Joyland / Stephen King

alleycat

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I didn't see another thread specifically about the book Joyland.

I recently listened to the audio version. I could nitpick about a few things but, overall, I enjoyed the book. This is the first Stephen King novel I've enjoyed in a while.

Anyone else read it, or reading it?

I won't say too much about the book without putting a big SPOILER WARNING on the post.
 

Haggis

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Finishing up another book first, but have that one in hand and ready to give it a go. I'll probably get to it next week some time.
 

alleycat

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By the way, if anyone likes audio books, the narrator of the version I listened to, Michael Kelly, does an excellent job with Joyland. The voices are almost perfect.
 

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It's a studio photo from the cat version of The Shining. :)
 

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It's a studio photo from the cat version of The Shining. :)
Heeeeeeeeeeer's alleycat.

th_heresjohnny.gif
 

Chase

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I read Joyland twice and enjoyed both times--once for the story and once to take note of Charles Adair's editing style.

The book wasn't up to the level as the The Colorado Kid, Stephen King's first book at Hard Case Crime, but TCK is the best amateur sleuth mystery I've read in a long, long time.

The audio versions did absolutely nothing for me.:D
 

rhymegirl

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I read Joyland. It's a quick read. Short book.

I liked it. It does take a while to get interesting though. I kept waiting for something good to happen.
 

Haggis

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Done.

Loved it. Petty solid all the way through, and as RG said, a short read.

Chase? If you make it back here, could you tell me how exactly one can read to check out an editor's style?
 

Chase

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Chase? If you make it back here, could you tell me how exactly one can read to check out an editor's style?

Exactly? As in no BS with examples? Okay, but two premises need aired: The first is the iffy presumption that SK knuckled under to CA's edits. That may be a stretch, considering personalities. The other is my firm belief after a quarter century of grading frosh to grad papers that writing styles emerge and that I can see red flags when that style has been altered, as in the case of a helper (such as an editor). Don't bother to read on if the latter sound too much like BS.

Since I've read every SK novel since Carrie at least twice, I know SK has loosened from his original high school English teacher style. Subsequent books that began with tight mechanics often don't end that way.

A few years back, I found SK returned to a crisper, more concise style in The Colorado Kid (also published by Hard Case Crime). Since the principal characters were newspaper people, I figured that may be a reason but couldn't discount Charles Adair's influence.

In Joyland, I noticed some breakdown in consistency of punctuation from one section to another (no chapters, just segments separated by a :heart:) but still thought I recognized CA's firmer hand.

There are some puzzles, like why this departure in the use of dashes to interrupt dialog. It's one of the methods mentioned in CMoS, but it isn't as common in fiction:

Her eyes were sparkling. "You don't know any of this story, do you? Ordinarily I don't believe in gossip, but . . ." She dropped her voice to a confidential tone pitched just above a whisper. ". . . but since you've met them, I could tell you."

I never saw SK do it that way before, so I was interested.
 

Haggis

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Interesting stuff, Chase. Thank you.

I know writers pay attention to things a normal reader would not (like King's misleading foreshadowing about page 140) but I couldn't quite pick up on the kinds of things an editor might be able to spot. Which in retrospect makes sense because I ain't no editor. :D
 

Chase

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I know writers pay attention to things a normal reader would not (like King's misleading foreshadowing about page 140) but I couldn't quite pick up on the kinds of things an editor might be able to spot. Which in retrospect makes sense because I ain't no editor. :D

Yeah, I liked the red herring SK dragged across the trail as we beat the bushes for a tattoo. Of course, I loved the hint that Erin was a competitor at Camp Perry, Ohio. So was I, several times. It's the marksmanship Mecca of the U.S., so I eagerly waited in the sure and eternal hope that somebody would get sniped before the end.:guns:
 

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Yeah, I liked the red herring SK dragged across the trail as we beat the bushes for a tattoo. Of course, I loved the hint that Erin was a competitor at Camp Perry, Ohio. So was I, several times. It's the marksmanship Mecca of the U.S., so I eagerly waited in the sure and eternal hope that somebody would get sniped before the end.:guns:
You know, that bit seemed like an afterthought to me. Kind of like King saying to himself, "okay, I've got 'em both up in the ferris wheel. Now how do I get them down?" Then building up backstory to explain the how of the salvation.
 

Chase

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You know, that bit seemed like an afterthought to me. Kind of like King saying to himself, "okay, I've got 'em both up in the ferris wheel. Now how do I get them down?" Then building up backstory to explain the how...

Hmmm. For me there were too many instances of telling and showing shooting skills, the latter at the carny shooting booth.

But this may be my manic projection. In my stories, someone's going to get shot, have a wilderness mishap, or auger in under a bad 'chute. There are no other acceptable fates, so I spend lots of time having as many characters as possible learn marksmanship, camping skills, and parachuting.

To incorporate all three, I'm thinking my next book: A dead-eye marksman on his way to a skydiving meet tranquilizes the air marshal and flight attendants on a plane transferring money. He jumps with the loot a la D.B. Cooper. His 'chutes don't open. He looks down and sees a guy flying up to meet him. A miracle. As he gets close, he yells to the upward-bound person, "You know anything about faulty parachutes?"

The guy yells back, "No, you know anything about faulty Coleman stoves?"
 

tinker

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Thanks for the link, alleycat! I finished Joyland about a week ago and thought it was great - a very quick but enjoyable read.
 

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I really enjoyed Joyland and preferred it to The Colorado Kid. However even though I enjoyed both I don't really feel they fit in with the rest of the Hard Case Crime line.
 

LilahLangdon

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Some minor spoilers.

I enjoyed it!

This said, I wasn't entirely satisfied. Whilst I loved the setting and atmosphere of the story (I'd even go so far as to say King’s voice seemed to echo his better years), I felt the plot was rather hazy.

For the best part of the book, it's a coming of age/ghost story... the crime is mentioned but it only ever feels like an element of the ghost story. And then the ghost part is over (considering the build, I felt that the way it happened was a little lacklustre) and it goes on to focus more on the crime...

The main character was pretty passive in the actual crime element of the story. I didn’t feel he really dug around all that much; the whole mystery just kind of unfurled around him with conclusions falling into his lap. The reveal at the end was probably the most disappointing for me… it felt a little Scooby-doo in truth (and I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you pesky kids).

The identity of the murderer wasn’t a surprise to me at that point, but I did find many aspects of the crime coincidental? Maybe that’s the wrong word… it felt… threadbare. Like you could have pulled anyone out of a hat and made them the murderer.

… and I’ve just reread my post and realised what a grumbly-guts I sound! Eep, wasn’t the intention. Joyland is still very much worth a read… it’s atmospheric, vivid, fun and – despite my gripes – a page turner.