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Book Review: The Dead Zone


By Matthew McConkey

You know, I hate saying that Stephen King’s early stuff is certifiable classics. I do. Why? Because it implies that he’s not written anything else to that standard since then that has been as good. This is totally untrue, of course, because the man has put out some of the best stuff in his career later on in his life. But damn, the beginning few novels were just amazing, weren’t they?

So, here’s another certifiable classic novel that I think is one of King’s top self-books. It has everything in it that makes you want to keep turning the pages. It involves time loss, love loss, a man with the ability to foresee the future, a crazed murderer haunting the town of Castle Rock, and a political monster on the rise to the Oval Office. Yeah, this is all in one book.

With all that is going on inside the pages and in this man’s life (John Smith), there is a question at the root of it all. And King asks us, his Constant Readers: If you could see the future and meet a man who would one day set the entire world on a course of destruction, would you kill him before he could get started? This question, and others similar to it, are the ones my friends and I used to discuss back in the day.

Why does The Dead Zone work?

The Dead Zone works because King does an excellent job of showing the slow rise of the political villain Greg Stillson over the years. We first encounter Stillson as a Bible salesman, and years later, we see him as a successful businessman and then as a mayor. Eventually, he is elected to the House of Representatives. This is where things get really interesting because at a rally for his campaign, John Smith, our psychic friend and seer into the future, shakes hands with the political hopeful and sees a dark future that sets the world on a course to total destruction when he is the President of the United States sometime in the distant future.

The Dead Zone works because of John Smith. A great character and a reluctant hero. Smith, after a near-fatal car accident, awakens from his four-and-a-half-year coma to find things are different in the world that he once knew. As an added bonus, he can touch people and see their long-term/immediate futures. This proves to be a curse for Johnny because he sees things, and they come to pass. Eventually, his notoriety brings the sheriff of Castle Rock to call to see if Mr. Smith can aid him in finding a serial killer who is stalking the town. Later on down the line, Johnny meets his destiny, Greg Stillson, at a campaign rally. This is where fates collide for the first time.

The Dead Zone works because of the multiple plot drivers. 1) There's the issue with Johnny and Sarah’s relationship that was left on the table after his accident. 2) The gift/curse that Johnny has and how he uses it. 3) The elements of fate that King uses. 4) The rise of Greg Stillson and the eventual showdown between Johnny and Greg, and how it will impact both men and their futures. 5) The Frank Dodd side story.

The Dead Zone works because of the murders in Castle Rock by Frank Dodd. This was an outstanding middle part of the book and a great side story that should have been fleshed out more, or possibly even its own book. However, it still worked and gave the book more substance concerning Johnny and his abilities. And think about how much of a legacy Frank Dodd left behind in the town of Castle Rock in King's future writings. In King’s later novel, Cujo, the opening of the book goes as this: "Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine…He was not a werewolf, vampire, ghoul, or unnamable creature from the enchanted forest or from the snowy wastes; he was only a cop named Frank Dodd with mental and sexual problems". 

The Dead Zone works because of the question that is posed within this novel: If you knew the future and you knew a man was going to set the world on a course of total and utter destruction, what would you do? Take a preemptive strike against him to rewrite the future you saw? Sort of like a 'Would you go back in time to kill Hitler as a kid' type of question, I think. Yeah, it was a heavy question and one that John Smith agonized over. I think honestly, it’s even a moral question. I think if you saw something like what Johnny could see, especially if you could see the future and what someone evil could do, you’d be obligated to take him out early in his career before he could get really going.  Obviously, John Smith felt the same. 

The Dead Zone is in the zone at-5/5 


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