Lisey's Story

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Mare Winningham

Length: 19 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Now an Apple TV+ limited series starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen

The “haunting...tender, intimate book that makes an epic interior journey” (The New York Times), Lisey’s Story is a literary masterpiece - an extraordinarily moving and haunting portrait of a marriage and its aftermath.

Lisey lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a 25-year marriage of profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, best-selling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey knew there was a place Scott went - a place that both terrified and healed him, could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, to go to that terrifying place known as Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited.

“Intricate...exhilarating” (The New Yorker), perhaps Stephen King’s most personal and powerful novel ever, Lisey’s Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love. It is a beautiful, “rich portrait of a marriage, and the complicated affection that outlives death” (The Washington Post).

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©2006 Stephen King (P)2006 Simon and Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"As much about the facets of longtime marriage as it is about the characters themselves, Lisey's Story offers a poignant glimpse at abiding love and the tides of grief, and the internal language of relationships of all kinds." (Atlantic Monthly)

"In Lisey's Story, Stephen King makes bold, brilliant use of his satanic storytelling gift, his angelic ear for language, and above all his incomparable ability to find the epic in the ordinary." (Michael Chabon)

"Lisey's Story is bright and brilliant. It's dark and desperate. While I'll always consider The Shining, my first ride on King's wild Tilt-A-Whirl, a gorgeous, bloody jewel, I found, on this latest ride, a treasure box heaped with dazzling gems. A few of them have sharp, hungry teeth." (Nora Roberts)

Stephen King at his worst... Don't bother

Long, slow paced, not scary, very "Lovecraftian".
Made me wonder, did he really write it, or did his wife, and he slapped his name on it?
Mare Winningham's narration saves it.

One of, if not THE, best offerings from King

One of Stephen King's most poetically and elegantly written books, superbly read. Tells a great story in a way that asks for a very special kind of connection to the characters and brings them to life.

amazing as always!

King always finds a way to make me feel like I'm sitting right in front of his stories, watching them for myself. bravo again! the narrator was wonderful, absolutely thrilled with this book.

Mostly a love story, wonderful narration

What does Mare Winningham bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She really nails the emotional arcs of all the characters and brings each to life. Much of the dialog (especially the annoying use of "smucking") would have been grating indeed without her nuance. And when she does Lisey, she brings to life the loss and grief of losing your husband.

Any additional comments?

This book took me a while to truly get into (and some of the sayings used by the characters got grating, especially "smucking"), but I'm so glad that I stuck it out. It ended up being a wonderful blend of the horror King is known for (though in a subtler and more psychologically flavored variety) and the intense character study that he does so well. It is really one part psychological horror, one part contemplation of creativity, and three parts love story. The story follows the widow (the titular Lisey) of a famous author (Scott Landon) as she copes with his death and begins to allow herself to remember the darkness that her husband had to wrestle with as a child and into adulthood. The story toggles from present day to Lisey's life with Scott to Scott's childhood, and the characters shift from our world to another world where Scott has gone throughout his life for respite and for healing. While there is certainly plenty of the fantastic in Lisey's Story, the horror comes not only from the dark things that lurk in the other world, but also from all too mundane earthly horrors (in the form of a mentally ill father in Scott's early life, an unhinged fan during Scott and Lisey's marriage, and a final stalker who demands things of Lisey that she cannot give). Exploring mental health, sisterhood and brotherhood, love, and creativity, King has crafted a lovely book where the scariest thing of all might be having to say goodbye to the love of your life.

One of my favorites!

We have come to believe that Stephen King is solely a horror writer, an artist who steeps himself in the darkest, most twisted places of the mind. Lisey's Story is a love story, and King does a marvelous job of explaining a very complicated relationship. It was not syrupy or maudlin. Just true. Whether it was autobiographical or not is unimportant. To strip these characters of all pretense was. He does a masterful job of portraying a very real love story. I was mesmerized and moved by the characters. Kudos to King.

Beautiful and terrefying

I'm well on my way of devouring all his novels. And however gruesome or spellbinding they have been. None of them has scared me this much. There's something about little Scott Landon that gets at you. Nor has any of his books been so heartfelt and down right beautiful. (The love story in 22/11/63, included.)

Also, the narrator is out of this world, down right awesome. She nails the dialogs.

Do yourself a favor, and listen closely to this book.

//Vibeke Specht, Malmö, Sweden.

A little hard to follow

The story started off a bit slow and was very confusing actually. About Mid story it picked up and started to make sense. It ended very good though. Not my Favorite King book but not terrible either. Middle of the road. 11.22.63 is still my favorite. If you haven't read it, go read it instead of this one!

<3

I’m ashamed to say that I put off reading this book for more than a decade because love stories just aren’t my thing. Im glad I relented because I loved this love story. Only Stephen King could find a way to weave such an intimate love into a truly scary story. This book gutted me. It reached right into my chest and gave my soul a squeeze- I loved every minute of it. The narration was perfect, I loved this book tremendously.

Stephen King is a Godsend

Honestly I read this back in 2008 and I didn't like it, but I got it to listen to at work to pass time, which was a bad idea. This audio book captivated me allowing me to see this book in a whole new way. It really is an epic tale of love, paranormal, and all sorts of emotions. Kudos to King on this one.

Great narration

The actor performing this story is superb King developed the characters very realistically
Loved the plot