Absolute Horror Book Forum

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

Now this novel has received some critical acclaim for Mr Kings writing style and I must admit to agreeing with them.

The entire novel is poetic, romantic, sad, melancholic(even this old clown had a tear rolling down his facepaint a couple of times), and highly readable throughout. King is great at characterisations, making the people who populate his works more than just scribblings on paper. They break out of their 2D world of paper and ink and into the 3D world of my imagination. They are as believable as friends and family, passed on - no longer here in the real world, but still somehow with us in substance.

It's a great story of loss and mourning. Lisey doesn't just mourn for dead husband, Scott, but for her sister, still alive but prone to bouts of mental illness, self harm and catatonia. As you go through the book, her and her family's past unravels itself to draw you deeper into the sadness. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can become better - Bool!

Then one day Lisey receives a call from a stranger wanting her to give Scott's unpublished and un-hear of work to a certain university. The next day she finds a dead cat in her mailbox, and so begins her second decent into the madmess of the "number one fan".

King is no stranger to thrillers and he works this in pretty well with the historical context of the story. Mixing past and present very successfully indeed.

The only problem for me was the creation of the wonderful world of "BooYa' Moon" where everything is great in the daylight, but when twilight falls and the moon rises everything turns bad and "The Lazy Boy" roams the land - oh and if you get a "Boo-Boo" just jump in the pool and everything will be okey-dokey. For me it seemed like a convenient way to make the ending of the story a little easier. For me, the story could've and should've stayed in the real world - the invention of the fantasy world, for me, failed the story.

That said I did love the book - I just think it could've been better more along the lines of The Green Mile and Blaze.

I would recommend this book - mainly because I heard myself rooting (out loud) once or twice for Lisey - and mourning the passing of Scott (damn I'm a softy at heart). But that goes to show how good Mr King truly is.

8/10

Come join me - We ALL Float Down Here.

PENNYWISE Stephen



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