Book Review: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

I have been reading Stephen King novels since he first started writing them. He got way ahead of me when I went to college, and I've never been able to catch up. Now I read his novels from my to-read list when the notion strikes, which usually means I need a good "Holy Cow!" kind of read.

I decided to read "The Colorado Kid" because it was the inspiration for the TV show "Haven," which I love.

I had no expectations of this story going in. I hate clouding my judgement of a book (or a movie) beforehand by reading the opinions of others. I save the "what did everyone else think?" part for when I have my own opinion to compare. I will admit that I read a couple of the reviews for "The Colorado Kid" when I was about 3 pages from the end. I just had to know what others thought. I had a feeling how the story would end, and I had a suspicion that many would be displeased by it. I now see that Mr. King's statement in the Afterword was correct: people either loved it or hated it, and the two camps are usually divided by the opinion of the ending.

My opinion? I LOVE this story! It is hard to explain why, but even without the "happy ending" it works. The way the story is told prepares you for how it will end. I admit that there have been many Stephen King novels that end in a similar "What? Where is the end to the book? This can't be the end! There's no resolution!" fashion. This has always frustrated me to the point that I wanted to hurl the book at a wall (but I would never abuse a book like that). Having read "The Colorado Kid", understanding why the story ended the way it did, and that it was indeed the right ending for the story, makes me want to go back and reexamine the novels with endings which frustrated me. I now think there was something I missed the first time around.

Much like the newspaper article that sparked the imagination of Stephen King, leading him to write "The Colorado Kid," the "The Colorado Kid" sparked the imagination of others, some of whom went on to create "Haven". I can see where the story influences the show, both in the characters they share, and the underlying theme of the search for a happy ending (resolution) to every story.

Both versions work perfectly.