Rating: 
Summary: Stephen - what happened??!!!
Review: I really wanted to love this book. There hasn't been a big, thick Stephen King novel in ages - not what I would call a mainstream SK book, anyway. Last summer there was Wizards and Glass, but that was a Dark Tower book, not the same thing at all. (Poor Stevie - such pressure from his fans!!) And there was so much hype surrounding this one. King appeared on the Today Show, the Tonight Show - he was everywhere! And the interviewers all said the same thing: "This a real departure from your other work, and the critics are loving it, saying that you have now been ushered into the hallowed halls of literature". Balderdash, I say. To put things in context, lest you think I'm one of those people who dislikes SK on general principle alone, I'll tell you, that besides Annie Wilkes, I am his biggest fan (scary thought - OK, I'll try and tone it down a bit) and the brilliance I discovered in The Green Mile, The Shining, Salem's Lot, "The Reach" and other works, is simply not there. I don't wish to give anything away to other Amazon readers, but I will say that reading Bag of Bones, I was treated to the same great beginning that seems to be his trademark, containing mysteries that are laid in front of the reader, piquing your curiosity, along with great character development. You want to keep reading, then you get to the middle and there's a kind of a lull. Instead of reading 50 to 100 pages a day, you're now reading 5, if you're picking it up at all. But you keep plodding through, because you know that ultimately you'll be rewarded, right?? (Sometimes just the satisfaction of knowing that you've finished a big, thick book is enough of an accomplishment for you to feel good about spending that much time on something, even if that thick book is a piece of crap - Anne Rice's Mayfair witch books come to mind.) But you keep reading and keep reading, and now the characters are beginning to act goony. They're out of character, not staying true to character. And the best characters - your favorite characters - are DYING!! Of course, people die. They do it all the time. But here you are, tooling along, and a character who's just fine and dandy in one paragraph is suddenly gone in the next. Leave it to SK to use his favorite little trick, which goes something like this: "Sally, the love of my life, was eating a hamburger, and how was I to know that by the time she was to get halfway through the hamburger, she would be dead?" (Of course, SK can construct a sentence with far more flair than I can, but I think you get the idea.) Again, I wanted to love this book, and I tried, I really tried!! But ultimately, I couldn't. I began to think that perhaps he's lost the ability to tell a story the way he used to. But that couldn't be true, because just before reading Bag of Bones, I purchased the Legends anthology, which has a new (I assume it is new) Dark Tower story in it called "The Little Sisters of Eluria". The "short novel", as they are all billed, is only sixty-five pages long, yet in those sixty-five pages SK made me laugh, sit up and take notice, and even brought tears to my eyes. And he didn't do it by drawing upon my knowledge of and love for the other four Dark Tower books. The story of the sisters is a stand-alone, and can be read and enjoyed even by someone who has not experienced Roland and the Dark Tower. So - Stephen King has not lost the ability to tell a good story. Or perhaps he wrote his Dark Tower story years ago and squirreled it away in a safe deposit box somewhere, awaiting the day his publisher would need it, as Michael Noonan did with four of his novels. Who knows? Still, King does what he does best, makes us interested in the most mundane parts of our everyday lives. For anyone who loves crossword puzzles, even for those who only do them occasionally, King's little tidbits on the subject are so much fun to read you keep saying to yourself, "yeah! that's right! I didn't know anyone else felt that way - its so cool to share this with someone else!". And perhaps that is King's greatest gift after all.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best not his worst, have some book recommendations
Review: This is better than the last several books Mr. King has published. Not quite up to his earlier classics such as THE STAND or SALEMS LOT. I'd like to recommend a couple of very interesting books you might not have read: Robert Doherty's AREA 51 or THE ROCK.
Rating: 
Summary: Bag of Bones somewhat of a disappointment
Review: My family and I as well as a long list of friends, have been Stephen King fans since Carrie. Throughout Mr. Kings career, (as well as Mr. Bachmans) he has made me "get the creeps". Which, by the way I love. His older books are my favorite because they were so unusual compared to other horror writers. However I have been disappointed by his most recent publications, Bag of Bones included. He seems to get off track and doesn't seem to answer some simple questions that he himself has asked. I found myself looking back into previous chapters to verify who was who and how the relationships connected. This was not a stay up all night until it's finished book like some of his others. Yet I still find myself collecting and waiting for the next publication from him. I guess I am a hopeless Stephen King addict who can't wait for another dose from the King.
Rating: 
Summary: I think I've read his best book and he writes another one.
Review: I could not put this book down as I got closer to the end. I did nothing for the last day and a half as I was coming to the end. I loved the fact that the main chacter was an author. I feel in love with Mattie and Kyra. I wished that Mattie and Mike could live happily everafter. But happily everyafter doesn't happen to often with King. I am sad that I finished the book, now I have to wait until he comes out with another one.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling read; subtle terror.
Review: This novel deals with some very mature and down to earth fears, and does so in a subtle, lingering way. As the story progresses, so does the pace, building to a worthy climax. The writing is some of King's most accomplished in terms of theme, tone and prose. There are parts of the book I found uneven, but they were minor and didn't detract from the whole for me. Despite the "love story" label, this is one of King's scariest novels. Those expecting gore and overt, nonstop action will probably not feel they get enough, but readers will likely come away with a creeping feeling that is more persistant and effective than graphic shocks. It is his best "love story" since "The Dead Zone".
Rating:
Summary: boring
Review: This book takes to long to get into. It's good if you like long first person narratives. The middle was good but the beginning and ends were so so.
Rating:
Summary: King writes an emotion draining ghost story
Review: Stephen King's latest is another in a long successful series of "I can't put this down" tales which combines elements of books written before, but has a fresh originality about it.Again he writes about a best selling writer (remember Dark Half?). We're in Maine again (that's no surprise). The writer has a house (and a memory) full of ghosts, including his wife's. We do a little time travel around this summer home which is haunted by those who have gone before. The writer encounters new tragedy but, as frequently happens, there is redemption for the writer. Mostly, he just leaves you wondering all the way through how the redemption will be realized and the result is satisfying for King fans.
Rating:
Summary: Definately one of Kings best.
Review: Light a candle, turn out the lights and prepare for the marks your chair leaves on your buttocks from lack of movement while reading this book. Being a big King fan I had to rush out and buy Bag of Bones hot off the press and thank goodness I did. He's written a book chock full of characters that you actually care about and root for.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!!!!
Review: An incredible performance by the King!A new dimension of his writing and a wonderful story.Enjoy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Yeah...What is His PROBLEM????
Review: This was VERY poor from King. He is supposed to be the KING or HORROR, but I find myself swinging more towards Anne Rice or Dean Koontz. I also have to agree with the writer from a few reviews down the page...what is King's problem? Does he think that he doesn't have enough money or soemthing? The character in the book, Mike Noonan is a poor, hard-done-by author who loses his wife and makes lots of money...but his life is terrible...boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Also, what's this crap? It takes about one hundred pages in a 300 page Stephen King book before it gets interesting, and three hundred pages in a one thousand page book...he is just so boring now!!! His earlier novels, brilliant masterpieces like IT, THE STAND: Complete And Uncut, THE DARK HALF and PET SEMETARY were great!!! but ever since Rose Madder he has severely lost the plot By the way, there are probably millions out there that would disagree, but being a King fan I must speak my piece, I thought this was more a damn romance than a horror!!! (I'm a writer myself and I can't ever HOPE to be even half as popular as King so why doesn't he just get his head out of the ground????)
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