Different seasons ; Apt pupil : a novella in different seasons

by Stephen King

Paper Book, 1998

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Series

Different Seasons (2)

Genres

Horror

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

New York, : Penguin 1998.

Description

"Todd Bowden is an apt pupil. Good grades, good family, a paper route. But he is about to meet a different kind of teacher: Mr. Dussander. Todd knows all about Dussander's darl past. The torture. The death. The decades-old manhunt Dussander has escaped to this day. Yet Todd doesn't want to turn him in. Todd wants to know more. Much more. He is about to learn the real meaning of power--and the seductive lure of evil."--Publisher's description.

User reviews

LibraryThing member PghDragonMan

This is a double masterpiece: Frank Mueller's voice talent only helps to highlight this psychological thriller from the mind of Stephen King. The movie does not do this story justice. While a lot of people wrongfully equate King's writing with the Slice 'n' Dice Horror genre, this in an intense

thriller based on a young man befriending a hiding Nzi war criminal and the your man becoming ensnared in his own lies.

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LibraryThing member jbeckhamlat

Not the meeting of good an evil so much as the union of potential evil with the completely unholy. Resident evil? teenage curiousity? All American boy hooks up with Concentration Camp Slaughter Master and the hybrid horror unleashed. Is that the scent of rotting tomatoes? Kind of like the Brady

Bunch meets THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN. The first thing I have read by steven king.

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LibraryThing member valerieowens

Very good story although I would have rather not read about the animal abuse.

LibraryThing member PortM

Revisited this story in audiobook form after many, many years. It was rather a different experience, more frightening, than the first time I read it in my late teens. Maybe the teenager me was more comfortable with the idea of the boy's monstrous transformation. Or it may simply be that it feels

more real, more possible, to me now than it did 30 years ago. There are so many monstors hiding behind wholesome, smiling masks. Frank Mueller narrates it perfectly, as always.

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LibraryThing member tnociti

Eh - Not even close to a favorite Stephen King.

LibraryThing member rsplenda477

I've never read anything bad by Stephen King, but I was left disappointed with Apt Pupil. It is definitely a great story that uncovers some of the deepest, darkest depths that human beings can sink to. However, it felt like King was just trying to get to the end of the book about 3/4 of the way

through it. It's kind of a shame because the content is really terrifying, and Todd Bowden's descent into the monstrous was enjoyable...but lacked that extra depth that King does so damn well. Still a solid read that frankly many in high school and college should examine.

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LibraryThing member over.the.edge

Apt Pupil
by Stephen King
1982
Warner
4.0 / 5.0

Apt Pupil is the story of Todd Bowden, an all-American golden boy- good grades, considered brilliant- befriends a neighbor, Kurt Dussander, a Nazi was criminal in hiding. As Dussander shares his past, Todd decides he has more to gain by not turning

him in to authorities. He wants to learn about the disturbing and evil crimes......slowly he becomes caught up in the stories and evolves from a golden boy to a boy with evil intent. The slow build of the story and the characters themselves were terrifying and made this a truly creepy and absorbing tale of horror.
The movie by the same name is pretty good, too.

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LibraryThing member Carl_Alves

My first exposure to Apt Pupil was the movie starting Ian McKellen. While I remembered the premise, I didn’t really remember the details. Given that Stephen King is my favorite writer and greatest influence upon me as a writer, I thought I would give it a read. The end result was a bit mixed.

I

liked the concept behind it. It’s a story of an old Nazi concentration camp warden, Dussander, being blackmailed by a boy, Todd Bowden, into telling him all sorts of luring World War 2 concentration camp stories. Todd, as it turns out, is a complete and utter psychopath. Dussander and Todd don’t particularly like each other. It’s really a relationship of each person using the other for their own needs. There are elements of it that are compelling, and the writing is vintage King, so it’s top notch, but there are some serious issues with it.

The first is characterization. Dussander and Todd dominate the book and neither of them are particularly likeable, although at least Dussander has a certain charm to him. Todd does not. Besides being a psychopath, he is also annoying and whinny. The other big issue is believability. The characters often don’t act in a believable manner. For one thing, they independently become serial killers preying on winos. Dussander is a feeble old man, and it’s not credible that he can overtake and kill all of these people. It’s also not believable that Todd can do all this while being a star athlete and valedictorian at his high school. The book has some definite plot holes. All in all, I would recommend reading it, but it’s nowhere near one of King’s better stories.

Carl Alves - author of The Invocation

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LibraryThing member buffalogr

Todd Bowden is more than just an apt pupil in school. He becomes an apt pupil in the art of evil and murder. Kurt Dussander, lives nearby and feeeds his own psychopathic tendencies, learning from Dussander. The book did no have me on the tip of my chair.

LibraryThing member MarkKeeffe

Very confronting and hard short story to read. The psychology was depressing and dark.

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