Stephen King’s Maine: A History & Guide isn’t really the book I was expecting. I was expecting the author, Sharon Kitchens, to tell me stuff like - this is the place where King got the inspiration for this or that story. This is the person or event that inspired him to write this or that. But that isn’t really what we get. What we get is more of a look at Maine and the people who live there and get a chance to tell their story. There are a few “King lived close to this, and it’s probably what inspired him” or “this might have inspired King”. You don’t get the feeling that the author knows where King got the inspiration from or really has any hard facts and instead is guessing based on where he has lived and been. This might be correct, and it might very well be where King got his inspiration, but we don’t know for a fact.

We do learn about people living there and while this is not uninteresting I’m sorry to say it’s not what I expected from a book called Stephen King’s Maine: A History & Guide. It feels like King is a supporting actor in a book about his past and a lot of unknown people get to take center stage.

So, while it’s an interesting read and I imagine the author had a really great time traveling around Maine it would probably find its right audience if it would have been marketed as a Maine traveling and history book with some mentioning of famous Maine people. Now it’s somewhere in between. King fans will read it and wonder why there wasn't more King stuff in it and historians might skip it thinking there is only King stuff in it. And that is sad because it is a good book for the right reader. After all, I did learn what the right size for a grave is and I’m sure I’ll get to use that sometime, somewhere…

Check out this book if you’re interested in Maine history but don’t expect it to be all about King.