Bag of Bones: A Novel

Stephen King

Apr 1999 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

A powerful tale of grief, love’s enduring bonds, and secrets of the past from #1 New York Times bestselling author and master storyteller Stephen King.

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls “Sara Laughs,” Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra, away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie’s and Kyra’s struggle—and as he falls in love with both of them—he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs…now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What are the forces that have been unleashed here—and just what do they want of Mike Noonan?

Ratings and reviews

This book takes over 600 pages to go nowhere. Hardly any story thread amounts to anything, and all the "horror" has the weighty basis of "just cuz." I was very bored. I finished only because surely all those threads would come together in a big a-ha! climax. They didn't. It too an overlong epilogue to only kind of explain what happened in the story, and that, too, was rife with "just cuz."

I'm an avid Stephen King reader and I consistently and frustrated by how long and boring his intros are. Instead of getting to know all of the characters you zone out and forget what you've read. Not the case in this book! It grabs my attention right away and hold it until the very end. This is the only Stephen King book that I did not want to read alone at night. It's my favorite novel he's ever written and it tugs at so many emotions that just keep coming at you so you feel like you're a nervous wreck but can't stop turning those pages! Very well written, in true King fashion no main character is safe from being terrorized mutilated and killed and the horror aspect of this Supernatural masterpiece is actually frightening. I highly recommend you try this book but don't watch the movie! There is no comparison between the two.

This is my favorite book ever written by King. The movie did not do it justice. It covers everything you look for in a book. A love story, spooky haunted house full of ghosts and a truly great mystery to solve. The characters are so believable and you cant help but love them. King kept the story incredibly scary. It is a page turner!

About the author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.