The Regulators

By Stephen King

There's a place in Wentworth, Ohio, where summer is in full swing. It's called Poplar Street. Up until now it's been a nice place to live. The idling red van around the corner is about to change all that. Let the battle against evil begin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 1997
• ISBN: 9781440674211

Stephen King

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 40 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers. Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.

Reviews for The Regulators

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

"None of this was real, after all. It was just a refuge in her mind."Poplar Street in Wentworth, a small town in Ohio where the residents live typically suburban lives minding their own business and quietly trying to live their lives. A storm is brewing but otherwise it is a normal day, a paper-boy is delivering a local free newspaper, two young children go to the local store to buy chocolate, older ones play with a Frisbee and adults cut the lawn or prepare their barbecues ready for use in the evening all oblivious to the fact that a chrome red van is idling up the hill. Soon the residents are caught up in madness as the Regulators arrive in force.Initially this all appears to be an interesting premise for a novel but very quickly it becomes obvious that being some gripping psychological drama is becomes a rather run of the mill piece of writing. Put simply a young autistic boy, who spends far too much time sat in front of a television screen watching old westerns and kids action cartoons, gets possessed by evil entity. This entity,called 'Tak', then brings mayhem to this peaceful suburban street by manifesting the characters which that it idolises on the small screen in to life where they kill residents and destroy their homes. Some people will die, some will live and lots of houses get destroyed. That just about sums it up. I found myself not caring whether any of the characters lived or died. In fact I soon realised that none of the residents, with exception of the young boy Seth and his aunt Audrey, added anything to the tale. Nor did I find myself sat on the edge of my seat with baited breath waiting to see what will happen next. Despite their being plenty of blood and gore you get to the end of the book and realise that the whole climax is based putting a laxative in an eight year old's drink. I mean 'really'.I can see why this was published under Stephen King's alter ego, Richard Bachman, rather than his own name.

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The master of horror, Stephen King, chalked up another page turner under the pseudonym of "the late" Richard Bachman, "The Regulators.". In "The Regulators" the characters are already assembled as neighbors on Poplar Street. Their glorious summer day is shattered by the arrival of a crayon red van and its armed driver. Collie Entragian, a former cop drummed off the force on trumped-up charges, attempts to protect his neighbors and preserve the crime scene but the violence quickly escalates out of control. As the street begins a nightmarish metamorphosis into something out of the worst of children's television and old westerns, the strengths and weaknesses of the inhabitants begin to work on all of them - Johnny Marinville, the successful author of children's books, haunted by a dissipated past and a too-vivid vision; Cynthia, the new clerk at the convenience store, whose two-toned hair and irreverent wit obscure a core of decency; Tom Billingsley, the retired veterinarian; Steve Ames, a young man drifting through life, picking up skills.
Then there's Audrey Wyler, the young widow with the autistic nephew, Seth. No one's seen her in a while and at first they scarcely notice her continuing absence amidst all the mayhem. But Audrey's particular hell has been a long time coming. There's a thing in Seth (he calls it "Tak") that can bend people to its will and the world to its malevolent vision and it's growing stronger.

While there is violence and blood, it is driven by the story and I have read alot worse. The biggest complaint I would make is that like 90% of King's books its a bit too long.

[tabatha014 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't even know how to explain this book....it was soooo strange! That being said, I couldn't put it down! I had to know what happened. It reminded me a little bit of From A Buick 8 because of the alternate world type of thing. It was definitely different but a really good read.

[algybama · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Characters are weak, which is disappointing for King (aside from the autistic villain, who surely rivals the manic cop in Desperation, and is definitely more creepy). Highlights also include a sympathetic and violent suicide scene, and generally the plot has a nice rhythm aside from a few slow sections.I liked Desperation better as a whole, but there are much better scenes to be had in The Regulators. Not sure which is scarier, though I think the freakish innocent, here, is actually much worse than any of the threatened violence in Desperation. Both novels are spooky mainly because of their suggestions of sexual nastiness, and I think it's worse when that nastiness comes from an disabled child. The boy's encounter with Tak in the old mine stands out, too, as something made particularly spooky because of its Spielberg-like sweetness and mystery.

[bridgey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, Regulators was released the same time as Desperation. Many of the character names are replicated as are items and places in both novels. However the characters personalities are very different as well as ages. While Desperation was set in a mining town the majority of The Regulators actually takes place in a single street (a street that's not in Desperation).I picked this book up after reading Desperation and having ranked it as one of my favourite King books I then held high expectations for The Regulators. Unfortunately it failed to meet them for me. Strangely enough it took me over 2 weeks to read, but the fact that I finished the book is a positive for it I suppose.Ok so the reasons why I didn't like it that much. Firstly I normally love the way King slowly introduces his characters to us, going into a little background detail, so that the reader feels as if they know them personally. There was nothing like this here. Within the first dozen pages we had met around 15 characters. To be honest I was glad when a few got killed to make it easier to remember them all. Unlike the majority of King's other novels I just found it hard to empathise with any of them, I didn't care if they lived or died. There just wasn't the level of detail I would have expected, in particular the history of 'Tak' could have been explored deeper.The second aspect I really didn't like was the fact the most chapters were segregated by diary entries or newspaper clippings. Some readers may have enjoyed the realism this brought to the novel, I just found it a distraction. What got even worse was when the TV show scripts came out. I hate reading plays, so these were even more of a drag than the other extracts.Thirdly, as is apparent with a number of his novels, the ending just didn't satisfy. I would go into reasons as I not want to spoil the book for anyone else, but it just seemed a bit of an easy way out.There was a positives though, the action when it came was thick and fast and very grisly.In all, not the worst King book I have ever read (that award goes to 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon') but is certainly one of his weaker ones. I am just glad that I read Desperation first, as I think that if I read this first I would probably not have bothered, and that would be a great shame.

[athenaharmony · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yet another good book from this author. Very interesting story, full of unexpected twists. I also really enjoyed the way that the format alternated from standard storytelling to excerpts from personal journals, newspapers, and other sources. It seemed to make the story much bigger and far-reaching than the one street on which it takes place.One warning: this story is filled to the brim with violence and very graphic blood and gore. Flying blood and guts and gleaming skulls are described with no restraint. If this isn't your thing, you might want to avoid this book, because you'll be encountering violence every few pages once the action gets going.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a companion book of sorts to Desperation. While both books feature the same characters and similar themes and plot points, they diverge wildly. This is the better of the two books, much more chilling and, in many ways, believable than Desperation. The whole idea of the normal suburban street that is attacked brutally and without warning, and then slowly isolated, really terrified me, so much that this book kept me up nights.

[urthwild · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

1996 - The Regulators by Richard Bachman
1996 - Desperation by Stephen King

These 2 were meant to be companion books by King using as they did the same character names, in a similar sort of peril from the same monster. A lot of reviewers said it was lazy writing at the time but I personally loved it. It added rather to my enjoyment of both rather than detracting.

Good Times.

[mainrun · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read "Desperation" a few weeks ago. Reading reviews of that book, I discovered its connection to "The Regulators." I thought the plot would be pretty much the same, so I thought it would be interesting to read another book at the same time. The other book I found is called "Conquest," written by two authors, John Connolly and Jennifer RidyardThe Regulators' and Desperation's plots were different. In Desperation, I had a hard time giving a voice to the bad guy. The "YEE HAW" and "GOSH DARN" phrases disrupted the story. In the Regulators, I was OK with it. The possessed character, and the back story explained it much better.

[trayceetee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not one of his better books, but I'd probably read it again in a pinch. It was interesting, and I do love the way he ties bits from other books into his stories. This one refers to parts of "Desperation", which I actually probably wouldn't read again. This one was better than that, at least.

[sebastianhagelstein · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Companion to Desperation by Stephen King, this story has more action and doesn't explain as much. It's probably better to read Desperation first to help understand this book better.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Pretty dang good! A boy is delivering the newspapers on his street then - BLAM! The story roars along right from that start! And it was super cool to read a story that is so intertwined with another book (Desperation), yet so different! Fun too! But, I'd say this - what if the little boy had not been allowed to watch television shows with violent images? For me, it reaffirms my parenting choices for my 6 1/2 year old!

[daedalus18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can only give this book 3.5 stars because I'm one of SK's 'constant readers' - or at least, I get the bug to be like one every couple of years or so until I burn out on his books.I did the Desperation and Regulars two-fer, and I'm happy to have played the game - but I'm also glad that it is over.The Regulators was better than Desperation in a couple of ways, but ultimately about the same quality read - and chock full of dumb in places. I'm a little put off by the way SK seems to have enjoyed reading about Legion in Marvel comics, in a classic New Mutants arch, and decided to take the story for a spin himself.Some very similar characteristics between the characters, the settings and the use/behavior of peripheral characters.It was a bit of a lousy realization that Michael Crichton was a kind of hack, skimming then butchering interesting theories and findings from science magazines and trades - ultimately getting the science wrong and never crediting the sources he tapped. I'm afraid that realization is fighting to come through with Stephen King (and Richard Bachman) as well. Too much duplication from sources he reveals himself to be familar with - and authors he admits to being a devoted fan of (Matheson especially). I hate it when the curtain blows back on an otherwise enjoyable magic act. Bound to happen if you read enough, though.Regardless of whatever influences he would or wouldn't credit - The Regulators has a fun tap root into sci-fi, western and supernatural genres all at once. It uses most of SK's standard situations (create twelve ideas, rinse, repeat), but in a way that for the first 3/5ths of the book, at least, you are interested and hooked in.The 'surprises' failed, because of extraordinarily heavy-handed telegraphing. The resolution doesn't satisfy. There are unexplored corners galore, and inconsistent factors that are irritating, but - it was a decent read and I'm glad it is over.I've zero interest in keeping my copies of either Desperation or The Regulators - because I can't imagine wanting to reread them at any point. No, there is nothing original in there - nothing new or challenging or special - but yet, I won't dip below a 3.5 star rating. I must have a kind of devotion to Stephen King's many repackagings of the same stories.

[pghdragonman · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of King's early works published under the name of Richard Bachman. While a companion volume, of sorts, to "Desperation", I think this should have become an unpublished manuscript found after "Bachman's" death. It does not deserve the name of Stephen King associated with. Like the companion book, King leaves subtle world of mental horror behind. No drippy faucets slowly driving you crazy here, no premonitions of disaster slowly building to the inevitable showdown between good and evil, rather the reader is held nose first and nostrils up to a gushing fire hydrant of violence.I have no objection to situational violence in a horror story, but there needs to be a reason for the violence and any type of plot is sorely lacking here. Characters are introduced and blown away without giving us a chance to know who they are, to feel something, one way or the other, about them. Good violence: the gunfight between the drug kingpin, his henchmen and the reformed addict in "Drawing of the Three" by King. Very violent, but it follows a lot of character development and you feel sorry for one character and root as the others are gunned down. Here you are a witness to a poorly produced reality show where people are targets for bad guys.Yeah, I gave it just two stars. As bad as it is, King is still a great story teller and I had to finish it regardless of how badly it offended me. If you have to have a complete collection of King and / or Bachman, you will need this to fill in your collection. Otherwise, pass it by.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the Bachman books originally, this story is tied in with Desperation as King later. Tak!

[stacers1973 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Desperation was the better half of the coin, or story, so to speak.

[natalieriley · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As much as it pains me to say anything unflattering about a Stephen King novel, I just didn’t care for this one. I’m sure it’s me and not the author. I couldn’t get into it. So many characters and so much weird, frantic activity.

[thanesh_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Book 61 of Stephen King. Enjoyed reading the novel, having read Desperation a little while ago this book was recommended by for me. Not his best work but worth the read none-the-less. For me being a constant reader I enjoyed my fix of plugging back into the matrix of Kings world. Enjoyed the similarities, overlap and differences between Desperation and there was also some references to the Shining and Doctor Sleep Easter eggs to enjoy.

[jerame2999 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Maybe my favorite Steven King.

[stephenbarkley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bachman’s been referred to as King without a conscience. The Regulators certainly fits this description. Released concurrently with King’s Desperation, Regulators deals with the same cast of characters in an alternate reality. The entire book is essentially one big blood-bath.The fast-paced excitement is also the problem with this book. With only one chapter of character development to set up the story, you’re taken on a thrill-ride with one-dimensional people you just can’t seem to care about.The story’s redeeming value for me was the tie-in with the Dark Tower myth. The villain, Tak, is clearly a creature from the space between worlds (although it’s not made clear in the text). The alternate version in King’s Desperation supports the Dark Tower’s multiple universes idea.The book’s exciting, but the day after I finished it, I’m already forgetting the characters. Hopefully Desperation will prove to be a little more substantial.

[srboone · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If read in conjunction with Desperation, bump it to 4 stars.

[belles007-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not as good as Desperation.