Bag of Bones

This book has easily shot to the top of my favourites list. My heart hurts. I didn't want it to be over, but what a story.

Not his best

This was a fairly enjoyable ghost story, but like a lot of stuff from King's middle period, it just feels bloated. You could probably have cut 200 pages worth of story out of this and still had a complete, enjoyable novel.

The story is about a 40ish writer who loses his wife and goes to their summer house to stay for a while. He meets a young woman and her child and gets involved in her fight to keep her child from her husband's father who is very rich. Along the way he deals with some ghosts but he is not sure who they are. Is it his wife, Sara or some other entity? I had a hard time stopping listening to this. It is read by Stephen King and he does a great job with it. Some authors cannot read their own work and do it justice but he can.

4.5 stars!!!!!!!

Re-read for my Stephen King publication order challenge!

I always think of Bag of Bones as one of my favorite King novels, but I went into this not remembering anything! Things started to come back to me as I was reading and I'm glad to say that it's still a favorite.

I almost cried on the bus while reading today. Normally, that would warrent a 5-star rating from me, but comparing it to my all time favorite, Misery, it doesn't reach the full 5.

Since this was my book club's January selection,I'm going to wait to review this it until after we meet.

I will say that it's not a good idea to stay up until 3am reading this book when you're ill and then not expect some pretty twisted fever dreams.

What a perplexing King novel. There are parts of this book I find absolutely brilliant and it is marred by so many things I'm unsure how I feel about it or outright dislike.

I think I've settled on it being the most “King” book out of all of his books. It has all of his strengths; town-building and small town secrets buried deep, compelling characters, great slow burn horror, dialogue that feels like real people, really good prose about emotional topics, the plot was usually engaging and the tension and atmosphere was top tier!

....but it also has all of his weaknesses; unnecessary detours, a ridiculous amount of horniness, a child that acts way too old for their actual age, villains that go from “scary with how powerful/bad they are” to “laughably cartoonish” (sometimes they do not do this, in which case it's a strength), a really really uncomfortable scene that went too far into the graphic nature of it than was necessary, an older guy getting involved with a much younger woman in a ridiculous way, his Quentin Tarantino-esque love for saying racial slurs over and over again to get across just how BAD a villain is.

I've seen a fair amount of people have this as one of their least favorite King novels and I do find that a bit confusing; this book has a lot of good, and some great. And I can understand having some of the not great stuff bother you more. But definitely not one of his weaker books.

Wow. Just WOW. I don't know why I've never read a Stephen King novel before because I've really been missing out. I think it's mostly because I thought all of his novels were horror stories, like It and Carrie and that's really not my cup of tea. I am glad that I was wrong because not only have I discovered a new favorite author and book, but I can't wait to read all his other works. Even the super scary and gory ones.

Bag of Bones was so intense, that there were moments when I had to take a break from reading and go outside to smoke a cigarette. If that's not an indication of an amazing book, I don't know what is. For the whole time that I was reading this book, I often found that it was on my mind, even when I wasn't reading it. The story has seeped into my skin and kept me on edge, even in the real world. The reason for this is because it's just realistic enough where you can imagine something like it happening in the real world. After all, I am a believer of ghosts and the paranormal.

Another reason why this book resonated so deeply with me is because I am at a stage in my life where I can relate, especially to Mattie and her love for her daughter, Kyra. My daughter is ten months old and I know for a fact that if I wasn't a mother myself, I would not have been able to understand Mattie's emotions and her deep bond with her daughter. This also made it hard to read at certain times, because the pain and emotions I felt from her hit too close to home.

And what a terrific writer Stephen King is. I was afraid that the book would be too long for me and would drag on and on, but that was not the case. He is a master in storytelling and I don't think I've ever had the chance to see so deeply into a character's soul. Michael Noonan, the main character in the story, was me- we were one. That's how well I got to know him. He was far from just “a bag of bones”, he might as well have been my best friend in the real world.

Also, the writing flowed smoothly and challenged me as well. There was complexity in his sentences and style, and yet it didn't derail me from continuing to read this book. I actually think it added a kind of sophistication that I have never seen in another book before. It challenged me as a reader, something that not many books have done since I graduated from college. I realize now that I have been playing it safe when it comes to choosing what books I want to read on my own free time. Just because a book is a quick read doesn't make it the right book to read for when I want to relax. After this book, I am going to dive into other famous writers' books. I want to read everything, not just the easy/fun stuff.

Further on, I loved the fact that this book had a lot of mysteries going on the entire time but that at the heart of the book was an even different story line all together. I think this kept me even more interested because I never got bored of any one particular thing. Also, it had equal parts action and also what I would call as “personal reflection” from the protagonist of the story. I loved all of Mike Noonan's thought processes as the plot unfolded but I still got a bunch of action and stuff happening as well. It was a perfect balance between the two.

The only thing I have to complain about this book, is that it tied everything in the end perfectly. What's my problem, right? I mean it seems like I have complained time and time again in the past about books leaving us hanging with no idea how things actually ended or if they ended at all. But I guess, in this book, I almost wanted the mystery to continue- to get just enough but not everything. But who am I kidding, if that would have been the case I probably would have complained about not getting all the answers I wanted anyways. There's no winning with me in this situation and that's entirely on me.

All in all, this book was the first serious book I have read in a long time and it was much needed. It has opened my eyes to the possibility of reading more serious works from famous authors. I guess, I have thought in the past that these books would be too much for me but now I realize that's not a bad thing at all. I would recommend this book to everyone, and I know that no matter what I say about it, I would not be able to do this amazing story justice. Just read it and see for yourself.

It was all right. There was a lot of fluff and it was hard to believe Mattie was 22 or Kyra was 3. Sometimes it felt like King was just rambling.