“On a very hot day in August of 1994, my wife told me she was going down to the Derry Rite Aid to pick up a refill on her sinus medicine prescription – this is stuff you can buy over the counter these days, I believe. I’d finished writing for the day and offered to pick it up for her. She said thanks, but she wanted to get a piece of fish at the supermarket next door anyway; two birds with one stone and all that. She blew a kiss at me off the palm of her and and went out. The next time I saw her, she was on TV. That’s how you identify the dead here in Derry – no walking down a subterranean corridor with green tiles on the walls and long fluorescent bars overhead, no naked body rolling out of a chilly drawer on casters; you just go into an office marked PRIVATE and look at a TV screen and say yep or nope.”
– Bag of Bones, Stephen King
My first book Review is about the book “Bag of Bones” by Stephen King. No shit, I know… It’s an exciting story about an author who just lost his wife and – if it has to be a Stephen King- a cursed house that he owns. I won’t tell the whole story, then you won’t have to read it anymore. And I want you to!
Content
So, the story starts on a hot summer day. Mike Noonan’s wife Johanna collapses on a parking lot and leaves him and with a lot of strange things that don’t make sense in any way at first. Why did Jo leave a pregnancy test in her bag? I mean, seriously! Four years after Johanna’s death, Mike decides to visit their old holiday house again, where they used to go every summer. Since Jo is dead, he fights a writer’s block and is having trouble finding into his life again.
Anyways, when he comes back there, strange things start to happen and Max Devore, the bad grandpa, who wants to take his granddaughter Kyra away from her mother Mattie, is also getting Mike into big trouble. If you wanna know more, you should read the book, I don’t wanna spoil too much.
My opinion
The book was great- especially Mikes cynic way to express himself. It is told from Mike’s perspective and he really tells every single thought running through his head. So, if you want to know how a 40 year old man thinks, you should just read this book. It was *cough* interesting to read about his sexual fantasies and his problems with girls after Jo died. I really really really recommend this book- though it’s getting very creepy towards the end.
Also, if you have weak nerves, you should probably stay away from his book. There are a few passages where you really think he’s going to kill someone or lose his mind. All in all, it’s the BEST book I’ve read until now.
Best quotes
Mike walks down the way to the house in the night:
“What comes in when daylight leaves is a kind of certainty: that beneath the skin there is a secret, some mystery both black and bright. You feel this mystery in every breath, you see it in every shadow, you expect to plunge into it at every turn of a step.”
“I think reality is thin, you know, thin as lake ice after a thaw, and we fill our lives with noise and light and motion to hide that thinness from ourselves.”
About his time with Johanna:
“And perhaps the greatest blessing was that we never knew how short the time was.”
Yeah, I think that should be all now. I love this book!
Sincerely, Kyra
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