JOYLAND by Stephen King



PAPERBACK EDITION

If you like Stephen King, here's a glimpse of his latest novel, JOYLAND. Typical of King's flair for story, King delves into this light-hearted tale with humor. I found the opening chapter hilarious and not sure why none of the reviews mentions how funny this story really is.

As a book collector, I'd get this book just for its nostalgic pulp fiction style cover, but when I read an excerpt, I knew I had to have it for the story too. The setting is North Carolina, 1973 featuring a student, an amusement park carny who discovers a murder mystery. Reminicent of New York's Coney Island for me, which would have also been a great setting, this tale seems to have all the makings of a good read.

What I really like about Stephen King is how he handles or even defies a genre. It's all about feeling for King, and if you read my previous post about mixing genres, King's writing is an excellent example of that. Of all the major writers, King has influenced me the most with his writing style and I think that's apparent in my own novel at just about every turn. Hey, if you're going to learn and emulate a writer, it may as well be Stephen King.

I've always been a fan of King and especially enjoy stories such as: The Green Mile, Carrie, Misery, and Duma Key. If you'd like to see a breakdown on the Book Teaser for Duma Key, click on this link to BookTeasersPub to see this very effective book teaser in action and the reasons (a deconstruction) why it works so well.

These classic Stephen King stories have great drama, substance, and plenty of surprises. If there's one thing you can expect from a King story, is that it will be full of unexpected moments. One of my favorites being the scene in The Green Mile (movie) where a prisoner (Michael Duncan) exhales a swarm of bees in an apparent effort to rid himself of something evil. This is truly an unforgettable story for many reasons.

And when it comes to fascinating stories, "Stephen King" is all you need to know, and that's why his name is always bigger than the book title folks. I think that says it all.

Joyland certainly seems like a fun ride. Available June 4. Can't wait to get it.

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