For the most part, they are engaged in ordinary jobs, rarely engage in prolonged lofty thought, and are a part of popular culture in which they live. His characters also appeal to readers on a less conscious level by displaying perfectly the shift that occurred after the great wars of our blood-soaked 20th century, the shift in which the dividing line between adults and children was being erased, a shift which has accelerated in the last decade. Many of the children in Stephen King's novels are miniature adults, mature as most of the grownups, naive regarding the ways of sex, more innocent than grownups, but nevertheless mature enough so that they are frequently the leaders of the adults. Although he redeems himself at the end of the book by stepping forward as a sacrifice for the others, he never really grows up. Desperation, like King's other novels, also captures readers with its look at good and evil.
Desperation concerns several groups of people arrested by a deputy who is possessed by a demon.
There are various references to the Old Book, and King gives vivid descriptions of prayer and Biblical reading. In Desperation King also studies the theme of redemption, a theme which is in various ways common to much of his work. All the characters who survive the attack of the Evil One are changed, their world-view shifted by their newfound belief, they emerge from the horror and fear as new people. It is finally this power to describe horror and fear which best accounts for King's immense following. Although Desperation is not up to the standards of The Shining, The Stand, or three or four other books by King, the standard is still high.