Book: Joyland

Stephen King is hit and miss for me. At times he's fantastic (11/22/63, The Shining, The Stand, etc.), at other times I don't know what he's doing, and he always struggles to maintain the last 100 pages or so. Fortunately, that's not the case here.

Joyland is not his finest effort, but it is an engaging little story, a little bit like a ghost story version of Adventureland. I think it's a lot more focused on character development than the haunting story, and ultimately is more interested in how the past and our histories shape and affect us a lot more than it is about the supernatural. The haunting and other fantasy elements are really just window dressing. That's a strength, because King lets himself and his characters enjoy this themepark world, the joy of discovering a talent, and that moment where you start to transition from youth to adulthood. He writes about those messy transitional ideas like a first love, a first loss, a first seduction. I think he likes these characters, and that's kind of nice given his ability at times to put his characters through torture. Like a lot of King books, it includes a few standard King plot points (telepathic kid being the biggest) which keep it from feeling fully fresh, but that doesn't stop it from being fun.

I listened to this one as an audiobook, and Michael Kelly's narration was really great. Ultimately this is a pretty bit of fluff, but sometimes that's exactly what you're looking for: the perfect book for a car trip.

Grade: B