Bag of Bones: A Novel

I am a Stephen King Constant Reader. However, I don't shy from being critical of the authors novels. I like most of them, but there are a few I couldn't finish because of varied disappointments in the story--"Under the Dome" for example. I am slowly making my way through the author's body of work, and I had been meaning to make "Bag of Bones" my next King novel. I am so glad I did so.

I can see a clear contrast in the author's early works, when compared to his latter and most recent novels. His later books are a little more tame and character driven. The ghost and goblin effect is still strong, but the newer books have taken on a deeper, richer story texture, and the character development is significantly greater. I think the effect is that these newer stories tend to stay with you much longer. They develop a more lasting kinship with the reader that his earlier works did not evoke. "Bag of Bones" is a good example of the new King relative to the old. Another good example is "Duma Key". I think the notion that King has "slipped a cog" in his ability to tell a story is baseless. Actually he is as good as ever, maybe better--a few duds notwithstanding--eg..."Under the Dome".

I highly recommend "Bag of Bones". Great story and a dynamic plot--told in a "first person" style. The many characters all have an interesting place in the story. The seven hundred odd pages are filled with suspense, terror, and romance. I found myself sitting for long readings of the prose, and felt tinges of disappointment when I had to put down the book to do other things--eg..sleep. To me, that is high praise from a reader. I knew from the beginning that I was on a good read. Some days you know from the start if the fish are biting or not. Well, the fish were biting good in this lake. It was a good day of fishing--or week, should I say, and knew from the first chapters that the fishing trip would be a successful one.

Don't worry, the book is haunting. It is a very dark story. If you came seeking King's reputation to "scare the livin shit out of ya"...then I think you will be richly rewarded. The author is very long-winded in certain areas of the novel, and these tend to be the darkest and most spooky parts. Again, you won't be disappointed.

I am going to put "Bag of Bones" on my short list of favorite King novels....along with: The Dead Zone, 11/22/63, Duma Key, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining, Salem's Lot, Lisey's Story, etc.

As you can see, I rated 5 stars. Very deserving! ...and I highly recommend this novel to readers.

Where to begin?

This is my favorite King book so far. And that's really saying a lot, because I like a lot of King stuff.

The strength of Bag of Bones (a completely appropriate title on so many levels once you get through it), lies in its completely realistic starting point. King manages to capture the loss and pain of a loved one in such stark terms that I found myself with nightmares of my own. Not supernatural ones, the kind that go away as soon as you push the covers off and brush your teeth, but the potential ones that stick with you and make you feel crummy all day long. Believe it or not, that was actually a compliment...

Anyway, I don't think I've read a better crafted haunted house story. Usually this genre is so full of cliche that it's really lost its power and magic, but King's focus is not the haunting in that particular sense. The haunting he focuses on is how memories haunt and hamstring us every day of our lives, and that's what makes the novel so deep. If you took all the ghost stuff out, it's still powerfully compelling fiction. Most of the supernatural stuff is simply sprinkled in at appropriate junctures to scare the living crap out of you. King waits until you forget this is a ghost story before unleashing the demons from his fertile imagination. He spends a hundred pages elaborating on the pain of losing a wife before he hints at her ghost, he delves into the very human evil of Max Devore before giving you a glimpse at the evil presence that has drawn all of his characters to Sara Laughs. And that's what makes it scary.

The novel is full of suspense, and not the cheap kind either. Usually, the avid reader doesn't have much trouble spotting misdirection or picking up on foreshadowing, but King really does manage to keep the air of mystery sealed pretty tight as he zig-zags towards a very unexpected series of concluding events.

On top of plot and pacing mastery, King also manages to infuse a wealth of literary allusions that enrich the story and its structure, making references from Melville to Bradbury, without making the insertions pretentious or overly academic.

Bag of Bones showcases King's strengths as an author like no other of his works, at least so far. Damn the man, now I have to go on a Dark Tower binge...

Sure, I liked Stephen King before this book. 11.22.63, IT, The Stand. The Shining, The Bill Hodges trilogy, Outsider, The Institute are all favorites of mine.

If you aren't a King fan or haven't figured it out yet: the reason why so many of his books resonate with so many people isn't the Horror, it's the Heart.

This Book is LOADED with heart.

A man who is haunted by grief, loneliness and depression due to the sudden loss of his wife and the impending loss of his writing career is also haunted by something supernatural. Why is this haunting happening? What will stop it? The main character, a realistically-flawed and very-likable character, meets a beautiful young woman and her daughter who are both in danger. Can he help them? Can he love again? Can he resurrect his career and purpose in life?

While the action and supernatural in this book are amazingly written and intense; King steals his own show with his mastery of language. King's ability to capture the nostalgia and create the essence of several different eras in this small Maine vacation town is a truly wonderful. I can't think of another writer who could bounce so elegantly compose not just dialogue, but colorful dialogue for an aging tech mogul, a wordsmith author, young and old residents of the backwoods of Maine, an early 1900's African-American band, a New York Lawyer, and a precocious 4 year old.

King is truly a master of language, a master of heart and a master of creative horror; he weaves all of those together is this story. The result is a hauntingly beautiful experience. Definitely one of my favorite King books.

King's earlier works terrified me so much that I developed chronic night terrors manifested in the form of sleep paralysis (you know, the kind where you feel like you're awake and in imminent mortal danger from some supernatural being -- often accompanied by feeling or sensing something crushing your chest -- and you try to struggle to move or cry out, but you're paralyzed, so you can't). So, I got rid of all my hardback King books (I know, it makes me nauseous, too), and abstained from reading anything by Stephen King for almost twenty years.

When I did start reading the King of Horror again (turns out sleeping on your side prevents sleep paralysis -- who knew?), I was underwhelmed and disappointed with some of his works I had not yet devoured (I.e.The Colorado Kid, Insomnia, to name a few). I had also seen the miniseries treatment of this novel, and thought it sucked, so it was only after reading a number of positive reviews on Amazon that I purchased and began BAG OF BONES.

I'm glad I gave it a chance. It's not the most frightening King novel I've ever read, but it kept my interest, and is a good yarn. It also seems to be one of King's more thoughtful works, openly exploring the rawness of grief, and the guilt and fear in moving forward, as well as the pain and heartbreak involved in finding love again

My only real problem with the story is that I just could not like the character of Sara, whom I know I was supposed to find intoxicating, entrancing and compelling. Instead, she seemed abrasive, uncouth, and combative. While I developed sympathy and felt compassion for what her character symbolized and suffered, I couldn't imagine wanting to know her or hang out with her. Plus, she terrorized Mike. Not cool.

I do not do plot summaries in my reviews, as I believe if you're reading the reviews, you probably have already gotten interested enough in the book to have read the editorial summary and Amazon synopsis. Suffice it to say, this is a book worth reading, and I recommend it to anyone who appreciates a good ghost story.

Just remember: sleep on your side, not your back!

I would have given 5 stars; but I’m not sure about the ending. It’s a better ending than Cujo. Overall I enjoyed the story. I tried to listen to the audiobook (several times), and Mr King does an excellent job of reading it. But for me I had to take time (my ADHD gets in the way) and digest it. (I’m ready to listen to it again) Once I dug in and buckled my seat belt the ride was definitely worth it. His imagination and the way he connects to characters and events keeps the reader guessing. Enjoy!

Bag of Bones tells the story of a writer named Mike Noonan, who has recently lost his wife and now has severe writer's block. Plagued by strange and frightening dreams of his summer lake house and with nothing better to do, he leaves his home in Derry and moves into the scary lake house. Maybe this change of scenery will allow him to face his fears or maybe it will be enough to help him overcome his writers block. Not long after arriving in town, he meets an attractive single mom named Mattie and her young daughter Kyra and ends up siding with Mattie and bankrolling her custody battle with her own father in law, the very rich and evil Max Devore. Will Mike find love again with this single mom? Will she be able to hold on to Kyra? And what the heck is going on with the lake house, which is clearly haunted? To find out, you will need to read 700 pages and more. What I liked about this book was the writing and the main (good) characters. The villains in the book aren't that well drawn out and their motives don't seem warrant the extremes they take to get what they want. One of the villains, a ghost, does have a bit of depth but you don't really figure that out until the end of the book where you learn more about the town's history. What I didn't like is how long the book took to get going. You can really sum up the first 200 pages as Mike Noonan has just lost his wife, has bad dreams and is suffering from really bad writer's block. After that point, the book becomes quite good. However even after 700 pages, you end up needing an epilogue to help tie together loose ends and help explain what you just read . That said, I still feel that somewhere within this heaping novel is one of King's best stories. 4/5

Okay, I'm just going to be honest - I really didn't like this one. The only reason I gave it three stars is because I just didn't have the heart to give my favorite author two.

I read this story once when I was but a freshman in high school, which was about the time this story first came out - didn't like it. Here it is my second time reading this book a good ten plus years later and guess what? I still don't like it. I was really hoping that as a now mature 30 year old woman I might appreciate this considerably toned down book from The King, but I just wasn't with it. For me, this book was just too far removed from the gory stuff that put this author on the map.

So not to sound vague, my specific problem with this book is that I just couldn't understand what made the lead character, Mike Noonan, feel so responsible for Mattie and Kyra Devore. I mean, as long as this book was, you would have thought that their relationship would have been a bit more developed for the weight this man bore on his shoulders as far as they were concerned. When Mike wasn't mulling over his dead wife of four years, he was thinking about Mattie for no good reason at all other than she was a widowed, young single mother being targeted by her eccentric billionare father-in-law in a custody battle of her child.

Okay, so what? What did any of this have to do with him? I kept asking myself this over and over again. He didn't know Mattie Devore from Adam to vouch for her as a parent so I just couldn't understand why she was worth the trouble he ended up in over her. To me, the whole thing just didn't make any sense. Frankly, this is where the lust comes in at. He tried to rationalize his feelings for this young woman in terms so that it would feel like he was just being a good samaritan, yet at every turn he was drooling over her (can't see why; she didn't seem all that spectacular to me - yet she even had the lawyer fawning over her - wow, really?). Even with the way this story develops, I still couldn't see anything more of his devotion than old fashion lust. Whatever feelings that developed thereafter was purely incidental, in my opinion.

Also, the slow pace of this story can be blamed on all of dream sequences. Most of this story was Mike locked in some daze or dream about the history of Sara Laughs and I found it redundant and boring. I almost quit reading more than once because I just couldn't take reading anymore scenes about him crying over Jo (his dead wife - of four years, mind you.)and suffering anxiety attacks where he would pass out and then once again dream about...whatever.

As for Mike's ghosts, all I'm gonna say about those is Max Devore and Rogette Whitmore were more frightening and they were alive.

Anyway, this book seems to mark the beginning of Mr. King's transformation from something more than a horror writer. I'm sure this book was probably meant to draw in a more...conventional crowd. You know, not those of us who still enjoy the cheesy slasher flicks from the eighties - oh, no, this book wasn't for us. I think it was meant to pull in those people that before now might not have ever picked up a Stephen King book. I know The Green Mile came out before this (I think) so that probably did the same - only difference is, I actually LIKED The Green Mile.

I'm sure this book has its fans. I'm sorry I'm just not one of them.

Now, I am not a professional critic. In fact, this is my first ever written review, so excuse me if I sound slightly vain...

SPOILER ALERT

By the first 400 pages, I was ready to give the book a 5/5. The protagonist's internal struggle and the nightmares left me thinking of the possibility that everything happening to him is just some sort of extreme delusion, a product of his mental breakdown culminating over the years since his wife's death. It was mysterious. It was nice. Also, the whole relationship between him, the little girl and her mother felt heartwarming more often than not. His lust at nights. His paranoia. And his will to help her against her daddy-in-law in a lawsuit, who practically wants to take the daughter from her mother. There were two well-crafted storylines flowing parallel to one another, with some seeping from one line to the other.

Then comes the very convenient, yet unexplained suicide of the aforementioned daddy-in-law, and thereafter everything goes south. Inconsequentialities start popping up all around the pages, where you start questioning the reasons behind characters' existence, the why's behind events' occurring, and the how's of characters' abilities. The book even dares to break the fourth wall by referencing one of the 'easy-way-outs'. The book quotes Raymond Chandler, “When the story starts going sour, bring on the man with the gun.”, in reference to earlier events in the book. Telling us that you are aware of a few of your 'easy-way-outs', and yet do nothing beforehand to fix them? That's rather smuggy! I would pass on it if it were the only example, but the final 300 pages were littered with such instances.

I gave the book a 3/5, and that is with a stretch. I really enjoyed the first half. Heck, the scare factor as hell was there. I might be ashamed, or proud to admit, but I did have a few rather unpleasant dreams, with the book's content being the theme. So, as a horror book, it did its job well. However, the second half effectively killed it! 3/5 score is giving my respects to the first half... This is my second worst-yet King's book, right after Cell. (These are the only two King books I did not like)

(Overall, I am huge fan of Stephen King, so this book hurt me... :()