Bag of Bones

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Summary: It's just me
Review: I haven't read that many books by Stephen King, although in general I do like his books. The reason why I read this book, Bag of Bones, was purely coincidental. I stayed the holidays at my parents house and forgot to bring a book. Horror beyond imagination. So I started reading the dutch translation of Bag of Bones which is Vel over Been by the way. The book didn't do it for me. I wasn't horrified and the story didn't really appeal to me. It was not like the horror I felt in IT or the involvement I got with The Talisman To briefly sketch the story: It's about Jack Noonan a popular writer who after his wife dies starts getting nightmares about his summerhouse 'Sara Laughs'. As he has nothing better to do he decides after four years to go back to 'Sara Laughs' and finds himself getting terrorized by the house and the hostile village people. Sometimes a book is well written but just doesn't do it for me. Thats what I had with Bag of Bones.

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Summary: Perhaps I Shouldn't Have Waited So Long
Review: A bit of background; in my younger days I was a huge Stephen King fan, voraciously reading anything and everything he wrote. Then about 10 or so years ago I began to grow tired of his fare, it began to sound repititious and tiresome and I stopped reading him altogether. Bag of Bones is my first foray back to the world of Stephen King and while not my favorite King book, I was not disappointed. There is no doubt, Stephen King can write a scary tale that will keep you reading and guessing. Bag of Bones is no exception. This novel doesn't quite fall into the "horror" category, perhaps ghost story/love story describes it best. If I wanted to be picky I could come up with some minor criticisms (especially about the ending), but for fans or lapsed ones like me, Bag of Bones delivers the goods.

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Summary: King's strong characters carry a familiar story
Review: Contrary to popular belief, Stephen King's greatest strength as a writer is not his ability to scare us; it is the depth of his characterizations. The leap of faith required to believe his extraordinarily lurid fantasies is made shorter because his characters are usually so compelling. He knows that the best way to draw readers into creepy situations is by making the people who are involved in them as real as possible. Having read the majority of his novels and short stories, I now find myself more enthralled by the portions of his stories that involve no horror at all. In fact, some of his best fiction, such as The Dark Tower series, The Green Mile and the stories in Different Seasons are departures for him in which he does not set psychological booby traps for his readers.

True to form, many of the best moments in "Bag of Bones" have little or nothing to do with the haunted house/ghost story part of the plot (which, at times, feels like "The Shining" reheated). Mike Noonan is a novelist who is mourning over the death of his beloved wife Jo. King spends a significant amount of time making Mike's depression palpable. When he comes across reminders of Jo, his pain is conveyed in very specific terms. Mike is crippled by his loss both emotionally and professionally--the grief robs him of his ability to write. He numbly sleepwalks through his days, doing little besides crossword puzzles. There's something lurking around every corner, all right, waiting to sneak up on him and surprise him, but it isn't any ghost, goblin or monster: it is the memory of a lost loved one.

There are plenty of things waiting to shake him out of his daze at his summer home, Sara Laughs, where he eventually goes. There are a number of reasons for him to go there, not the least of which is to simply get a change of scenery. But this is no ordinary vacation or sabbatical. As we later find out, he is really being "pulled" there by some mysterious force that makes him feel like he needs to be there. Although he is haunted by a dream about the house that is all too real, Mike's curiosity and his feeling of need are too much to resist. Once he arrives, of course, things get weirder.

One common criticism of haunted house stories is that most of the protagonists are stupid enough to stick around when most logical people would high-tail it out of there at the first signs of paranormal activity. Thankfully, King gives Mike more reasons to stick around than curiosity or need, and they don't feel like convenient plot devices. He introduces two characters that will change Mike's life. The first is Mattie Devore, a young librarian and widower who admires his work and the second is her three-year-old daughter, Kyra. Mattie is waging a custody battle with her father-in-law, software mogul Max Devore (think Bill Gates in the fragile body of Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons). After a chance meeting with Mattie and Kyra, Mike finds himself in the middle of this legal battle. He discovers that Mattie is being falsely accused of being an unfit mother and that Max is going to extremes to perpetuate a falsehood merely to achieve his own ends. The more Mike acts in the interests of justice, the more closely involved he becomes in Mattie and Kyra's lives and the more he falls in love with them.

As the story progressed, I found myself pulled in more by what was going to happen next between Mike and Mattie than the all-too-familiar ghost story. Nevertheless, even that part of the story and the many subplots interlaced with both of them are well-paced (the book may be heavy enough to be a door-stopper, but it reads quickly). Furthermore, although things are tied up a little too neatly at the end (and I really didn't care for how King handled Mike and Mattie's relationship towards the end of the book-I would say more, but I'd give something very important away), the ghost story does get progressively better and more original. It doesn't ultimately add up to King's best work, but it has enough flashes of brilliance to keep you intrigued and entertained.

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Summary: Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Review: I got this book as a present from my mom, after the easter hollidays og 2001. She bought it for me when she was wisiting my family in canada. I can remember she asking be on the phone if I had heard about it, and I yes yes, ofcourse! I was hoping and hoping that she bought it, and she did! I started reading it at the fall of 2001, after the hollyday was over, so I had something to do when school started. I loved the book! I can say Its one og Kings finest,( after Hearts In Atlantis, and my all time fav "It") Its a bit sad in the start, but then it wil scear the hell out of ya! I swear, it wont waist your time! I red it over a period of 2 week, coz I have a so long busride to school, and It made the busstripes sooo much shorter! King is the King, and I guess he will always be!

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Summary: Bag Of Bones
Review: This book is very interested for reading because it tells us about our daily life. We can get moral lesson in this life.

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Summary: Great Book - Not the Best Ending
Review: I would have given this book 5 stars, because I really enjoyed this book. It was a fine mix of engaging prose, solid storytelling, and a solid ghost story. You know you're reading a fun book when you lose track of time, and you find yourself wanting to know more and more about the characters and settings in the story. Such was the case with this book. It has a very intriguing mystery, a satisfying villain, some really creepy sequences (especially when we first visit 'Sara Laughs').

My only problem with this book was the ending (NOTE, THERE IS A BIT OF A SPOILER BELOW, SO DON'T READ IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THE ENDING OF THE BOOK). It was quite brutal, even more so than other Stephen King novels. The main character is a writer who loses his wife at the first of the book, and then spends the rest of the book dealing with the demons of her passing. He has chronic Writers Block and is pretty much on auto-pilot for several years with no purpose or reason for living. As I read the book, I watched him come out of his lethargy, learning to relate to people again, learning to care again, learning to write again, etc. His new romance was an especially refreshing element of this story.

However, for some reason, Stephen King refuses to let his characters in this book be happy. Instead of seeing his main character pull out of his frozen mental state, once again being able to write, his writer's block remains at the end of the story. And the romance that is blossoming throughout the book takes a very tragic turn, which for me totally ruined the story.

Yes, I know this is a horror book, and yes I know that not everyone ends up happy and healed at the end of a story, and the fact that this didn't happen in this case doesn't necessarily invalidate this story. And it doesn't invalidate this story. It's still quite good. But for me, I was very very disappointed at how the book ended. I was hoping to see Mr. King let his character triumph, go back to writing, and end the story with him in this new relationship that built throughout the book. The fact that these things didn't happen is why I gave the book 4 stars rather than 5.

However, these criticisms are minor, compared with the rest of the book which is an excellent, compelling read.

I recommend this book as one of Stephen King's best in recent years. I just wish the end wouldn't have been quite so disappointing.

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Summary: Went in with a cynical attitude, was pleasantly surprised!
Review: Being obsessed with audio books but not being able to afford them, I borrowed this one from the local library. Back in the good old days I was an obsessive Stephen King nut, but stopped reading after a dissapointing plod through Insomnia. After listening to quite a few of the library's selection this was one of the few unabridged books left.

Before I listened, I thought that Stephen King would be a terrible reader, and it was only egotism that made him think he could read as well as he could write. So it was only grudgingly that I started listening to this book.

Soon I went from "Eh, he's not so bad" to being so wrapped up in the story I couldn't do anything but listen to the next tape. His reading is dry but not bad, and only he, the author, can know the exact tone each line is meant to be said in. At the end of the book I felt I had experienced the book very accurately (if that means anything to you, it does to me).

And then as an added bonus there was a bonus interview between Stephen King and the book's producer that lasted about an hour at the end of the last tape. I found this to be a very good transition period between the fantasy world of the novel back into good old real life, as well as very interesting.

I will now listen to all the Stephen King audio books (unabridged) that I can get my hands on. Thank you Stephen King and the publishers (whoever they are) for giving me back this area of extreme interest from my childhood. I'm looking forward to catching up and reclaiming my nut status.

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Summary: A Good Read
Review: Firstly, I want to say that this is King's best work since Needful Things. Without giving too much away, the book is about a grieving man that returns to his ancestral home in Maine to sort out his life. What makes this novel work and what I find to be King's best quality is his character development. In Bag of Bones, King allows you to get attached to the main character, Michael Noonan and really feel for his situation. On the down side, I thought the ending didn't quite suit the pace and feel of the book. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Summary: The book that kept me up all night!
Review: One of the more powerful King books I have read. This book has it all - horror, suspense, romance, those characteristic King end-of-chapter heart-stoppers. I will never be able to look at my young daughter's magnetic fridge letters again in the same light!
The book takes a while to get going, with the main action taking place from the middle of the book onwards. The first half of the story gives us a feel for the characters, fleshing them out so that the latter half of the story becomes more believable. I mean, who in their right mind would opt to stay in a remote house haunted by screaming, wailing ghosts which leave a trail of cryptic messages for our main character to find? Only a grief-stricken, desperate novelist with an overactive imagination and a romantic interest in a local girl, of course! King takes time to paint the main character, Mike Noonan, complete with neuroses and hang-ups. It may seem heavy-going to start with, but it's worth sticking with it for the first few chapters, believe me!
There's a lot less horror and a lot more suspense in this book compared to other King books I have read. I heartily recommend it, though don't read it when you're alone!

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Summary: Stephen King Writes a Gothic Novel?
Review: Okay, we're not looking at violence, gore, screaming fathers, crying rape victims, exploding aliens, and Crimson Kings here, but this book is somehow wonderful.

It's about a man, Mike Noonan, who starts out telling a story of how his wife had died from some illness. It begins very sad. It's been years since her death, and he's been unsuccessfully living life. He is (or was) a writer who wrote Thrillers, but ever since the death of his wife, he has stopped doing his job and basically lived on what money he has acquired from his fame. Mike is a lonesome man who lacks even MALE companions, (because he wants to be alone. That is what he likes to think, anyway).

Mike Noonan wanted to live alone so much, in fact, that when he ran across a woman, Mattie, who was having legal troubles trying to keep her late Ex-husband's Father from gaining custody over her daughter, Kyra, that Mike lends her a big wad of money so that maybe she can have a fighting chance in court. Why Mike does this, Stephen never explains entirely, but just gave excuses, "What else was he going to spend his money on?" But to me, it seemed Mike was trying to buy a female companion in a very unnoticeable, passive, and denied way.

He ended up being tempted to love Mattie, but like most people who lost their husbands or wives to God's curse, Mike gets caught in this psychological situation, asking himself if he would be betraying his dead wife by loving Mattie, who is financially inferior....which somehow makes her a lesser being.

Pretty deep story so far, but I only told the very beginning. An uncountable number of situations occur: one where Mike finds that his wife could have possibly had an AFFAIR without his knowing; another where Mike struggles to protect Mattie from her late husbands father that will do anything to win his case, to where the only way to stop him would be to cut his life; and another situation--the most interesting, in my opinion--where ghosts communicate to Mike, seeming to demand something from him because he's the only one in the town who is....different, unrelated, and most of all, too deeply involved. Even his dead wife takes part in the haunting, letting him know that it's not only Mattie's late husband's father who wants Kyra, but the dead of the town as well. The mystery is, "WHY does the town's previous inhabitants want Kyra so badly?" The answer could explain why the father of Mattie's late husband wants Kyra.

Get the book. It is incredible, and complex. A GOTHIC story, without the Medieval Castle or Manor, set in today's dying world. The only reason why I rated it a 4, is because before I read Bag of Bones, I read Hearts in Atlantis, which was a better book. If I had read this one first, I may have given it a 5.