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Bag of Bones

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 66,900 ratings · 1,618 reviews

Here is Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel—a tale of grief and lost love's enduring bonds, of haunting secrets of the past, and of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the wes...more

Paperback, 732 pages

Published June 1st 1999 by Pocket Books (first published January 30th 1996)

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Aug 31, 2007 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: hopeless romantics and people who've never read Stephen King

Shelves: all-time-faves, stephen-king

I am a Stephen King junkie. I started reading him in high school and quickly tore through just about everything he'd ever written, and then started buying every new book he put out. Being a Stephen King fan is kind of like being a geek for Dragonlance or comic books - reviewing his work seems borderline pointless because non-fans will usually dismiss him out of hand and be hard to convince of any intrinsic value, and fans are already pretty hardcore about him.

Nevertheless, I wanted to add this...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Autumn Doughton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was a weird novel for me. For the first 450 pages or so I kept thinking that it was by leaps and bounds the best Stephen King book ever. But then things got strange in a way that only King's novels can and I was left feeling like maybe I'd been in a car accident but had blacked out and couldn't really remember the whole thing properly.
I think that you either like Stephen King's stuff or you don't. I'm a fan of sci-fi/fantasy/borderline horror and I am a King fan. I have been reading him si...more This was a weird novel for me. For the first 450 pages or so I kept thinking that it was by leaps and bounds the best Stephen King book ever. But then things got strange in a way that only King's novels can and I was left feeling like maybe I'd been in a car accident but had blacked out and couldn't really remember the whole thing properly.
I think that you either like Stephen King's stuff or you don't. I'm a fan of sci-fi/fantasy/borderline horror and I am a King fan. I have been reading him since the seventh grade and I'm never bored with his stuff and always end up thinking that even if I don't connect with every story, he is a genius. Seriously. Can you imagine what it would be like to have him for a friend?
I thought the beginning of Bag of Bones was a bit of a departure for King. The whole set up was very subtle and the story was quite poignant. Of course there was something bizarre developing in the background--it's a Stephen King book! But, what pressed upon me during the first part of the novel was that it was light on the weird stuff and I still loved the story. That just proves what a great writer he is and maybe my point is that he can lay off of his signature crazy shit sometimes. In this case, the weirdness really snuck up on me and last forty pages or so just seemed sort of bizarre and out of place with the rest of the book, almost like he got to the end and was like, "whoa! I need to spice this up!"
My only other complaint is that I didn't feel like the story was finished although the book ended. I had some questions. What was the big dream about "low sperm count" supposed to mean? Was that a line of thought that was never completed or were we just being diverted? Also, Micheal Noonan obviously stayed on the TR after the storm and Mattie's death. What was his relationship with the townfolk after the way he had been treated? I thought that was a major part of the book and it was dropped.
Overall, I liked this book but it had some problems mainly towards the end. But, really, who am I to judge? (less)

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Jun 20, 2007 Wordsmith Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: haveread

Easily my favorite Stephen King novel ever, and I've read a wide cross section of different eras of his stuff. This is a ghost story...it's about being haunted, both by spirits and by memories. It's a book about loss and grief, but also a suspenseful mystery with a super spooky atmosphere, set in a creepy, unincorporated and sparesely populated fading resort community with a dark historic past. The mystery and the hauntings are linked in with a child custody battle, complete with a nefarious old...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Bunga Mawar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: translated-into-indonesian, fiction

Buku ini menyeramkan.

Curhat bagian 1: 28 Oktober 2010.
(Ditujukan untuk Ibu Dokter Iyut dan saudara Rauf).

Saya sudah tahu sejak SMA, bahwa Stephen King memang nama jaminan untuk kisah2 menegangkan yang berbau hantua2an. Namun kontak saya dengan karya King pertama malah baru tahun 2009 lalu lewat film "1408", yang jujur saja saya beli karena pemeran utamanya adalah John Cusack, hehe... Film itu, yang DVD-nya sendirian saya tonton di kamar (untungnya sore2!) membuat sebentar2 tangan saya naik menut...more Buku ini menyeramkan.

Curhat bagian 1: 28 Oktober 2010.
(Ditujukan untuk Ibu Dokter Iyut dan saudara Rauf).

Saya sudah tahu sejak SMA, bahwa Stephen King memang nama jaminan untuk kisah2 menegangkan yang berbau hantua2an. Namun kontak saya dengan karya King pertama malah baru tahun 2009 lalu lewat film "1408", yang jujur saja saya beli karena pemeran utamanya adalah John Cusack, hehe... Film itu, yang DVD-nya sendirian saya tonton di kamar (untungnya sore2!) membuat sebentar2 tangan saya naik menutup mata, deg2an mengira hantu jahat akan segera datang...

Jadilah saya penasaran pada karya tulis Pak King ini. Hati pun girang bukan buatan manakala dihadiahi Rauf Hearts in Atlantis. Namun oh namun... buku tebal itu berbahasa emaknya King, padahal kan saya sekarang ini sudah susah mengerti hal2 yang tidak dituliskan dengan bahasa emak saya (yaitu Betawi dialek nusantara). Sehingga dengan tidak mengurangi rasa hormat dan terimakasih pada Ufuf, si Hati Atlantis itu saya pinggirkan dulu... *merasa bersalah*

Dan minggu lalu Sekantong Tulang kiriman bu dokter Iyut dari Yogya sah diterimakan kepada saya lewat Didiet. Nggak kok, nggak langsung saya baca karena di tangan masih ada Theodore Boone-nya John Grisham. Setelah Theo selesai, baru kantong tulang ini saya lirik2... baca bagian depannya (hey! Pak King ternyata juga baca Rebecca-nya du Maurier!) *lirik2 juga ke Rauf*

Wah, bakal asik kayaknya nih, ada Rebecca, Mrs Danvers dan Max de Winter... walau ternyata buku ini melebihi Rebecca, memang sangat menyeramkan! Bayangkan, dari hanya dua bab yang saya habiskan di pagi hari Selasa, jadi 12 bab di Rabu pagi. Lalu sampai menjelang tidur malamnya, 250an halaman pun lewat. Harus berhenti. Seram sekali kalau tidak berhenti. Bisa2 hari ini saya tidak bekerja karena ingin segera bertemu hantu jahatnya dan menyaksikan mereka dihukum. Atau mungkin menghukum Mike Noonan dan seantero TR.

Eh iya, saya sempat tertawa saat membaca halaman 61, di salah satu mimpi buruk Mike.

Aku takut, kataku pada suara itu.
Takut apa?
Eh... bagaimana kalau di sana ada Mrs Danvers?

Pasti Rauf ga tertawa kalau baca bagian ini... *vera tertawa lebar kepada rauf*(less)

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Sep 06, 2012 Tajana 太極拳 rated it 3 of 5 stars

king je najbolji pisac kojeg se može uzeti u ruke kad se pojavi želja za nekim lakšim štivom.

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Jan 24, 2012 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So this is my first Steven King novel. There are others on my list that I want to read, but somehow this one was first. For 25% of the book I thought he rambled on forever, getting no where fast. Then the last portions of the book really got me. I did enjoy it. Did I think it was 5 star worthy? No. First let me say, I LOVE paranormal books. And as far as the paranormal portion of the book went, I thought that was excellent. I could see what was happening, I could feel the chills. I loved that it...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Erin (PT) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ghosts, mainstream, horror, gender-fail, poc

Here's the thing about me and Stephen King: no matter how problematic and/or angry-making I find some of his work to be, the man knows how to tell a good story.

I had read Bag of Bones before, when it was first published, but all I really remembered about it was that I found it an enjoyable enough story, but not one that was excellent enough to be particularly memorable. And, indeed, I found myself remembering very little of the story while rereading it this time around. Which, on the one hand,...more Here's the thing about me and Stephen King: no matter how problematic and/or angry-making I find some of his work to be, the man knows how to tell a good story.

I had read Bag of Bones before, when it was first published, but all I really remembered about it was that I found it an enjoyable enough story, but not one that was excellent enough to be particularly memorable. And, indeed, I found myself remembering very little of the story while rereading it this time around. Which, on the one hand, the kind of thing I hope for with a reread so that it, again (and hopefully) has the power to surprise me again.

There are good things about Bag of Bones. It is a real page-turner of a ghost story, one that gathers momentum page by page to a huge and appropriately dramatic climax. This is important because the quality of King's endings does vary greatly from novel to novel. The narrative arc of Bag of Bones is a very smooth and appropriate one, where 'appropriate' references the gradual raising of the story's stakes from beginning to end. As well, this is one of King's many stories with a writer as a protagonist and few other writers I've read can express the exalted joys, the abysmal lows and strange, superstition filled territories of that state.

But there are bad things, too.

(view spoiler)

At the end of it all, Bag of Bones isn't a bad story so much as one that fails to grasp what it reaches for and that feeds into the same –isms it tries to discuss and depict. It could be better. I wish it were better. But it is just more bones than flesh.(less)

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Feb 04, 2009 Jamieson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am enjoying what I think is perhaps Stephen King’s best novel, ever.

The opinion on Stephen King’s best work differs depending on who you talk to; but for me, it will always be Bag of Bones.

It’s the one novel of Kings that I’ve read more than any other (nine times) and each time it’s just as wonderful and beautiful and engaging as it was the first time I opened up my hardcover copy ten years ago.

I think it was the beginning of King moving away from horror and toward a more literary style of wri...more

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Dec 02, 2008 Nicholas rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: King fans, TJ

Recommended to Nicholas by: Amanda Kong

Where to begin?

This is my favorite King book so far. And that's really saying a lot, because I like a lot of King stuff.

The strength of Bag of Bones (a completely appropriate title on so many levels once you get through it), lies in its completely realistic starting point. King manages to capture the loss and pain of a loved one in such stark terms that I found myself with nightmares of my own. Not supernatural ones, the kind that go away as soon as you push the covers off and brush your teeth...more Where to begin?

This is my favorite King book so far. And that's really saying a lot, because I like a lot of King stuff.

The strength of Bag of Bones (a completely appropriate title on so many levels once you get through it), lies in its completely realistic starting point. King manages to capture the loss and pain of a loved one in such stark terms that I found myself with nightmares of my own. Not supernatural ones, the kind that go away as soon as you push the covers off and brush your teeth, but the potential ones that stick with you and make you feel crummy all day long. Believe it or not, that was actually a compliment...

Anyway, I don't think I've read a better crafted haunted house story. Usually this genre is so full of cliche that it's really lost its power and magic, but King's focus is not the haunting in that particular sense. The haunting he focuses on is how memories haunt and hamstring us every day of our lives, and that's what makes the novel so deep. If you took all the ghost stuff out, it's still powerfully compelling fiction. Most of the supernatural stuff is simply sprinkled in at appropriate junctures to scare the living crap out of you. King waits until you forget this is a ghost story before unleashing the demons from his fertile imagination. He spends a hundred pages elaborating on the pain of losing a wife before he hints at her ghost, he delves into the very human evil of Max Devore before giving you a glimpse at the evil presence that has drawn all of his characters to Sara Laughs. And that's what makes it scary.

The novel is full of suspense, and not the cheap kind either. Usually, the avid reader doesn't have much trouble spotting misdirection or picking up on foreshadowing, but King really does manage to keep the air of mystery sealed pretty tight as he zig-zags towards a very unexpected series of concluding events.

On top of plot and pacing mastery, King also manages to infuse a wealth of literary allusions that enrich the story and its structure, making references from Melville to Bradbury, without making the insertions pretentious or overly academic.

Bag of Bones showcases King's strengths as an author like no other of his works, at least so far. Damn the man, now I have to go on a Dark Tower binge...(less)

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Jul 29, 2008 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like many Stephen King books, the characters he creates seem almost real. Throughout Bag od Bones, the central character, Mike Noonan, obviously parallels King's life. You come to think of Mike as someone who really existed. Of course if Mike really existed, then the Sara Laughs story must be real-and threin lies the horror.

At first I didn't think that this story was very scary. I thought it was a very touching account about loss and a quirky writer who was trying to cope. I loved that he fell i...more

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Oct 27, 2007 Caroline rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american

Slow moving. I quit halfway through, switched to an action novel which cleared my head and allowed me to continue the laborious trudge.

The best thing about this novel, aside from reaching the end (660 pages… it could have been pared back to 450 and I would have been happy), was its intricacy. Almost everything tied in to the end. Of course, for a novelist like Stephen King, I would expect nothing less. However, I found the protag’s involvement left me feeling uneasy. Could Mike have figured ever...more

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Oct 12, 2007 Jessica Phillip rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes a good ghost story

Shelves: horror

Summery: Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs, Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra, away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As...more

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Dec 15, 2008 Juan Carlo rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes to read good suspense/fiction/romance/horror

Stephen King remains my favorite author, even though almost nothing I have read after Bag of Bones --which he published in 1998--, although I have loved, has quite thrilled me as much as this masterpiece, which I am now reading with the same grip for the third time. Mike Noonan's slow descent from mourning to horror and then ascention to love is one of the best trips King has given me yet.

Mike Noonan is a best-selling author who must deal with his young wife's sudden death, paired with an inexpl...more

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May 01, 2008 Shae rated it 5 of 5 stars

I LOVE this book! I think the thing that makes Stephen King one of my favorite writers isn't that his books make me lose sleep but that they usually involve great flawed heroes. Like most Kings novels the first quarter of the book is calm set up and the end is a roller coaster of calamity. Well the book has all the horror elements of a proper haunting it also is a mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end. The evil in Sara Laughs is driven by a revenge that you want to end but also can'...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Fantastic. Definitely one of my favorites of his. Something about the beginning hooked me and despite the fact that it is a fairly long book, I finished it in about 5 days. One of those books I come across only a couple times a year that I just get sucked into. I kept putting it down thinking I needed a break, and picking it right back up again. The main character is very likeable and you find yourself just wanting to know what happens next, as King is as usual, unpredictable. This book was more...more

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Feb 04, 2009 Eric_W rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I guess it was bound to happen. I read a Stephen King. I have to admit that much of the reason lay behind his decision to leave Viking for Scribner's, Viking having decided that $17,000,000 for Bag of Bones was a little too hefty. After reading the novel, I suspect the decision was as much his agent's as his own.

The book is an uncomfortable mix of supernatural and psychological terror. One of the reasons I've delayed reading King is that I have difficulty turning a car into a killer, but then I...more I guess it was bound to happen. I read a Stephen King. I have to admit that much of the reason lay behind his decision to leave Viking for Scribner's, Viking having decided that $17,000,000 for Bag of Bones was a little too hefty. After reading the novel, I suspect the decision was as much his agent's as his own.

The book is an uncomfortable mix of supernatural and psychological terror. One of the reasons I've delayed reading King is that I have difficulty turning a car into a killer, but then I have no imagination. Still, there is some good writing and I have to admit it's a real page-turner.

Mike Noonan is a successful writer of breezy mystery/thriller titles who has accumulated a comfortable bank account. His wife is killed by a stroke (or was it?) and this event creates a fearful writer's block. Just turning on his computer makes him physically ill. He is also tormented by dreams that seem to be calling him back to Sara Laughs, the name of their lake house, near the town of TR and on Dead Score Lake - both aptly named. Sara was the name of an African-American singer who had built the house many years before, was murdered, and whose malevolent presence haunts the house, although he doesn't know it yet.

He hears all sorts of strange noises and the refrigerator magnets don't you love that touch - begin spelling out strange messages.
Mike strikes up a friendship with Mattie, a lovely young widow and her three-year-old whose name bears an uncanny resemblance to that of his unborn child. He has learned that his wife was pregnant when she died, and he also learns that she had made numerous trips to Sara Laughs, meeting with a strange man and has been asking questions around town that had begun to seriously irritate the locals.

Mike's relationship also does more than irritate the locals; they leave veiled threats telling Mike to stop having anything to do with Mattie.
It turns out that Max Devore, a very wealthy man, and Mattie's father-in-law, wants custody of her child. Mike gets himself in deeper trouble when he hires a New York lawyer to help her in the custody battle. The threats escalate into killing and during a ferocious storm Mike discovers the secrets that his wife had ferreted out.

Personally, I would have preferred more of the psychological and less of the supernatural silliness, but I can see why King has been called the Dickens of the twentieth century.(less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Martip rated it 3 of 5 stars

VERY interesting storyline and long vanished community connections and actions teased out in this book......but this one was a slow starter out of the gate. By the time I got to the meat of the story, I wondered if King had caved in and thought being more like Dean Koontz was the way to go. Over the years, I've come to believe King is more like the NY Philharmonic Orchestra, and Koontz is a very good small band, maybe bluegrass or another enjoyable genre. King usually brings layers and layers an...more

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Apr 13, 2013 S.A. Bolich rated it 3 of 5 stars

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, and this is not a bad offering from him. I confess to stalling out in the first 50 pages the first time I tried to read it a couple of years ago. I must have been in the right mood this time, because I flew through it and blew a bunch of my own writing time this morning finishing it.

While this book does not grab me and linger in my mind and heart and bones the way "The Stand" and "It" do, there is much to like here. The grief of the protagonist over th...more Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, and this is not a bad offering from him. I confess to stalling out in the first 50 pages the first time I tried to read it a couple of years ago. I must have been in the right mood this time, because I flew through it and blew a bunch of my own writing time this morning finishing it.

While this book does not grab me and linger in my mind and heart and bones the way "The Stand" and "It" do, there is much to like here. The grief of the protagonist over the death of his wife at the start of the book is a strong emotional undercurrent that drives much of the tension. What was she really up to in the last year of her life? What were the mysterious trips she never told her writer husband about? To discover that your greatly beloved wife kept secrets from you, four years after her death, would rip scabs off of any scantly healed wound, and Mike Noonan's are far from healed.

As always, King captures the character very well, and once again I must admire his gift of observation. Not only does he always capture the nuances of the physical world with detail most writers can only helplessly envy, he also is a master at peering deep into the human soul. Better yet, he has the courage to put what he finds on paper, and since this book is written in first person, that puts very little distance between the writer and the blank page.

The ghost story is well done, if predictable. I guessed the fate of the ghost fairly early on, but it was a nice payoff to have it confirmed. My only gripe, if such it is, would be that the spook show seems subordinate to Noonan's long, slow journey toward letting go of his dead wife. All the other relationships in the book are dimmer because of that same fixation on dead Jo. The fact that no one gets to share in his private battle with the ghost puts everyone else at a distance, wrapped completely around a sub-plot. Mattie and her daughter Kyra seem to be simply pawns, however beloved, set down in Mike's path for him to have something else to think about. While important to his ultimate journey and the book's underlying conflicts, they still mostly revolve outside his private world at the house called Sara Laughs, and the resolution of their story stretches the denouement well past the actual climactic confrontation with the ghost and the "reveal" of all the mysteries.

The book is a bit of an odd mixture of ghost story, time travel, and dreamworld fantasy. It works, but at times felt fixated in the moment, as if King was exploring to the farthest depths the scene he was in, dragging more and more out of Mike's head in his study of grief. It is all very real, but a little overdone.

It's a solid read overall, and if you like King's work, you probably won't be disappointed.(less)

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Mar 31, 2013 John Onoda rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a ghost story intended to send chills down your spine rather than gross you out with horrific details. Set in a Maine resort town beside a lake, the novel tells of novelist Mike Noonan’s attempts to overcome both his grief from the untimely death of his wife and a case of writer’s block that may end his career.

Of course, it’s hard not to think of Noonan as Stephen King’s alter ego. Certainly, the character is comfortable in the world of publishers, agents, lawyers, deadlines and publish...more This is a ghost story intended to send chills down your spine rather than gross you out with horrific details. Set in a Maine resort town beside a lake, the novel tells of novelist Mike Noonan’s attempts to overcome both his grief from the untimely death of his wife and a case of writer’s block that may end his career.

Of course, it’s hard not to think of Noonan as Stephen King’s alter ego. Certainly, the character is comfortable in the world of publishers, agents, lawyers, deadlines and publishing strategies. This professional world as well as the small town in Maine where most of the story takes place are convincing and filled with the insights that comes from someone who has spent many years in such environments.

King presents a town full of characters that one assumes exist in any small community dependent mostly on seasonal tourist trade; and they interact with each other economically and socially in ways that seem as programmed as bees. There are agents, cleaning women, librarians, waitresses, and others who refer customers to each other, share information and have a common interest in maintaining a façade of safety and civility. No one wants the town to lose any business.
And this is the perfect reason for people to band together to hide shameful secrets, to do the expedient rather than the moral, and to turn against outsiders who threaten their way of life.

I found the ghostly business to be almost secondary to King’s examination of a small town sitting on a powder keg. Yes there are murders, assaults, ghostly warnings and vengeful spirits but to me they are nice additions to a very solid core narrative.

Unlike my favorite novels by Stephen King, this one did not have any scenes that are mind-blowingly cool, the sort you go back a reread just to experience a thrill or strong emotion I think this is because none of the characters are as appealing as Jack Sawyer or Roland or John Smith, the protagonists from some of his most popular work.(less)

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Feb 11, 2013 Wanda Panda Hartzenberg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

I keep telling everybody that old school Stephen King simply can't be beaten. And with old school I mean pre 2000 thus when discovering a SK book I have not read before and that is somewhat older than he's newer work I figured GO FOR IT. So I did.
I got this book on Audio via Audible dot com and it is 21hours and 21 minutes long which include a half hour interview with the narrator, writer -- yes the MAN SK himself.
He explains why he loves audio books and that he is not a natural actor but that...more I keep telling everybody that old school Stephen King simply can't be beaten. And with old school I mean pre 2000 thus when discovering a SK book I have not read before and that is somewhat older than he's newer work I figured GO FOR IT. So I did.
I got this book on Audio via Audible dot com and it is 21hours and 21 minutes long which include a half hour interview with the narrator, writer -- yes the MAN SK himself.
He explains why he loves audio books and that he is not a natural actor but that he wanted to do this book in audio himself because he loves it so much.
As narrator Stephen King brings to this book a natural cadence and emotions dialed to the perfect pitch. Terror in his protagonists is metered down when in the ZONE dialed up when not. This was an experience second to none. I can guarantee that I will listen to this copy again before the year is over.
The story is in principle one of ghosts. Of a house haunted but then extra layers is added, layers of a past haunting, the past of an individual, a town haunted by its fathers seven generations removed! It is an incredible story richly layered where choices are never black or white and the results are totally unforeseen.
Sarah Laughs is a house haunted by Sarah but more than her it is haunted by people that are nothing more than Bag of Bones but that does not mean that they did not feel, did not experience and can't be angry.
This book on audio is a production. Snippets of music can be found throughout the book and the narrator himself joins in on singing a small hymn at a stage. It is also readers read. His reference to authors is incredible and the better versed readers will find the story all the more frightening if they get what he is referring to… This is a story of a haunting, of Sarah, of Joe, of a little guy and a man in the zone. This is a story of life, real life seen at an angle, all too familiar yet intimately strange and removed. A 5 * review rating if I have ever read one. But don’t take my typed words for it, go read it for yourself.
WaAr
(less)

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Jan 25, 2013 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

The narrator, Mike Noonan, a bestselling novelist, suffers severe writer's block after his pregnant wife Jo suddenly dies in an accident. Four years later, Mike, still grieving, is plagued by nightmares set at his summer house in TR-90, Maine. He decides to confront his fears and moves to the lakeside house, known as Sara Laughs.

On his first day, he meets Kyra, a 3-year-old girl and her young widowed mother, 21-year-old Mattie Devore. Mattie's father-in-law is Max Devore, an elderly rich man who...more The narrator, Mike Noonan, a bestselling novelist, suffers severe writer's block after his pregnant wife Jo suddenly dies in an accident. Four years later, Mike, still grieving, is plagued by nightmares set at his summer house in TR-90, Maine. He decides to confront his fears and moves to the lakeside house, known as Sara Laughs.

On his first day, he meets Kyra, a 3-year-old girl and her young widowed mother, 21-year-old Mattie Devore. Mattie's father-in-law is Max Devore, an elderly rich man who will do anything to gain custody of his granddaughter, Kyra. Drawn to Kyra and Mattie, Mike hires John Storrow, a custody lawyer, for Mattie, and things start looking up. Mike begins to write again, and realizes that Jo's ghost is helping him to solve the mystery of Sara Tidwell, a blues singer whose ghost haunts the house. He also learns that Jo frequently returned to the town in the year before her death, without telling him.

Mike begins having recurring, disturbing dreams and visions, and realizes he shares a psychic connection with Kyra. Max and his personal assistant, Rogette, try to drown Mike but he survives with the help of his wife's spirit. Max unexpectedly commits suicide that same night. Mike sees a pattern when he sees that local inhabitants have names that begin with "K" or "C" and learns how relatives of townspeople have drowned in childhood.

While Storrow and the private detective he hired are celebrating the end of the custody battle, Mattie attempts to seduce Mike. As they are embracing, Mattie's trailer is subjected to a drive-by shooting, injuring Storrow and the detective and killing Mattie. The detective is able to kill the driver and incapacitate the shooter with Mike's help. Mike then grabs Kyra and drives back to his home. The shooter's buddies try to stop them, but refuse to follow him to Sara Laughs. Under the influence of Sara's ghost, Mike is tormented to drown Kyra and commit suicide himself. Jo's ghost prevents him and calls his attention to the novel he has begun to write. In the pages there are clues that lead Mike to discover documents Jo had hidden, among them a genealogy showing Mike's blood relationship to one of the town families.

Several families whose origin lay within the town had firstborn children with "K" names who were all murdered—Kyra, as a descendant of Max Devore, is scheduled to be the next to die. The genealogy also shows that Mike and Jo's child would have been the next firstborn child with a "K" name in the family line. Mike realizes this must be Sara Tidwell's curse for something that had been done to her. He leaves and searches for Sara's grave, stopped by the ghosts of several members of the old families. He learns in a vision that these men had viciously raped and killed Sara, and drowned her son Kito in the lake; all the "K" children who died were descendants of those men. Mike reaches Sara's grave and succeeds in destroying her bones, ending the curse.

Upon returning to the house, Mike discovers that Rogette has kidnapped Kyra. He follows them to the lake, where Mattie's ghost appears and knocks Rogette into the water. Rogette tries to pull Mike in with her, but is impaled by wreckage from the dock. Mattie's ghost says her goodbyes to Mike and Kyra.

The novel ends with an epilogue, revealing that Mike has retired from writing and is attempting to adopt Kyra. His status as a single, unrelated male complicates things, and the adoption has taken longer than anticipated. The outcome of the adoption is left unresolved at the end, but the reader is given hope that it will be positive.
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Dec 26, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

At 732 pages this was the longest book I read in 2012. That said, it only took eleven days to read so obviously it's not that hard to get through.
I had never read a Stephen King novel before and he was on my list of authors to check out 'some day' and this summer was when I decided to take the plunge.
As I understand is usual with Stephen King, this book has a certain level of horror to it, and the way this was written in the first person about a man who has lost his wife definitely added to the...more

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Nov 08, 2012 C.j. W rated it 5 of 5 stars

(paragraph 001)

Stephen King's Bag of Bones is one of my favorite books by him. After the death of his wife,Johanna, Mike Noonan the famous writer has lost the ability to type, write, and type-write. When he moves back to his summer home, he finds that Max Devore has left his own family to die, but now he's very worried, and depending on Noonan for answers. To find out the mystery of Mike's sudden re-ability to type is regained, why Max Devore is so concerned for the family he doesn't care about...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Aaron A rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: stephen-king

Let's start out here: Anyone who has read Stephen King and enjoys his novels will enjoy this book as well. Those who don't, well, this doesn't break the mold.

I want to give this more than 3 stars. The story is one of the best I've read. The main character, a writer named Mike Noonan (his profession is nothing new to King fans) whose wife, Jo, dies. Noonan begins to uncover a mystery that surrounded the last years of his wife's life, a mystery that is based at the Cabin called Sara Laughs in a sm...more Let's start out here: Anyone who has read Stephen King and enjoys his novels will enjoy this book as well. Those who don't, well, this doesn't break the mold.

I want to give this more than 3 stars. The story is one of the best I've read. The main character, a writer named Mike Noonan (his profession is nothing new to King fans) whose wife, Jo, dies. Noonan begins to uncover a mystery that surrounded the last years of his wife's life, a mystery that is based at the Cabin called Sara Laughs in a small town in Maine. Noonan is drawn to Sarah Laughs, and let's just say he begins to uncover the mystery.

The story is phenomenal. A four star, at least. But it takes SO LONG to get there! This is also nothing new to King fans. His novels run long, which is why many people swear by his short stories. I'm not necessarily one of those people. I enjoy his short stories, but I think most of his novels, long or short, are nothing short of amazing. "It" is longer than Bag of Bones, I believe. So is The Stand. 11/22/63 is at least of the same length. I didn't have any trouble with those books, with the possible exception of The Stand, which in my opinion drops off somewhat in quality with the second half.

So why was this one more of a slog? I'm still trying to figure that out. For one, it takes a long time for Mike to get to Sarah Laughs. I'm going on memory here (and Kindle), but I think it took about a third of the book, maybe a bit less. And at that point, the mystery is very minor, and only slightly tinged with the supernatural. For much of the book, we get everything piecemeal and slowly, a buildup to what I believe might be one of the greatest ends to a Stephen King novel I've read. (I've read a bunch, but there's still plenty more to read).

And it does work. But man is it difficult. King is incredibly detailed and he brings these small Maine towns to life. I thought this, the TR as he called it, was hist next best-written town to Salem's Lot and Derry. There's a town consciousness, see, and below that, maybe a subconscious? it's brilliant and terrifying, and as is often his wont, the people are often more brutal than the ghosts.

Once you get to the second half of the book, maybe 60 percent of the way in, it's a rollicking ride. You can feel you are tantalizingly close to uncovering the mystery, just as Mike is, and you fear for every character.

Like I said, it's a tremendous story. It just takes a little effort to get there. But it is definitely worth it.(less)

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Oct 17, 2012 Aaron Roberts rated it 3 of 5 stars

If I could give a more accurate rating on this book it would be around a 3.5 or a 3.6. I am extremely hard on a book and I take pride in that.

Bag of Bones was never scary for me. Not once. I am not trying to sound tough. I read "It" not too long ago and there were moments where I had to put that book down because it was too frightening to read at night. This book was never like that but it still was an amazing read.

The reason King appeals to me is because he writes things that other authors don...more If I could give a more accurate rating on this book it would be around a 3.5 or a 3.6. I am extremely hard on a book and I take pride in that.

Bag of Bones was never scary for me. Not once. I am not trying to sound tough. I read "It" not too long ago and there were moments where I had to put that book down because it was too frightening to read at night. This book was never like that but it still was an amazing read.

The reason King appeals to me is because he writes things that other authors don't have the "balls" to say. Dark thoughts we all have that we keep stored up inside of us and we push away by our conscious because we feel disgusted with ourselves that we could think like that. I love how King can take a character that seems perfect to the "outside" and can show that he or she is just as messed up as we are. It's a human condition. Some are just better at hiding it than others. I believe to change we have to confront those ugly thoughts, bitter feelings or fears we have about ourselves or other people. And maybe those can never change. Maybe those are woven into who we are. But if we are making an effort... isn't that what matters?

I love the character Noonan. I think it gives a look into who King is as an accomplished writer himself. I always pictured a kind of George Clooney vibe when reading the book. I tried to give him a different face but that one always kept coming back.

I was never creeped out by the book. But their were many times I had to stop and breathe while reading it.

I felt quite a bit. When the characters were happy I found there was a smile on my face. When things were intense I found myself (by accident) skipping forward because I needed to know what was going to happen. And the little girl Kyra in this book just shined the innocence of children as King always does so well. I especially felt the heartbreak of him losing his wife. My heart broke for him. I think King showed throughout the whole book. That somethings don't get easier. Somethings you've got to carry around with you. It's part of you. Jo's death was that cross to bear for Michael Noonan.

It was a charming book about love and loss and will defiantly be recommended to people. Also GHOSTS! Well done.(less)

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Oct 06, 2012 Stacey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindleshelf

So I was initially reading Insomnia...and then something went wrong with the copy I downloaded and I ended up reading through this book instead. The first person perspective was a refreshing break from the third person King novels I'd been reading (I don't know why but I can't seem to stop reading him right now), and somewhat surprising as I had been unaware of perspective when beginning it.

Overall, not a bad read. I'm a sucker for most of his books, of course, so that doesn't help matters. But...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Carrie rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best ghost stories ever…

This is one of my very favorite Stephen King books. Every time I have the pleasure of recommending it to someone else, I usually find myself reading it again (really – it’s that good!). It is an absolutely wonderful ghost story full of what goes bump in the night (and told with the type of suspense only King can wield). But, it is also a story of marriage so poignant, you will find the relationships haunt you the most.

In my experience, most marriage stories are...more One of the best ghost stories ever…

This is one of my very favorite Stephen King books. Every time I have the pleasure of recommending it to someone else, I usually find myself reading it again (really – it’s that good!). It is an absolutely wonderful ghost story full of what goes bump in the night (and told with the type of suspense only King can wield). But, it is also a story of marriage so poignant, you will find the relationships haunt you the most.

In my experience, most marriage stories are told through the eyes of two people. But “Bag of Bones” is told through the eyes of only one. Mike Noonan is a man who finds himself suddenly widowed. Mike is unable to work (he is an author) and barely able to function after the loss. He lives often in his memory and ruminations (and by the glass) for years, until finally, he decides to exercise his demons by returning to Sarah Laughs: a summer home where he and his wife spent some of their best times. But returning stirs up some REAL demons, as well as many questions about his wife’s death and life. As the summer passes, Sarah Laughs comes to life with the dead and Mike becomes engrossed with the idea that his wife’s ghost is one of them. Even as the haunting pulls him into the dark, Mike meets Mattie and Kyla, a single mother and her daughter who remind him that he is still very much alive. Unfortunately for Mike, they are also tied to the darkness at Sarah Laughs. As the story’s threads come together, town secrets come into play (as they do in many King books) and an old story about murder, race and power begins to play out in a repeat tragedy the ghosts are adamant about reliving over and over – and claiming a few more lives to join them.

Besides the incredible suspense and wonderful haunting, I was most struck by the way Mike explores his wife’s life for the first time as an observer, rather than a participant. As he moves further from their life together, he begins to see a more complete version of the whole woman in a truly remarkable piece of writing – a reminder that even in a wonderful marriage, no person is completely absorbed and known by the other. There are many small secrets between those who share a bed.

I cannot recommend this book to you enough!
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Sep 10, 2012 Jane Stewart rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-mystery-suspense

I did not enjoy the journey. I did not feel good at the end. Too many unclear dreams and partial psychic visions.

Underneath this was a good story and would have been a good novella. But I felt like the author threw in filler to make it novel length. The story begins with Mike losing his wife due to a brain aneurism (or something internal). The first 3 ½ hours are about Mike’s grief and writer’s block. I was tired of it. For me, the story finally begins when Mike meets three-year-old Kyra and her...more I did not enjoy the journey. I did not feel good at the end. Too many unclear dreams and partial psychic visions.

Underneath this was a good story and would have been a good novella. But I felt like the author threw in filler to make it novel length. The story begins with Mike losing his wife due to a brain aneurism (or something internal). The first 3 ½ hours are about Mike’s grief and writer’s block. I was tired of it. For me, the story finally begins when Mike meets three-year-old Kyra and her mother Mattie. Mattie’s husband died in an accident. Her wealthy evil father-in-law is suing for custody of Kyra. Mike becomes a friend to Kyra and Mattie and hires a lawyer to help them. The rest of the story has too much vaguery. Mike has several dreams and nightmares. He has many partial psychic visions. Ghosts are doing things, not fully explained. The local townspeople don’t like Mattie and later don’t like Mike. Their reasons and actions were not explained. Finally at the end there is a tell-all where someone asks Mike questions and Mike explains: back in 1901 this happened, then later these other things happened, and recently this happened and why. Tell-alls at the end are not a good vehicle for me. I prefer learning bits and pieces as one journeys through the story. So this disappointed me.

At the end of the book I was not clear about things, for example why certain local townspeople did what they did. I wanted to know more about Max and Rogette. Max tried to kill someone, but it didn’t work. So why didn’t Max hire someone to do it? He hired someone to kill another. Why didn’t the shooter’s buddies help the shooter when the shooter was in trouble? A good guy tries to help a drowning bad guy. The bad guy bites the hand trying to help and ends up dying. Why bite?

FOR SENSITIVE READERS:
There was a horrible-violent-rape-murder scene. It was depressing and stayed in my thoughts too much afterwards. A short part of the story has depressing and sad content about prejudice and violence against blacks. Language includes racial slurs.

NARRATOR:
Stephen King narrated. I believe he did the local Maine accent well. I love him as an author but not as a narrator. He says Mondeey, Tuesdeey, and a few other things which are unpleasant for me. I prefer actors with generic accents.

MINI-EPILOGUE TO ANOTHER BOOK:
In this book Norris Ridgeway has a small part as sheriff. Norris says that the former sheriff Alan Pangborn and Polly moved to New Hampshire. (They were the main characters in the book Needful Things.)

DATA:
Narrative mode: 1st person Mike. Unabridged audiobook reading time: 21 hrs and 21 mins. Swearing language: strong, including racial slurs. Sexual content: three sex scenes vaguely referred to, plus one rape scene described in detail. Setting: mostly 1998 Maine. Book Copyright: 1998. Genre: paranormal mystery suspense. Ending: Good for some good guys, not all.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Stephen King books, see my 5 star review of Carrie.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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Aug 01, 2012 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars

Occasionally, you end up in a book-reading or movie-watching situation in which you are going to love/hate that book/movie REGARDLESS of how good/bad it is.

For example, take this purely hypothetical situation: your girlfriend says she wants to watch Lion King. So you go to the nearest Best Buy, only to discover that Lion King has been recently moved into the 'Disney Vault' and is therefore no longer being sold via retail. Your girlfriend then throws, in her own words, a "bitch fit" and you have...more Occasionally, you end up in a book-reading or movie-watching situation in which you are going to love/hate that book/movie REGARDLESS of how good/bad it is.

For example, take this purely hypothetical situation: your girlfriend says she wants to watch Lion King. So you go to the nearest Best Buy, only to discover that Lion King has been recently moved into the 'Disney Vault' and is therefore no longer being sold via retail. Your girlfriend then throws, in her own words, a "bitch fit" and you have to bodily haul her out of the store to prevent her from further berating and attacking the poor, traumatized best buy employees.

Later on, you acquire a copy of Lion King and watch it with your girlfriend. Now you're going to love watching Lion King, regardless of whether it matches up to your fond childhood memories or not. You're going to do that because everyone knows that girlfriends/wives/women-in-general can read minds and therefore your girlfriend would KNOW WITH CERTAINTY if you disliked it. And since you love your girlfriend and do not want to disappoint her (or get berated/attacked), you'll do what must be done to have a positive experience with the movie.

Basically that's what happened to me with Bag of Bones. A dear friend of mine said it was her favorite book ever. I read it with the same critical mind that I read every book. But not with a neutral attitude. I wanted it to be good and therefore I approached it optimistically and therefore I noticed all the good stuff and ignored the bad and therefore found it a delightful read.

Of course, this lengthy and potentially unnecessary explanation of the nature of subjectivity probably does not help you decide whether to read it or not.

I would say, yes. I've not read much of Stephen King, but everybody knows that he's largely a horror writer. Bag of Bones isn't really about horror. There's some ghosts, which the protagonist-writer Michael Noonan confronts with a rather even keel. And there's some crazy stuff, like a dream sequence in which Michael is literally dragged back to an earlier, less sophisticated time in the New England town in which he's living. But this really isn't so much a horror story, so much as it is a genre-less story with horror elements.

And sometimes, when a genre writer or director writes or directs outside of his usual genre, magic happens. Sometimes disaster happens too. I think Bag of Bones is one of the former. It starts rather slowly and ends rather quickly, yet, when all's said and done, it's a solid, poignant story.

Also, it reminded me very strongly of the game Alan Wake, which was great. So bonus points there.(less)

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Jul 16, 2012 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Classic King. This one marks a departure from the chills and screams thrill-ride we're accustomed to, and instead, he takes us on a compelling and heartfelt journey with a successful novelist who returns to the family vacation home after the untimely death of his wife and a serious case of writer's block.

Strange supernatural occurrences begin almost immediately, and the author, Mike, starts to sense an undercurrent of connections between himself, the town's history, and a woman who's struggling...more

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About Stephen King

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

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“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.” — 865 people liked it

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