Lisey's Story

Well with some of his books the scare/gore factor is more prevalent than in this one. This book deals more with how the 'real' world can be scary too. I wasn't let down by this book, if anything these books, Delores Claybourne, Rose Madder, Misery and Geralds games get to me more than, say, Dreamcatcher.
 
...damnit, I want to read it!
Yes, I have to admitt, Dolores, Rose Madder and Misery seem to the the ones that I'm oddly attached to...although there's no denying that I do love the odd gory/creepy moments in his books. Like The Shining...Possibly the one book I've ever read that actually creeped me out...it a mark of his brilliant abilities that he can make even a harmless fire hose seem terrifying.
 
True. In a sense. Don't you think Sai King has just brought the story a little too close to home though? I think when reading this book, it gives the scare element because you can put yourself in Lisey's position. Towards the end I felt a slight detatchment towards Lisey I actually felt more for Amanda.
 
Why did you feel that? Is it because she took control towards the end
 
In a certain sense she did, but Lisey felt as though she was meant to be the heroine of the book, but I felt she was lacking. At the start she seems to be strong willed and ready for anything, towards the end though I felt disappointment.
I'm trying to put my point across without spoiling it for those of you unfortunate enough not to have read it.
 
I know what you mean....we'll have to wait until people have read it....usually just after xmas...:D
 
I have started it but it has not grabbed as some of his other works have so far but I have noticed that he seems to be writing a lot more of himself is some of his books and I have never been a fan of flashback within a flashback as it starts to get confusing but I will continue to read it and hopefully enjoy it as much as his other works
 
Stick with Sanity but you're right since his accident he as become more introspective.
 
A review I wrote for another site:

Lisey's Story
Stephen King

I'll be honest, King has been disappointing me for years. His end to The Dark Tower series was lackluster, Cell was mediocre and incomplete, and books like From a Buick 8 were downright bad. I'm hard on King, I admit that. However, when one of the main authors that hooked you on reading goes half assed you should call him on it.

It's with this attitude that I picked up Lisey's Story and delved into its pages, hoping for something akin to the glory days, but not expecting much. I'm happy to say that King proved my low expectations wrong with a book that was both incredibly tender and incredibly disturbing.

The story begins with Lisey Landon, now two years the widow of Scott Landon, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author facing the daunting prospect of finally cleaning out her deceased husband's writing studio. Having been harrased for the past two years by scholars asking, even demanding, Scott's papers she hopes to both rid herself of them and hopefully heal the hole she still has in her heart. Unfortunately for Lisey, she has no idea the turn of events this simple act will unleash. Two years previous her husband had laid out a bool for her, a sort of scavenger hunt made to lead her on a path to save her own life, that of her sisters and to be able to finally put the memory of Scott to rest. The path, however, is dangerous, dark and nearly too difficult to walk without losing one's sanity.

Lisey's Story is an odd mix of a love story and phsycological horror. For Lisey to be able to follow Scott's preordained path, she is forced to go back over their 25 year realtionship to recover memories that she has put "behind the purple". The problem with this is it severly affects the pacing of the story. Half of the book is spent in the present tense, half in the past and the switches between the two will happen in mid sentence. So while you're thinking you're about to discover something important, you suddenly find yourself 25 years in the past having to go through a lost memory in order to get back to where you were in the present tense. As the story becomes more and more interesting this becomes more and more annoying.

The other main issue is that King is new at having a large part of one of his books focus on a love story. He's not bad at it, at times he's actually quite good. But he's repetitive. He sets up the relationship well in the start of the book, but throughout it's course he rehashes earlier themes and feelings to an extent that gets in way of the flow of the story.

The boon to the reader is that what the above gets you is the answer to why did "daddy always cut deep? What is the long boy with the pie bald side? Why is it not safe on Boo'ya Moon after dark, and what are the laughers in the forest? This part of the story is pure gold to a King enthusiast as is the telling of Scott's life as a child where "daddy's kisses were always the reward" and the bad-gunky had to be let out. It's a dark, deep, disturbing and dangerous world that my love for King rejoiced at.

Lisey's Story is flawed on a couple levels, but it is great outside of those. Is it a triumphant return for King? No, but it is an extrememly enjoyable, intriguing and inventive yarn that hasn't come from him in far too long.
 
I've recently read 'Lisey's Story' and was a bit disappointed. Although the second half of the book is better, the first half was lacking in pace, there were too many repetitions. Good authors should know when to omit things. The first half of the book would have been much better if it was written in a faster, more compact way.
 
I read the book a few months ago. I thought it was quite interesting. Everything happens for just a few days but you get to learn everything about Lisey and her husband's life. Stephen King is an awesome writer and may he continue write such amazing stories like this one! : )
 
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