This book is heavy, both in the sense of its size and it's message. It took me many years to wrap up this book from putting it down to picking it again and starting from the beginning again but every page grabbed me up and pulled me in. The story has a message - not something that is spelled out but something threaded through the book and highlighted multiple ways. To say that Stephen and Owen King knew what they were doing in framing the message the way they did would be an under statement. Character development was good and the world developed was full. You cannot help but hope for the best while still knowing the worst was going to happen. I would love to see this adapted into a movie or TV show but know that they would not capture the life this book gives. No spoilers but you want to wrapped up in this book!