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)

Lisey's horror Story

Quite the little chiller. A troubled writer's past. And where reality clashes with fiction. Lisey's Story doesn't let you believe for one second that the master writer of horror has gone soft. There's plenty of blood that soaks the walls.

Heartfelt, Gut-wrenching, and Mind-blowing!

I have read many, many books, including several of Stephen King's novels. This is hands down my favorite by King as well as one of my all time favorite modern books. I have read my paperback copy to the point of it splitting in half, my hard cover so much so that I no longer keep the dust jacket on, and I have listened to this audio recording 3 times now. Every time I experience this story I take something new from it and lack the words to explain how deeply it moves me. Mare Winningham does such a fantastic job of narrating that she has now become the voice of Lisa Landon in my mind's ear. Thank You Both Stephen and Mare for bringing this story to life!

Sincerely,
Melissa McGhee

Great Story with Fantastic Narration

I enjoy Setphen King's wordplay even when it involves made up words. It might be too much time inside the character's heads and not enough action and horror for some readers, but it was just the right amount of character development for me. I don't have to like any of the characters in a book to enjoy it if they are interesting and thought provoking enough. There was a tender and compelling love story along with all the pain and terror. It was just the right amount of sweet and sour for me and Mare Winningham did an excellent job! At the end I just wanted her to read more stories to me.

Not your normal Stephen King

I really like Stephen King and have read most of his books. This book although very good, was also very long. It is written from the female perspective and I am sure women will enjoy it. For me it was overly descriptive and a little too long. If I were to do it over again this is one of the few books I would get the abridged version of if available.

A Stephen King Hit

A Stephen King hit. The events already happened. The main character, Linsey, tells the story as a flashback. It centers around her life with her very well known dead author husband Scott. Linsey also has 3 sisters, each having their own unique personality.

What is reality really? How do you know if other realities exist. Maybe some people can go to the other reality. Can anyone actually handle two different realities and stay sane?

Steven King is takes the reader to Castlerock, Maine. Scott is dead. Linsey is left to sort through his office at the same time dealing with her sisters varying personalities. So many people are interested in Scott’s work. Some crazy people. Much of this book is about the skeletons in Scott’s closet. Very horrible skeletons.

I listened to the Audible version read by Mare Winningham. This was so well done I was trying to stay awake at night to keep going. A page turner I guess you could say. What an awesome experience this one was.

Story was ok...performance was terrible

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Narration

How could the performance have been better?

The accents were terrible. Every accent sounded like a southern accent no matter if the characters were supposed to be from New England or Western Pennsylvania. Having grown up in Western Pennsylvania I can honestly say that this was the worst attempt I have ever heard at duplicating the accent.

Wow!

I finished this book in a day and a half! Not once did I get bored, I couldn't stop listening. The story is great and heartfelt and the narration is just as great!! Hated to hear it end.

Lisey’s Story

I read this book when it first came out. Not sure I understood it, so I decided to listen to it. Made a little more sense, but still super confusing to me.
Interesting how Stephen King’s mind works.

Wonderful!

This is a rather unexpected book. It was very different than I anticipated. The element of phantasy and that of horror were far from what I had imagined the story would be like. It was well worth the listen. I loved it. You probably will too.

Welcome to Boo 'ya Moon

It was a struggle to finish especially during the middle but after finishing it, it turned out to be a really good story.