Book Review: Bag Of Bones, by Stephen King

Genre: Horror
Date Published: September 1998
Publisher: Scribner
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 529 pages/21.3 hours

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, Bag of Bones, is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.
Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor.
Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home.
He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan?
As vivid and enthralling as King's most enduring works, Bag of Bones resonates with what Amy Tan calls "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." It's no secret that King is our most mesmerizing storyteller. In Bag of Bones -- described by Gloria Naylor as "a love story about the dark places within us all" -- he proves to be one of our most moving.

My Rating:

 ★★★★

.....For being a good ghost story

My Thoughts:

Ok, so I read this a second time to see if I could officially declare this a favorite or not. This was the first Stephen King novel I ever read and it scared the crap out of me back then, so I wanted to see if I would be just as scared this time around (like when I read The Shining).

Well, it was still a great ghost story. I still really enjoyed it; the storyline was interesting, the ghosts were pretty scary, and it was a pretty quick read.

I think I messed up though. I combined listening to this on audiobook and reading the hardcopy. I think the mixed media made this book a little difficult to follow. I should have just read this book, rather than listened to it. Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of Stephen King's voice; there's something about it that makes the story feel a little flat. I appreciate that an author would best know how the story should be narrated, but I don't think King was able to accurately portray the intensity of some of the scenes. The added music and background noises were pretty cool though.

Overall, this is a good horror story. I wouldn't say that it's as good as The Shining, but it's still pretty good. Definitely a story King should be proud of.