Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
“An unforgettable, unflinching glimpse into a mind driven to murder” (San Francisco Chronicle)—the #1 national bestseller from Stephen King about a housekeeper with a long-hidden secret from her past…one that tests her own will to survive.
Dolores Claiborne is suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, and when the police question her, she tells the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband thirty years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera’s physical and mental decline and how she became emotionally demanding in recent years.
Given a voice as compelling as any in contemporary fiction, the strange intimacy between Dolores and Vera—and the link that binds them—unfolds in Dolores’s account. It shows, finally, how fierce love can be, and how dreadful its consequences. And how the soul, harrowed by the hardest life, can achieve a kind of grace.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #51: Includes a map)
The Reason
For my Stephen King challenge, and also because I heard this was one of the really good depictions of women King has written.
The Quotes
“Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive, sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.”
“There ain’t no power in heaven or on earth that can stop people from thinkin the worst when they want to.”
“…the love a natural mother feels for her children. That’s the strongest love there is in this world, and it’s the deadliest. There’s no bitch on earth like a mother frightened for her kids.”
The Narrator(s)
Frances Sternhagen. She is absolutely perfect! Just perfect! I love her voice for this book.
My Thoughts
This was actually one of the first Stephen King books I bought but I wasn’t able to read it at the time because the format was difficult to get into and I ended up not finishing it. My original copy has long since been lost, but that’s okay as it turned out to be amazing to listen to on audiobook! The narrator is just so perfect, I cannot express just how amazing it was to listen to her, and I was so pulled into the story.
I watched the movie just last year, and of course, I love Kathy Bates in it and now that I’ve read the book, I think the movie was very faithfully and well done, but I have to say it; the book is better! Having Dolores pretty much narrating her whole life story in an interview format may or may not have worked for me when I tried to read it as a teenager, but listening to it on audio made it feel so much like she was talking to me personally. I love seeing the person Dolores is, as a mother, as a caregiver, as a woman just trying to do the best she can for the people she cares about. How many favorite Stephen King books can a reader have? Because this has become another one of my favorites!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
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