Compulsively readable, as many of King's novels are. I thought that the depiction of Rose's abusive husband Norman was particularly good, especially in the early stages. However the more he got taken over by the bull, the less scary I found him - probably because it seemed to take away his intelligence as much as his sanity. Gert was also excellent - loved her.

My major criticism is that the book is too long. Now King writes long, I know this, and I frequently enjoy that about his books. But this one just felt dragged out; I reckon he could have lost a good 150 pages and had a tighter end result.