Rating: 
Summary: Fast & easy reading.
Review: I enjoyed the book overall. My biggest problem was in calling it a "love story". I have read many a love story & this did not qualify in my opinion. That the main character had strong feelings for another character does not a love story make. I felt that Stephen did a fabulous job in portraying writers block. I have to believe that he must have been throught it himself in order to have written about it in such a proficient manner. The ending neither shocked nor surprised me , but I thought that the book delivered occasional chills. I felt that it was fast and easy reading. It didn't make my "top ten" Stephen King list, but it was pleasurable.
Rating: 
Summary: A throw away Stephen King book.
Review: The beginning of this long story held some promise for me of exciting moments ahead. As I read on, I began to think I was into some time-warp mix of all the ghost stories I have heard and read. The worse part is that I became bored and not very interested in what happened to the characters. I am and continue to be a Stephen King fan, but this book was left in the airport for those people who will read anything waiting for their flight to take off.
Rating: 
Summary: His best in years - but he has done better in the past
Review: After a string of disappointing books (starting with ROSE MADDER), this book delivers once again, though it's not one of King's best. What we have here is a classic ghost story including guilt, a story spanning several generations and - naturally - many uncanny apparitions. Although this book has no connection to it, it reminded me of the best ghost story in the last twenty years: GHOST STORY by Peter Straub. I'm pretty sure that King thought to himself: "I liked GHOST STORY very much and now I'm gonna do my own ghost story." In a nutshell, the good news: This book is a real page-turner and I read it on two LONG evenings so I can promise you: This book really gets you hooked. The bad news: As many other readers and critics already pointed out, the finale is a real letdown. It is out of touch with the rest of the book and utterly unsatisfying. Nevertheless, King's writing style and characters are top-notch - opposite to ROSE MADDER, DESPERATION and THE REGULATORS, you really DO care about the characters here. In the end, I definitely recommend this book, but be warned that the final 70 pages (or so) are a disappointment. One final note: I read that King is thinking about the possibility to stop publishing in the near future. With that in mind and as a long-time King fan, the last two pages of this novel made me afraid. Really afraid. Review by Oliver Naujoks, Marburg/Germany
Rating: 
Summary: King's best book since IT by far.
Review: Amazing. The best word to decribe King's latest work. The plot was incredible, with the mystery keeping you guessing. Bag of Bones has no where near the gore or lack of depth some of his latter works have suffered from (Desperation and The Regulators to name a few). A must read for King fans and perhaps it will net a few more.
Rating:
Summary: Not his most impressive story
Review: I am a die hard King fan. I've read all of his novels. This one was not his best in the least bit. Also it was not his worst. The story started off way too slow. There was very little suspence. Over all it was a very interesting story, but you don't really understand what the hell it's all about until you get to the last pages of the novel. It had some very good scenes in it off and on. I hate to say it, but I was disappointed. I just didn't find myself getting sucked into the story like I normaly do when I read King. I gave it four stars because it is an interesting story. I just don't think that the plot was developed to be as exciting as it could have been. I know a lot of people didn't like Insomnia, but I actually think that was a better story then this one. I don't think he has lost his touch, his stories have always been of a different quality from book to book. I can't wait to find out what his next idea is going to be about.
Rating: 
Summary: The verbose Mr. King has done it again.
Review: I reluctantly purchased Mr. King's latest tome due to all the publisher hype surrounding it. I used to be a big fan, but have definitely cooled towards reading anything by Stephen King. Almost all of the reviews stated that he has his old form back. I personally could not find any of the old form in this lengthy, wordy novel! The characters and setting are clear and concise, which shows that Stephen King is a gifted writer. I wish that he would use this gift more productively, and with a little less overwriting! I suppose that a staunch Stephen King fan will enjoy this book, I however,wish that I had waited to buy this novel in the used paperback version.
Rating:
Summary: chaotic
Review: This book is a definate page turner. I enjoyed the first person narration, as well as the character of Mike Noonan. The story did have me guessing what was going on, but I was in for disappointment. The ending is kind of predictable, and I think he tells us more than we want to know. It is a good read, but I have come to expect more from the King.
Rating:
Summary: A different kind of scary...
Review: I have, I think, read every mass market book and short story collection King has published. The strange thing about King is that even when he is bad, he's pretty good (The Tommyknockers comes to mind -- really stupid book, but I didn't put it down -- I even re-read it). Bag Of Bones is the other end of the spectrum -- a really great book by a fine writer. It was the first King book in a long time that actually scared me. Not jumps, or horror, but the sinking feeling that horrible things were going to happen to people I had grown to love. The heavy-handed foreshadowing recalled A Prayer For Owen Meany and made the sad events even worse since you knew they were about to happen and were as powerless as the characters to prevent them. Like one of the other reviewers, the heavy handed supernatualism of the ending was a bit of a bummer after the character driven story, budding romance, and spooky, Shirley Jackson-esqe haunted house events of the first three-quarters, but I didn't feel cheated. In fact, the Outsider reference which evoked his Dark Tower books (which seem to be building a universal backdrop for the supernatural aspects of his stories) actually helped a bit. It's like King said in Danse Macabre, some-Thing knocking on the door is scary, when you open the door and see the monster, you might be shocked, but you can deal with it. In Bag Of Bones, there is a lot of that, but you can never see what is behind the door -- even when it is revealed, there is a Lovecraftian Outsider which sits beyond the realm of your understanding. I liked that. One more note, in some ways King is beginning to remind me of Robert Heinlein. Not in subject matter, but in his body of work. Like Heinlein, King went through his rambling, "I-don't-need-an-editor" phase (King's Tommyknockers and Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil), and now seems to be firmly into a "I'm tying together every book I ever wrote into one unified work" phase (King's Dark Tower series and Heinlein's later books starting with Number Of The Beast). There is even a hint in Bag Of Bones of the meta-author tone where King practically apologizes through the protagonist for writing a disturbing part of the book (shades of Borges and of Heinlein's The Cat Who Walked Through Walls).
Rating:
Summary: Slow, Plodding...wanted to shout GET TO THE POINT!
Review: Not a good novel. So many words...so little action. Not until page 250 or so do we start getting into the spooky stuff. Other than that, it's a dreary "love" story about a man who lost his wife to an untimely death. She and other spirits haunt his vacation home. They move magnets on the 'frig. They moan and groan at night. Really, those Scooby-Do cartoons are more frightening. I wish I could get my money back.
Rating:
Summary: A Haunting Tale of Love and Loss
Review: BOB is billed as a "haunted love story", and that's an accurate summary. BOB is about a man coming to terms with his wife's sudden death...and trying to put the pieces together of her strange last few months of life. Mike Noonan is a thriller-novelist, who's wife dies unexpectedly. He finds out a few things she did in her last months on Earth and is perplexed. Trying to solve these inconsistencies takes him to his house in Maine called Sara Laughs. What follows is a legal thriller, a behind the scenes look at a novelist coming to terms with writer's block. Mike comes across a young mother with her daughter, and it turns out she's in a legal battle with his father-in-law for custody. Turns out the father-in-law is an original to this Maine town that has a lot of deep dark secrets. These secrets unfold at a slow pace but is very enjoyable. The dialogue is colorful and seeing a few old King characters wander through the novel is a pleasant experience. I have to say the gore is kept until the last 50 pages or so and that I was shocked at who lived and died in this one. A very enjoyable and satisfying novel, what did you expect, huh? Recommended.
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