Bag of Bones: A Novel
Apr 1999 · Simon and Schuster
4.5star
397 reviewsreport
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544
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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?
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
4.5
397 reviews
Jody Callahan
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January 24, 2020
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."
1 person found this review helpful
Carlos Garcia
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June 24, 2025
This book started off strong, kept going strong in the middle, then (like many SK books) took a nose dive towards the end. Some of the points leading up to the end was cool... getting the puzzle pieces together. But there was a whole lot of details thrown about towards the end that it makes you wring your brain for the references to them from the beginning of the book. The relationship between Matt, Mattie and Kyra was beautiful. That's really what makes up the bulk of the 4 stars for me. Matt's genuine love for them shines through and makes it heartwarming. The story is awesome, until it gets to drag. The supernatural aspects are really well written and tells a very nice and chilling story. The drop of massive details in the last 75 pages is what floored me. And, of course, the horrific Stephen King endings is present here too. This man does not know how to end a book to save his life! An amazing, chilling, addicting story... then a lackluster ending. It's to be expected w/SK. 3.5/5
Allison Price
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November 30, 2012
This book was great. I couldn't put it down. The movie related to this book was good too. Steven King is one of my favorite authors. If you like suspense books and twisted plots I would recommend it.
About the author
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch, the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), 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.
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