The first time Jamie sees Charles Jacobs do something with electricity, it’s magical. The razzle dazzle falls down quickly, though, as Jacob’s illusions are shown to be shallow and a little crude, and his pride in his work leads to him give away his prestige.
These are the themes being set down to weave through Revival – illusion as magic and deceit, and darkness versus (and colluding with) light. These themes have real potential to take the narrative to murky and interesting places, and I am keeping an eye out for unreliability and lies in the narrative or the plot. The Lovecraftian weird fiction elements are starting to come into play in a big way and bringing out the darkness clinging to the corners of the story – its influences have brought miracles and monstrosity to the characters by equal turns.
This is an enjoyable chapter in terms of pacing and hints for the future. The heavy use of foreshadowing leads to a somewhat predictable plot in the short-term – I am fully expecting horrible things to happen to the Jacobs family and to Jamie’s big sister, Claire, for example – but the how and the why is, so far, a mystery, and there are no clues as to what will happen after the inevitable sacrifice of these innocent and loveable characters for the sake of the plot. Even with these dark tip-offs surrounding the characters’ futures, they still seem nuanced and deep, and this is one of the real strengths of the novel so far and this is what makes the novel so gripping.
There is some cheesiness in these first chapters, too, but there is also a lot of creepiness to balance this out, and I feel like that is exactly what you want from a Stephen King novel. Or, at least, it’s what I want.
