Joyland

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Michael Kelly

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

"Joyland is a breathtaking, beautiful, heartbreaking book.... Even the most hardboiled readers will find themselves moved."
—Charles Ardai, Edgar- and Shamus Award-winning editor of Hard Case Crime.

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever. Joyland is a brand-new novel and has never previously been published.

©2013 Stephen King. All rights reserved. (P)2013 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Best Narrator I’ve ever listened to!

I want Michael Kelly to narrate my life story after listening to this performance. The novel is solid, but his performance is what truly makes this book stand out. Incredible talent!

Thrilling

Joyland is full of wonderful rides and games. Only in there lives a dark secret. This book like many amusement park rides is fast and thrilling. Only to leave you with memories. Some good, some bad and never forgotten.

Took a while

Good book. It took a while to get into & grab me, but it’s a good story.

A New Favorite

I loved everything about this story. Not as verbose as many of King’s works, which sometimes bothers me even as a super fan. A great story with characters who you’ll care about right away. A good listen, narration was easy on the ear and I heard every character in their unique voice. Perfect for a summer listen. Recommend!

Reignited the passion I thought was taken from me forever when I lost my eyesight as an avid reader

What I love about this story is it's a perfect blend of nostalgia, moments where you're caught off guard with humor & gore is never used as a crutch for the genre thriller/horror type of story. I always had a passion for reading. I could never get enough and always kind of panicked that some day I would run out of books to read (Not just books of my personal collection but literally all the books in the library on topics like fiction, documentary style or autobiographies). I was ridiculously afraid that 1 day I would just run out of options.

I was born with a serious health issue In which one of the issues was that I lost my eyesight and ability to read. Stephen King was an author that up until '99 I'd read every single piece of literature (even his short columns that would be in magazines in the early parts of his career that some eventually became publication). I wasn't as adverse to the fear and horror aspects that came with his stories initially though over time I was less inclined to read something scary as I had started to see enough real life horrors. Joyland ironically was one of my last books I ever read. Even though I was adverse to the horror story style, I did not ever become adverse to the style of the way in which Stephen King writes. So I did continue finding books of his that maybe had slightly less of pure terror that was enough to keep me up at night. I still held love of his writing style that I had fallen in love with so many years ago. After losing my eyesight when my friends add family so eagerly tried to introduce me to audiobooks I was skeptical at first.
All I can say is I am glad I never closed myself off completely to the idea because I found Audible & when I came across Joyland I couldn't have been more thrilled. This book brought me right back In time and it's a story which I'd always held high appreciation for because even if you never had summer vacations, went to the beach or amusement parks you could easily find them in this story, and if you were someone like myself that had memories of summer's on beaches and rickety amusement parks this is also perfect. I strongly recommend this one.

One of Kings best

I love Stephen King. His characters are so compelling, his story lines are wonderfully perverse. Sometimes he blathers on too long and sometimes he does not.
This is one of those stories that is just right, perfect.

Very heart warming

The reader was excellent and the story was touching you with enjoy it as much as I did

Perfection

my favorite King book has become even better through the narration. Cannot recommend this enough

Just what I needed

A huge thank you to Mr. Stephen King and Mr. Michael Kelly. This book was exactly what I needed during a very difficult time in my life. The story, the characters, and the narrators, perfect reading voice transported me from the chaos bouncing around between my ears to a midsize southern theme park and a life of a kid just transitioning from boyhood to manhood. I loved it! I’ve been a King fan for years, and this story has now been added to a long list of favorites. I’ve never heard Michael Kelly narrate a book before, but I have been a fan of his acting and hope he narrates more books. His reading voice and character personas were perfect. I do not write many audiobook reviews. Basically, I only leave a written review for books that really touch me. The ones that wish could go on longer so I can continue being part of the characters’ lives. I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a great mental vacation with a just little bit of the darkness only Stephen King can conjure.

Simply the BEST

One of my best listens ever. Worthy of a 6th star in all categories. More please.