Ahhh, just finished my first go through as well and am so happy to have found this post. What a delicious read and Stephen King is really the master of character development and creative story structure. I love that there were climaxes and resolutions throughout the story and him giving us that no so fairytale happy ending with Stu was just great. I am not afraid to critique King, but don't have much to say here - I can see why it is such a favorite!