Joyland
By Stephen King
2013, Hard Case Crime
Paperback, 285pp
This novel,
which is somewhere around Stephen King’s fiftieth, rather than being released
by his normal publishing house, has gone out as one of the Hard Case Crime
series [No. 112] by [in the Uk] Titan Books. So it was with a little
trepidation that I decided to read this; I expected something hard case, hard
boiled, noir, but generally different to the usual King ride. I got no such
thing.
JOYLAND
could easily have been published as regular King. A quick plot; set in the
early 1970’s, Devin Jones, a 21 year old
college boy, takes a summer out to work in Joyland, a North Carolina amusement
park. There he makes new [lifelong] friends, learns the Talk and Ways of the
carny-folk, becomes reknowned for his skills in performing as Howie the Hound
Dog, the park’s mascot, and gets highly interested in a girl who was murdered
inside the Horror House ride. As college beckons, and his friends head for
school, Devin stays around, cultivating a relationship with local Annie Ross,
and her young disabled kid, Mike, who is slowly dying of muscular dystrophy.
All the strands of the plot come together towards the end; Devin has worked out
that The Carny Killer murdered much more than just one girl, and also that they
might be closer to him that he had ever realised.
JOYLAND is a
good novel, enjoyable, with some well-drawn and interesting characters. I found
it very much to be instantly recognisable as a Stephen King story; his
trademarks of style are here, as well as trademarks of plot. In some ways, with
a new carny setting, it seems like a distillation and continuation of some of
King’s past themes, especially so with the disabled kid Mike [well realised,
great character] who has some uncanny touches of intuition. In fact, far from
being a hard crime novel, this is very much typical and highly enjoyable
Stephen King, with a serial killer, some ghosts and some characters with psyhcic
abilities [King never mentions the Sh- word, so neither will I]. I easily found
myself believing in the main characters, enjoying the mystery, and being
excited in finding out who the villain was. I was slightly disappointed with
the resolution of the mystery, and with the ending to the plot, although the
book itself ends on a thoughtful and slightly melancholic note.
In summary,
this is good stuff; unusually, I found the middle third to be the strongest and
most compelling, but the whole is an engaging crime and ghost story, and
regular King readers who enjoy the horror should not be disinclined to read
this because of the heavily indicated crime aspect. JOYLAND continues to
demonstrate that each new Stephen King work that appears is certainly something
to be enjoyed and celebrated. 8/10
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