Duma Key - Critical and Popular Reception

Critical and Popular Reception

Critical reception was generally positive, with some negative criticism being outweighed on the whole by the positive, a fact noted by USA Today and declared by King in that article as a byproduct of the fact that "a lot of today's reviewers grew up reading my fiction. Most of the old critics who panned anything I wrote are either dead or retired". Most critics noted the personal quality of what King was writing about, having suffered a similarly horrific and sudden accident.

The New York Times printed a fairly positive review by Janet Maslin which called the novel "frank and well grounded" and lauded the brevity and imagery of the novel, as well as the furious pace of the last third,, while a somewhat less enthusiastic but still positive review by Mark Rahner was published by the Seattle Times that while criticizing King for a little unoriginality and long-windedness, ultimately praises King's characters and the terror of the novel.

Richard Rayner, in a review published by the Los Angeles Times called the novel a "beautiful, scary idea" and lauds it for its gritty down to earth characters. However while also praising the writing itself, "He, (King), writes as always with energy and drive and a wit and grace for which critics often fail to give him credit", criticizes it for losing its originality and believability towards the conclusion, stating "The creepy and largely interior terror of the first two-thirds of the story dissipates somewhat when demon sailors come clanking out of the ocean." Similarly, the Boston Globe review, writing by Erica Noonan, called the novel a "welcome return" to a similar style of some King's better novels.