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The Green Mile

The Complete Serial Novel

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• Nov 1999, 344 pages
• 1920s & '30s
• Magical or Supernatural
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Book summary.

Read this history-making serial novel -- from cliffhanger to cliffhanger -- in its entirety.

Read this history-making serial novel -- from cliffhanger to cliffhanger -- in its entirety. When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's The Green Mile was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller list -- simultaneously -- and delighted millions of fans the world over. Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs...and yours.

Excerpt The Green Mile

This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there, too, of course. The inmates made jokes about the chair the way people always make jokes about things that frighten them but can't be gotten away from. They called it Old Sparky, or the Big Juicy. They made cracks about the Power bill, and how Warden Moores would cook his Thanksgiving dinner that fall, with his wife, Melinda, too sick to cook. But for the ones who actually had to sit down in that chair, the humor went out of the situation in a hurry I presided over seventy-eight executions during my time at Cold Mountain (that's one figure I've never been confused about; I'll remember it on my deathbed), and I think that, for most of those men, the truth of what was happening to them finally hit all the way home when their ankles were being damped to ...

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• About the Book

Set in the 1930s at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death-row facility,  The Green Mile  is the riveting and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin nine-year-old girls. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent compelled to help every prisoner spend his last days peacefully and every man walk the green mile to execution with his humanity intact.

Edgecomb has sent seventy-eight inmates to their date with "old sparky," but he's never encountered one like Coffey -- a man who wants to die, yet has the power to heal. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecomb discovers the terrible truth about Coffey's gift, a truth that challenges his most cherished beliefs -- and ours.

Originally published in 1996 in six self-contained monthly installments,  The Green Mile  is an astonishingly rich and complex novel that delivers over and over again. Each individual volume became a huge success when first published, and all six were on the  New York Times  bestseller list simultaneously. Three years later, when Frank Darabont made  The Green Mile  into an award-winning movie starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, the book returned to the bestseller list -- and stayed there for months.

And now -- with a new introduction by King's foreign agent Ralph Vicinanza, as well as the author's own foreword -- we have the first hardcover edition of this magnificent novel in which "King surpasses our expectations, leaves us spellbound and hungry for the next twist of plot"  (The Boston Globe).

With illustrations and a new frontispiece for this edition by Mark Geyer.

The Green Mile by Stephen King

• Publication Date: October 3, 2000
• Genres: Thriller
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scribner
• ISBN-10: 0743210891
• ISBN-13: 9780743210898

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The green mile, by stephen king, recommendations from our site.

“It’s an immensely courageous book for such a famous author to write. It’s written from the perspective of the warder, whose job is to supervise death row and the execution of prisoners. The story is ultimately about a guy called John Coffey, a Christ-like figure who gets executed.It’s a magical realist book in some ways, but in other ways it’s an intensely realistic book about many of the aspects of death row. It’s set in the thirties, in 1932 I think. Conditions are a bit different these days but the process of execution is very similar. I came at this book with a prejudice because, although I think he’s a brilliant writer, I hate scary books of the type that Stephen King often writes. My prejudices were proven very wrong.” Read more...

The best books on Capital Punishment

Clive Stafford Smith , Lawyer

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Book Review: The Green Mile By Stephen King

Paul is the former superintendent of Cold Mountain Penitentiary’s E block. “The Block” was the last stop for prisoners destined to sit in the lap of Old Sparky and have a little juice—Death Row. The floor in the corridor that ran between their cells and the hot-seat was covered in green Linoleum. So what was known as the “Last Mile” at other prisons was known as the “Green Mile” at Cold Mountain.

Sixty years have passed and Paul is writing his words from a different sort of prison. He’s in an old people’s home. The story does go back and forth between Cold Mountain and Mr Edgecombe’s present abode but mainly concentrates on the events that happened in 1932 and the prisoners destined to walk the Green Mile.

A lot happened that year. Paul had a urinary infection, Percy Wetmore came to work on The Block—bringing a bad attitude with him—and a very unusual mouse named Mr Jingles turned up on the block and befriended Eduard Delacroix for a little while before Delacroix’s particularly terrible death in the chair.

Then there was Wild Bill Wharton. That man wastrouble with a capital. Most of all though, 1932 was the year of John Coffey and this is the real story that Paul is trying to get out of his system and down onto paper.

When John Coffey arrived on The Block the first thing everyone noticed was his size. He was a big man and, if Wild Bill gets a capital T for trouble Coffey gets a capital B for big. He was six feet, eight inches tall and weighed around three hundred and fifty pounds. Coffey is a big man, but he is a quiet man, a gentle man, and he cries a lot. He doesn’t seem like the kind of man you’d expect to see walking the green mile for the murder of two little girls. But as Paul and the rest of the E Block guards become better acquainted with John they discover there is an awful lot more to the big, bald headed, black man than any of them could ever imagine. He’s a very special guy.

The Green Mile is an enjoyable story. The book is populated by some very believable characters but you wouldn’t expect anything less from Stephen King. His words bring the characters to life and allow the reader get to know them almost as friends so, if they should die at the turn of a page, it is all too easy to grieve their loss.

My favourite characters in the Green Mile would have to be Paul Edgecombe and John Coffey with Mr Jingles running a close third behind them—pushing his coloured cotton reel before him. But every good book needs someone for the reader to hate and the two characters that got my blood boiling were Wild Bill and the hickory stick-wielding Percy Wetmore.

The Green Mile is around 450 pages long, which is not an unusually lengthy book for Mr King.. What is unusual though, is the fact that the novel was originally printed in serial form, as a kind of experiment.

This is probably a bit off-topic for a book review but I’m going to explain why Stephen King chose this format for the Green Mile. According to the Green Mile forward, Ralph Vicinanza (a long time friend and business associate of Stephen King) got involved in a conversation about Charles Dickens. Many of Dicken’s novels were written in instalments that were either featured in magazines or else were printed as chapbooks. During the course of the conversation someone wondered what might happen if a modern-day writer were to bring out a novel in the serialized form; someone like Stephen King, for instance. The rest is history.

The Green Mile was originally issued as a series of six chapbooks. After the reader had read one book, they then had to wait for the next installement to be written. This meant that King had to write each one to a strict deadline, and the poor, old readers had no chance of flicking ahead if they got a little curious about what was coming next.

That was then. Now anyone can buy The Green Mile as a complete volume and flick ahead to their heart’s content (though I never do).

I only noticed one difference caused by the book’s intial serial format: when I began reading a new section, there was usually a paragraph or two that repeated what had happened in the previous instalment. Apart from that, if there were any other differences between The Green Mile and normal novels, I failed to notice. But it is not surprising; I was too interested in finding out what happened next.

I’m going to end this review by repeating what I said at the beginning: The Green Mile is an incredible book. Read it.  I guarantee you’ll feel the same. I recommend it 100%.

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How The Green Mile Is Different Than The Book

The Green Mile  is a beautiful, touching movie, though it's good to remember that pretty much every way it touches you is of the "Bambi's mother dies" variety. Frank Darabont's 1999 death row fantasy drama is an adaptation of Stephen King's 1996 novel. It tells the story of Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), a death row prison guard who befriends John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a giant inmate who's surprisingly gentle and mellow despite the horrific crimes he was sentenced to death for. As the elderly Paul (Dabbs Greer) recounts the tale in a nursing home, it becomes more and more fantastical, as it turns out that John has mysterious supernatural powers that affect the characters in many ways.  

It's only to be expected that adapting a full-length novel into a 189-minute film requires some  changes. For instance, the movie came out three years later than the book and adjusted its timelines accordingly. However, you might be surprised to find out just how much the two versions differ from each other in places. Let's take a look at how the movie version of The Green Mile is different than the book.

The book has an even sadder ending

The Green Mile  is known for its devastating ending that almost makes the movie too sad to finish . There are no last-minute rescues or fun plot twists here as the innocent John Coffey has resigned to his impeding death and is executed in an electric chair. Around him, the guards try to hold back tears, not all of them succeeding. It's basically the polar opposite of a feel-good Disney movie ending ... so, of course, the book finds a way to make it even more depressing. 

After the heartbreaking execution and some gloomy present-day dialogue at the retirement home, the movie ends with the elderly Paul outliving Elaine (Eve Brent) and musing on his apparent curse to live longer than anyone he cares about. The book follows similar general beats, except for one last gut punch. After Elaine dies, the reader finds out that Paul's wife, Jan (played by Bonnie Hunt in the movie), died in his arms after a dramatic bus accident in 1956 and that he experienced a vision of a ghostly John watching the scene. This powerful, tragic event adds an extra layer of terror and loneliness to the life of this old man, as well as a new aspect to John's otherworldly nature. 

Mr. Jingles dies in the book

For a relatively slow-paced movie,  The Green Mile  features plenty of deaths and cruel fates. Inmate Eduard "Del" Delacroix (Michael Jeter) is by no means an innocent man, but his arc in the film wouldn't be out of place in a horror movie. Del becomes the target of cruel guard Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison), who breaks the prisoner's fingers and sabotages his execution to the tune of one of the most awful electric chair scenes ever filmed. 

And then there's Del's pet mouse Mr. Jingles, which Percy kills. John famously resurrects the animal, and the movie ends with the shock reveal that Mr. Jingles appears to be alive and well in the year 1999 — 64 years after the events at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. This is an absolutely impossible age for a mouse, which can live up to three years in laboratory conditions (per  Encyclopedia Britannica ). It's also a truly terrifying prospect for Paul, who's over 100 years old and has also been infused with John's energies. After all, the mouse's continued existence means that he, too, might live indefinitely, while still getting physically older and older. 

In the book, Mr. Jingles is still alive during Paul's time in the retirement home. However, as a small, sad ray of hope, it dies shortly before Elaine does. So, while Mr. Jingles and Paul both have unnaturally long life spans, there's an implication that Paul won't have to endure his lonely existence for all eternity.

John Coffey is even bigger in the book

It's almost impossible to imagine anyone else but the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan  as John Coffey, the massive yet gentle death row inmate. Even so, the hulking actor can't quite fill the dungarees of the book version of the character. In the novel, the doomed giant is an imposing, 6'8" man-mountain, which is enough to dwarf even the 6'5" Duncan. 

In fact, there may be some strange parallel universe in which Duncan never played the role. According to George Beahm's book  Stephen King from A to Z ,  the author originally envisioned basketball maestro Shaquille O'Neal as John Coffey. While the 7'1" (via Basketball-Reference.com ) Shaq would doubtlessly have been an excellent physical fit for the role, it might have been a bit distracting to see the NBA legend in the film. Besides, for a performance like Duncan's, it's well worth shaving a few inches off the character.

The film Top Hat isn't in the book

The 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers joint  Top Hat  is responsible for  The Green Mile's  first tearjerker at the very beginning of the movie and kicks off the movie's climactic series of heartbreaking scenes. Top Hat  shakes up the elderly Paul in 1999, prompting him to recount the events of the past to Elaine. Later, we see the guards solemnly watch the movie with John just before his execution, after finding out that the inmate has never seen a film in his life. 

It's an incredibly touching scene that provides poor John a measure of wonder and whimsy — as well as gives the filmmakers a nice opportunity to frame a projector halo around the saintly man's head. However, don't expect to find it in the book. Instead of a spoken tale, King frames the story as a memoir Paul is writing before giving the finished pages for Elaine to read. As such, there's no real need to jump-start the story with the first  Top Hat  scene. Besides, the prison scenes of the book version happen in 1932, when the movie wasn't out yet.

The movie omits one of the book's most awful characters

The Green Mile  has two notable antagonists. Wild Bill Wharton (Sam Rockwell) is an absolute, unrepentant monster who secretly committed the terrifying crimes John is accused of. Meanwhile, Percy Wetmore is a spoiled rich kid guard with a mean streak and a penchant for sadism. John ends up taking care of both characters by transferring Melinda Moores' (Patricia Clarkson) brain tumor to Percy, which causes the guard to shoot Wharton and get locked up in an asylum.  

Meanwhile, the book features a third villain in the "old Paul" part of the story. Brad Dolan is an orderly at the retirement home and shares many traits with the ruthless Percy — only, he's far more of a direct threat for the frail Paul, whom he harasses with abandon. Fortunately, Elaine eventually puts Dolan in his place by revealing that her grandson is a powerful state-level politician who can cause  serious  problems for care home employees who don't behave. 

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Book Review: The Green Mile

THE GREEN MILE | Stephen King 07.01.2009 (originally published 1996) | Orion Rating: 5/5 stars

The Green Mile is the nickname of the long corridor that death row inmates walk before meeting their fate at the electric chair. Those who travel the mile do not return. Cold Mountain Penitentiary is home to some of the worst criminals the world has seen. In 1932, Cold Mountain receives their newest resident on death row, John Coffey. More giant than man, Coffey has been convicted for the brutal murder of two young girls.

Nothing is how it seems with Coffey. Beneath his stoic, silent exterior is a voice of reason and truth, as well as a unique ability that sets him apart from the others living on the mile with him.. Could this man truly have done the horrific crimes he is accused of? Paul Edgecombe, the man in charge of the mile, can’t be sure and decides to break the rules to find out more about Coffey.

Most people have seen the movie adaptation of THE GREEN MILE, but unlike the majority of people, I have somehow avoided ever fully watching the movie, which allowed me to go into this story quite blind to how things would play out. I met Coffey and Edgecombe in a completely unbiased way and fell in love with the story that King has formed around these two characters.

THE GREEN MILE is set during the Great Depression in the Deep South of the United States, which are two very important setting characteristics to note when reading this story. Today there are things that happen within the book that would cause the jaws of US residents to drop to the floor, but during this time period and location these were simply how things worked. Without giving too many details away, I will say that this setting particularly resonated with me when the investigation into Coffey’s crimes is explained. You can feel the hopelessness surrounding those learning the details along with the reader, as well as those most closely impacted by the crime and trial results.

John Coffey is perhaps the most memorable character of THE GREEN MILE, however, it was narrator, Paul Edgecombe that stole my heart. Seeing things through his eyes was the perfect perspective. Together with Paul the reader goes on to meet Coffey and subsequently investigate his crimes before forming their official opinion of him. It also means that later on in the story we get to know Coffey even more intimately, along with getting to know Paul in the same way. My favorite underrated character was Brutal, who is essentially Paul’s right hand man at Cold Mountain. Both Paul and Brutal have a much softer side to themselves than readers would perhaps expect to find for people working on death row, which speaks yet again to the setting of the Great Depression, where people couldn’t afford to be choosy about their jobs.

THE GREEN MILE was originally published in incremental installments, which does leave some awkward overlapping of details in sections of the book. I found that I noticed they were present, but wasn’t deterred by their presence. I do think that the original publishing structure of this book allowed for the story to be perfectly broken up into the main events of the plot. This breakdown of parts also kept King, an author who often favorites extremely detailed writing, to a more concise structure.

I highly recommend giving this one a read even if you have already seen the movie. It’s always fun for me to compare the book versus the movie and I’m looking forward to checking out the film adaptation soon!

This book is available to buy from: Amazon | Book Depository

Disclosure: What Jess Reads is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way influences my opinion of the above book.

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The Green Mile (Book Review)

Friday 20 august 2021.

This week I am sharing a book review of Stephen King’s The Green Mile. You may have seen the blog post: To Post or not to post.  I talked about if I should post this review, I decided after much editing that I will.

Before I start I’d like to put out a trigger warning , in this post, there will mention Rape, Murder & Violence . This post will also contain spoilers. 

Synopsis: Head Officer of The Green Mile Paul Edgecombe tells us of his time working in prison. A ward they refer to as The Green Mile, only dealing with prisoners on death row. The book's set in 1932. He tells us the stories of various men that walk the green mile: Del, Wharton, Chief & Coffey. In particular, John Coffey. A man who has the ability to heal which he helps the narrator, a loved mouse & warden’s wifey who is on death’s door. 

The novel was a lengthy one of 430 pages, it had been a while since I read a book that long! It was originally published serially over 6 months when it was first released, I’m reading a single book with all parts included. 

This is the second book I have ever read by King and truth be told it wasn't what I had expected. 

My favourite character would have had to be Mr. Jingles the mouse, most of the parts with him were the best bits of the book. There was something that stuck out to me, I felt sorry for one of the prisoners: Del. He becomes quite a likable character with his cute little pet mouse but I had to remind myself that he did a horrible thing and hurt many people. It was very conflicting. His death is brutal, the electric chair is a horrible way to die but his death was even more horrific as a rogue guard Percy Wetmore decides to take matters into his own hands and makes the death more painful and gruesome than needed to be. 

I tried to like the book but there were things I just couldn't look past. 

First issue: I understand the narrator guard Paul Edgecombe had a UTI but there are so many unnecessary references to it. Every other paragraph at the beginning of the novel talked about his infection. I think that could have been toned down, it was very unnecessary.   At one point he spends a whole page talking about his penis & the UTI- how it throbs etc. It felt very unnecessary and uncomfortable to read. During a pretty action-packed scene of Wharton entering the prison, he almost kills a guard and Paul has to pull a gun on him and low and behold talks about his penis in the middle of the scene. I understand the pain but at every chance given the narrator talked about his penis. Which I didn’t understand because he talks about his memory not being great and not remembering dates but he can talk about his penis hurting in every scene/page? He also later has the audacity to say this: like every awful pain it is forgotten. Clearly not Paul, clearly not.

I knew that John Coffey was going to heal him, I learned this from the film but I think it was overkill to mention it so frequently. I was relieved when Coffey healed him, in hope of it meaning there won’t be more penis paragraphs.  After 141 pages and being healed he stops talking about the UTI as much. Although whenever any pain is mentioned he still refers to it even hundreds (literal) pages later and in every single chapter at least. 

I somewhat understand that the book was released in parts maybe he talked about it so much to refresh the reader’s memory, not a significant detail really. Before the story starts he talks about editing the parts to create the book, King had taken parts out but how did he not feel the need to take out at least some of that excessive UTI/penis talk. I honestly think the book would have been shorter if he had taken it out, it would have lost easily by 10-20 pages. 

With the repetition about the UTI, there were also many references to sex. I understand talking about the crimes and the necessity of referring to rape but there seemed to be an excess of sex talk. For example, when The Chief was dying in the chair it was compared to a man’s orgasm, which felt like a very inappropriate description. I had to stop reading at this point and walk away, I was shocked. A man dies in such a horrific way and you’ve somehow made it about sex? Make it make sense. T he narrator talks about a memory of himself being a younger man and missing his partner, he says his head and heart missed her as well as his balls. Talking about his balls felt unnecessary and really takes away from the story. Something heavy-hitting would occur in the narrative then the narrator would mention sex, it was very weird to read. 

The comparisons made in the book weren't great. The one I  mentioned previously wasn't the only one that shocked me, there were more uncomfortable comparisons made as the book went on. 

A character has to write a report on a prisoner and he describes and compares this process to be similar to rape.  Yes, you read that correctly. You can imagine how annoyed this made me. It even made me wonder does this reflect King’s point of view? Does he think so little of a violent act? It’s disgusting. Also on this note, there is a horrific part in the story where we are being told by a police officer that  Wharton assaults a very young girl, during this conversation they say it’s not rape because it wasn’t his dick he used, like what the fuck?! On top of this they give the assault a little nickname like it was some form of a game, I thought this was weird and gross. The whole ordeal makes my skin crawl.  I understand that rape & assault are horrific experiences but at times I found the descriptions were overbearing. It could be argued that King did this to show how severe these crimes were but it felt too much at times. 

The overall plotline, issues aside, was a really good one. It was interesting seeing the life inside of prison especially those on the green mile. Not sure how true the depiction is but it was a good storyline. I particularly liked the friendship between the guards, Paul and Brutus' friendship was enjoyable to read, I liked how they all shared the same dislike towards Percy but they respected each other.

I thought the ending was interesting with the narrator being in an elderly home, there was a dodgy care assistant Brad Dolan. I liked how the book showed that in most professions you can get bad eggs, not everyone has good intentions nor do they do their job correctly to protect the people in their custody. It was also enjoyable to see bad characters like Dolan and Wetmore get their karma handed to them, bad people shouldn't be able to get away with things.

Having reflected a few weeks or so after reading: what stuck out to me? 

The narrator is a pervy old man obsessed with his own penis & sex. He encounters a healer John Coffey.  John's story was so sad, such a pure soul. I almost cried when he was sharing about the pain hurting. His story was tragic. 

I didn't enjoy the vibes I was getting from the book. The tones of sexism, racism, and homophobia made me incredibly uncomfortable. I didn’t feel comfortable reading slurs and them being used so freely. Before anyone says it was the sign of that time or it was used to show ignorance,  I do not agree because when these slurs were being thrown around no one corrected them or said it was wrong? They just agreed and let it be. If you are showing something is wrong in a book you need to point that out. 'Sign of the times' is a stupid excuse that I won't accept for ignorance. King managed to depict how wrong it was to have bad eggs in the prison and care system, so why couldn't he make his characters stand up against these things too? 

Finally, I don't think I will be reading this book again. Overall, not a great experience and if I'm honest I liked the film way better. Skip the book and watch the film! 

What book do you feel strongly about?

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The Green Mile

Stephen King | 4.62 | 246,444 ratings and reviews

Ranked #5 in Prison , Ranked #7 in Stephen King — see more rankings .

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Green Mile from the world's leading experts.

Clive Stafford Smith It’s an immensely courageous book for such a famous author to write. It’s written from the perspective of the warder, whose job is to supervise death row and the execution of prisoners. The story is ultimately about a guy called John Coffey, a Christ-like figure who gets executed. (Source)

Rankings by Category

The Green Mile is ranked in the following categories:

• #81 in Adaptation
• #44 in African
• #20 in Barcelona
• #25 in Horror
• #11 in Media
• #51 in Movie
• #64 in Movies
• #8 in Nursing
• #59 in Scary
• #18 in Sci-Fi Horror
• #83 in South
• #80 in Story
• #86 in Thriller
• #50 in Thriller Crime
• #91 in Top Ten

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Learn: What makes Shortform summaries the best in the world?

Stephen King - The Green Mile

“the prisoners who are sent to e block at cold mountain penitentiary come and then they… go. one man, however is destined to make a lasting impression.”, no major spoilers.

Set on the penitentiary’s death row and told from the point of view of the head warder on the block, The Green Mile is a curious story in many ways but it is, from my perspective one of King’s finest stories. It was also made into a rather good film.

The setting is certainly an absorbing one, giving the reader an up close and personal view of life and death in an American prison’s execution block.

There are some fascinating character studies of the staff and inmates and a graphic account of an execution by electric chair. Surprisingly enough, this is a feel-good story where the warders are, for the most part, decent, likeable and sensitive people and even the condemned inmates turn out to be “just human” (again, for the most part).

Is this a rose-tinted view of the death penalty, it’s victims and executors? I don’t think so, but not having any direct experience (thank god!) I can’t say for sure. It is certainly a /different/ view and that makes for a good read and, if the reader finishes the story feeling a little warmer, then who can complain?

The story deals with the sort of themes that you would expect from King; spirituality, good and evil, redemption and a strong christian religious undercurrent, with a Christ-figure, supernatural healing and martyrdom. No supernatural /horror/ though, if that’s what you’re looking for. The horror comes solely from what one man, if so-minded, can do to another.

As I mentioned, there are several execution scenes; one botched electrocution is rather more gruesome than the others and King, as one would expect, pulls no punches here, so beware. But then you weren’t expecting pixies collecting magic powder in the enchanted forest, were you? As an interesting aside, according to Wikipedia, the word “electrocution” which we use now to describe any electric shock (accidental or otherwise) is actually a portmanteau of “electrical” and “execution” and was coined to describe the method of dispatch. Now you know.

It was originally released in six installments during 1996 and this does result in a somewhat episodic structure. This isn’t overly disruptive but there are some rather annoying repetitive “pick-ups” at the beginning of each section. The story also jumps back and forth in time between the contemporary period (set in during the Great Depression in the 1930’s) and the narrator’s “twilight years” in an old folks home. On the whole, this format is a little jagged and it is, I think, the only cause for complaint about the novel (and a small one at that). Actually not the only one. The ending is a little flat, a bit of an anti-climax, but you can’t have everything.

Reviewed by:

Campbell mcaulay.

Added 22nd April 2015

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Review: The Green Mile by Stephen King

May 9, 2020 by David W Leave a Comment

RATING: 10/10

Stephen King’s classic #1  New York Times  bestselling dramatic serial novel and inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks!

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk “the Green Mile,” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final meeting with Old Sparky, Cold Mountain’s electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities over the years working the Mile, but he’s never seen anything like John Coffey—a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about John Coffey—a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs…

“I’m sorry for what I am”.

These were the last words that John Coffey, a huge black man who was sentenced to death for a murder that he did not commit, had said before he was executed. Such a simple sentence but with so much pain and emotion.

The Green Mile is one of Stephen King’s best works. The characters are all so engaging. Their emotions are all properly fleshed out. I love it when King perfectly describes the conflict that the executioners (Paul Edgecomb, Brutus Howell, Dean Stanton and Harry Terwilliger) were facing when they discovered that John Coffey is actually innocent. It is truly a very heart-wrenching read, especially the last few chapters of the book. The adaptation is really emotional but reading the book causes even more heartache with King’s brilliant writing style.

The supernatural element to me is not the focus of this story. The beauty of the Green Mile is that King explored the issue of death penalty (in particular its disadvantages) mainly from the perspective of the executioners. This is an interesting perspective as most people would expect to delve into this issue from the perspective of the victims’ families or the perpetrator. Not to mention the details that King went into describing the execution process. It is truly horrifying and gruesome. The Green Mile heavily reflects the injustice caused by racism and the flawed justice system in America during the Great Depression. John Coffey is clearly a victim of such injustice. King also explored values such as retribution, restitution, salvation, and forgiveness in the Green Mile.

“Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.”

Another strong 10/10 star read. You would not want to miss out The Green Mile if you are interested in reading about the death penalty from an interesting perspective.

About David W

Believer, Hubby, Girl Dad. Owner/CEO of FanFiAddict. Works a not so flashy day job in central Alabama. Furthest thing from a redneck and doesn’t say Roll Tide. Enjoys fantasy, science fiction, horror and thrillers but not much else (especially kissy kissy).

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May 9, 2020 at 1:18 pm

One of my favorites by the master

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Book Review: The Green Mile

While most people might not realize Stephen King wrote The Green Mile, I was completely unaware that the original version of this book was released serially—much like Charles Dickens used to do with his books. The novelty of experimenting with this format is somewhat lost now that the volumes are collected together to create a whole narrative. Even so, King is still the master of his craft, even if there’s minimal “horror” contained within the walls of this prison. At least, it’s an expected horror through the system of capital punishment, and not tied to the terror of the unknown.

Even though I enjoyed this story for its characters and plot, one element stuck out like a sore thumb: the framing via the retirement home. Sure, there’s a neat twist involved near the end, but so often the narrative would pull away from the time period in the prison to show some parallels to retirement living in a distracting way. I don’t think this added much to the story and it seemed to be more of a diversion than a benefit to the plot as a whole. Either way, these moments are few and far between, which helps move the action along.

Overall, King’s descriptive writing brought much of the book to vivid life. His imaginative ideas and foreshadowing give the reader just enough information to figure out the real culprit of the crimes mere pages before the characters themselves were able to. Each of the characters is unique and has their own qualities that causes you to either love or hate them—depending on who they are. Even if you’re not a fan of Stephen King’s other works, I highly suggest you read The Green Mile, regardless.

A fantastic non-horror Stephen King novel, I give The Green Mile 4.5 stars out of 5.

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’Desperation’ and ’The Green Mile’

Reviewed by Reviewed by Robert Polito

• Oct. 26, 1996

Millennium fever possesses popular culture like a doomsday virus, and no writer is chasing the pathology more determinedly or baroquely than Stephen King. ''Desperation'' and ''The Regulators'' -- mammoth novels released on the same day under different names from separate publishers yet featuring interlocking plots and dust jackets -- rehearse Armageddon with violence and sensationalism rarely approximated (even by Mr. King). Apparently indisposed to coast on the bloody laurels of this double apocalypse, over his summer vacation Mr. King also issued a lower-key six-part serial, ''The Green Mile.''

Mr. King's omnipresence, and the stunt quality behind his triple play, can obscure his genuine achievements -- as well as trivialize what he loses with this push for product. Although his novels seldom advance a single memorable sentence, Mr. King harnesses a formidable facility for originating unforgettable situations and characters. The 30 horror novels (five carrying the same ''Richard Bachman'' pseudonym as ''The Regulators'') he has discharged over the 22 years since the publication of ''Carrie'' span a surprising variety of incident, subject and tone. His situations and characters, moreover, intersect an anxious, alienated culture with offhand authority. Mr. King is the latest (if least literary) manifestation of a Gnostic strain that has surged through American literature from Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe to recent writers as various as James Merrill, Norman Mailer, William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon. Mr. King's peculiar knack as a novelist is to strip away much of the complexity and nearly all of the art from a terrifying vision of an unknowable universe ruled by a limited, perhaps evil God and insinuate that Gnosticism into the rituals and commodities of everyday America. The household derangements and the matter-of-fact malevolence inside Mr. King's fiction cut across the fears behind opinion polls, television talk shows or any casual New York conversation: random carnage, obscure wasting illnesses, sinister technologies and the accelerating sense of a world gone wrong.

Even Mr. King's trademark characterization by references to movie or music stars suggests his deep identification with American pop culture. One character in ''Desperation'' ''looked remarkably like Arlo Guthrie.'' Another is said to move ''like Jack Palance doing push-ups at the Academy Awards.'' Such shorthand indicates hasty, lazy writing. But the cascading familiar names also intimate the burble of the collective unconscious.

''Desperation'' and ''The Regulators'' are Mr. King's first novels, as far as I know, to anchor the horror with explicit -- and explicitly labeled -- Gnostic terminology. Early in ''Desperation'' an enigmatic police officer stops a traveling writer with this arresting taunt: ''You have never written a truly spiritual novel. . . . You have no interest in your spiritual nature. You mock the God who created you, and by doing so you mortify your own pneuma and glorify the mud which is your sarx. Do you understand me?'' To which the sputtering writer replies: ''Yes. . . . Pneuma is the old Gnostic word for spirit. Sarx is the body. You said, correct me if I'm wrong . . . that I've ignored my spirit in favor of my body. And you could be right. You could very well be.''

The source of this dialogue, and of a related guttural ur-language of the ''dead'' and the ''unformed,'' is a slippery, shape-shifting spirit called Tak, speaking here through the voice of Officer Collie Entragian to the novelist John Edward Marinville on Highway 50, just outside of Desperation, Nev. Tak emanates through ''Desperation'' and ''The Regulators'' as an evil demiurge who violently invades a succession of human bodies and vents cataclysmic murder.

Marinville's initial encounters with the wisecracking, allusion-dripping, menacing Entragian (''I'm sensitive -- a real 'Bridges of Madison County' kind of guy, only without the cameras'') suggest the influence of Jim Thompson's Lou Ford from ''The Killer Inside Me.'' ''The Regulators'' is dedicated to Thompson and the film director Sam Peckinpah, and both novels ripple with noir homages: David Goodis, Cornell Woolrich, even Quentin Tarantino. But the brute scale of Tak/Entragian's mayhem eclipses the darkest noir. Surrounded by a Gothic freak show of snakes, coyotes, vultures, rats, spiders and scorpions, he -- or it -- has already killed the 200 citizens of Desperation and is gunning for anyone unlucky enough to drift down ''the big lonely,'' as Mr. King styles Highway 50.

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The Green Mile

Stephen king.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Stephen King's The Green Mile . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Green Mile: Introduction

The green mile: plot summary, the green mile: detailed summary & analysis, the green mile: themes, the green mile: quotes, the green mile: characters, the green mile: symbols, the green mile: theme wheel, brief biography of stephen king.

Historical Context of The Green Mile

Other books related to the green mile.

• Full Title: The Green Mile
• When Written: 1995-1996
• Where Written: United States
• When Published: 1996
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Mystery, Magical Realism
• Setting: Depression-Era American South
• Climax: Eduard Delacroix’s execution
• Antagonist: Percy Wetmore
• Point of View: First-person (Paul)

Extra Credit for The Green Mile

Six-Volume Publication. The Green Mile was first published serially in six volumes, released over the course of six months.

Movie Adaptation. The movie adaptation of The Green Mile , released three years after the book’s publication, was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

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Stephen King's Equilibrium Spot

By Caroline | Books | June 21, 2010 |

I love Stephen King.

While reading about him on Wikipedia just now, I came across this wonderful little tidbit about “critic S.T. Joshi” (never heard of him):

Joshi cites two early non-supernatural novels— Rage (1977) and The Running Man (1982)—as King’s best, suggesting both are riveting and well-constructed suspense thrillers, with believable characters.

Rage is one of my favorite books, absolutely beloved to me and influential in my adolescence. The same collection also includes The Long Walk , another hands-down favorite. By a quick count, I’ve read 31 of King’s books, most of them during quiet summer-vacation days in the public library. Some I’ve read a second time, and some I’ve read repeatedly because I love them. King may be the contemporary male author with whom I feel the strongest connection and loyalty, beating out the likes of Neil Gaiman or Pat Conroy.

I picked up The Green Mile in one volume at a booksale, part of an entire totebag full for $20 or something. Picking it up after my long slog through A Thousand Acres and King Lear , I felt the fresh air of King’s prose sweeping the dust out of my head and found The Green Mile to be one of his best books.

King adheres to a continuum of the supernatural that really cuts a broad swath, from almost no supernatural activity to so much it chokes the story. The Green Mile finds King’s equilibrium spot, which I think of as magical realism: He takes grounded, interesting characters and sics the bright lights on a small supernatural quality. That quality enhances the story but doesn’t explain the whole thing. It’s an assist.

In this book, the real story is the Depression and these decent, hardworking Death Row prison guards. They make compromises in order to avoid drawing attention from their bosses, and they acknowledge how the tough economic times make those compromises more palatable. The death penalty itself is also called into question, presented in contrast to a remarkable inmate with hidden talents of restoring life, health, and vigor.

It is religious, kind of, but at the same time not — life is stolen back from the jaws of death or extinguished by the government. The too-pure healer character bucks expectations near the end of the book with a revengeful surprise, while his watchers show their better natures more and more. They all oscillate toward a good, everyday decency we’d be lucky to experience as a society.

I liked the first-person narration by the head guard, Paul; he tells the story from his nursing-home room in a galaxy far, far away, including details about his new life as an old man. He repeatedly touches on themes of mercy and compassion, but never in, you know, a Nicholas Sparks-y way — there’s no couple in love clutching unto death here, nothing so cut and dried. And from the beginning you know that Paul has complex feelings about the path his life took after his stint as a guard on Death Row, the unanswered question of whether or not he was glad to learn what he learned.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. For more of Caroline’s reviews, check out her blog, Of Golden Age .

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Everything the green mile changes from stephen king's book.

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The mandalorian movie means it's time for one major star wars recast, how mike flanagan's next stephen king adaptation will be different from his past movies.

The fantasy drama The Green Mile is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name — here are all the differences between the book and the movie. Prolific horror writer Stephen King has written 65 fiction novels (with seven under the pen name "Richard Bachman"), five nonfiction books, and over 200 short stories. His works have been adapted to the big screen over 50 times, with many projects receiving rave reviews. While products like The Shining and The Stand have received multiple on-screen adaptations, The Green Mile has only been brought to the screen once, featuring the award-winning film stars Michael Clarke Duncan, Tom Hanks, and Sam Rockwell.

Bringing a novel from the page to the screen is no easy task, and it's common for there to be many changes made from the source material. Usually, narrative coherency, run time, and visual aesthetics are responsible for changes in cinematic adaptation. Unlike Stanley Kubrick's The Shining , The Green Mile manages to stick pretty close to its source material, with a few changes here and there. Like the novel, The Green Mile follows Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), old and young, as he recounts the story of inmate John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), who is innocent of his alleged crimes, and who has inexplicable healing and empathic abilities. Here's every difference between the book and the movie.

Related: Is The Green Mile Based On A True Story? The Answer Is Complicated

Green Mile's Original Mr. Jingles Dies Later

In The Green Mile movie, an inmate named Eduardo "Del" Delacroix (Michael Jeter) is imprisoned for several deaths caused by a fire he started in order to cover up his rape and murder of a young girl. While Del doesn't garner sympathy at first, his torture at the hands of prison guard Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) certainly turns heads. In the film, Del befriends a mouse named Mr. Jingles , who is cruelly killed by Percy. After Paul is healed by John of a bladder infection, John then resurrects Mr. Jingles, prompting Paul to wonder if John is truly guilty of his alleged crimes. At the end of The Green Mile movie, Paul reveals that Mr. Jingles is still alive, claiming John blessed him with an abnormally long life.

The Green Mile book, unfortunately, has a different fate for Mr. Jingles. In the Stephen King novel, Mr. Jingles is still indeed alive by the time Paul makes it to the nursing home. However, he dies shortly before Elaine's (Eve Brent) passing. The Green Mile movie is already tragic in its own right, and Mr. Jingles' unusually long life span in the Stephen King movie adaptation provides audiences with one ray of sunshine. However, King obviously didn't feel like sunshine belonged in The Green Mile , and, therefore, Mr. Jingles' ultimate fate was sealed.

The "Top Hat" Story Isn't In Stephen King's Book

The Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movie Top Hat appears twice in The Green Mile movie, first in its opening sequence and then shortly before John's execution. The film plays a big role in the film, as it's what prompts Paul Edgecomb to recount the story of John Coffey to Elaine. It's reportedly the only movie that John ever saw, and it's part of his final wish to view the film before his execution. Top Hat is responsible for several tear-jerker moments in The Green Mile . However, the 1935 movie isn't featured in Stephen King's book at all.

Top Hat worked as a narrative device for The Green Mile movie, as the book is framed from the perspective of Paul writing a memoir about his experience, rather than recounting it aloud. While the two Top Hat scenes are responsible for both setting the stage and kicking off the final tragic events of The Green Mile film, there really wouldn't be any use for it in the book. Top Hat 's inclusion is a classic case of necessary changes made to the source material in order to make a movie adaptation fit for the screen. While it provided the perfect jumping-off point for the film, it's wholly unnecessary in the context of King's novel.

Related: Stephen King Movie Remakes Wish Is Right - But Ignores The Best One

The Green Mile Movie Ignores An Important Villain

There are several antagonists in The Green Mile movie, with the two standouts being Percy Wetmore and William "Wild Bill" Wharton (Sam Rockwell, though The Green Mile role almost went to Josh Brolin ). Percy gets most of the screen time as far as villains go, and the ruthless prison guard doesn't disappoint. Given that his position at the prison is the result of nepotism, he hides behind his family name as he commits multiple atrocities. He targets Del, even breaking his fingers, and avoids sponging Del so that he can have a particularly painful execution. Wild Bill lives up to his namesake by constantly harassing John for his race, while also being violent towards the guards and other inmates. Audiences also find out that Bill is responsible for the crimes John Coffey is accused of.

While these villains flesh out The Green Mile movie seamlessly, the film leaves out another important antagonist: Brad Dolan. As part of The Green Mile 's "Old Paul" narrative , Brad is a nursing home attendant who constantly harasses Paul. Considering Paul's age, Brad is a viable threat to his well-being and safety, as he relentlessly targets Paul with senseless attacks. In The Green Mile book, Elaine is able to curtail Dolan's attacks by revealing that her grandson is a politician and could cause a world of hurt for him. It's possible that Director Frank Darabont thought the inclusion of yet another bad guy would make The Green Mile too much to handle. Enough people in the film get abused with reckless abandon, and adding elder abuse into the mix might've been a step too far.

Stephen King's Green Mile Has An Even Sadder Ending

The Green Mile 's ending is already tragic, but the way the novel ends is even sadder. After John's horribly sad execution is recounted, Paul admits to Elaine that his execution was the last he was a part of, saying that afterward he took a job in the juvenile system. As if this weren't awful enough, Paul is then shown attending Elaine's funeral and wondering if having to outlive all of his loved ones is divine punishment for executing the innocent John. The Green Mile 's depressing ending has been said by many to make the movie too heartbreaking to watch. However, Stephen King provides one final gut-punch in The Green Mile book that, thankfully, didn't make it into the film.

While the book follows all the same beats as the movie, The Green Mile novel's ending provides one final revelation that sent readers over the edge. After Elaine's demise, it's divulged that Paul's wife Jan ( Bonnie Hunt of Life With Bonnie ) also died — in a particularly dismal way. Roughly 20 years after the events at Cold Mountain Penitentiary, in 1956 to be exact, Paul and Jan went on a bus trip to attend their granddaughter's college graduation in Florida. The bus ends up getting T-boned by a semi-truck, and the fatal accident results in nearly everyone's death. Jan dies in Paul's arms, resulting in Paul begging the now-dead John Coffey to save her. He sees Coffey's spirit at the scene, further highlighting the desperate loneliness and dread old Paul has experienced throughout his life.

Related: The Green Mile: Why Del Is On Death Row

The Green Mile makes some obvious departures from the book, but it's a testament to King's writing prowess that the film is able to follow it as close as it does. Certain things might not have made it into the movie because they were simply too sad, such as Stephen King's original ending and Mr. Jingles' death. Other changes, like Brad Dolan being omitted, simply could be because there wasn't enough room to explore every territory. Regardless, The Green Mile , both the book and the movie, are tragic works of art.

More: Why The Shawshank Redemption Hid Its Stephen King Connection

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The Green Mile Mass Market Paperback – November 1, 1999

• Print length 544 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Pocket Books
• Publication date November 1, 1999
• Dimensions 4.19 x 1.01 x 6.75 inches
• ISBN-10 0671041789
• ISBN-13 978-0671041786
• Lexile measure 910L
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pocket Books (November 1, 1999)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0671041789
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671041786
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 910L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 1.01 x 6.75 inches
• #4,806 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
• #17,363 in Murder Thrillers
• #53,329 in Suspense Thrillers

About the author

Stephen king.

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

Customer reviews

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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 86% 10% 2% 1% 1% 10%
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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 86% 10% 2% 1% 1% 1%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 86% 10% 2% 1% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the emotional tone full of emotion and wonder. They appreciate the depth of the characters and vivid descriptions. Readers describe the content as powerful and a very good example of things that appear to be evil but are not. They also describe the readability as exciting, with a surprising climax. Customers praise the writing style as beautiful, compelling, and poetic. They say the book is graphic regarding the electric chair yet very moving emotionally and philosophically.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book flawlessly told, entertaining, and exciting. They also say the climax is surprising and inspiring. Readers describe the story as wonderful, with well-developed characters. They say it's true to King's form and accurately describes human responses.

" So good . Every character is interesting and memorable. I couldn't stop reading until I'd read every word." Read more

"...a collection of characters interwoven to create this marvelous story of responsibility , awareness and redemption...." Read more

"The book is very good . I would strongly recommend it to anyone who likes books of this genre...." Read more

"...With THE GREEN MILE, Stephen King is very, very good ; this novel, first released as a six-part serial in 1996, is (in my humble opine) King's very..." Read more

Customers find the book full of emotion, insight, empathy, joy, and comfort. They also say it has a great message and is compelling. Customers also mention that the book is raw and more raw than the movie.

"So good. Every character is interesting and memorable . I couldn't stop reading until I'd read every word." Read more

"...Era Mississippi, King's writing is clean and compelling and insightful ; through the recollections of Paul Edgecombe, in charge of running the Mile,..." Read more

"...The Green Mile has a great message and is a compelling story that will leave you in tears by the end...." Read more

"This book fills me with so much melancholy that I find it hard to pick up another book in fear of losing this feeling. The movie is done well...." Read more

Customers find the writing style beautiful, compelling, and poetic. They also say the book helps them visualize during the reading, with rich descriptions of people and places. Readers also mention the story is narrated well, with images cascading as the story unfolds.

"...penalty block (the Green Mile) in Depression Era Mississippi, King's writing is clean and compelling and insightful; through the recollections of..." Read more

"...use of voice and register for the Depression-era setting, his strong characterisation , and his handling of the moral and ethical questions involved..." Read more

"...The movie is done well. It helps me to visualize during the reading ." Read more

"...That he writes so well is the basic given. He’s a hugely entertaining author, sure...." Read more

Customers appreciate the depth of the characters and vivid descriptions. They also mention that the good guys are fully drawn and the bad guys are really evil.

"So good. Every character is interesting and memorable. I couldn't stop reading until I'd read every word." Read more

"...The acting is excellent ...." Read more

"...I also really enjoyed the complexities of the characters , sharing with them the humour, the harshness and vulnerabilities of their situations...." Read more

"...the prison and Paul's nursing home, for example, and a deeper understanding of the characters ...." Read more

Customers find the book's content very good, intelligent, and warm. They also say the author is a true master of the craft, great at situations, character, and conversation. Readers also say it's a great addition to their set and especially relevant for today.

"...The story reveals the true offender and illustrates a host of different and well-developed characters that will keep you interested in the plot...." Read more

"...He's great at situations , at character and at conversation...." Read more

"...version of "The Stand", I can say that this was one of his most enthralling works ...." Read more

"...rambling, expansive style of storytelling King employs presents a fully realized world within a richly detailed Depression-era setting...." Read more

Customers find the plot flawless, wonderful, and emotional. They also say the pages fly by, the printing is fine, and there are no issues. Readers say the book grabs and holds them, and is riveting from start to finish.

"...But these are far from pointless and work flawlessly within the story .Read this book...." Read more

"...Wonderful story about love, miracles , friendship and very long lives." Read more

"I found this to be the very best of Stephen Kings works An emotional roller coaster ride Builds a picture in the mind and left me dreaming about..." Read more

"Absolutely incredible. Gripping . Moving. A nearly perfect book, save a single sentence which I wish had been removed...." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book quick and the story rich with twists and turns.

"...Yes, it's a big book, but it goes by so quickly , because you find yourself unable to put it down!..." Read more

"...The pace is quick and the story is a rich mix of twists and turns and a very interesting morality tale...." Read more

" Came super fast and in perfect condition. I can't wait to read it at night when the kiddos fall asleep." Read more

"I am a King Can of many years. His books are fast-paced and flow from one point to another effortlessly...." Read more

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Life-size dinosaurs, a candy store tour and more to do this weekend

Take a road tip to Wiscasset for art, food, car racing and a gargantuan amount of candy.

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One of many dinosaurs that will be at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. Photo courtesy of Jurassic Quest

Make no bones about it, it’s going to be a great weekend, starting with  Jurassic Quest at Cross Insurance Arena . Animatronic dinosaurs will delight the kids, who will also get a kick out of digging for fossils and riding on a baby dino. Another option in our weekly roundup is “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” at the Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick.

‘Beautiful’ at Maine State Music Theatre, Pet Rock in the Park and Jurassic Quest

Some of the candy available at the Granite Hall Store in Round Pond. Photo by Aimsel Ponti

For an even sweeter experience, we’re sending you candy shopping. We’ve shined a light on five shops  with something extra to offer and created a nifty guide of 18 to look you can find  all around southern Maine and the Midcoast. From giant shops like Sweetz & More in Wiscasset to charming places like the Granite Hall Store in Round Pond, there’s a candy shop out there calling your name.

These 5 unique Maine candy stores are a real treat

The Brackett’s Market 4-Cylinder Pros compete Saturday at Wiscasset Speedway. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Should your sweets-seeking adventure bring you to Wiscasset, we clue you into  several other things to do  in town, including car races at the Wiscasset Speedway.

A trip to pretty Wiscasset can also include art, history, speed

Bagel sandwich with eggs, cheese and pork roll from Dutchman’s Wood-Fired Bagels in Brunswick. Photo by Aimsel Ponti

Want to hit breakfast right out of the park? Make your way to Brunswick for an egg and cheese sandwich from Dutchman’s Wood-Fired Bagels . We’re particularly partial to the one with pork roll and bodega sauce. Your taste buds can thank us later.

Pork roll and bodega sauce on a breakfast sandwich? We’re not in Brunswick anymore

Ling-Wen Tsai, “Rising/Sinking Study Chair,” wood and milk paint, 12 x 12 x 5 inches. Photo courtesy of Corey Daniels Gallery

Farther south in Wells, check out “Life Forms,” a women’s sculpture collective at the Corey Daniels Gallery. You’ll see works by about a dozen artists as you make your way through the exhibit.

Women’s sculpture collective debuts work in Wells

U.S. Navy Band Country Current performing in Tennessee. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class April Enos

For some Sunday afternoon live tunes, head to Memorial Park in Freeport at 3 p.m. for a free performance by Country Current . The band is the only U.S. Navy country/bluegrass ensemble, and the show should be a foot-stomping good time.

See U.S. Navy band Country Current for free in Freeport

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