A review by bradland
Bag of Bones by Stephen King

4.0

There does appear to be a distinct difference between Stephen King’s writing before and after the early 1990s. It’s kinda hard to pinpoint why, but it’s like he put the premise of the story front and centre in his early career. For example, you knew early into the novel that Carrie White had psychic powers, the Shining house was haunted, Christine was possessed, there was a plague in the Stand, etc. Yet later, King’s stories were about the building of the characters and the plot/theme becomes secondary because you're not quite sure what it is till well into the book. I felt this way with Hearts of Atlantis, Rose Madder, the later Dark Tower books and very much so with Colorado Kid. The Bag of Bones goes down this same path, the characters take centre stage with a ghost story tagging along for the ride. It almost falls into the same trap Rose Madder did where the story takes too much of a sharp turn, but fortunately doesn’t, so the ghost story doesn’t feel foreign to the characters and situations that have been built. I found this novel quite interesting in the fact that King’s stories typically involve normal people, living normal lower/middle class lives, yet here King’s main character is a reflection of himself, a successful well off writer able to earn a piece of crust doing what he loves. Despite this, King still keeps the story down to earth and fortunately tries to keep to this formula even today. The novel is quite enjoyable to read for the most part, everything from Mike Noonan’s torment with writer’s block and dealing with the death of his wife, to his befriending some of the town’s folk and lawyers, even down to the destination. The only things that weren’t great were Mike’s confrontation scenes near the end but King’s batting record on the home stretch wasn’t grand anyway.