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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Forgot how much sex is in this one - wow. But it's still a really amazing story. Creepy and romantic and historical and ghostly.
First things first: This is my absolute favourite book by Stephen King. I have read it so many times since 1998 when I bought it that I wonder why am I reading it over and over again. I know it by heart. I have even been using lines from the book in my everyday life without realising it. I am able to visualise it vividly when I read it. In short: I LOVE THIS BOOK
Now that this is out of the way I should probably let you know what the book is all about.
So much for happy beginnings
The main character's pregnant wife dies in the very first page. YES. WTF. The main character, Mike Noonan, is a writer but after the unfortunate and unexpected death of Jo (his wife) he starts suffering from writer's block and not just your average Joe writer's block! He gets panic attacks at the moment he turns on his word processor. Mike, however, doesn't let anyone know that he is suffering and keeps publishing old works he had saved when ideas flooded his brains but after four years the manuscripts end and publishers start pushing for a new novel. Mike realises that he must gather his pieces and start his life again but keeps getting panic attack after panic attack.
During the four years since the loss of Jo, Mike had a series of nightmares involving their summer cottage "Sarah Laughs" (named after a blues since Sarah Tidwell who spent some time in TR in the beginning of the century) on Darkshore Lake on the edge of a Yankee town called TR-90. Mike returns to the TR to discover that Jo, in the few years before her death, had been researching Sara Tidwell's story, and apparently searching through the dirty secrets of the locals in the process. TR's "loveable" yanks seem less than happy to talk about when and how Sarah and her extended family came to leave the TR.
The Here and Now
On his way to the local fast food, Mike becomes involved in a custody dispute between a poor, young widowed mother and her daughter's grandfather (on her father's side) an ancient, millionaire who has the TR wrapped around his boney finger. Mike, having lost both his wife and his unborn child finds himself loving dearly the little girl and her beautiful young mother. On top of that "Sara Laughs" seems to be haunted by several chatty ghosts, including as it seems this of his wife. Certain Supernatural events include but are not limited to messages on the refrigerator in magnetic letters, the tinkling bell around a mounted moose head's neck, and ghost banging on walls while trying to communicate. In the meanwhile, Mike miraculously starts writing again.
Happy Endings
I'm not going to spoil anymore for you folks, go pick up the book and read it. Especially since it will be a miniseries in 2011. You wouldn't want to miss on the plot twists of the book by only watching the series ;D
Triggers: There's a brutal rape scene at some point, there are children dying, it's generally a very brutal book so tread carefully
Other Stephen King characters that you may know and are mentioned or met in BoB.
(I love when writers do that ^^)
-Ralph Roberts, the main character from Insomnia
-Ray Garraty, the main character from The Long Walk
-Mike Noonan reads books by Bill Denbrough from It.
-Sara Laughs is located on Dark Score Lake, from Gerald's Game.
-Mike Noonan lives in Derry, the setting for It, Dreamcatcher and Insomnia.
-Thad Beaumont, from The Dark Half, is mentioned as having killed himself.
-Norris Ridgewick, sheriff of Castle Rock, shows up at Mike's door. Mike asks about former sheriff Alan Pangborn, and Norris mentions Polly Chalmers. All three were central characters in Needful Things.
-Jared Devore, Max's ancestor, mentions Shawshank Prison.
-The importance of 19, a number of talismanic power in The Dark Tower series, is introduced here.
-A woman Mike meets in the gym is said to be reading a book by Ellen Gilchrist; this is the maiden name of Ellen Rimbauer (Rose Red)
Now that this is out of the way I should probably let you know what the book is all about.
So much for happy beginnings
The main character's pregnant wife dies in the very first page. YES. WTF. The main character, Mike Noonan, is a writer but after the unfortunate and unexpected death of Jo (his wife) he starts suffering from writer's block and not just your average Joe writer's block! He gets panic attacks at the moment he turns on his word processor. Mike, however, doesn't let anyone know that he is suffering and keeps publishing old works he had saved when ideas flooded his brains but after four years the manuscripts end and publishers start pushing for a new novel. Mike realises that he must gather his pieces and start his life again but keeps getting panic attack after panic attack.
During the four years since the loss of Jo, Mike had a series of nightmares involving their summer cottage "Sarah Laughs" (named after a blues since Sarah Tidwell who spent some time in TR in the beginning of the century) on Darkshore Lake on the edge of a Yankee town called TR-90. Mike returns to the TR to discover that Jo, in the few years before her death, had been researching Sara Tidwell's story, and apparently searching through the dirty secrets of the locals in the process. TR's "loveable" yanks seem less than happy to talk about when and how Sarah and her extended family came to leave the TR.
The Here and Now
On his way to the local fast food, Mike becomes involved in a custody dispute between a poor, young widowed mother and her daughter's grandfather (on her father's side) an ancient, millionaire who has the TR wrapped around his boney finger. Mike, having lost both his wife and his unborn child finds himself loving dearly the little girl and her beautiful young mother. On top of that "Sara Laughs" seems to be haunted by several chatty ghosts, including as it seems this of his wife. Certain Supernatural events include but are not limited to messages on the refrigerator in magnetic letters, the tinkling bell around a mounted moose head's neck, and ghost banging on walls while trying to communicate. In the meanwhile, Mike miraculously starts writing again.
Happy Endings
I'm not going to spoil anymore for you folks, go pick up the book and read it. Especially since it will be a miniseries in 2011. You wouldn't want to miss on the plot twists of the book by only watching the series ;D
Triggers: There's a brutal rape scene at some point, there are children dying, it's generally a very brutal book so tread carefully
Other Stephen King characters that you may know and are mentioned or met in BoB.
(I love when writers do that ^^)
-Ralph Roberts, the main character from Insomnia
-Ray Garraty, the main character from The Long Walk
-Mike Noonan reads books by Bill Denbrough from It.
-Sara Laughs is located on Dark Score Lake, from Gerald's Game.
-Mike Noonan lives in Derry, the setting for It, Dreamcatcher and Insomnia.
-Thad Beaumont, from The Dark Half, is mentioned as having killed himself.
-Norris Ridgewick, sheriff of Castle Rock, shows up at Mike's door. Mike asks about former sheriff Alan Pangborn, and Norris mentions Polly Chalmers. All three were central characters in Needful Things.
-Jared Devore, Max's ancestor, mentions Shawshank Prison.
-The importance of 19, a number of talismanic power in The Dark Tower series, is introduced here.
-A woman Mike meets in the gym is said to be reading a book by Ellen Gilchrist; this is the maiden name of Ellen Rimbauer (Rose Red)
Wonderful, terrifying, heartbreaking novel. Beautifully written and horrifyingly creepy. Read it when it came out in 1998 and read it again in 2020 and it was better the 2nd time around. A genre classic.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I typically love anything King does but there was just something about this book. I just...didn’t like it. I can’t put my finger on why exactly. None of the characters resonated with me and I couldn’t wait for it to end.
In broad strokes, this book reminded me somewhatof Insomnia and Lisey’s Story. Widowhood is central to all of them, and it a writer to boot (though in Lisey’s Story, the writer dies, not the writer’s spouse). They are slow burns, though you recognize the great character development, and then finally the story takes off. All three are either Derry or Castle Rock.
A problem with Bag of Bones is that it takes off, then bogs down again. Max Devore and his evil henchwoman are so cartoonish that they’re almost annoying. There is a lengthy scene with them and Mike at the lake that feels forced and unrealistic. The plot doesn’t really get moving until the end, at which point there is an info dump about the past.
There is also a middle-aged man fantasy fulfillment vibe. Mattie is like 20, but hot for him, while he fantasizes about her. King calls this a romance, but I found a lot of it cringey.
Plus, Mike lives in a house that is clearly haunted, with different words being written in magnets on his fridge, and even screams, yet he sleeps like a baby.
Bits of classic King: there is mention of the JFK aassassination (p. 516). We get mention that an “Outsider” has taken over a ghost (p. 684). There is mention of Shawshank (p. 685). Norris Ridgewick shows up at the end (p. 711)
I don’t know why it bugs me, but in listing some 80s bands that they play on a boombox, he badly misspells A-Ha (Ah-Hah) and there’s no “the” in Eurythmics (p. 591).
A problem with Bag of Bones is that it takes off, then bogs down again. Max Devore and his evil henchwoman are so cartoonish that they’re almost annoying. There is a lengthy scene with them and Mike at the lake that feels forced and unrealistic. The plot doesn’t really get moving until the end, at which point there is an info dump about the past.
There is also a middle-aged man fantasy fulfillment vibe. Mattie is like 20, but hot for him, while he fantasizes about her. King calls this a romance, but I found a lot of it cringey.
Plus, Mike lives in a house that is clearly haunted, with different words being written in magnets on his fridge, and even screams, yet he sleeps like a baby.
Bits of classic King: there is mention of the JFK aassassination (p. 516). We get mention that an “Outsider” has taken over a ghost (p. 684). There is mention of Shawshank (p. 685). Norris Ridgewick shows up at the end (p. 711)
I don’t know why it bugs me, but in listing some 80s bands that they play on a boombox, he badly misspells A-Ha (Ah-Hah) and there’s no “the” in Eurythmics (p. 591).
Typical King. Excellent plot!
But this one is strangely too long. It dragged on for much longer than I expected. Starts off a bit boring, becomes REALLY boring the. Half way through everything happens at the same time and becomes a fantastic page turner.
But this one is strangely too long. It dragged on for much longer than I expected. Starts off a bit boring, becomes REALLY boring the. Half way through everything happens at the same time and becomes a fantastic page turner.
This book felt very long and I got lost a few times. But the audiobook was really good and very spooky! I am excited to explore more Stephen King novels
I am listening to this book with my husband Sean. It's been kind of a bonding thing for us. We both read this years ago (probably about 9 years ago now), and had forgotten a lot about it so it's almost like reading a new book. Also, listening to Stephen King read it aloud is much creepier & more disturbing than reading it to myself. The creepiness certainly adds to the setting of the novel, but bad for visualization- who wants to picture King a the main character, Mike Noonan? Not pretty, especially when he's talking about sex & the size of his cock. UGH- talk about uncomfortable! But other than that, we are really enjoying it.