Bag of Bones

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King

Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Even four years after the sudden death of his wife, best selling novelist Mike Noonan can't stop grieving, nor can he return to his writing. Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, he decides to return to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home. In his beloved Yankee town, he finds himself falling in love with a widowed young mother, who struggles to keep custody of her 3-year-old daughter. He is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here - and what do they want of Mike Noonan?

©1998 Stephen King, All Rights Reserved (P)1998 Simon & Schuster, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Critic reviews

"The witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." (Amy Tan)
"What King lacks in professional polish he makes up for with an infectious enthusiasm that will lock in listeners for the long haul." (Publishers Weekly)

Excellent story line!

This is not your typical ghost tale. I will be giving this one another listen.

I love Shephen King but...A narrator he is not

Stephen King should really stick to writing and leave the narration to the professionals. His voice is very nasal and distracting but the story is good. Sorry SK :(

The Best I've Listened To Yet!

Just simply amazing! Stephen King's narration is the best of any I've listened to yet. It really makes the book come to life in a way only the author can do. Again, just simply amazing, Mr. King!

Captivating

Having Stephen King narrate makes this story sizzle. A wonderfully slow, lazy, well crafted build to a truly creepy story where the ghost(s) are not the most frightening characters. It is the nuanced language, the depth of human insight and pacing that makes this story truly captivating. Worth ever second.

Stephen King narrates brilliantly

This story is by far my favorite of the books both written by and narrated by Stephen King himself!

Would be a great movie!

This was a great book. Everything I've grown to love about Stephen king plus more, definitely reccomend!

the book

the book was great got my attention to the whole thing it was crazy how it ends

Don't give up in the narration...

I was so excited to listen to a book read to me by my all time favorite author. But, for the first little while, I was worried if made a mistake. King's books have had some amazing narrators and it took me a while to get accustomed to his style. However, about the time the booked warmed up, so did he!! Amazing to hear it from his perspective

Stephen King at his BEST!

This was by far one of his BEST books ever. I want more like it. He was the perfect narrator, you really lived the story. I would recommend this book, especially the audio version, Stephen King was just AWESOME!! The interview at the end was really insightful, make sure you listen to the end. I really enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis also, but this was his best and would really like to hear more from him(literally)like this.

So scary and so good

I am pretty new to the Stephen King library. I really like how he turns a phrase, to borrow a line. The suspense he builds between what is actually occurring and what is being perceived as occurring makes it hard to listen to in long shots, but I couldn't stay away from the story for long. It was truly scary in some parts. The "dream" Mike and Kyra share is so close to dreams I had as a kid and still do as an adult that it put a little extra oomph to the emotions that came from the story.

I also liked how much was included from Mike's perspective as an author--little tidbits behind the process and the life of that kind of person.

I enjoyed how there were good characters, bad characters, and grey characters--ones that you didn't know how to view until in some cases, it was almost too late. The setting was really well described and I could picture the TR pretty well after a short while, although by the end the scenery had changed.

I'd recommend this story to any lover of Stephen King books. The story references gothic novels, like "Rebecca" so fans of that genre would probably enjoy it as well.

For those wondering about Stephen King's ability as a narrator--I liked his work. He didn't distinguish a lot between male and female voices, but I didn't think that took away from the production at all. His accents for a couple of the characters were pretty good I thought, though I'm from the Midwest so I don't really have the ability to say how accurate they were.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this story.