Stephen King
Paperback | Pages: 283 pages Rating: 3.91 | 106684 Users | 11418 Reviews
Describe Books During Joyland
| Original Title: | Joyland |
| ISBN: | 1781162646 (ISBN13: 9781781162644) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Annie Ross, Devin Jones, Michael "Mike" Ross, Wendy Keegan, Fred Dean, Bradley Easterbrook, Lane Hardy, Rosalind "Rozzie" Gold, Emmalina Shoplaw, Linda Gray, Erin Cook, Timothy Jones, Tina Ackerley, Tom Kennedy, Gary "Pop" Allen, Brenda Rafferty, Eddie Parks |
| Setting: | Heaven’s Beach, North Carolina,1973(United States) North Carolina(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2014), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2014), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller (2013) |
Narrative In Pursuance Of Books Joyland
You gotta agree - Stephen King can tell a story like few others can. Maybe it's because he can see the world in the way most of us do not, and then grants us the privilege to experience it through his eyes for a few hundred pages - the world that can be unsettling and scary and fascinating and different in subtle little ways that change the way you view it - at least for a little while. Add to it that Stephen King also can do nostalgia like no other (well, perhaps excluding Bradbury - and there are very Bradbury-esque notes in this book about
It's really the longing for youth from the distance of years, wistful and melancholic, seen through the sharp and yet distorted lenses of a few decades passed, with the hope and bittersweetness and gentle quiet regret that such look into the long-ago can bring; the glance into the time that seemed simpler and more innocent because you back then were simpler and more innocent and vulnerable yourself."When you're twenty-one, life is a roadmap. It's only when you get to be twenty-five or so that you begin to suspect you've been looking at the map upside down, and not until you're forty are you entirely sure. By the time you're sixty, take it from me, you're fucking lost."And add to it his knack for truly fantastic, amazing characterization, creating in the pages of his stories people that are alive, real, recognizable (for better or for worse); characters that inhabit the settings that with a few casual phrases turn hauntingly real, come alive from the paperback pages - and here, dear reader, we have Joyland.
"That fall was the most beautiful of my life. Even forty years later I can say that. And I was never so unhappy, I can say that, too."
Devin Jones is a poor college student with a newly broken heart and "such a really bad case of the twenty-ones", taking up a summer job at Joyland amusement park in North Carolina in the time when banning smoking at such venues was a strange new thing. He is young, charmingly naive, and unhappy - and a carny life could do him some good (granted, this life, unbeknownst to him, also comes with an old unsolved murder mystery and some ghosts, and a kid with supernatural ability, and a deranged mysterious serial killer).
It's a setup for a coming-of-age story, a few life-changing months that are impossible to forget - and such it is (but a *King* version - think 'The Body' rather than 'David Copperfield), but told by King in his trademark casual 'Uncle Stevie' voice full of effortless grasp of perfect storytelling it grows and comes to life.
And suddenly we can see and hear the hot summer days, and the creaking of the giant Ferris wheel operated by the friendly Lane Hardy, and the happy screams of children as Howie the Hound (played with unexpected happiness by a twenty-one-year-old unhappy and brooding kid in his spare time listening to The Doors and entertaining suicidal thoughts while nursing his first real heartbreak), and the shrieks coming from the Horror House - rumored to be haunted by a girl with a blue Alice band - manned by a surly Eddie Parks who always wears gloves, even in summer heat, and the happy barks of a dog and happy voice of a young boy watching the kite fly up into the sky, and a kiss from a lovely girl who is no more than a friend, and the groaning of the Spin in the storm, and the eyes of a maniac, and beach fire and beer and smores, and the excited buzz of the crowds in Joyland - an amusement park (or, really, more of an overgrown carnival that knows it has not that much longer left) that, after all, as its owner knows very well, sells fun.
And we see the humanity of his characters shine like you wouldn't believe."All I can say is what you already know: some days are treasure. Not many, but I think in almost every life there are a few. That was one of mine, and when I'm blue -- when life comes down on me and everything looks tawdry and cheap, the way Joyland Avenue did on a rainy day -- I go back to it, if only to remind myself that life isn't always a butcher's game. Sometimes the prizes are real. Sometimes they are precious."Joyland appears to have been presented as a crime story, a noir novel complete with a cover (a redheaded bombshell in a skimpy green dress, eyes wide and mouth open in an exaggerated shocked surprise) that is designed to help it seamlessly blend in with other occupants of a gas station cheap paperback rack. But it's not a crime noir story, nossir, trust me. And it's not a 'typical' King novel in a way media and those only marginally familiar with King think of his works. But, on the other hand, it is a 'classic' King, really - the one who has penned Shawshank and The Body and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and 11/22/63 - the one who transcends his pidgeonholed role as the King of Horror, the one who knows that it's the depths of the human nature that make life both terrifying and wonderful, the one who takes the trip down the Memory Lane and brings us a story of people being shaped by seemingly small events that happen around them. And this is the thing about this book - it's not about the horror (there's none; the scary things are the everyday things that happen to people - death, loss, loneliness) or the mystery (the murder story is pushed so far into the background it almost fades out of sight) or the supernatural (it's hiding in the background right next to murder mystery). It's simply a book about people. It's about getting into Devin Jones's head (metaphorically, of course) and taking a life experience alongside him through the eyes of his older self, seeing him change and grow a bit at a time, and missing a part of us we left behind when we had to grow up, too. At under 300 pages, this book is a tiny offering compared to King's as of late habitual door-stoppers, and it could have easily been developed more, stretched out to greater lengths and depths exploring the paranormal bits that have largely taken the backseat, exploring more of Mike and Annie's stories, bringing the murder mystery closer to the forefront, exploring more of the noir-ish promise the purposefully tacky book cover promised. Yes, it could have done all of that in the "usual" King fashion, yes. But you know what? I'm glad he left it at this compact size, choosing instead to simply focus on a story of a young unhappy man coming into his own over a few months in the shadow of an amusement park where they "sell fun", playing Howie the Happy Hound on suffocatingly hot summer days (fifteen-minute shifts only!), looking at the world from the top of the Spin, thinking about the ghost in the Horror House while nursing his broken heart the way only the young can, flying a kite once a while, and all throughout going through the little subtle changes that bring you into the rest of your life, into adulthood, away from Joyland, into a world with sharp edges and hard corners.
"When it comes to the past, *everyone* writes fiction." ***** True, but few can do it as scarily well as King.Fantastic. Almost perfect. And you don't even have to be a fan to appreciate it. Trust me.
Define Epithetical Books Joyland
| Title | : | Joyland |
| Author | : | Stephen King |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 283 pages |
| Published | : | June 4th 2013 by Hard Case Crime |
| Categories | : | Horror. Mystery. Fiction. Thriller. Crime |
Rating Epithetical Books Joyland
Ratings: 3.91 From 106684 Users | 11418 ReviewsColumn Epithetical Books Joyland
On the heels of a breakup, college student Devin Jones takes a summer job at an amusement park, an amusement park haunted by the ghost of a woman murdered on one of the rides. But what does that have to do with a woman and her dying child that Devin meets walking on a beach?Stephen King throws the Hard Case line another bone with Joyland. Much like The Colorado Kid, it will undoubtedly draw much needed attention to the line despite not being like the other books.Joyland is the story of DevinI read this book on vacation and flew through it in a day. King weaves together teen angst, a violent murder mystery, and the horror of an incurable childhood illness all against the grainy backdrop of an amusement park. The main character Devin is a nice guy, a guy you'd like to hang out with, but a guy that fell a little too hard for his first love, hard enough to have the rare suicide thought drift through his troubled mind. How King, in less than 300 pages, builds out 10 characters, a midway
OMG! I love this King book! I had a feeling I might just from reading the synopsis of the book. It just blew me away! I loved the atmosphere of the carnival. I fell in love with Devin, Tom, Erin, Mike, Milo, Annie and a few other side characters. I felt like I was in the book with each one of them and I could see all of the old carny rides and amusements. I could feel the old mystery of the girl that was killed. I wish they would make this into a movie, but do it right! It as to be to a T from
4 ½ stars All you King fans out there are going to read this anyway. Go for it, be a *Rube, its worth the price of admission. For anyone else who's curious about all the kerfuffle over King, maybe test the waters with this. No, its not his best but its pretty great. Its short, leans towards paranormal rather than horror in case horror isnt your thing, and you gotta love that hardcore pulp-fiction cover!Tons of suspense, the mystery of beautiful women being murdered to unravel, a plot that moves
JoyLand is a slow burn of a book and that was alright by me. I love getting to know Kings characters and Devin Jones is no exception. Hes our young, intelligent narrator, burning with the passion and enthusiasm of youth; he is also healing a broken heart, his first, when he signs up to work at the carnival. This is a Hard Case Crime file so one would expect a murder or two and there is, except it happened years ago and remains unsolved. While never really taking center stage through most of the
You can't save everyone. I was tempted to add some new category shelves for this review because the ones I am using don't quite fit the type of retro-reflective, not-really-coming-of-age-but-more-of-a-late-blooming type of read which I experienced. Maybe I should add crime or murder or something, but if I said this was a crime novel, or even a murder mystery, I'd sort of only be giving you part of the picture here.Devin (Dev) is on the path to discovering himself in the summer of
Joyland by Stephen KingJoyland is not a typical Stephen King book. If you are looking for horror, supernatural gore, scary clowns, vampires, fire setters or children who come back from the dead, or any other really scary parts - you will not find them in this book. This book is not like the typical books Stephen King wrote in the 80''s.I had not read a Stephen King book in many years prior to picking this book up. Don't let the cover turn you off, this book is a jem! It is a mystery, and a
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