On Steel Pendants

So I was kind of afraid when I started reading Stephen King's Desperation, especially after it seemed to be the one right after Gerald's Game. Until recently I've been pleasantly surprised. The set up was vintage King, with an assortment of people thrown into jail by a psychotic cop in the middle of Nevada. Except for the people he casually killed -- including, most horrifically, a young girl. And he seems to be grappling explicitly with religion to an extent he rarely does, unless to make believers maniacs such as Carrie's mother. Or hypocritical power mongers as he does in The Dome. One of the characters is an 11 year old boy who "got religion" after God answered his prayer to save the life of his best friend close to dying from a car accident. No steel pendants in sight, though.