Different Seasons by Stephen King
Audience: Adult
Format: Audiobook/Owned
Overall I gave this book 3.5 stars. I loved The Shawshank Redemption & The Body, but Apt Pupil & The Breathing Method brought the overall score down.
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption 4.5/5 stars
Book
This is an inspiring story with strongly developed characters and a distinct sense of time. This one of my favorites of King’s novellas. But, and this is quite unusual I know, the movie is just as good, if not better.
Movie
I’ve always loved this movie – no matter how many times I watch it. Tim Robbins is the perfect Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman is just amazing. The image of Andy after he crawls out of the sewer pipe, pulling his shirt off in the rain is striking. And of course, the unforgettable phrase, “Get busy living or get busy dying.”
Apt Pupil 2/5 stars
Book
I don’t remember the first time I read this one or how it affected me. But this time, it made my skin crawl. I don’t know if it was because I was listening to the audio or it was just the story. I found this one extremely difficult to get through. I didn’t like any of the characters – though I don’t think we are supposed to like them. But it wasn’t just that I didn’t like them, they disgusted me. I couldn’t bear to listen to it for any length of time and it took me a while to get through it. After I finished, I took a break for 2 days before I could listen to Muller’s voice again.
Movie
They made major changes from the book to the movie. Todd was more passive and Dussander was more in control. In the book, Todd is more of a psycho and takes more lethal action against people. I’m guessing they wanted the audience to have someone in the movie that they thought might be redeemable.
The Body 4.5/5 stars
Book
I love this story and the audio version only made it better. It reminded me a bit of the kids in It (but this story has very little action). These kids come from different backgrounds with various degrees of difficulties in their home lives. Gordy barely exists to his parents now that his brother is dead, and the others deal with abusive fathers or violent older brothers. This is a prime example of a coming of age story and King did an excellent job putting the reader inside the mind of a 12-year-old boy. I enjoy the way King wraps this one up and allows Gordy to tell us what happened to each of the four boys.
Movie
This is a great movie and follows the book pretty closely. This is one of my favorite movies adapted from King’s books. The young actors all gave amazing performances and the story is very touching.
The Breathing Method 2/5 stars
This one was just okay for me. I didn’t look forward to listening to it, but I didn’t dread it like Apt Pupil either. It was fairly creepy but not in a way that interested me. This story made the least impression on me and I thought it was far outmatched by the others in this book.
I finished this book in March, but I wanted to watch the movies for comparison, so the reviews ended up taking a while.
