Stephen King 2025 read-along discussion

Welcome to another spooooky October fellow Constant Readers!! October is my favorite month of the year and, if I'm being honest, I've been so busy getting my Halloween decorations up and preparing for the Fall season that it totally slipped my mind that it was actually the beginning of October and I should probably update our current read. Also I've been feeling a little slumpy in the reading department and I've been reading less so it wasn't at the forefront of my mind. That was a total party foul on me, my bad. But now that we are all here let's talk about the read that we picked in conjunction with the Buzzword Reading Challenge/Readathon's word for October. This month we had to pick a book where the title incorporated something to do with the elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) so we decided on Hearts in Atlantis.

Hearts in Atlantis is a 1999 collection of two novellas and three short stories focusing primarily on the Baby Boomer generation, the 1960's, and the Vietnam War. The stories are titled "Low Men in Yellow Coats", "Hearts in Atlantis", "Blind Willie", "Why We're in Vietnam", and "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling". This is an interesting collection because it's one of the only ones in his catalog that follow a similar theme with the same recurring characters and running in chronological order. Basically, most of his short story collections you can pop in and out of and not be lost. Not the case with this one. From what I gather they have to be read in order and together to form the overarching story of the book. I was going to give a brief synopsis of the stories but decided against it to avoid spoilers.

Hearts in Atlantis was adapted in 2001 for the big screen starring Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin, but the primary focus of the film was "Low Men in Yellow Coats" and "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling". I've not seen it but from what I've heard the main plotline of the stories are the same, although a lot of details were changed. Has anyone seen the movie? I feel like anything with Anthony Hopkins has to be good but apparently it received mixed reviews.

It can be assumed that Hearts in Atlantis is one of the more forgotten King books. I don't think I've ever seen it at the top of people's lists when they automatically think of his works. It may be a little heavy, given the subject matter, but I think if you're a Constant Reader you have to prepare yourself for that before you open any of his books. He's never been one to shy away from hard topics. I know I'm being a little vague about the premise but being that it's a different concept that we haven't seen from King prior to this, I kind of want to go in knowing very little. I do know that there are references to IT, The Dark Tower, and The Regulators. Always a sucker for those Easter eggs. Who else is excited to tackle this??

I'm excited! I hate to say I've never read this one:( ... happy October 🎃 🎃

Chelley wrote: "I'm excited! I hate to say I've never read this one:( ... happy October 🎃 🎃"

First time for me as well, so we're in this together lol. I remember my mom reading it years ago.

And I can't find my book lol so now I need to order a new one 🤦🏻‍♀️

So I will buy it later for now my local library has it :)