Haven’t read her, but a good friend of mine who reads Stephen King read some of her books and declared her so bad that if she weren’t “Mrs. Stephen King” she never would have gotten published in the first place.
In the first place, FWIW, there are many, many good writers who never manage to get published, just as there are many, many good musicians who never get a recording contract. And there are many, many bad writers who get published for no good reason at all. But I digress. I have read One On One and Small World. I enjoyed them both very much. I was quite impressed with her prose in One On One, not to mention her understanding of teen angst and issues. I am a huge Stephen King fan. The idea that she might be “riding on his shirttails” led me to wait quite a while before reading her stuff. But a couple of my sisters who seldome steer me wrong recommended her. I’m not sorry I took the time to read these books.
I read Small World when I was, I think, 14 or 15. I don’t remember much of it, and I don’t think I was very impressed. However, I was also very young at the time, and admittedly naive.
I should re-read Mrs. King’s books now, and see what I think now that my tastes have expanded a bit.
I read Smal World and it pissed me off so much I never read anything else.
She describes the tiny woman taking her dress off, and it spills in a pool of fabric around her feet. Um, a Barbie dress will stand on its own; I can’t imagine the diaphanous silk light enought to make a barbie dress that would spill in a little puddle.
Also, she described her as drinking water, with no sense at all that if you were that small a drop of water would be a viscous blob about the size of an apple.
Stupid stuff like that made it impossible for me to enjoy the book, and I never tried another.
I read Pearl, Reuben, One on One, and have a nagging suspicion that there’s another one in there somewhere. It was several years ago - 1996, I think - and the books were long since loaned out and never returned.
Of those, I did enjoy One on One, and would recommend it.
I read Small World several years ago, and most certainly DID NOT enjoy it. I don’t remember all the details right now, but things about it really grated on me. It was also needlessly trashy.
I heard a nagging rumor awhile ago that she penned Gerald’s Game. I’m sorry to say that I think it might be possible. . . Gerald’s Game seemed to suffer from many of the problems that Tabitha’s other work seems to have.
The part I remember most - and remember disliking - about Small World was the scene where the shrinkydinked woman gets molested by the big woman’s pinky finger.
I have no recollection of the plot of that book, only that scene.
I absolutely love Tabitha King’s ** Pearl, One on One, and the Book of Reuben ** trilogy. The ending to the ** Trap ** was fantastic, and should be made into a movie.
I think it’s the other way around: Tabitha would be better known and more published if she was still Tabitha Spruce or Tabitha anything-but-Mrs.-Stephen King.
** Reuben ** was her latest book. I image Stephen’s near death may have put writing on the back burner for her.
I read PEARL when it came out. I thought is was pretty good. I tried to avoid comparing her to Stephen which made the read more pleasurable. I do favor his style any day of the week.
One thing to note… she was an author in her own right. She just happens to be an average author overshadowed by her above average author husband. IMHO.
I read Small World and quite enjoyed it at the time. But I don’t remember it LOL. Gerald’s game sucked…wonder if it was her? He sure put a LOT of feminism in his books in the 90s and I sort of assumed that was her influence.
As far as the realities of being that small, you are right lissener. I read a cool book with my daughter that was much more realistic about those things - Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine - really pretty good
I think it was Ants or A Bug’s Life that dealt with it rather well too. Or for that matter, The Borrowers (BOOK, not the movie!)