“The Body” by Stephen King is a suspense/thriller that captures the audience with its beautiful mystery. This book is a captivating read that is entertaining, complex, and the characters are relatable. 

First impressions start off pretty well as Gordie Lachance and his friends are introduced. The rustic description of their hang-out spot layed out a solid foundation for the aesthetic of the book. A very entertaining aspect of the book was getting to know the characters; Stephen King uses their families to introduce them and their relationships. This added a layer of complexity that hit the sweet spot when it comes to analysis in recreational reading. Mainly, this applies to Gordie. We see that his relationship with his parents isn’t too great because of a tragedy that his family went through. Even though a big section of the readers cannot relate to this specific tragedy, his emotions were easy to connect to. His emotions are also noticeably different around his friends which creates a strong and comforting relationship with them, which is important to the plot later. 

The mysterious themes of the book made it hard to find a stopping place, when the characters are in a dangerous situation and there’s no telling if they will all make it out safe. Stephen King sets a perfect environment for a suspense story, from the very beginning, he builds up an eerie feeling that is carried throughout the entire book. Some of the characters are cut short however. Milo Pressman is a slight protagonist and he is simply in the novel to cause minor inconveniences for the main characters, if the reader was shown more of his background there could have been more room for predictions and character development. Even though Milo isn’t too deep of a character, he still does his job in the book and is able to add some challenges that the characters need to adapt to in order to progress with their agenda. 

A majority of the people who would enjoy this book would be people who enjoy suspense and making predictions about the book. This book is fun to analyze and at the same time an exciting recreational read.