Despite enjoying the hybrid crime/fantasy story, it’s difficult to ignore the negative points.

Firstly, King could have told the story with much less use of infantile language. Many flashbacks to childhood trauma occur in this book, however the sudden shift to simplified accented speech distracts from the plot. The character involved is only describing the events of the flashback in past tense. Secondly, another distraction from the plot: an internal cringe at every single instance of the word ‘babyluv.’

Some positive points: Many references are made to Castle Rock, with characters from previous novels making an appearance here. This is definitely one of those ‘just another chapter before bed’ reads.

Readers may want to approach this one with an open mind, especially for the domain-hopping elements of the plot.