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Book Review: The Dead Zone by Stephen King

The Dead Zone by Stephen King is a horror cum suspense novel. It is one of the best works of him because the lead character in the novel is a kind of tragic hero, unlike the usual larger-than-life characters. In many a sense, the book is high on literary value as it does not exaggerate any of the both aspects: thrill and frightening.


John Smith is the central character of the book, by name he sounds quite common but he is blessed with a second sight, which at times acts as a curse for him as well. He got that second sight because of two accidents in his life. First, after a skating accident in childhood, and then as an adult one night he was returning from a village carnival in a taxi and then he met with a deadly accident. The accident pushes him into a comma state for the period of four years.

While he is in comma for four years, he loses everything he had then like career, girlfriend, access to life, etc. He wakes up hedonistically pauper in material terms, but on the other side he becomes blessed with the full-fledged version of his hidden childhood gift. And now his second career kicks up as a clairvoyant.

The second sight helps him to unearth the deep levels of darkness in the human souls. It is a kind of horrific discovery for him, since he could not believe himself that humans can stoop to such low levels for appeasement of their motifs and gains. He has a void feeling for his life until he meets Greg Stillson, soon-to-be a president of America. When he casually shakes hand with him, John could see the future of America. Immediately, John comes to know that Stillson is the wrong candidate for the country. His take is to finish Greg before he finishes the civilization of the world.

The novel consists of horror elements but not the supernatural ones. Though he has a supernatural power but that is for good use: to detect the evil in others. And Greg Stillson is the monster in this story to keep the balance.


One must praise Stephen King's gift of seeing into the future. When this novel was written, people would have laughed at the idea of selecting a rude and unscrupulous president in a secular democracy of America. Probably, for this reason, Stephan King doesn’t stand in the support of current president Donald Trump. 

Among all the books of King, this book has been written with such craftsmanship that the meeting of John (the hero of the book) and Greg (villain) sounded credibly predestined. And the end was totally unexpected like other novels. In addition, the last chapter is written with a sense of a poet at heart, this is the time when King rises to its occasion, the words shot through the heart, like streams flow in the river.
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