Customer Reviews

Small World

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Terrific work by the wife of Stephen King. With today's fantastic special effects, it's a wonder it hasn't been made into a movie. The story of a nerdy genius who invents a device that can shrink people to six inches tall. When he meets up with the wrong woman, evil ensues. A beautiful television anchor is shrunk and made to live in a doll house. Not only does she have to deal with the consequences of being so tiny, she has to endure the psychological and sexual terror of the genius' evil accomplice.

I'm a big fan of Stephen King (have all his book except Cinema, because of the price and I've seen all the movies) and when in a book shop in Buenos Aires I saw this book for $ 2.00 I thought, well, let's see how his wife writes. I couldn't let go of the book. I read it in 2 days. I was trapped to know the ending. I finished it this morning at my work and didn't start working until I read the last page and it left me breathless. The ending is very unimaginable. Now I'm looking forward to reading more from Tabitha. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately, I can't say if this book would be enjoyable for someone who's not into dollhouse miniatures - because I'm passionately into them.

Ever since my childhood, when I played with my four-storey Lundby dollhouse, I've been dreaming what it would be like, to have real little people living in my dollhouse. Reading 'Small World' was like a glimpse of someone else's similar dream - only revenge or torture were never parts of my dream.

It was enjoyable how well the author had researched her subject. Who knows, maybe she's really into miniatures herself!? For example, a miniaturist character had a habit of hoarding scrap materials. It had nothing to do with the story, but it was a small detail familiar to all miniaturists. I had to laugh out loud!

It actually took nearly half a book, until the "Doll's White House" got its first living resident. And her experiences felt very realistic. I've always hated the way most books and movies ignore the fact that people need to use the bathroom sooner or later, so I was pleasantly surprised when Leyna's first thought in a strange room, was to go for a pee. "What sort of bathroom had no water?"

I loved the little detail of a water tank on the roof. Oakhurst Dairy Fat Free Milk. "There's lots of things she'd never seen, she might scold herself, what does that prove? Not much, but the thing still looked like a goddamn plastic milk carton to her." (Leyna)

Another funny detail was Dolly and Roger's trip to England, and their little adventure to Longleat. I haven't been to Longleat myself, but I know it well from watching a BBC documentary series. It was nice to have a clear mental picture of the place, while reading about it in the book.

I found this book enjoyable enough to read it all in one go, and I would LOVE to see it as a movie!

I was fairly disappointed with this book. I've since read that most of the rest of Ms. King's books are more grounded in reality, and that is probably a good thing.
My biggest problem was I just kept questioning what was going on. When a character is shrunk and living in a dollhouse, it takes her days, maybe it was even a week or more, to figure out that she was small, and even then she just believed she was insane. Just hard to believe that the fabrics, the art, the furniture, the plates, etc, all seemed the same as the full-sized world. While the people who put her there could have shrunk real things to fill this dollhouse, there just doesn't seem to have been any time for that, and we had a long history of how a miniaturist did the work on the dollhouse.
And everyone, no matter how far removed, is connected in this book. I enjoy books of all type, but including science fiction and fantasy. I'm very willing to immerse myself in other worlds. All the author has to do is give me a chance to believe that what they are describing is possible. That didn't happen here.
I also found the character development didn't develop characters, and the most developed characters were the villains....and still their actions didn't seem consistent. Basically I didn't care for any of the characters, which is also a fatal flaw in a novel.
Another review panned this book for the sex. I think there was perhaps a bit more than there needed to be, but it was just a topic of many of the character's thoughts, and not particularly graphic. The biggest problem was that it did nothing to make the story better.
This was her first novel, and hopefully her others are much better.

I liked the book and like another reviewer, when I was a kid, I wished real "little" people lived in my doll house. The ending was a surprise to me. I enjoyed the book.

OK, I'll admit it. I picked this book up because it was written by Tabitha King, spouse of that "other" horror novelist King you've undoubtedly heard of. The premise here is a familiar one--a sex-crazed genius develops a shrinking machine. Hence the title.

What a disappointment.

It's not a bad book, I suppose, but it's not really all that good, either. I strongly suspect that without the connection to her more famous husband, Mrs. King would not have found such a wide audience for this particular piece of work. While that may sound harsh (and even somewhat trite, considering she has a significant fan base of her own), it's true. This book is a mess, and King's obsession with below-the-waist issues (do we really want to hear about our heroine's meunstral cycles?) are almost unbearable.

Don't waste your time on this one.

This book was not only disapointing, I want my time refunded. It was a bargain book at a Library Rummage sale, and its still not worth it.

I found Tabitha King's Small World very entertaining. A really well written, interesting story that made me go to Amazon.com and buy all the rest of her novels. A very good read!

I never expected Tabitha to write like her famous husband. The story started out terriffic, though a bit confusing at first with the character relations. Once the shrinking began I was hooked. I truly feel however that... it could have been a marvalous story, had it continued down that path.

I found htis book disgusting and it literally made me physically ill with all of the sexual remrks, this book is built on sex and nthing else and i found the parts with Leyna Shaw particulary disturbing, also the fact that roger was a sexually starved pathetic hman, after he had intercourse for the first time he was only excited about the fact that he had found another way to stimulate himself! I found this gross and completely inapropriate the only way to make this book better would be to burn it!