I am oftentimes disappointed in a book because my high expectations aren't met, which is no one's fault but my own. The blurb on the cover of the book by Stewart O'Nan puts the bar up really high when it compares Freeman to Stephen King. I don't know who O'Nan is, but I sure as sh*t know who Stephen King is. That isn't to say that Freeman isn't a good writer, but Stephen King is a legend. Like King, I imagined the ending to The Painted Darkness to be a profound revelation, but it is actually quite mundane. I liked this book alright; it had struck my eye at the library and I thought "Why not? It's under 200 pages." For under 200 pages, it's not that bad; it's not that great, but you know...



It's something you'd pass a day away with and then give it back to the person you borrowed it from.