Dreamcatcher (novel)

Plot summary

Set near the fictional town of Derry, Maine, the novel follows four lifelong friends: Gary "Jonesy" Jones, Pete Moore, Joe "Beaver" Clarendon, and Henry Devlin. As teenagers, they saved Douglas "Duddits" Cavell, an older boy with Down syndrome, from bullies, and through their friendship gained telepathy, shared dreaming, and the ability to see "the line," a psychic trace of human movement. The friends reunite for an annual hunting trip at the Hole-in-the-Wall lodge in the Jefferson Tract.

There, they become caught between an alien invasion and an insane retired Air Force colonel, Abraham Kurtz. Jonesy and Beaver encounter Richard McCarthy, a delirious stranger who dies on the toilet; an extraterrestrial parasite eats its way out of his anus and kills Beaver. Jonesy inhales spores from a reddish fungus, and an alien entity called Mr. Gray takes over his mind. Henry and Pete meet an infected woman from McCarthy's hunting party.

Mr. Gray, using Jonesy's body, attempts to spread the infection, becoming a perfect Typhoid Mary. The aliens have tried to infect Earth multiple times since the Roswell incident in 1947, but environmental factors stopped them, and the U.S. government covered it up. Mr. Gray hijacks a truck carrying a spore-filled alien corpse while Jonesy is trapped inside his own mind.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews described the novel as "top suspense with a surreal climax you'd have to read twice." Publishers Weekly noted flaws and questioned whether anyone was editing King, but acknowledged that "the genius shines through" in the images, architecture, riveting reading, and emotional depth.