The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Bag of Bones':
Reviewer amazon.co.uk wrote:Bag of Bones is partly inspired by Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca, but there's more than homage in this novel of horror and romance. Like du
Maurier's Manderley, King's scary old place (on the shore of Maine's remote Dark Score Lake) is haunted by the late lady of the manor. There are
many gory ghosts afoot though: men, women and wailing kids. The hero, a thriller novelist, stirs up hell's angry shades while investigating his wife's
death. It turns out she either had a dark secret herself or was onto some dread scandal lurking in Dark Score Lake. As in King's previous book, Wizard
and Glass, the fabric of reality is thin and nosy narrators are in peril of plunging right out of this world and into a rather hostile otherworld.
Bag of Bones is a writer-haunted book, too. The spirits of Herman Melville and Ray Bradbury are deeply felt, and so are the tale's two romances (the
hero muses on his marriage and falls for a young single mum with a marvellous psychic daughter). There is also good- humoured satire of the real
bestseller book world--the hero complains that "the publicity process is like going to a sushi bar where you're the sushi." In its deep concerns with love,
sprawling families, the writer's life, endangered children and good old-fashioned storytelling, the book resembles a John Irving novel. It is also
absolutely classic Stephen King, packed with nifty turns of phrase, irreverent wit and lurid ghouls who grab you from beneath the bed while you cower
under the covers.
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