Reviews

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

gemronnoco's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

As a fan of The Shining, this scratched a lot of the same pitches, but plot-wise that was not evident until the last quarter. Pretty slow-paced book. I’m glad I read it but it wasn’t a page turner for me until about page 400! Some of the violence is pretty disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child death, Child abuse, Racism, and Death of parent

allielit's review against another edition

4.0

A little slow with the story building and probably the most disturbing revelation I've read in his books, but classic King.

connorreads_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A middling novel by King, not bad, but not great. It had its moments, but the story never really got me hooked. You can definitely see King in Noonan and he has said as much. The parts dealing with grief were well done, but those weren't enough to make me really enjoy the book ad a whole. This one is a meh to me.

alexandra_ninelives's review against another edition

4.0

This book was sooo good!!! It wasn’t my favorite SK story by any means but the first half of the book was literal perfection and I’m glad I finally read it. The second half took me longer to read because of my family and life but it was also enjoyable. Though not as perfect as the other half.
The story was similar to Lisey’s story with great twists thrown in to the mix. And honestly, I kind of preferred this book. Also, I loved Mike and his mind. I loved that he was a writer, I loved how he had to think about everything for days. How he missed his wife, how he tried to move on.
I loved the loveable side characters and I HATED the damn villains. King writes great kid characters and the mother in this book was phenomenal.
The only part I did not like was during the ending. I won’t spoil it but I think probably most of you disliked it as well. It’s not a small thing, you can guess what I think of.
Nevertheless, it was a great story, please read it friends!!!

samlikestoreadbooks's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

2.5

ineffable_bowtie's review against another edition

3.0

Took a few chapters to get into the story. It is a good read. Has your TYPICAL King vibe to it.

slathran's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

bradland's review against another edition

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.

kiti227's review against another edition

4.0

Horror house story x the horrors of history made by humans because our species f-ing sucks.

Standard great horror story by King, interlaced with standard psychological story by King. So basically Kings two bests combined. This might be my favourite genre of his so far.

Unfortunately the stories aren't quite his best, in my opinion. I mean, it's still King, so they kick ass for days, but in special orders King chart, they're only good.

As per most of his books in this era, the horror elements don't tie in that seamlessly and don't get resolved completely.

The more human nature focused parts hit deep though. Especially the rape scene sticks for a loooong time.

Good read, haunting, but also slightly unsatisfactory.

papilooonglegs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Stephen King's writing style just isn't my favorite. I think he's overly descriptive and unnecessarily sexual. I enjoyed the paranormal elements and the overall plot of the book however.