Blaze

I guess I've yet to read a book by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King that I wholly like. I don't want to say that "Blaze" is bad but it just failed to suck me in from the very beginning. 

The story is fairly simple. The main character - Clayton Blaisdell is not a likable person. He's a simpleton and a criminal. Not by choice, he had a difficult childhood and bad company while growing up. 

The narrative is split into two parts, one describing how Blaze tries to snatch a baby from a rich family, the other one giving background on his story from early childhood to adult life. This adds some dynamism but doesn't help in lighting the mood of the novel, which is pretty dark and heavy. I like the way King reflects on society as he shows how an orphanage or a prison system can change a person's character. Blaze is not a reflective type, he takes actions without thinking about consequences and is easily influenced. Because of his mental handicap, it's hard to judge him and describe his as an utterly evil person. The way he uses his simplistic reasoning almost makes one think that some of his actions may be actually justified. I think creating a protagonist like him added a lot of depth to this otherwise fairly shallow novel. So my final verdict is 3-/6