Elevation by Stephen King – A Review

Elevation by Stephen King
Fiction
Published by Scribner
Released October 30, 2018
Goodreads | Amazon
Rating:

First of all, Elevation won the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards in the horror category, and I have no idea how. This is most definitely not a horror book.

Second, this book is godawful.

I grew up reading Stephen King’s books, as my parents had plenty of his novels on our living room bookshelf for me to choose from. As I got older, King’s earlier novels, such as The Shining, Tommyknockers, Pet Semetary, and others became easy favorites for me.

King’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Stand, is one of my favorite books of all time.

Suffice it to say, I’m a Stephen King fan. Usually.

Elevation is a very short book, and I finished it in a single day. The hardcover edition has just 146 pages. Its shortness is the only reason I finished reading it.

This novel has four characters: Scott Carey, a single, middle-aged web-developer; Dr. Bob Ellis, Scott’s friend, and a retired physician; and a lesbian couple new to town who own a vegetarian restaurant, Deirdre McComb and Missy Donaldson.

Scott has a mysterious infliction. He’s losing weight at a rate of a couple of pounds each day, but he doesn’t get any thinner. Also, he weighs the same on a scale with and without his clothes on. Seeing as this is a little bit strange, he seeks out the advice of Dr. Bob, although Scott also decides not to go to an actual hospital.

While Scott and Dr. Bob are watching the numbers on Scott’s scale dwindle away to nothing, Scott becomes obsessed with befriending his lesbian neighbors, who don’t want anything to do with him.

That’s the whole book. The end.

Literally, that’s it. It’s a very shallow novel.

I suppose the theme of the novel is getting along with people who have different lifestyles from you. Maybe? Most of the plot revolves around Scott trying to befriend and stick up for the lesbian couple while the rest of the townspeople shun them. Which is all well and good – it’s a great message in theory.

Then again, I didn’t enjoy the fact that the couple needed the white, middle-aged man to help them to succeed. Scott was the predictable and unwelcome hero of the story.

The characters were stereotypes, the story was bland, the plot was light, and the ending was ridiculous.

I will not be rereading this novel.

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Have you read Elevation? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

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