Double Feature

A Novel

By: Owen King

Narrated by: Holter Graham

“An ambitious and warmhearted first novel” (Entertainment Weekly) from Owen King—the epic tale of a young man coming to terms with his life in the aftermath of the spectacularly bizarre failure of his first film.

SAM DOLAN is a young man coming to terms with his life in the process and aftermath of making his first film. He has a difficult relationship with his father, B-movie actor Booth Dolan—a boisterous, opinionated, lying lothario whose screen legacy falls somewhere between cult hero and pathetic. Allie, Sam’s dearly departed mother, was a woman whose only fault, in Sam’s eyes, was her eternal affection for his father. Also included in the cast of indelible characters: a precocious, frequently violent half-sister; a conspiracy-theorist second wife; an Internet-famous roommate; a contractor who can’t stop expanding his house; a happy-go-lucky college girlfriend and her husband, a retired Yankees catcher; the morose producer of a true-crime show; and a slouching indie-film legend. Not to mention a tragic sex monster.

Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family’s friends, lovers, and adversaries, Double Feature is about letting go of everything—regret, resentment, dignity, moving pictures, the dead—and taking it again from the top. Against the backdrop of indie filmmaking, college campus life, contemporary Brooklyn, and upstate New York, Owen King’s epic debut novel combines propulsive storytelling with mordant wit and brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.

Is good writing inherited??

I'm a HUGE Stephen King fan, and so it's been with great interest that I've collected the works of his two sons, Joe Hill and Owen King. I liked Joe's work for sure as he is following in his father's footsteps. Owen, however, is his own man, and I really, really enjoy his style. He definitely has a great sense of humor which I think is so very important to a well-told story. While some of the things the characters do in this book might seem like a bit of a stretch, when you put it into the context of most of them being "Hollywood" or "artistic" types, it's not that far-fetched at all.

Owen King must've paid attention to his father's excellent ability for character development. Not to take away anything from the younger Mr. King - it's a compliment, really. I found myself wondering days after I finished this book what happened to the central characters like they were real people I'd been eavesdropping on for the last couple of weeks.

The narration was also very good - not distracting or annoying - but actually perfectly executed with a true and obvious grasp of the story by Mr. Graham throughout.

I won't rehash plot lines as the book description and other reviews will give you that. What I wanted to get across is that if you're a fan of good storytelling (regardless of genre), then give this book a chance. You won't be disappointed.

Cute, funny, strange

What a quirky, funny and strange book. I really enjoyed it. So well written! I wanted to see the movie that got made in the novel...I can only imagine!

Great story and characters.

A great story combined with a great reading. This is one where I think the reading compliments the characters very well.

Fantastically written!

This was the first book I ever read/listened to of Owen King by himself, and I loved it!

Wonderful

I read the book that Owen co-wrote with his father (Sleeping Beauties), I didn't even realize Stephen King had a son, so I looked this book up and gave it a try. I didn't know what to expect... In my opinion this is one of the best novels I've listened to in a very, very long time. It is a coming of age story, but so unique and original, and oh so well written that it lifted my spirits. The narration was perfect. This book is time well spent and I hope that Owen continues to produce this sort of quality. (and stay away from his father's genre... I love Stephen King, but I like it when the characters (or at least the vast majority) make it out the other side... Great stuff Owen!, great stuff.