the reader is drawn into the story and is left hanging on to the edge of you seat with every turn of the page.
The book is about a high school teacher, John Smith, who gets in a car accident and stays in a coma for four years. As everyone was giving up on John coming out of his coma, he wakes up. But Johnny does not come back completely normal, he comes back with something extra, which enables him to touch people, objects, anything and recieve images, words, information about the people or the people that held them.
But he soon starts to despise his gift, "This is my gift, this is also my curse," and refuses to use it. People send him things and want him to tell them what he sees. But then brutal murders start to occur and the local sheriff asks him for his help. He tells Johnny that he is his last resort. At first he refuses to help, but soon his own guilt gets the better of him. And so starts a mystery that will leave you in suspense and keep you wondering what will happen next.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in mystery, suspense, or things that deal with the supernatural.

This novel is very gripping and will cause you to phade into your own gap of time because the pages are so defined and the story is written with utmost detail. Almost like a cause an effect situation which always seems to affect the main character (John Smith's) life. He being an incredible talented teacher and cursed with second sight because a tumor and/or an incredibly large gap in the brain he calls the dead zone. This novel portrays the life of a man who is different and/ or unique and how he is different from society. This gripping novel almost makes you feel sympathy for John- as if a coma wouldn't do that for most. His parents Herb, and Vera Smith are the fairly odd couple; Vera being religious and Herb being sane. Their are multiple scene switches (this being what I liked most) which will keep you guessing at every page because it all links back to John. The Dead Zone is an incredible novel and should be read by all.

"The dead zone"

By

Stephen King

1) I have chosen the book because of the author. I have read only one Stephen King book before and that was "The Body" published by Penguin readers. Books by Stephen King are said to be great horror books, full of thrill and mystery. So I decided to read a "real" Stephen King book and looked for some books at the store.at. When I found a book called "The Dead Zone" I was fascinated by the cover and its title.

Because of the title I suppose the book to deal with the subject of death. There isn't any blurb, so the reader doesn't know anything about the plot of the book at this time. The layout of the cover confirms my suspicion of a book with a focus on death, because of the veiled face, which is slightly light up and covers the whole front of the book. The cover is coloured in black, grey and an iridescent mixture of green and blue. The colours grey and black stand for pain, fear, sorrow and death. The iridescent mixture of blue and green is a symbol for mystery, subconscious and things you can not describe in a conventional way, just like supernatural power and death.

I expect the book to be a good read, but I'm afraid that Stephen King's writing style is fairly high developed and so there will be problems with understanding the text. In addition I fear that it will take me very long to read through this novel of more than 400 pages.

The aim of writing this paper is to prove my development of my writing skill. I want to demonstrate that I have already improved my writing skill and my style through all the years of book reports, tests, home-exercises and the English course in Ireland.

The problems I will most likely encounter might be problems with expressing my ideas in the right way. I find it difficult to pick the right word out from the large offer of opportunities of the meanings of a word. It is hard to find the correct word, which expresses my idea and fits into the sentence at the same time.

Probably I will also have troubles with word order and the correct use of time, adjectives and adverbs.

I'll try hard to reduce the number of mistakes.

2) The plot is divided into four parts. The first part is the Prologue in which King introduces the main character Johnny Smith, when he was a teenager.

Johnny was ice skating with some other guys. Suddenly he bumped into another one and fell down. He hit the ground with his head and blacked out. The impact on the ice damaged a little part of his brain. Nobody ever noticed anything and so he lived on without any suspicion, that there isn't everything alright with him. But soon he will find out that he is not that Johnny he was before. The skating accident changed his life drastically.

The second part of the book is the most explained and most important one, and it is about two third of the whole novel. It is called "The Wheel of Fortune" and is about Johnny Smith as an adult.

Johnny Smith is a school teacher in the Maine town of Cleaves Mills, along with his girlfriend, Sarah Bracknell. One day, Johnny takes Sarah to a local fair and gets a bad headache while riding the roller coaster. The part is called The Wheel of Fortune, because the ride on the roller coaster "activated" his powerful gift. Johnny decides to try his luck by playing "The Wheel of Fortune". As he always bets on the right number and makes a lot of money with it, Sarah gets frightened and wants him to bring her home. At the Wheel of Fortune Johnny discovered the power to look into the future the first time, but he wasn't aware of it. He brings Sarah home and organises himself a taxi. Unfortunately the taxi was involved in a horrible car accident: The taxi-driver dies and Johnny falls into a deep coma.

Five and a half years later, Johnny awakes from the coma, although everybody, the parents, Sarah and the doctors gave up hope. Johnny wakes up in a special clinic run by Dr. Sam Weizak, and is surprised to realize that five years have passed and that the whole world has changed. He finds out that he has lost his job, that his girlfriend Sarah was married to another guy and got a child called Danny, and that his mother fell into some kind of a religious mania, when praying all over the years for him. But the most astonishing thing is to find out about his strange new power. He can see into the future and the past of people by touching them or something belonging to them. Certain aspects of his vision, however, are blocked, and he can't always figure out the whole picture. This is the area of his psychic vision Johnny calls "the dead zone".

With his powerful gift he changes the life of everybody he gets in contact with. To give a few examples of his influence on the people around him: He saves the life of the nurse's daughter, when having a vision of a burning house with a girl in it, by touching the nurse. He also changes Dr. Weizak's life by seeing his mother living in California, although she was supposed to be murdered in the World War II.

The most important role Johnny plays in the Chapter "The Wheel of Fortune" is to find out, who the dangerous murderer and rapist is, the police is searching for.

In the third part, "The Laughing of the Tiger", there is a sad climax: Johnny finally finds his death, when he tries to assassinate Greg Stillson, a politician who is going to candidate for the position of the president. When Johnny shook hands with Stillson after a speech, Johnny had an insight into Stillson's soul and saw that this guy is crazy and full of hate. He also saw that Stillson will become president and that then he is going to start a nuclear war, which would leave the world in total destruction. Johnny feels in duty bound to save the world from Greg Stillson, being awake to the fact that this means his own death. He fails to assassinate Stillson, but Stillson commits suicide, when all the newspapers reported about him, using a baby as a human shield. Johnny is shot by a bodyguard.

As an ending, Stephen King added the fourth part called "Notes from the Dead Zone". There we can find alternatively letters of Johnny and Sarah, as well as some newspaper articles about Johnny's power and the failed attempt of Greg Stillson's assassination, and excerpts from the testimony given by the so-called "Stillson Committee".

The story is much like a roller coaster ride. At the beginning Johnny's life hits its peak: He leads a pleased life, he loves his job and his girlfriend Sarah, who he wants to marry.

The car accident flings Johnny out of his tracks, so his life suddenly hit rock bottom. After the coma he suddenly has lost his job, his girlfriend, five and a half years of his life and his physical health. The short moment of the accident is the turning point of his life. His new life is stamped by physical and psychical pain and increasing isolation.

Johnny's supernatural power doesn't turn him into a celebrated hero, but into an uncanny outsider. His mysterious power turns out to be the bane of his life.

Johnny quickly fades, because he is getting weaker and weaker with every vision. His physical appearance gets worse, as well as his pangs. At the end of the story Johnny just looks like a zombie: his eyes were bloodshot, his face was deathly pale, he looks feeble and there were scars all over his body from the operations. You can easily foresee Johnny's death and that there wouldn't be a happy ending.

I think the book deals with many problems at the same time. One of these is the predicament after a long coma. King makes us realize what it is like, awaking from a coma, which lasted a few years, and what feeling it is when the whole world has changed. All your dreams burst like bubbles and you have to start from the very beginning again. You have to find a job, you have to reintegrate into the social system again and you have to endure a lot of painful operations in order to regenerate and mobilize you by lengthening your sinews.

Other problems result from problems in reintegrating into the society, especially with such a strange power. Johnny lost his sweetheart to another guy, he lost his job and his mother has gone insane. Johnny's world breaks down with one single moment, the car accident to be precise. He failed to reintegrate and so it comes to the tragic end. For example, if he just had been able to marry Sarah, there would be a different ending, because then he would have gotten something it is worth living for.

To my mind "The Dead Zone" is a great book. I had expected the book to be a rather long read. I also thought that Stephen King's experienced writing-style and the enlarged vocabulary would be too thorny to read. But reading the novel was completely different from the expectations I had before. I think this book turned me into a Stephen King fan and if I only had time, I'd read other books from him. I like his style very much. He doesn't lengthen the story by all means. There are chapters, which were very long and there were chapters, which were very short, for example: "The dinner was a great success." (See part 2, chapter 9, subchapter 9, page 139). This is the whole subchapter!

I like this very much, because it shows that the contents and the idea are of highest importance for King, not to approximate a certain number of chapters or words. It seems as he just writes down what comes to his mind and as a result there were chapters of very different length. Because of this, Stephen King's books keep the reader in suspense and they never get dull. Other readers tell in book reviews that "The Dead Zone" is not his best book and that there are much better ones. To my mind it is a great story with lots of griping and mysterious facts. I couldn't put the book aside, because it reads so fluently. If people are right, when saying that there are better books from Stephen King, I can't wait to read another one of this great author's books. Even if they aren't really better, I would read them.

The Dead Zone is really worth reading. You can easily identify with the main character, Johnny Smith. I would strongly recommend it to people who love to be spellbound by mystery-thrillers.

I would asses the novel as literary work of art, because Stephen King managed to show the slow modification of Johnny Smith. At the beginning everything is alright, he is alive and kicking and enjoys best health. While reading, Johnny slowly modifies from a respected man of the middleclass into an uncanny outsider. It shows all the little details of Johnny's life and his iridescent character, which are important to identify with him. King managed to alter all this little details so slowly, that you do not realise the modifications. But if you reflect on the part you have read, you can see that Johnny has already changed a little bit. If you reflect on the whole novel, suddenly you can see one big tremendous change, and it scars me, how insidious such a big change of personality and appearance can be.

To my mind Stephen King succeeded on the whole and I can't wait to read other books of him.

It's difficult to tell you, where I have succeeded or failed. I just hope that there aren't too many mistakes and that I have improved my style and have enlarged my vocabulary. I liked to work with this book and I hope this is perceptible to you.

One of the most absorbing boks I've ever read, Stephen King's The Dead Zone is sure to please almost any reader. King keeps the reader turning the pages during this book. I read it in roughly two days, and for someone like me, who usually doesn't read unless it's required, that was quite a short time to read a book of this length. During most of my free time, I found myself picking up the book and continuing to read. King creates impressive characters to whom you soon feel yourself attached. The protagonist, Johnny Smith, was one of those characters that I began to appreciate and enjoy learning of his next action. The plot is most intriguing. Though it would be doubtful that the novel's events would occur in real life, I found it so interesting that I just had to keep reading. I spoke with my teacher about the book, and she decided to read it. Several days later, she said she finished it and said she believed it to be the best book Stephen King has written. I haven't read all of his books, nor have I read that many books, but I enjoyed this book and was able to actually finish it, unlike other books I've given a weak attempt at reading. I believe anyone would enjoy reading this book.

The Dead Zone is one of those books that will stay with you forever. It is for me - it's the first King book I read, and it's the best of his in my opinion.

The characters are sympathetic and I've resisted watching the film because I have a perfect image of them in my head and dont want to ruin that image, as good as I hear the film is.

I think the conflict in the story is spot on and there are some amazing twists on the way... but mainly it's just a really engaging and fast paced book that will fly by.

100% recommended. If you are a fan of thrillers or dark stories, buy the Dead Zone!

I am a big fan and have read every book, and this one is always the one I consider on of the best.

His books are always engrossing and page turners, but this one is set apart, to me, as being more in the realm of "believable."

All he does is asks you to accept one thing as being plausible, someone having a Sixth Sense, then the book goes on from there.

I had not read this one in quite awhile and picked it up again and it was just as how I remembered. A book very much worth reading if you have any interest in the genre.

Very Highly Recommended.

The best thing about this particular book is its ability to draw you easy into the lives of its characters and still have the punch to make you read it with the lights on. I compare its quality to Christine: amazingly well-written. King has the ability to make the characters come alive inside your head. I really thought this was more of a love-story than anything else. Yes, the horror is there, but done in such a way that it doesn't overpower you. John Smith is a real man (and maybe his name indicates that he is another form of Everyman) and the events that take place in his life are things that could happen to you and me. In short, I couldn't put the book down when I first read it umpteen years ago, and I couldn't put it down when I reread it for the umpteenth time last month. If you don't cry at the end of this story, something is wrong with you...

The Dead Zone is about a young teacher named Johnny who is in love with a fellow teacher named Sara. After going out one night, Sara gets sick. So they go home. Johnny asks if she would like him to stay, she says no. THe last words spoken are I love you. Then Johnny leaves in a cab. On the way home they are in a terrible accident. Johnny is in a coma for 4 1/2 years. When he wakes up, he realizes he has been somehow acquired an abnormal talent. When he touches people, he is now able to feel what they are feeling, see their past, and even their future. The rest of the book is about his tirals and tribulations with Sara, politics, murder cases, his god obsessed mother, reporters, fanatics and so on. Johnny's mother's last words to Johnny were that God had blessed him with this gift because he had a task in life. And when Johnny is told he only has a year to live, he knows he has to complete the task before it is too late. This book was great, and it really keeps your attention. It's a fast speed mystery that makes you go OH MY GOD, JUST DO IT, OH NO HE DIDN'T, and AHHHHHHH! READ THIS BOOK!

I am a huge fan and admirer of Stephen King and his work. Being a huge fan of the television show, I thought I'd give this book a try. From the beginning of the book, I found the series more interesting. I mean, I enjoyed the book a great deal, but I found that it moved kind of slow in parts that focused on Greg Stillson. Aside from that, I thought the book was a real page turner and a must-read for King fans.

I love every aspect of the Dead Zone, the character of John Smith is so endearing and his illfated love affair...His psychic ability is fascinating and also is his dilemna. The subplot with the serial killer is really scary. I do confess to liking the movie better but that is a testament to Christopher Walken's haunting portrayal. Its great early King and a must read.

This impressive bit of work is about a psychic high school teacher who awakens from a coma and solves crimes. The author of this book, I believe his name is Steve Kingsley, he is a mastermind! I mean, how could a guy think up all this wacky stuff? This guy makes me want to write horror novels because I think it would help me get girls, and maybe I might get invited to a party or something. As it is now though, I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to read another one of Steve Kingsly's books. If you want to read one of them then you should beacause they are really good. Oh, and I heard that it's based on a true story or something. And I forgot to mention that my uncle is pyschic and he really liked this book too.

but the thing was that I like the book so much that I wanted to rent the movie so I did that only because I had to see who was going to play the characters especially johnny. now I still love Steven King but I was very dissapointed with the movie I couldnt feel the movie like I could the book. But I truly give the book 5***** stars. A loyal reader S. Williams

This is one of the only books I have read over the years, that I can remember different scenes from it. It is not only sad, but the main character's frustrations come out so vividly. How he is able to cope through all the adversity, is what makes it a great read. I have reread The Dead Zone, at least, 6 times since it's release in 1980. Probably will again.

The Dead Zone is one of King's earlier books...and honestly, I think his earlier books are much better than his later books. It's an excellent story. I'm only giving it four stars though because it does drag a bit in places.

I have been a Stephen King fan for 14 years and still have notread all of his books. Each time I find one that I have not read yet,I open it and begin my journey. I found The Dead Zone absolutely great reading. I would recommend it to any Stephen King reader who has not had a chance to catch this one. Even though I was only about 5 years old in the early '70s, I found reading this book very entertaining and found myself easily drawn to the era. I think that alot of people have always wanted to have the ability to see into the future or know someone's true past, just as the main character, Johnny Smith, has come to possess in this book. But, have we ever stopped to think of the consequencies of having that power? The Dead Zone definetly gives you the opportunity to think about it. A MUST READ THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS! END

Hearts in Atlantis was an endearing nostalgic book, a pleasure to read. It had frightening moments and nightmarish situations but there was a change in Mr. King's writing style. It would be difficult to explain this subtle change. Nevertheless, it is there and personally, all his fans will feel privileged if this change becomes part of his permanent style of writing.

One of my favorite King novels. This is one where he's able to bring together all he does well. Strong characters, great premise, and a powerful ending. If you only read a few King books, make sure this is one of them.,

This book is an excellent book, its for everyone. Throughout it you will be mesmorized by Kings words, and it will seems as if you were in the story. King paints a beutiful picture in your mind throughout the whole story. At the begging of the book, when Greg Stillson assaults that dog, King actually makes you beggin to despise him in every way - even if your not that much of an animal lover. Kings way of writing is just marvellous. I have read all of his books up to date. And by far if there is any book of his you should read first, it would have to be The Dead Zone. -- Then maybe settle it with a little Carrie, and then some Salems Lot.
So overall, a fan of reading, or not would enjoy this book. And would soon find themselves picking some of Kings other titles aswell.

All King's books I've read have much the same structure: a long boring intro (which goes through 2/3 of the pages...) and an exciting climax, which is in most of the cases worth the reading. Dead Zone's climax follows the same pace of the intro... SLOW pace... Too slow. Besides, you have the impression of having already read something similar elsewhere. The storyline is poor, empty. Interesting early King's books are The Shining, Salem's Lot and Christine...

Right from the prologue, I was hooked. The story is chilling and disturbing, but I loved it. The story focuses on Johnny Smith, a teacher from Maine. He is very much in love with his childhood friend and and fellow teacher Sarah, and she is also in love with him. From romance to murder, this book has it all. Johnny Smith is especially funny, and his character is easy to get comfortable with, which makes this twisting story even more thrilling. I highly recommend this book.

Having read a number of Stephen King's books, "The Dead Zone" has to rank as one of the finest. A tale of clairvoyance, it keeps its readers 'on the edge of their seats'. In typical Stephen King fashion, he heralds the appearance of the supernatural whilst reinforcing the readers' credulity through habitual exploitation of commonplace settings, cliches and associations with everyday norms. Both the protagonist's and antagonist's idiosyncrasies were consistently amplified throughout to great effects lending credibility to the numerous furor and conflicts as the story unfolds. The loose ends were neatly tied together in the finale which doesn't disappoint.

First off, I want all the Stephen King fans to know, that if you haven't read The Shining, Misery, It or The Stand, that you should definitely try those before you spend eight bucks on this novel. The beginning of this book starts off strong, but heading into the last 150 pages, you may feel your eyelids getting heavier, do to so much blah- blah- blah dialogue. This was my first Stephen King novel, and after reading The Dead Zone I hoped that none of King's other novels were like this. However, this book can be, at times, quite entertaining to read when King tells about Johnny's new and somewhat creepy "abilities" whenever he touches someone. The climax is quite surprising and I also liked the thorough backround info. about most of the main characters. This isn't Kings best work, but by all means purchase The Dead Zone if this review was helpful to you.

this is my favorite Stephen King novel. If you are looking for blood and guts, look elswhere, although there is enough gruesome material to make the most blodthirsty addict happy. "The Dead Zone" is very much character driven. While I may have been truly scared reading "The Shining," I was truly moved on emotional level when reading this novel.

Stephen King's, The Dead Zone, is a fascinating mixture of science, medicinal, and psycological theory all stirred into one.This book is very intriguing, however; if you're into hardcore horror this isn't for you. If you want a book that is graphic in detail but yet not too frightening you'll love this.I would NOT recommend this for young children because this isn't some namby-pamby written book with " Shoot! or Darn!", no King wrote this with feeling.The Dead Zone is reallistic in the fact that everything inside the cover is possible,that is what may scare you.John Smith is a high school teacher who wakes from a coma with the ability to touch someone and know everything about them. Read It!

Stephen King's The Dead Zone is a classic tale. The story is unforgettable. This is perhaps in my top 5 Stephen King Novels. Translated very well on the screen by Mr. C.W. The book's first edition is a collector's item to be sure.

One of the Stephen King's three best books. Great characters. Very rich writing, and a story that feels satisfying when it concludes, which isn't true of all of King's books. Read this one and treat yourself to great story.

If Stephen were perfect, then I'd be a cat. In other words, Stephen is amazing. Nobody's perfect. Stephen does not prove to be perfect but he does prove to be intelligent in this 1. Oh hold it....never mind. Email me if you have time and if you agree that Stephen is great! ([email protected])

This book was so emoitionally compelling I cried for an hour after I finished it. This is the best character development I've seen King create. You will be on an emotional roller coaster with this read. From lip biting suspense, to tear-jerking scene, this book will leave you hanging on to every word. A great read.

This is one of the first King novels that I ever read and I enjoyed it immensely. After you read the book see the movie with Christopher Walken playing Johnny. After seeing the movie try to catch the rerun of the Saturday Night Live routine that Walken performs

One of those books that really gets you hooked and interested, right from the start. Its hard to stop reading it. Ive read many of Kings books and I think this one is one of the best as far as how engaging and fast paced it is. Definitly check it out

The reason I read this book was because of the TV show. I wanted to read this because I wanted to spot the differences and similarities between the two. A fan of the show may want to read this. There are certainly differences in the characters and events from the show. The Dead Zone tells of a man, Johnny Smith, who inherits visions after waking up from a coma. This book is about Johnny's struggles with seeing the past and future after his coma. This book tends to lag at times, and this happens a lot throughout the book. It is a long book, but it is also the one you want to pass time with. Overall, this is an excellent read.

This was an entertaining read although it was far from my favorite King novel. I thought the ending was pretty good but there were some slow parts through the middle especially in comparison to some off his other novels such as The Stand, The Shining, or Firestarter to name a few which were true page turners throughout.

I am new to horror lit and Stephen King so am no expert but still - this did keep me turning the pages, however the whole thing just did not match up to Pet Semetary which kept me totally mesmerized. Too predictable and the characters could have been more developed. I enjoyed the first half more than the second, more atmospheric somehow - but I just felt it lost momentum and the ending was an anticlimax.

Always one to suck you in almost immediately, Stephen King does a masterful job with his story of lost love and a tale of a man who one day discovers that the fate of the world rests in his hands.
A good read and one of his best. The David Croneberg film produced in the 1980's takes a slightly different spin on the book but is in many ways more effective and powerful (Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Body are similar examples). Read the book, check out the movie

The book was well-written, but the story just took quite a while to unfold. I really prefer page-turners, but this wasn't a real page turner. Good story and I did like the characters, it just could have been a little shorter, and a little more action. Just my opinion.

Great idea and intriguing story, but it's really tough to stick with. There's very little suspense of ANY kind (not even in a Green Mile sort of way) up until the climax. If you like your politics, though, this book is for you.

i loved this book. this is the frist Stephen king book i have read but i loved i and would love for any one to tell me which other book he wrote is as great as this one so please e-mail and give me your favorites thanx =)

Usually, I have a problem putting a Stephen King novel down but with the "Dead Zone", I wasn't as inthralled with it as I usually am with his books. The storyline is good but it wasn't as entertaining as most of his other books.

This book by Stephen King, the genius of horror, does a remarkable job on this book. It tells a story about a high school teacher named Johnny. On the way home from a date with this recent "love" ,who works with him,he gets in a terrible car accident and is in a comma for 4 and 1/2 years. When he wakes up he has a second sight and the public wants to know all about it. His love has gotten married, the world around him has changed, and he can't get away from the public. Excellent book of Stephen King expressing his feelings on hows it like to be in the public eye.

I am thirteen yeras old and i am an avid Stephen King fan. I have recently read "the dead zone" and thought it was really weird and scary about the hockey game and when they all fell through the ice. In the end, evil always backfires ie. when the psychic guy was trying to shoot Greg Stiltskin, he touched him and saw that he would commit suicide when he held up the baby to protect himself from the gun. I really do reccomend this book to everyone because if u are into psychic things etc then this will be brilliant. I really did enjoy this book. From Hannah (UK)

This was an absolutely brilliantly written book. As with all of his other books Stephen King does not fail to create a world for his readers to live in. I became completely wrapped up in the life of Johnny Smith while reading this. I can only recommend reading it. Do it now!

the dead zone was the first stephen king book i read and i became a fan adter that. i recently saw the movie and i regually watch the show, but the book was the best ( as it is most of the time). now i have read every one of stephen king's book and i still think this is the best.not to scary , just right

The book might as well have been glued to my palms, for I found myself unable to relinquish it back onto the nightstand. Johnny a poor soul that longs for his once normal life before his coma of over 4 years is plagued by fierce headaches and visions of people's future. S. King is my Jesus and I read his books like the Bible. The Dead Zone is an enthralling tale of lies, decite, and a spite of terror, but the only way to get a taste of this is to read the book for yourself. -Bonappetit.

It is VERY unusual for a movie adaptation of a Stephen King novel to be better than the book itself. This, in my opinion, was the only exception where the movie was better than the book. The book itself was very well written- as most all of King's works are- and I have sifted throught a lot of King's boring and heavily-worded works. The Dead Zone just did not hold my attention the way most of his other stuff did. I liked the premise and the character development but just did not get into the story the way I usually do with nearly any King novel.

It could be better? I don't know, but Stephen King could keep the story much longer if he wanted to and make all of his fans much more happy doing what they do best, read Stephen King's books! Overall and as expected, the TV Series with the same name is very different from the printed version and alas, it was a delight to read page after page until its very end! Four stars just because it finished so fast I couldn't imagine I have read the full story.

Stephen King has done himself another piece of art. The book is riveting that as the reader read through this it urges anyone to continue to find out what happens next. It gives the idea that certain actions in life has an effect on a possible future which also tells us to enjoy it while we can cause we don't want to miss all the moments that pass. Personally, I think Stephen King deserves a lot more praise for his works. I may want to read it again as one of my favorite books.

My favorite type of Stephen King book. It's lean, has a great story and a great premise. Just like The Shining, Misery, Pet Sematary, Carrie, etc. Not a big fan of his overly written (and bloated) books.

I received this book in a timely manner. I opened it immediately. The binding was broken, yellowed pages, stains on the edges, the dust jacked was tattered and if I took of the dust jacket, the cover wasn't any better without it. I would not have been able to sell this book at a garage sale. I threw it away right then. Can't use it. What a waste of my time and money. Now I'll have to see if I can find it again .......elsewhere.

This (Along with mysery, the shining and Thinner) is the best experience I had by reading a Stephen King book, and also enjoying watching the movie. I really think of Christopher Walken while reading it and also of J Nicholson & K Bates in their respective roles in the other movies. I certainly hope that S. King keeps that way cause The last three books that I read dissappointed me!!!! (The dark half is one of them.)

I saw the film adaptation of this book in the 1980s and recently viewed it again. Because I had had a similar experience with The Shining and enjoyed the book more, I decided to give this a read. Definitely better as a book.

Let it not be said that Stephen King only writes pure horror! "The Dead Zone" is definitely frightening in parts, but it is not a horror novel.
The scariest thing in the book is the all-American Bible salesman turned Presidential candidate who is unable to control his dangerous rage.
An excellent book, a love story full of drama, cultural satire, and suspense.

This is it, this is the book for those of you who said "what if" This is to me a heartbreaking story of a man who had it all, only to be taken away by a freak acident. I can not lie when i tell you that it made me want to cry. Stephen King delivers a great story for those who want a little soul searching mixed in with their macabe

This story will have you on the edge of your seat. It's a little bit different than kings normal style of writting but i definitely recommend it to all fans of SK. If you enjoyed the story "Road Work" then i think you'll like this book.

Read the title. King could have done this way better. If you took out all the political mumbo jumbo filler, this would have just been a novella, perhaps one of King's infamous long short stories. Overall I LOVED the entire idea, but I couldn't bear the filler, and found myself skipping pages too much. Not a book I'd read again.

Johnny's father made the whole book in my opinion. I'll think about Herb for a long, long time. The rest were okay, just your bland average Americans concerned about bland things.

though it is one of his early books, stephen king did a great job in this one. the characters were believableand the plot itself was good. this book has it all. drama, action, a love story, as well as the supernatural. i didn't like the ending though. it was sad, but i guess it's an ok ending. if you like stephen king, read this book. it's one of the best!

I really enjoyed reading "The Dead Zone".It was the first Stephen King book I read.The plot was very interesting,and I enjoyed the characters,they were well drawn.Especially John's parents,Vera and Herb.However,I was annoyed by some of the erors in plot and chronology.All in all,though,it was a great,exciting,entertaining book.

I'm in college and needed a Stephen King book to read and review by the end of the semester. I was interested in reading The Dead Zone because I never got to see the TV show or the movie, but was interested in the story. After searching a couple of sites, I stumbled across this one on the store for $4.44! Legit! Thinking it was an amazing deal, I purchased it right away. It did take some time to ship to me, but I eventually did get it. Since I have until mid-December to read and write a 2,000 word essay about it, I was in no rush of receiving it. The only thing I wish was different about my purchase was that because it was a hard cover, I do with the original paper sheet covering was shipped with it. But for $4.44, I'm satisfied! If anyone has any good points that they noticed about the story that's hidden under the surface of the words, email me and let me know so I can get an A+ on my essay!

There are already so many reviews that give King his credit with this classic. All I have to say is that its even better than original movie. Even as Christopher Walken, one of my favorites, is in the movie. King is the King of storytelling.

The book The Dead Zone was mostly good how ever there were some parts of the story that were a little dry,wordy and didnot help the story. Some patst of the story were kinda hard to falo because I persnly could not ynder stand who was speaking.there also was some valger langwige that as some tims was just unapproate.

I had read this book a while ago and just read it again, years later, and have to say this is still one of Stephen King's best books. I highly suggest this book. If you've never read one of his books before, start with this one!

A longtime King fan, I felt The Dead Zone simply falls short. The premise--an average school teacher awakes from an almost 5 year coma with the ability of seeing the future and the question of whether or not he will use this ability for good, is interesting, but the ending is certainly disappointing. This is not what I expected, but by no means did I feel it was a waste of time to read. Not his best, but certainly not a complete waste of time.

How in the world can this book get 5 stars?????
I enjoy Stephen King material, but I seriously sense biasness from most reviewers.
Boring from the beginning to the end, it drags, well maybe a few paragraphs here and there are interesting, but in this novel, King is too invested in the passing of time and all of its events and detail that make no difference whether or not it's included. The story could have easily been 50 pages!
Then again, the book was written in '79 so i'm sure his style changed considerably.
All I know is that I love the series with Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith!

I love Stephen King but I'm not a huge horror fan ,I love king because he has great characters that you really care about and empathise with and Johnny smith is one of his best with Nick Andross and Larry Underwood of the Stand a close second and third.

I saw the movie version of this novel a long time ago, of course, but when I read the book, I discovered that it was much, much better. In fact, I think this is King's best novel. I've read most of them, and this one out-performs all of the rest.

Stephen King's ability to write is magical. I felt as if i was a part of johnny's life and watch it unfold slowly before my eyes.the best part is it is totally unpredictable and did not use any age old cliches that have been repeated over and over again in most books and movies these days.

I only give this 3 and 1/2 stars, but since that is not an option, three stars will have to suffice. I could not give it five stars due to events that copntributed nothing to the story, stupid characters, a tad too much bad language, and couple too many comical moments. The movie by David Cronenberg is way better. Not my first choice for a Stephen King novel, but still an okay read. If you want a better novel by Stephen King that is far more enjoyable, then you should read Christine.

P.S. As I said the 1983 adaptation was great, but stay away from the tv series for it really sucked.

I loved the television series so I thought I would check out the novel... BIG MISTAKE. Out of 402 pages, 40 of them grabbed me... the very last fourty pages, mainly for the anticipation that I was almost done with this piece of garbage.

There was virtually no plot involved, and what little plot was there was literally squeezed into the end. Sure there were small portions where Johnny would have an odd "flash" into something, like the serial killer, or the restauraunt that burnt down... but none of these things were essential to the storyline.

It took all of my being to push myself into finishing it only because the show was cancelled without a proper conclusion, so I had to see how the original book ended for some form of closure to the series... which is amazing.

I found myself constantly wondering when the point of the story would come but it just dragged along borishly. Reading this makes me think that anyone could write anything, whether it be good or horrorishly bad, and Signet would publish it. I feel as if the time I spent reading this would have been better spent banging my head repeatedly into a brick wall.

Like most used book sellers they are completely unaware of how to determine a 1st Edition.

This was a Book Club Edition which can be found pretty much anywhere.

I gave 2 stars as a got a refund quickly and an apology.

I have read many books, and I am amazed at how boring and pointless Dead Zone is. The book could have been 1/10th the size to tell the story (if there really is a story). Most of the book is written about irrelevant events. For example, King drones on about Johnny teaching some guy to read; it drags and drags and at the end of the day, it is utterly pointless and seriously uninteresting. Most of the book is like this. It is one of the only books I began to skim through because it was so pointless and boring.