Book Review - The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower II)

Hello readers,

I just finished The Drawing of the Three (1987, Fantasy/Western fiction) by Stephen King (The second installment of the Dark Tower series). I must say, I'm drawn to this series as much as King himself says he is.

I started reading this series about six months ago, and just recently began to show interest in it again. It took me three days to get through the first two, if that tells you how addicting these are. Stephen King has always drawn me in but this series takes the cake.

** Warning: This is a review series for The Dark Tower and contains spoilers about the series. Please do not continue if you do not want the plot/surprises undone for you. Can't say I didn't warn you, thanks! ** 

Pros:

• This is something that I find I very much enjoy whenever I'm reading a series of books: The Drawing of the Three picks up almost exactly where The Gunslinger left off, saying in the introduction that this second book takes place only seven hours after the first. I enjoy this simply because it shows that the stories are connected, and that the reader hasn't missed much since they last saw the character. 
• Unlike some of King's other books, like It or Under The Dome, The Drawing of the Three isn't longer than it needs to be (this is subjective of course). From beginning to end, those 400 pages really hold together. There aren't any parts that really confused me, and didn't clear things up later. 
• King is full of surprises. He keeps readers on the edge of their seats with this book. I had trouble putting it down and, without adult responsibilities coming into play, I would have read the whole thing in one sitting. I liked this aspect of the book because there was never a part where I contemplated skipping over. Every page has some kind of interesting blurb on it. That's hard to find.

Cons:

•  My first con is one that can be said for many of King's books: the language can be a bit difficult in some places. Of the three main characters in this book, two of them are from different time periods (Eddie from the 1980's and Odetta from the 1960's) so it can be hard to keep up when they switch between the two. Obviously, speech was different back then and different words meant different things, so it can be hard to tell the difference unless you keep track. 
• As with most of King's series, one book alone doesn't really shed a lot of light on the whole picture. The same can be said for The Drawing of the Three, as it is obviously a journey book: all about the travel, less about the destination. While this isn't always a con, to my "I must know the answer now" brain it can be torture. 
• The Drawing of the Three does have one more flaw in my eyes. The end and the beginning aren't all that different. Well, they are drastically different, but from another angle not so much. Roland ended The Gunslinger on the beach, and so The Drawing of the Three ends the same. To some this may be symbolic: You can go through hell and still end up right where you started. To others it may be frustrating: He did all of this and still ended up right where he started! I suppose it depends on your worldview. 

Overall, I'm going to continue reading this series until my eyes fall out. I feel kind of like Eddie... seriously aching for my next fix of The Dark Tower. 

Always keep reading! 

Katie