King's latest rollercoaster ride

Dreamcatcher: Similarities to It

By the BBC's Clare Matheson

With just a glance at the cover notes for this book, you may be fooled into believing Dreamcatcher is merely another It, churned out from the horror writer who never turns his laptop off.

Like It, Dreamcatcher features the town of Derry, and like It a group of school pals meet up later in life, face adversity and do battle with a terrifying foe.

But, apart from a cheeky reference to his earlier work, King managed to avoid any references to killer clowns and (if the TV series was anything to go by) any laughable monsters at all.

In fact, Dreamcatcher was surprisingly good, even riveting.

Dreamcatcher certainly will not promise a good night's sleep - it is certainly not conducive to sweet dreams

King eases you into his latest offering by introducing you to four friends, all fighting their own personal battles - recovery from a near-fatal car accident, drink, suicide and loneliness.

Each slice-of-life vignette gives you a closer look at the four disparate characters, Jonesy, Pete, Beaver and Henry, who now only gather together for their annual hunting trip.

But, despite the fact that the four seem at turns sad, cowardly and even desperate, back in their schooldays the friends stood together to perform an extremely heroic deed.

That act brought them together with Down's Syndrome boy Duddits and changed their lives in ways they could never imagine.

Now, 25 years later, the four men are out on their annual hunting trip to the woods.

Horror

But when a lost hunter turns up at the group's cabin raving about lights in the sky and covered in a strange red fungus it spells the end of any hopes of bagging a deer and sets the men on course to battle aliens, the US military and even themselves.

It also means that the reader is set for a rollercoaster ride featuring classic horror "splatter and gore" set-ups, X-Files scenarios and good old-fashioned war games.

King also creates fabulous, all too easily believable characters.

The story of how the boys meet Duddits is almost a tear-jerker illustrating how unnecessarily cruel people can be to one another.

King also brings a striking realism to the book, in particular when dealing with Jonesy's recovery from his accident.

Stephen King was himself knocked down and seriously injured by a mini-van, giving these passages a painful intensity.

Overall, Dreamcatcher certainly will not promise a good night's sleep - it is certainly not conducive to sweet dreams.

But, more likely, you will miss out on a good night's sleep as you remain glued to the book to its bitter, and thought provoking, end.