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Bag of Bones (平装)
by Stephen King
| Category:
Horror fiction, Bestsellers, Original books |
| Market price: ¥ 108.00
MSL price:
¥ 98.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Part romance, part meditation on love and life, part legal thriller, and part satire of the writing industry, Bag of Bones is King's only pure ghost story - love, death, reality, fiction, history. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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Ryan Costantino (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
I really liked this book, a whole damn lot. King puts an ocean of imagery in his books and this one is no exception. The characters (alive and dead) are colorful, believable, likeable, and each fills his or her own niche quite well. It was impossible not to compare the protagonist, Mike Noonan, to King himself. In light of King's recent accident the book is eerie in how prophetic it seems to be (writer's block, fear of being hit on a Maine road, with a dangerous curve, in summer). The ghosts are actual spirits of the dead, not psychic emanations, and I liked that aspect a whole lot. The malicious happenings a result of spectral rage and revenge.
The "real world" violence is believable and tragic. The ending wasn't overly happy and I was thankful for that. Horror novels shouldn't end happily in my opinion. The pacing was fast and I hadn't read the story before. For some reason, King's use of the small Maine town with devious inhabitants hasn't grown old. His semi-return to Castle Rock and the various mentioning of its denizens was actually quite a treat. Of course you'd have to be a King fan to appreciate them. The blending of the supernatural with the "real world" was deftly accomplished with a master's skill. King fans read it and enjoy. If you haven't read King before start at the beginning and work your way up.
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Matthew Greer (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
Bag of Bones - A fitting title after you get to the end, no doubt. I didn't think anything King did would ever really come close to The Stand. Bag of Bones reached The Stand's upper rim in an attempt to leapfrog, but alas, fell just short of it's goal.
Nonetheless, what a fantastic story! I had a hard time with the ending, but more for the reasons I did with The Stand - I just didn't want it to end. I guess there never really is a great ending to an SK novel and that's how it should be.
Bag of Bones had a Tommyknockers sort of feel to it, but the first-person perspective allowed this story to go to a place that the Tommyknockers simply couldn't go. I think Stephen King would do well to attempt more first-person novels.
Once again, Stephen King takes a great story and makes it come alive with beautiful prose the way no other author can. He is truley a magician of the english language and I once again stood in awe, wondering just how in the hell he does that.
Another fine job, even though the last few chapters really broke my heart. That's his job though... and a job well done.
Buy this book - Enjoy this book... and make sure you don't have to be anywhere when you get to the final quarter - you won't be able to put it down!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
Stephen King is like a breathe of fresh air to modern literature, and yes I said literature. I truly believe that he will still be read a hundred years from now in classrooms as a kind of Dickens of our time, popular and written off by most critics, but endearing. His characterizations by themselves make him better than most writers today, and his imagery makes him one of the best. All through his career he has given us great things, but in this book it's different.
In Bag of Bones he gives us his best work so far, a great story, wonderful characters, and a surreal small town atmosphere that he can create better than any other writer alive today. Take the three parts at once dream sequence for example. This is not the work of a hack writing only for money, this is a riveting and extremely well-written section of a book filled with such parts. The rock- throwing scene by the lake was also especially good, showing the reader pure evil in mind movie realism.
People who have dismissed King should immediatly pick up Bag of Bones, they will find out what they have been missing by skipping him. It was wonderfully written, beautifully plotted, and actually quite creepy as well (the refridgerator magnets, the knocking on the basement wall). But then, who really cares if the critics like him or not, as long as people who know can recieve enjoyment from King's work. Read this book, and you'll be happy that you did.
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Adam Shah (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-02 00:00>
In Bag of Bones, Stephen King writes a classic haunted house story with several twists. First, like several of his other stories, the whole town surrounding the house is also haunted. Second, the haunted house story is also intertwined with romance.
In the book, main character Michael Noonan's wife dies within the first two pages of the book. Like many of King's characters, Noonan is a writer. However, he experiences complete writer's block and loneliness after his wife's death. Noonan starts having dreams of his country house, Sarah Laughs in Western Maine and eventually decides to go back to his beloved house even though the dreams are spooky and bespeak of danger.
As soon as he returns to his country house, Noonan realizes that the house is haunted. There are sounds of crying, a presence of something else there, words being formed by the magnetic alphabet on the fridge and other matters. Noonan also gets caught up in a custody battle between a rich man and his poor daughter-in-law/widow.
King tells a remarkably good haunted house tale even for a master of horror like him. If you have ever felt a ghost in an old house, you will recognize the reactions his characters have. King is also getting better as a writer of romance. You can really feel for the female characters, both Noonan's dead wife and the woman in the custody battle.
Sadly, King is no Scott Turow or John Grisham. His views of the legal system and custody laws are bizarre. The ways the lawyers act are just laughable. But this is just a small annoyance. The legal maneuvers do make up a large of the book, but they are really just a device to move the process along and give some suspense other than what the ghosts are up to.
Overall, I recommend this book. If you want a haunted house story, you will immensely enjoy this book.
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Trey Schesser (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-02 00:00>
For those of you who think that Stephen King writes only horror fiction, think again. In Bag of Bones, King delivers a different but outstanding story. King brings out his romantic side with enough horror and suspense to remind you who the author is. After four years, Mike Noonan, a best-selling novelist, is still grieving his wife's death. Noonan travals to his summer home and gets caught in a struggle between his new love and a psychopathic millionaire. On top of this, Noonan's summer home is haunted. I loved this book and you will too. If you haven't purchased Bag of Bones yet, put it on your Christmas list.
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Stuart Hall (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-02 00:00>
It's pretty obvious by now, to those who care, that Stephen King's talent has been trending downward for several years. Blame the fame, the accident, whatever (personally I think it's the inevitable career track of pop artists as they pass through, and beyond, their forties) but before he began to fade, Steve left us this burning memento. Others have noted the debts to Rebecca - I don't know - have never read it and don't care. Maybe Steve needed an outside impetus. Maybe this is his version of an album of inspired cover tunes. But there is no way to deny its place in the King canon - or wait, I guess there is a way since this is one of the rare King novels that has not received cinematic treatment and does not place highly in lists of reader's favorites. It deserves a spot high on the list. The characterizations are superb. There is genuine erotic tension, unprecedented for King. There is a truly scary villain, even if it is an old lady armed with rocks. And above all, there is a cohesive, compelling plot, with little of King's normal overwriting and gratuitous gore. The ending is genuinely suspenseful and moving.
I'm not trying to trash Steve - I've read most of his subsequent books (couldn't finish From a Buick 8), forgiven the expansion of the Dark Tower universe into a number of books which would have been better off without it, and tolerated his "I'm just a hack while scooping up awards and sleeping with the New Yorker" shtick. He was an important writer in my youth; he singlehandledly changed the reading habits of a generation, and he comes across as a pretty good guy. Bag of Bones is brilliant, whether you're a King fan or a King-hater. If I could recommend one of his novels to someone who has never read him, this would be it.
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Charles B. Harness (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-02 00:00>
I enjoy the writing of Stephen king very much, but "Bag of Bones" didn't appeal to me as much as some of his other pieces. It seemed to be a synthesis of the 1982 film "Ghost Story" ( the victim of a New England murder wreaks revenge for several generations) and certain of King's earlier works, namely "The Shining" and "Salem's Lot." In other words, there wasn't much here that was new to me. Frequent Kingian themes were present: beware the shadow sides of rural communities, adults have a responsibility to protect and nurture children,(Salem's Lot, Tom Gordon, Hearts in Atlantis), and adults are potentially lethal in their relationships with children (The Shining, Tom Gordon). Towards the end, however, he threw in a kitchen sink of terror that felt un-focused. I had difficulty sorting through the dream sequences and the owls and the codes and the suggestions of time travel and telepathy. The rape scene was horrifying and grizzly.I also grew tired of the writer's frequent references to the state of his genitalia, i.e, flaccid, erect, whatever. It was a bit of over-sharing. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, it was a good, competent tome.
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Betty Chan (MSL quote), Singapore
<2007-02-02 00:00>
I am a fan of horror stories. I love horror movies and I'm usually found at the Horror section in bookstores. Although I have not read many of King's books, I like his work.
This book captures your attention right from the start. A first person narration of the story gives it a personal touch. You feel for Noonan, you feel for his wife Jo, you pity Mattie.
The vivid descriptions of the scenes make one feel as if you are there as it happened. The storyline is superb, it makes you want more. It makes you want to lie in bed all day to find out what new horrors Noonan discovered in his home, who was Sara Tidwell, what Devore and his right-hand man would do to get Kyra... At every alternate bend on the road, you would discover pieces of a puzzle that had to be put together. Picking up each piece left by his dead wife along the way, you would be as eager as Noonan to find out exactly how the whole picture looked like.
In the one week that I took to complete the book, I had dark sneaky thoughts in my mind when I turned off the lights to go to bed after reading the book. Somehow I felt I was part of the story and the spooks had creeped out to get me.
All in all, the horror factor was not very high but the mystery surrounding the characters kept you going. A truly captivating read.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-02 00:00>
Perhaps the best judge of how much one likes any particular novel, is not whether one can decide if the author has "turned serious" in his fiction writing or whether it "kept you up all night", but rather, how much do you care for the characters? I found myself enjoying a great Stephen King read through 4/5ths of the book when suddenly (no spoilers) I realized exactly how much I cared for the characters! Readers will understand. So many books these days give me a ho-hum reaction to character happenstance but Bag of Bones brings it all home. I recommend this book to anybody. A definite competitor for the coveted Goochie Award this year!
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C. Holland (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-02 00:00>
It took me a mere few days to devour this book when I did and recently my husband read it, staying up late to finish it despite having to wake up before the sun rises. If this doesn't tell you how truly mesmerizing this book is, let me explain:
This is a real turn for King in the sense that he has never written a love story in his usually creeped-out books in the past. That has been more for Koontz. Perhaps King's happy marriage to his wife of 25 some-odd years, Tabitha can sum up how well he did at describing true love and Mike Noonan's palpable sorrow and depression following the loss of it.
King was also able to nail down the cute and very real dialoge of the toddler, Kyra or "Ki". It made me feel like I was reading about the reactions and niave wit of my little girl.
I thought the story was very well written and the pace was steady in spite of its whopping 732 pages. I loved King's humor coming through in this book; I found myself laughing out loud in some parts and then again decending into being so scared that I had to look around my room. I particularly got scared during the basement scene where Mike hears knocking in response to his questions... creepy!
To all of the diehard King fans out there: Go for it! This is, in my humble opinion, one of his greatest triumphs in the recent past!
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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