As a person that mostly reads non-fiction, and not even as much as I would like, I feel exuberant to have literally just finished my first book by Stephen King!

I have seen a good few film adaptations of King's work, especially the biggest hits like IT and The Shining, but I have honestly never felt moved to pick up any of his books. Lo and behold, I was talking with my girlfriend about how I wanted to read more fiction, and she lent me Elevation. At an unintimidating 145 pages with a convincing synopsis on the inside of the dust cover, I was happy to check it out, and boy am I glad that I did!

I just whipped through it in maybe 3 hours, only taking a break to eat dinner, and I found it sincerely engaging and interesting. I then read other sentiments from people on this sub that the book wasn't horror-laden, was too political, or otherwise was not what they expected from Stephen King. As a first time King reader though, I was captured by the quality writing, being immersed in the surroundings of the story.

The characters and story certainly did not have much time to develop, so some might consider them lacking, but I found it fascinating just how much of a world was built in such short of a time. Likewise, the story was wonderfully painted in my mind instead of being spoon-fed, with small details hanging on the ends of sentences or highlighting certain phrases from the characters. I really felt that I was witnessing these events in real time, and couldn't agree more with a quote from the Washington Post that King "excelled at writing about real people tested by unreal situations".

Taking place in a small, conservative town in Maine, the story centers on a respectful man that works from home and enjoys his peaceful, but not perfect, life and his new lesbian (or lesbean, some kids in the book say) neighbors that are shunned by the town for their sexuality. The gentle giant of a man has an unusual problem where he loses weight day by day, but not body mass. While he first navigates enthralling experiences of having grown-man-strength relative to a dwindling body weight, the protagonist eventually can hardly control his body, walking around as if he were on the moon. I won't go so far as to share the ending of the book, but the supernatural condition kept me guessing how it might resolve.

A lesson on accepting one's fate, accepting others, and enjoying what we have in life, this book was certainly a pleasure to read. :) It's funny to look into King's other books after finishing this and remind myself that he is the king of horror, because Elevation is relatively very light-hearted and tugs at the heartstrings more than anything!

I feel like this book is not representative of King's "normal" work, but it certainly hooked me, and I am excited to pick up another book from him. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to start from the very beginning and read Carrie next! What a contrast that will surely be!