His wife Tabitha called it “the one with the sh!t weasels” for a good reason.
This novel of Stephen King’s runs somewhere up the middle of his works - not as scary as “It” or as well written as “Bag of Bones”, but I think a worthy read. As usual King does not hesitate to enter into gross subject matter, such as aliens who crawl up your rear end to incubate, causing you to emanate horrendous fumes.
The plot is basically this: three buddies who meet yearly in the woods to go hunting come across a stranger who is babbling incoherently and farting noxious fumes. Out of the kindness of their hearts they take this guy back to their cabin, which is probably the worst mistake of their lives. Apparently aliens have landed in the woods and their way of propagating is to infect humans and grow within their bowels (pretty gross, eh?)
The army of course gets involved and the whole area is quarantined. Unfortunately the guy in charge is completely insane and just wants to kill every chance he gets.
An interesting by-product of being “infected”, however, is the ability to “see things” and “see into the future”. This is how we discover why the novel is entitled “Dreamcatcher” - the buddies who meet each year to hunt in the woods have been pals since childhood. Another of their friends is a guy named “Duddits” (actually Douglas, but that’s how Duddits says his own name - he has down syndrome) who since early childhood has had the special ability to “see things” and “see into the future”. Read it to find out how he relates to the title of the book - the whole story hinges on this character.
It is interesting to note that King’s own accident with the van seems to make itself known in this novel - one of the characters has the same issues that King himself has probably been going through since his own personal tragedy.
Okay, so did I LIKE the book? I guess I would have to say yes. Did I think it was one of King’s finer works? No, sadly I don’t, however I would recommend it to anyone who is a Stephen King fan. I think the problem is that I was all excited because there was a new Stephen King novel, and in my own mind built it up to be something that it just wasn’t. You might not want to choose this one if it’s your FIRST experience with Stephen King - maybe try “It” or one of his other older works.