Elevation by Stephen King happens to be the first piece of his fiction that I have read. I loved his memoir-cum-writer’s guide On Writing, and highly recommend it if you are at all interested in the craft of writing and reading more about Stephen King’s life.
For a long, long time I wondered which Stephen King novel would be my first. In all honesty, I had not expected it to be Elevation. I hadn’t even heard of Elevation! A bit like Terry Pratchett, Stephen King has such a vast body of work, and everyone (and I mean everyone), has a different opinion on where to start.
Often I have thought that it would be Carrie – it would make sense to start at the beginning after all. However, when I was reading On Writing, I was curious about his novel Christine. I do occasionally read horror and often love it when I do. But I am also an inherent fraidy-cat. So much of Stephen King’s work has been adapted to film and TV that I am just too afraid to watch. (Yes, IT, that’s most definitely you.) In Christine, I felt like maybe I could handle what I loosely gather to be a talking demonic car!
I have asked other people what I should read first, and they have all said something different – The Shining, The Stand, Misery, 11.22.63. I’ve looked at his books and a lot of the time been cautious about how lengthy they seem. I’m not too good with anything over 400 pages – I have preconditioned commitment issues after it didn’t work out with Lord of the Rings.
So, generally, I have dithered and made no decision at all, and the years have rumbled on. Well, today it all changes! On returning The Bird of Night to the library, I decided to go and have a quick scoot along the shelves to see if anything jumped out at me. When I got to the K’s, I saw some of King’s books such as The Dark Tower (I’m not good with long series) and IT (no, no thank you!). And then I spotted Elevation.
Elevation by Stephen King (2019)
I pulled the book out and had a look, and was intrigued by the premise. Scott Carey is losing weight every day, with no visible signs. His neighbours are new in town and facing hostility. Through the town’s local Thanksgiving run, their lives are going to intertwine, as Scott faces up to the reality of his symptoms.
At 132 pages, this is a novella, set across a few months. Though it is day-to-day small town life in Castle Rock, we are always aware of the ongoing countdown on Scott’s weighing scales. What is going to happen when the scales say 0?
I was briefly surprised, and then chided myself, at how political the book is. I’ve long been off X (formerly Twitter) but when I was on there I did follow Stephen King. I can of course now recall how anti-Trump he is. A large part of Elevation’s story centres around the town’s rejection of Deirdre and Missy as a married lesbian couple and the homophobic prejudices they face. I respected that he wasn’t afraid to take a stand and be an ally.
The nature of Scott’s ‘illness’ if you can call it that, did somewhat baffle me. That said, to be honest, anything involving a bit of physics would do that. Understanding mass, elevation, weightlessness etc., I sometimes wasn’t altogether clear on the exact nature of what was happening to Scott… but I think (hope!) that’s also the point. It’s entirely unheard of, and inexplainable, so it’s okay if I don’t fully understand it – most of the characters didn’t either!
I stayed up to finish the book because I could feel the emotions coming, and I wanted to sit with them in the moment, rather than come to a cold conclusion the next day. My eyes were pricked with tears in what was a sad and lonely ending when I thought about Scott.
I did enjoy Stephen King’s writing. Elevation has plenty of dialogue, and I can totally see how the personality of his writing is so accessible and massively popular. I would definitely like to read more by him, but think I will still need to tread carefully on the nature of the horror. Knowing that there is a more supernatural essence to some of his work might be my way in to the darkness.
