“Ethan, are you ready yet?” Jessica’s voice drifted down the hall, sharp, like the clack-clack-clack of her heels against the hardwood floor. Impatient, as usual. “We’re going to be late.”
First published in 1974, King’s debut novel found itself a major hit among readers, with its paperback rights being sold for $400,000, which was an incredible lump sum of money for an authorial debut that garnered King fifty percent or $200,000 of the book’s sale.
Wispwood held many secrets. The vine choked ruins, the howls in the night, the fairy sightings the old folk still swore were true—but the greatest secret of all was the one Lila uncovered one summer on her Aunt Maddy’s farm.
If it must be said again, let it be said now: There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy, dear reader. You will find them through the looking glass, in the infinitesimal seams that vein the rational world, or in the darkest corner of one man’s soul.
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. — Ezekiel 37:7-8
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