The number one best seller: King at the peak of his powers - at once a first-rate suspense novel, a legal thriller, a haunted house story and a love story.

When Mike Noonan's wife dies unexpectedly, the best-selling author suffers from writer's block. Until he is drawn to his summer home, the beautiful lakeside retreat called Sara Laughs.

Here Mike finds the once familiar town in the tyrannical grip of millionaire Max Devore. Devore is hell-bent on getting custody of his deceased son's daughter and is twisting the fabric of the community to this purpose.

Three year old Kyra and her young mother turn to Mike for help. And Mike finds them increasingly irresistible.

But there are other more sinister forces at Sara Laughs - and Kyra can feel them too....

Listening Length

21 hours and 21 minutes
Author

Stephen King
Narrator

Stephen King
Audible release date

15 August 2006
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder Headline Limited
ASIN

B00NX6JRJS
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	21 hours and 21 minutes
Author	Stephen King
Narrator	Stephen King
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	15 August 2006
Publisher	Hodder Headline Limited
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00NX6JRJS
Best Sellers Rank	11,831 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 29 in Ghost Horror Fiction 113 in Ghost Stories 115 in Supernatural Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		17%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Mshell

Different

Reviewed in Australia on 22 July 2020

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This was a different kind of novel from the King. There were times when I went back to the beginning, or looked up to the author to make sure I was still reading the same book and confirm who wrote it. It’s good. He comes through in the end. That’s all that matters;)

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Robyn Land

One of the best.

Reviewed in Australia on 31 August 2020

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There was nothing I disliked at all. Couldn't put it down.

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JAMES BROWN

A well written thriller

Reviewed in Australia on 11 December 2016

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At times I found this storey confusing or frustrating but also compelling to read . A good book well written because it comes together in the end .

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Kris

Paperback.

Reviewed in Australia on 12 May 2021

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I would have preferred the hardback version but it was delivered earlier than expected (within 5 days of ordering).

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Amazon Customer

A good read

Reviewed in Australia on 18 June 2017

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I found it hard to put down. It is Steven Kings best. I wanted to keep reading till I reached the end even if I kept reading late into the night

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KIm Hulme

Bag of Bones

Reviewed in Australia on 29 October 2015

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One of my new favourites! I was glued to my iPad from start to finish. One to read again for sure!

One person found this helpful

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Pat McDonald

Stephen King at his best, I recommend the audio book read by him.

Reviewed in Australia on 6 April 2018

A superb ghost story that I read some years ago, and have only just revisited by listening to the audio book narrated by Stephen King. Mesmerised by how the inner voice of the book matches so wonderfully with the voice of King, why wouldn’t it? The only problem with audiobooks is they are often ‘read’ by people with awful voices; not so this! I got so much more from this because now I am also a fiction author the experiences of Mike Noonan a professional author gave me great insight into writing, and especially King’s own experiences. Having read him On Writing (the only book ‘on writing’ I have ever read) this book was truly enlightening. King at his best. Pat McDonald British Crime Author

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John M. Ford

Good Reading on Three Levels

Reviewed in Australia on 2 October 2014

I'll risk looking gushy and amateurish according to the standards of book reviewing (see The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing ) by giving Bag of Bones 5 stars. So be it--I'll leave the literary analysis to those more qualified. I'll skip a plot summary, too, since there's a nice one-pager for this book on Wikipedia. Bag of Bones stands out from three different perspectives. If you connect with even one of them, the read is well worth your time.

First, it's a solid ghost story. The protagonist, Mike Noonan, begins by dealing with events in the natural world. Chief among them are his writer's block and the aching absence of his late wife. He gradually encounters the supernatural. We marshal our courage with him as he meets frightening people, both alive and dead. He has to figure out what to believe and who to trust. And we have to figure out the nuts and bolts of the author's supernatural world, what creatures inhabit it, and what they can do. What they can do to Mike--and how he can fight back.

Second, it's a typically good Stephen King story. There is a complexity in both the seen and unseen worlds that engages the reader. There are walk-on characters and passing references from his other works. These are enjoyable for experienced fans, but aren't necessary to enjoying the book or figuring out its supernatural world. There are few enough main characters that we can get to know them. And sufficiently many that the story can still go on after we lose some.

My third reaction is more personal. I read Bag of Bones about a year after my wife Lynnette passed away unexpectedly. I had gone through my numb, zombie phase and was beginning to function a bit more normally. Part of this was getting over sort of a "reader's block." I just couldn't read without her there. It's hard to explain, but I wouldn't have to explain it to someone who has been there. Or to Stephen King, it seems. I was helped--and impressed--by King's detailed understanding of the pain of losing a spouse. As far as I know, he has not been through this, making his skill as a writer more impressive for his having captured it so well.

He shows us how an interrupted life creates questions and doubts. Little things found in a pocketbook or closet raise questions that would be easily answered if they could be asked. Since they can't, we worry away at them, building them into patterns of greater worry. We do something similar as we relive old discussions, regretting small things we have said or left unsaid. King weaves these themes into the fabric of his story. As I appreciated them in the story, I also understood them better in my own world. I found some peace from this understanding that I am grateful for.

I recommend diving into this book, leaving the plot summaries and literary analysis for after the fresh first reading. It's good reading whether you huddle on the couch with a paperback or plug an audio book into your ear for comfort as you trudge alone along the cold paths of the winter night. It's good reading and good writing.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Lili

As captivating as it was 15 years ago

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2019

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It's my second time reading this book.
The first time was during summer, 15 years ago. I was totally absorbed by the book.
The characters, the location everything was so new to me and I remembered enjoying every moment of my reading, so a month ago I decided to re read it but in English this time (I read it in French the first time).
I must admit I had forgotten the story so it was like ready it for the first time and I loved it as much, maybe even more since I am now older, there is things I can understand better.
You get attached to the characters, you hope thinfs are not what they are and you want everyone to be happy, but life catch up with us and we have to face the fact that life is hard, things don't always go the way we want them to. This book is also a great reminder of what is important to us, sometimes it's good to pause and see what really matters.

9 people found this helpful

Graham G Grant

‘A taste for spooks’

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2022

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Bag of Bones, published in the late ‘90s, ticks all or most of the boxes for recognisable King tropes - including a writer seeking sanctuary at a remote retreat in a sinister, tight-knit community with plenty of dark secrets. The log-built, lakeside house where bestselling author Mike Noonan goes after his wife Jo’s premature death in Derry seems to be the perfect place for him to grieve, but there’s a problem - it’s haunted. Meanwhile, Mike is caught up in a local custody dispute involving an almost comically evil software tycoon desperate to wrest his granddaughter away from her librarian mother after the death of the little girl’s father. At times it reads like Grisham with a supernatural twist. But in its most memorable passages, it’s pure horror, of the heart-pumping kind it’s impossible to stop reading. The momentum is thrilling and relentless as the novel reaches its closing stages. Some of the sections I like most relate not to the ghouls terrorising Mike and other characters, but to more pedestrian scenes where Mike is writing, or talking about writing. King is good at writing about writers, and about his trade - eg Misery and The Dark Half. It’s a long read (with some questionable spectral sex scenes) and at times there’s a slight sag in the narrative pace, but it rapidly picks up again. In the King canon, Bag of Bones is perhaps nothing out of the ordinary - it could be said to be pretty formulaic by his standards. But it works by bringing to life a small community haunted by a horrific past, and the life of the first-person narrator, Mike - level-headed and witty, wise and likeable, even as his entire life is turned on its head… King’s novels are so densely textured that they quickly become immersive and the reader invests heavily in the protagonists, and the plot. The stories go far beyond superficial shock and horror, creating incredibly detailed portraits of people and places. In that sense, Bag of Bones is an important King novel, offering many insights into his views on writing (through Mike’s eyes) while spinning a ghostly yarn that quickly becomes addictive. Mike says at the end that he’s ‘lost his taste for spooks’. But if you’re a King fan, and haven’t already encountered Bag of Bones, you should read it; if you’ve not read any of his work, this is as good a place to start as any - in the darker recesses of New England, in the company of perhaps the greatest storyteller of modern popular literature…

One person found this helpful

Adnan Soysal

what a disappointment

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2020

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Very disappointed.
This was my first Stephen King novel, and very disappointing.
Earlier I read his non-fiction book, ON WRITING. And I was very inspired by the way he looks at the writing.
Of course other thing I was wondering was the magic behind his novels' sales numbers.
But then again, WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.

I guess his sales numbers are rising on his powerful ordinary, middle class American language , and narrative.
Well I do not want to be very prejudged here without reading his other novels, but this side of him is very powerful).
Reader would love his books even without a story.
When I was learning English, I loved the American accent. And I was wondering how ordinary, middle class American would talk.
If you are like that also, then Stephen King is your author.

Story of the book is very chaotic, messy, well if there is one.
While reading, eventually I started to think that this book was scheduled on demands of publishers, and written without passion.

In fact plot is a story of a blocked writer.
And writer decides to go to their second house near a lake after the mysterious death of his wife, and starting to feel blocked.
And this house is haunted. But he just kept staying there, and goes through the entire thrill, and horror.
Maybe, in this book, Stephen King is confessing his psychology and his relations with publishers.

Well if you take only this book of his as a reference point, then you can conclude that Stephen King is a big commercial popular writer with very shallow psychological and philosophical fiction.
Saying that he is fantastic reflecting the psychology of ordinary, middle class American, sometime, maybe most of the time, moronic ones.

He is wonderful at keeping the suspense geared up with his powerful narrative.
This is maybe the most powerful thing about him.
Suspense.
How does he create that?
As you read through you start to move into a sphere, a journey that even the author does NOT know where it heads on.
Then you start feeling like like you are journeying together with author, or even on your own.
In a way, he steals your conscious, and this sucks you into the story.

Well saying that quiet often your journey gets smashed, and then you disengage from the story.
Why?
Because story becomes boring.
Take this for example.
He starts talking with ghosts in the house, even cooperating with them. And sometimes he faces their terror, horror in a so cool way.
And all this happens so naturally ordinarily, then suspense disappears, And it becomes boring, and then you disengage.
Yes it is a fiction, but too much of, bad, and a boring one.

and then take the number of people in the 150 years of history of house and the surrounding of the lake.
Soooo many names,
and then I had to look at Internet to recap who is who and who did what.

A few words on the nook itself.
I loved the fonts of the book. A novel should be written with these fonts and size.
Also split of the book into 29 chapters sizing from 15 to 30 pages makes it easier to set milestones for reading.

3 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Massive King Fan..... Greatly Disappointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 April 2022

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Let me start by saying I'm a massive King Fan, and love nearly all of his books (having read about 90% of them), however I've found Bag of Bones just awful. I have no idea how it's received such great reviews. I look forward to reading whatever book I'm currently into nearly every night as I winddown for bed, but with Bag of Bones it's more of an arduous task that I have to complete..... and have nearly give up on several times. Kings writing is fabulous as usual but I think the characters are poor (particularly the two main leads). If anything, I'd say the book would be more aimed toward females as it's more of annoyingly and somewhat cheesly romantic story/theme, peppered with the occasional supernatural.

As a benchmark of taste though, my personal favourites are Needful Things, Salem's Lot, Duma Key, Outsider, Revival and many more.

I'm also a happily married man with 4 girls and hence enough romance/girl stuff to fill a lifetime ;)

Chris Wood

Its not SK's best.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2019

Verified Purchase

Writing this review a few weeks after I finished the book I cannot remember what it was about! I can remember doggedly carrying on reading (to get my monies worth) and hoping it would end soon so I could start a book that would be worth reading and entertaining. SK's glory days are long past and he churns these lumps of dross out just to earn more money that he probably doesn't need and because his publishers know they will earn too. Its an affront to people like me who respected SK as an author and imaginative story teller.

6 people found this helpful

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