Dreamcatcher

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Jeffrey DeMunn

Length: 22 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A dark and sweeping adventure, Dreamcatcher is set in the haunted city of Derry - the site of Stephen King's It and Insomnia. In it, four young boys stand together and do a brave, good thing, an act that changes them in ways that they hardly understand.

A quarter-century later, as grown men who have gone their separate ways, these friends come together once a year to hunt in the woods of Maine. This particular year, a stranger stumbles into their campsite, and before long, the friends are plunged into the most remarkable adventure of their lives. They wind up in a life and death struggle, their only hope for survival locked in their shared past... and in the dreamcatcher.

©2001 Stephen King, All Rights Reserved. (P)2001 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"May be the best alien invasion story since War of the Worlds." ( Booklist)

"A thriller that shows [King] remains a force in fiction." ( Internet Bookwatch)

" The X-Files comes to Maine." ( AudioFile)

awesome read

better then the movie. although I pictured the characters as the actors in the movie.

Good story, but you can really taste the oxy...

There was a time when I thought that Stephen King could do no wrong... and I still somewhat believe that, though this story is NOT a good case for that assumption. I will give full credit where credit is due, as there most definitely believe there to be a decent story here with beautifully flawed characters that have appreciably full arcs... but as my headline suggests, I think this is where all of the painkillers King was on while writing this (by hand, it would seem) jump in and muss things up a bit.

As I said, the characters are all dreadfully flawed human beings with incidental "magic" powers of ESP or telepathy or what have you, and despite this (as with so many other King characters) this does not make them superhuman, but rather all the more human. Indeed, this humanity is what makes me root for any of them at all, but the means by which any and all development unfolds is via a veritable worm hole of story arc, timeframe, and perspective akin to a William Burroughs tale. In addition to this somewhat difficult to follow jumpiness, the actual "story" itself is almost a caricature of King's other nightmare insights into the human psyche and the paranormal; while I would ask other reviewers what makes the depictions of bodily functions in this tale "gross" as opposed to the squeaky clean carnage and gore of his other books, I can also confess it did come across as somewhat of a shock in the start. Arguably, "shock" is one of King's strengths, but I can definitely see how it kind of became somewhat of a trial to continue experiencing in this book.

This book also highlights another interesting aspect of King's writing that produces somewhat uncomfortable responses: the anachronistic presentation of intellectual disability. I would argue that making us uncomfortable about hearing terms and phrases surrounding the symptoms and afflictions associated with various people deemed "different" is what makes his writing beneficial (as I would also argue that as decent people we SHOULD feel uncomfortable or indeed mad when someone uses slurs or uncouth epithets), but that does not necessarily make it any less uncomfortable to hear when read for an audio book.

Overall, this is a decent story and I'm glad I got through it, but I definitely would not consider it to be a "must read" on the level of The Stand, It, or basically anything in the Gunslinger series. Read it if you wish, but if you skip it I believe even King himself would gladly forgive you.

Nice Change of Pace from SK!

I was a little apprehensive to listen to this book, especially after reading some of the more negative reviews. I took a crack at it anyway and I was enthralled almost immediately. I had become accustomed to SK’s style in such works as Salem’s Lot, It, Pet Sematary and The Stand (his best work hands down). Dreamcatcher stands alone in some of its concepts that have not been present as far as I have noticed. The protagonists in this tale have a peculiar relationship with the main antagonist, Mr. Grey, and is is truly unique as far as my limited fictional readings are concerned. This book is a must for any SK reader for both it’s pure quality and the way it shows the full arsenal of King’s writing abilities. The coolest part of King’s works is his way of mentioning some part of one of his other books into another of his novels. Although it may be slightly different than what you come to have expected from King, the long length of the novel is worth it. The epilogue is unnecessary in my opinion but everything else is great. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a “must read/listen” book, but if you love King’s work as much as I do, you are doing yourself a disservice by passing it by!

fantastic

this story can be a little tough to follow, as usual with Stephen king.. well worth the wait though. I've listened to this entire book six times now at least.

it almost gets better each time.

Stephen king junkie here!!

I've never read/listened to a Stephen King book that I didn't love.! Hopefully someone else feels the same!!

the chapters are messed up

the screen says chapter 2 but the narrator says chapter 1 and so on and so forth.

excellent!

well read and produced, an enthralling story written by the best in the business. recommended.

Don't watch the movie!

After I read this, I thought watching the movie would be fun. It wasn't. That movie is the fast food version of this book. resembles but does not nurish. It had the catch phrases held so dear in this book,shoved into the dialog, Duddits is horribly protrayed and I won't even discuss the monstrosity of an ending. Instead, read the book again, the acting here is better than the acting in that movie. I love this book, Duddits reaches through the book & helps me too ❤️

Damn that Was Long

So, sooooo long. So many rabbit trails. So much meaningless information. So much for such a short amount of time (in the story’s timeline).

It got hard to pay attention and follow along. I frequently skipped chapters.

And I absolutely hated the way the narrator did his Down Syndrome voice. It was grating.

This was free so, fortunately, I didn’t waste a credit on it

Engaging story, more gruesome than some

I am a huge fan of Stephen King and have read and listened to the majority of his works. I hadn't heard of this book, but the value for the length of the book was definitely worth the one credit. As mentioned in other reviews, this story was very engaging and drew me in, but there was a lot of gruesome bodily function and damage that occurred that almost made me abandon the story at times. I work in healthcare and I can handle some things..... But this was almost gross for the sake of being gross.
Nonetheless, I finished the story and I really did enjoy it overall. Great group of characters with undercurrents of love, courage, etc.