Book Review – Elevation by Stephen King

Elevation by Stephen King (2018) – Set in King’s signature Main town of Castle Rock, Scott Carey is losing weight. A pound or so a week, for no clear reason. Stranger still is that he’s still wearing the same sized clothes, still looks the same. And when he picks things up, they weigh nothing at all. How long can the weight loss go? And what effect will this have on the people around him?

Let’s get this straight up front. If you’re one of the people who insist that Stephen King is not a great writer, please leave now. With each passing year, with each short story and novel I read, I grow more convinced of the brilliance of the man as a storyteller and writer. He is a craftsman, artist and visionary. They will study King’s work, and read it, for generations to come. If that’s a problem for you, I understand. But let me be clear, that’s your problem, not mine. King is a genius, as this book shows.

The central question of the story is: What’s happening to Scott Carey? His weight continues to fall, while his physical form (including his “front porch”/potbelly) never changes. His muscles retain both size and strength. Which creates its own problem. What happens when muscles built to move 240 pounds are only pushing against 150, 100, 70? King doesn’t try to do too much here. Scott doesn’t know what’s going on, the story is more about how he deals with the challenges. Added in are questions about life in a small conservative town in Maine, and the married lesbian couple who moved in down the street. It’s all done in his signature clean prose, the story unfolding one step at a time.

The book is very short, 146 pages, but he creates characters we care about in a fascinating situation. This was a book I didn’t want to put down, but that I didn’t want to end either. It was over all too soon.

Rating – **** Recommended