Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Event Calendar
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Fiction > Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Apt Pupil by Stephen King

January 30, 2021 by jeverett15 Leave a Comment

Stephen King strikes out on an unlikely course in this novella and follows it through all the way to a chilling conclusion. Thirteen-year-old Todd Bowman seems like a perfectly healthy and happy boy. He’s good at sports and does well in school (hence the “apt pupil” descriptor) and his successful, happy parents love him to pieces. After a magazine article piques his interest in the Holocaust, Todd makes a shocking discovery.  A local old-timer is actually a Nazi war-criminal named Dussander living in America under a false identity. Armed with as much proof as he can gather Todd makes a shocking and fateful decision. Rather than turning in the old man, he goes to confront him in person. Todd isn’t interested in seeing justice served or in the accolades he could earn for his discovery. He just wants to hear what it was actually like. He wants the old man to tell him all about the Holocaust: how it worked and how it made him feel.

At first the old man is reluctant to dredge up the past but when he realizes that Todd has him over a barrel he capitulates. Under the guise of reading to a lonely old man losing his eyesight, Todd and the old man spend many afternoons together reliving life in the camps.

In spite of his keen interest these sessions have a severe impact on Todd, resulting in nightmares and slipping grades. As he spends more and more time with Dussander the old man manages to turn the situation to his advantage, catching Todd in a trap wherein they both must rely on the other to avoid the consequences of their actions.

King is unsparing in depicting Todd’s downward spiral. He describes Todd’s dreams and his increasingly evil thoughts in vivid, uncomfortable detail, making it abundantly clear that something is wrong with Todd, deep down. However much the reader might have sympathized with Todd as a child with promise, King is determined to wear that down and expose the darkness within.

As Todd goes further along this evil path the suspense becomes a matter of whether there is any way he can escape from under Dussander’s thumb and, if he even could, would it matter? Was it meeting Dussander that corrupted this All-American Boy, or was the evil present all along, looking for a conduit?

If you’re familiar with King’s work you can probably guess the answer, but that doesn’t make the conclusion any less disturbing.

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Stephen King

jeverett15's CBR13 Review No:7 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Stephen King ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

About jeverett15

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR  9CBR 8

35 years old. Lifelong New Jersey resident. Fan of mystery novels, classic literature, and non-fiction about movies, television, sports, and American history. View jeverett15's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Dense on CBR Diversions – In Praise of Difficult Women"Him" being Elmore Leonard And it deserves modern classic status
  • Dense on CBR Diversions – In Praise of Difficult WomenI adore it. After years and years of failed adaptations, it capped off renaissance-like trilogy with Get Shorty and Jackie Brown; Hollywood had caught up...
  • Emmalita on CBR Diversions – In Praise of Difficult WomenDid you watch Soderbergh's adaptation of Out of Sight? I am always surprised that it doesn't get more love.
  • Dense on CBR Diversions – In Praise of Difficult WomenKaren Sisco. Elmore Leonard's "Out of Sight". When "boy-meets-girl" genuflects to "determined U.S. Marshall laser-focuses on her life, career, and whether her prey is worth...
  • tiny_bookbot on Light on mischief, lacking mayhem entirelyYeah, I can handle the mystery being half-baked OR the romance being half-baked, but when both are half-baked, it's just a plate of raw pastry...
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in