Rating: 
Summary: What a great start...but
Review: 5 stars for the first 500 pages. Kings most romantic writing. DH Lawrence like. But after the protagonist has his epiphany by beating his writers block the story turns an intelligent voice into an 'R' rated Scooby Doo cartoon with rediculas characters and beat you over the head gory, violent ghost scenes/dreams/visions? I don't mind the fun, trashy stuff, but it is too bad that Mr. King didn't continue with the subtlness and mystery instead of explaining everything. I am reluctant to critisize Stephen King's books, because I understand them and because I respect what he does, so no hard feelings. Oh, and by the way, what a great first 500.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, but don't expect too much at the end
Review: This was a good read, but I expected to have more horror factor. I do like how he brings and connect his characters and places from his other books. I hoped for a little bit more suspense. Not a bad story.
Rating:
Summary: A different King
Review: A lot more heart and emotion than what he usually has in his books. A bit long and tedious and confusing until you get to the last 50 pages. The first King book I've read that I had absolutely no idea as to where he's taking me. The concept of small towns with big secrets sort of placed the whole story to a credible level.
Not a bad book but I would recommend his other books first especially to first time King readers (the Dark Half was very entertaining).
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the time.
Review: I picked up _Bag of Bones_ night before last and at 3:00 am this morning closed the cover, turned out the light, and watched the movers in the basement rearranging the furniture. Other than Black House, the only King novel I've read in five years, Bag of Bones sucked me in and held me until the last line.The depth of the character, the intricately woven histories and relationships, the undercurrents and the cables connecting them all together created a substantial world where the surreal and the real came together with relatively little friction outside of the character Mike Noonan. Writers teach their minds to misbehave and in this novel Stephen King shows again that his fame is not wholly due to his treatment of demons, monsters, and boogeymen, but due to the misbehaving of his own mind and its ability to create flesh and blood characters and place them in surreal circumstances unobtrusively suspending reality.
Rating:
Summary: It's good, worth reading (listening to).
Review: Four and a half stars is more like it. Bag of Bones is not perfect, but it's probably worth your time. If you haven't read Stephen King, you should start with Salem's Lot or one of his earlier stories. As for Bag of Bones, I listened to the audio version, which was great given the limited number of unabridged audio titles out there. King does the reading himself, too, which made it fun.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling & chilling.....MARVELOUS work for King.
Review: While "Bag of Bones" is not King's best work (in my opinion), it is still a fantastic novel. I think this novel speaks to us...telling us to look back into our past and at how the past can affect our future & the future of others. As people in the real world, we very seldom stop to think about how the "sins" of the past can haunt our futures....how the past can dramatically change the way things are in the years to come. This novel also touches on dealing with our emotions (ie: the death of a loved one)...how even the little things in life can mean so much if we would only stop to take notice of them. Even with all the sentimental/emotional basis in this novel, Stephen still manages to be the master of the supernatural. With every page, I was compelled to read on & on. A barrage of characters, there was not (unlike "From a Buick 8"). I highly recommend this book. Not just for current King fans, but for the new fans, as well.
Rating: 
Summary: The best Stephen King book I have read
Review: Now, I have only read 10 or so (and have not yet tackled The Stand or It), but this was really the best King novel that I have read so far. King's Noonan is intelligent and funny (although King's jokes do seem to get a little repetitive, and Noonan's humor is pretty similar to Ralph Roberts's in Insomnia). The relationships (his wife's ghost, the ghost of Sara Laughs, his new love interest single mother and her charming and gobble-mouthed daughter) are realistic and compelling. And the book FLIES. You start reading it, and it just goes, and there are parts where one is genuinely scared. Not a whole heckuva lot of them--it isn't really a screamer--but enough to keep you intrigued. I only have one bad thing to say, but it is a spoiler, so if you haven't read it yet READ NO FURTHER: Okay? The Outsider seemed to be some reference to King's Uber-story of the Dark Tower. This annoyed me in a vague way because I feel like everything written since The Talisman now references somehow to King's Territories and Roland's journey to the Dark Tower. This constant back referencing is a little frustrating and it can occasionally make King's stories feel cluttered (Bag of Bones is mostly spared from this, but Insomnia feels to a certain extent like an excuse for Random/Purpose exposition and explanation). Still; Bag of Bones is an excellent read and is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: In the zone
Review: Bestselling author Mike Noonan, suffering from writer's block and still mourning his wife's untimely death of a few years earlier, returns to their summer home on the coast of Maine. Searching for inspiration and answers, he finds himself regarded with suspicion by most of the town's populace, although he makes the friendship of a young widow who is engaged in a fierce custody battle with her very powerful father-in-law. Cryptic messages left in his home convince him he's not alone, and lead him to uncover a chilling mystery that's far greater than he could have imagined. BAG OF BONES is by turns a legal drama, a romance, a mystery and a ghost story, and that last takes a back seat for much of the book. King wisely baits us with hints -- a quiet incident here or there, often at the end of a chapter of heavy character and plot development. Those looking for ghouls and gore may be disappointed, but the story is all the more stronger for it. These are hauntings of the fairly typical variety, and it's a testament to King's skill as a writer that they are more frightening than perhaps they should be to the experienced reader. It's only toward the end of the novel, where the supernatural forces come to a head, that it loses some of its credibility. It's a final confrontation that rivals those in "The Library Policeman" or "The Sun Dog" -- not a good thing -- and cheapens what was a high quality read. But this is just a small flaw (it's a big book.) I'm pleased to number BAG OF BONES among King's best.
Rating: 
Summary: great start, boring mid-section, bad end
Review: This is an interesting read from start to finish but I swear, I didnt think this book was going to end. It isnt scary at all - which is fine by me. I dont want to read King horror novels anymore but this was supposed to be scary. I will say that when Noonan first enters Sara Laughs and we are introduced to some of the goings-on there, I was freaked out. King does a great job in this book scaring us with the unknown: things we cant see, screams we hear in an empty house etc. What isnt scary and is just plain silly are the parts of the book where Noonan is seeing into the past, or living in the past and seeing the dead-folk from generations past. Its overdone. Reading 10 pages in a row about ghosts with rotting eyeballs, stinking breath and decaying flesh isnt creative. Anyone can write this stuff. Kings done this to death. Also, I dont really understand Kings facination with writing about sex in such a shocking fashion. I mean, reading about Noonans wet dream in vivid detail was more than I could handle. The same goes for the graphic scene at the end of the book. And lastly, the only thing worse than a cutesy little kid in the movies is a cutesy little kid in a book. I understand little kids talk funny but hearing about the "refrigefator people" and "mommy-bommy" and "white nana" etc throughout the book got sickening quick. Now that this has sunk in, this book was pretty awful.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read!!!!
Review: I had not read any King in quite awhile before picking up this book. But my love of ghost stories lead me to give it a whirl. Well, I found the book to be moving and scary as hell!!! While it would seem the number of plots and subplots would threaten to overthrow the story, King weaves them together wonderfully. I especially enjoyed the scene where...well, I won't spoil anything but I love how King allows you pages and pages to really fall in love with these characters and put yourself in the happy place with them before tragedy strikes. The only negative comment here is about the book's climax. Like many of King's stories it takes a nosedive into "what the hell?" territory!! Does anyone else remember the King story where the super secret magic weapon was a rolled up ball of licorice? Same feeling going on here. Otherwise, great read!
| 
