Desperation is quite simply an outstanding read. The way king draws several normal people, including two very young children to a haunted mining town is great. The book never once slows down and king does what he is excellent at : killing off the lead characters emotionlessly and reshaping the plot around their deaths, creating new lead characters. This is done here on several occasions. The most intriguing part of the story is young David Carver's relationship with God, something which the other charaters never quite understand, But King makes us do so. The only problem I have the book is that King never elaborates on the fact that Johnny Marinvile had lived a previos life - one where he was killed in Vietnam. King also scares us with vintage horror essentials : snakes, scorpions, dead bodies etc and he does this in a way which isn't over the top. Despite not matching to the levels of The Shining or even Misery, it is still an excellent read.