Review by bokhoot - Lisey's Story

bokhoot 's review for:

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

4.75

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I almost gave up on this book about halfway through because I hated both the prose and depiction of Scott enough to make me pause the audiobook and contemplate whether or not to continue. My fondness of Lisey kept me engaged and I am so glad I continued on! The emotional payoff was worth every millisecond of annoyance I felt in the first half of the book. Such a beautifully riveting and emotional exploration of mental illness, trauma, love, grief, resilience, family, and much more. I had to sit down and ugly cry at some parts, then found myself tearing up remembering them throughout the week. I’m tearing up thinking about those parts now.

Lisey’s Story is a woman’s journey with grief told through the lens of her love for her late husband Scott. At times her love for this traumatized, complicated, and (imo) obnoxious man is so saccharine it makes you nauseous with irritation. This journey leads us to her strained relationships with her equally complicated (albeit slightly less obnoxious imo) sisters, as well as some horrifying experiences with selfish, shady, and incompetent men. King uses dreamy fantasy settings and prose to both highlight and contrast the nightmare of losing a loved one to mental illness, as well as the horrors of misogyny. I really appreciate Scott as a character because never have I ever wanted to bring back to life a man who I disliked so strongly. In the end, my dislike dissipated into a fondness of him through both sympathy and empathy. I absolutely adored Lisey and found a lot of love for her sisters because of it. Her relationship with Amanda and its parallels to her husband touched my heart profoundly. I cannot put into words how much I appreciate the ending of this book.

Just a beautiful, tragic, and heartwarming story.

Content Warnings