One of the most significant things I've learned since beginning this blog nearly two years ago, is how good YA fiction can be. Actually, I'd never really read Young Adult fiction in my life until beginning to review children's books here. A few YA titles began slipping in here and there, and, now, I'm hooked. (I can only imagine what How I Live Now would have meant to me at age 15.)
When I was about 10, I gave up children's books. I read Dickens and Twain and other entertaining, but heady stuff fed to me by my teachers and parents. I also read Stephen King, everything he wrote up to 1985 when I graduated from high school and began reading what I considered more adult fare.
So, it's been a good long while, more than 20 years, since I've read a Stephen King novel. The reviews for Lisey's Story intrigued me enough to listen to this latest King novel. And, do you know what? I really enjoyed it. True, I haven't slept for two days. But not for the typical King reasons. I haven't slept because I couldn't put my audible player down.
Lisey's Story isn't horror in the traditional sense. It isn't fantasy. It could be most accurately labeled magical realism. But it is scary. Not scary in the self-fueling-truck or returning-from-the-dead-pet sort of way. Scary in the "this-is-the-real-world-for-some-unlucky-folk" way. And it's also the story of a long, beautiful marriage and what happens to the survivor when her husband dies.
So, this is simply a public service announcement to all you adults who haven't picked up a Stephen King novel in awhile. Pick up this one.
When I was about 10, I gave up children's books. I read Dickens and Twain and other entertaining, but heady stuff fed to me by my teachers and parents. I also read Stephen King, everything he wrote up to 1985 when I graduated from high school and began reading what I considered more adult fare.
So, it's been a good long while, more than 20 years, since I've read a Stephen King novel. The reviews for Lisey's Story intrigued me enough to listen to this latest King novel. And, do you know what? I really enjoyed it. True, I haven't slept for two days. But not for the typical King reasons. I haven't slept because I couldn't put my audible player down.
Lisey's Story isn't horror in the traditional sense. It isn't fantasy. It could be most accurately labeled magical realism. But it is scary. Not scary in the self-fueling-truck or returning-from-the-dead-pet sort of way. Scary in the "this-is-the-real-world-for-some-unlucky-folk" way. And it's also the story of a long, beautiful marriage and what happens to the survivor when her husband dies.
So, this is simply a public service announcement to all you adults who haven't picked up a Stephen King novel in awhile. Pick up this one.
