Working my way through The Dark Tower series, “Insomnia” is such an underrated gem

“Insomnia” by Stephen King is the third book in my epic 17-book journey to The Dark Tower. After reading the incredible “The Eyes of the Dragon”, I was excited to read this novel. If you’d like to travel to The Dark Tower, after extensive research and speaking to some of the biggest Constant Readers I know, here’s my exact reading journey…

The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

Before I fire up my review, here are the trigger warnings I found while reading this novel. They were…

– Tumors
– Abortion
– Rape
– Domestic abuse (physical)
– Homophobic slurs
– Cancer
– Violence against animals (dogs)

If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, I loved all the characters since they were older and not the usual ones I’ve come to learn after reading a ton of King’s work. It added a nice new perspective to how elderly people would handle some of the craziest and weirdest situations anyone could ever think of, even in their wildest dreams.

The horror mystery at the start was fantastic since I had no idea what was happening with another main character. As always with King, it came out of nowhere and crept up on me as I kept reading. Speaking of which, please note this is quite a slow burn of a novel until all the good stuff eventually happens later on.

It’s worth waiting for and being patient to let the story grab you and develop over time. King is extremely descriptive in this novel, which I understand why, and is something that I can see being a major turn-off to readers. Make no mistake about it, if you’re patient, let the story and horror play out; it’s worth it for a wild ride.

King elaborated heavily on all things involving insomnia and all sorts of remedies most people recommend to conquer it. I don’t have insomnia, but I’m a night owl and enjoy reading horror deep into the night, so this resonated with me.

“Insomnia” wasn’t one of King’s scariest novels, but for those who want to make the journey to The Dark Tower, this is imperative reading that will open things up and make a lot more sense later on. There is decent horror here, especially with everything involving the infamous “Crimson King”.

I believe he’s going to play a massive role in The Dark Tower series, so similar to how “The Stand” and “The Eyes of the Dragon” introduced me to Flagg, this novel did that with the Crimson King. The character development of him, Ralph, Ed, and all the others was fantastic. I also loved all the creepy moments involving each of these characters.

All the references in “Insomnia” were excellent and genuinely made me smile. I’m a huge fan of Greek mythology, and extra points to King for having this story take place in Derry, Maine! For those of you who might not know, “IT” is my all-time favorite King novel, and to see this story take place there was such a delight. Besides that, King had many cool references from The Omen, Pet Sematary, The Dark Tower, The Gunslinger, and IT.

One of my favorite parts of horror here is what I call “dream horror,” which was very well done and, as I said, once you get to the 80% mark, it’s off to the races to a crazy good and climactic ending. Don’t worry, I’d never spoil anything, but it was fantastic and wrapped everything up nicely.

As I mentioned earlier in this review, reading this before or after you tackle The Dark Tower makes the most sense. I loved the brief intro and mention of The Dark Tower, but if you’re reading this out of the blue, it might not be what you’re looking for in a usual King book. It’s a long book at over 700 pages, so patience is needed from beginning to end.

There are some horror parts here, but I’d consider this more descriptive supernatural horror, written as an aid before or after The Dark Tower series. I loved how it makes you think about what you see when you suffer from insomnia, which makes it even freakier. Having worked in retail for over 15 years and working full shifts after a night of no sleep, I related to this on so many levels.

Another aspect of this novel I loved is that it opens the doors to theory craft on how this ties in with IT and everyone’s favorite clown, Pennywise. I can’t wait to discuss my theories with Constant Readers, which opens up many other things in King’s multiverse.

I give “Insomnia” by Stephen King a perfect 5/5 since it did exactly what I was hoping for to help explain more things for my big trip. Prereading this was perfect since it helped explain more about The Dark Tower and another evil protagonist in The Crimson King. I’m more prepared now and will resume this epic journey.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed to get a good night’s sleep and wake up fresh to take my heart to Atlantis.