Stephen King - Revival

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.(synopsis taken from goodreads)

To be honest, hadn't I known this was a Stephen King novel, I wouldn't have believed it was a Stephen King novel at all. 

It is widely known that Stephen King hasn't written any horror books in the past five years or so, and this one isn't one, either, although opinions may vary.
It is more of a coming of age story, though, in which we follow the whole life of Jamie. 

And because it is mostly just that - the coming of age story of Jamie, how he becomes an addict, he visits Jacobs a few times and does research on him. The other parts, though, where he talks about his first girlfriend and his second girlfriend (at least the second one that is mentioned), were skippable. Entirely. 
One thing I love about Stephen King is that he can create believable characters that feel just like real people, but this time it didn't work for me. 
Jacobs did a 180-degree turn from when he was a Reverend in Jamie's hometown to the person he was later on in the novel. This made him seem like entirely different persons, and not a sparkle of what the old Jacobs used to be like was mentioned. 

Another thing that bothered me was that in the course of this novel, he meets Jacobs only two or three times after his childhood, and the reader never really gets to know what Jacobs is up to and what exactly happened during Jamie's treatment. Something happened. Something something happened happened -Yes, but what, exactly? There were so many questions left open. 

I had a hard time getting into the story, and I think I never really did, because only in the last two chapters it is revealed what this book really is about. This story would have been sufficient as a short story, but to make a whole novel out of it was too much, in my opinion. It was slow-paced and boring at times. The only parts that were interesting were the beginning in which the narrator introduces all the persons, and the second-to-last chapter.

There is really not much going on, there are persons mentioned that are being mentioned over and over again, the symptoms they suffer from, how Jacobs was able to help them (or not, in some cases) but there was never anything really new to the story, except for the second-to-last chapter. 
The conclusion, though, left me in tears. Not because I was touched, but because it reminded me so much of a certain (and very grotesque) Pink Floyd album. And I am guessing that was where the idea was taken from. And that made it very cliché and not scary at all.
The last chapter wasn't really a resumé, either, but really, really boring and hard to get through.

I have been a Stephen King fan for the most part of my life, but I have to say that this is my least favourite book by him so far. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to finishing the Bill Hodges Trilogy.