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    Joyland
    Joyland
    Joyland
    Audiobook7 hours

    Joyland

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Michael Kelly

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “Joyland is a breathtaking, beautiful, heartbreaking book....Even the most hardboiled readers will find themselves moved” (Charles Ardai, Edgar- and Shamus Award-winning editor of Hard Case Crime).

    Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever. Joyland is a brand-new novel and has never previously been published.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJun 4, 2013
    ISBN9781442359925
    Joyland
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

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    Reviews for Joyland

    4/5

    2,091 ratings182 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great book and EXCELLENT narrator! Not nearly as dark as some of King’s other books.
    • 5/5
      This was not what I expected, but in a good way. The author takes you carefully through the story in a way that you can very much for late too. It had a very feel good ending was very wholesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book. The narrator was really good too. I'm not going to give it away because you're going to read this right now. Just do it you can thank me later
    • 4/5
      I believe doing this in audio definitely added something to the tale.I thoroughly enjoyed narrator Michael Kelly.If you're looking for pure horror....this isn't it.But...it's definitely a good thriller (psychological and physical) with some very heart warming turns.
    • 5/5
      A thoroughly decent protagonist that you'll enjoy following through this best and worst season of his life. Great stuff from the master storyteller.
    • 4/5
      Another great book by Stephen King. I highly recommend all of his work, and, for those less interested in his pure horror/supernatural/thriller novels, "Joyland" offers a great balance between thrill and the narrator's more personal memories of the story. My only complaint about the book is that I found that the climactic scene came and went very quickly compared to the amount of space devoted to the rest of the story, but, overall, this is an excellent read.
    • 5/5
      I loved it. Very emotional. Can't say more or I'll ruin it!
    • 5/5
      A nice little story more about the characters than the crimes.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book so great would recommend 10/10 very touching’
    • 5/5
      Bombdigity! Got my attention so many times so many waysxD
    • 4/5
      A great summer time read! A college kid takes a summer job at Joyland, an amusement park by the beach in North Carolina. Of course, the Horror House ride is haunted by the ghost of a murdered woman, and the kid goes about trying to find out who did it! Lots of good detail about the carny life, especially "the Talk", their own, secret language for everything. A good, quick read, and in my opinion, perfect for summer!
    • 5/5
      Might be my favorite book of his. King has such an incredible way of building worlds and weaving the supernatural into stories that move you. Fantastic book and a solid narration, as well.
    • 3/5
      Well written but wasn’t as gripping as I expected for s Stephen King novel.
    • 4/5
      Gotta love a good Stephen King book.. this is actually one of his books where he doesn’t go off on a tangent that almost seems like a while other story. It flowed so perfectly, and the storyline was extremely intriguing. I kept trying to guess but didn’t know til it was revealed! King does a wonderful job pulling you into the amusement park: feel the wind whip thru your hair, feel yourself weightless as the ride drops quickly, and the smell of carnival food!
    • 4/5
      Joyland by Stephen King
      284 pages

      ★★★★

      I’ll start this by saying that with fewer than 300 pages, this Stephen King book comes in as the shortest I have ever read by him. Secondly, as others have pointed out, this isn’t a genre you’d normally see King writing – Mystery. But where is King’s genre now days? I’ve seen general fiction and non-fiction by this guy all over the place the last few years. While he writes great horror, I think his days of only writing horror is long behind us.

      So what are my thoughts on this book? As usual, King manages to write a descriptive and wonderful book and while there are some paranormal aspects in this book, they are not the main focus. Instead it is a great coming-of-age story of a guy named Devin and the mystery he gets himself entangled into while working at the Joyland Amusement Park. I loved the main character, Devin, and I also fell in love with Mike – it was hard not to like that boy! I wish it had focused a bit more on the mystery. It seemed to jump into the story once in awhile, then just take a long break while other subjects were taken care of. Regardless of that, I finished this book way quicker than expected because I was sucked in. And as much as I don’t see myself as a mystery reader, this book kept my interest. I had a cocky “I know who did it” attitude but I was wrong – go figure, which is the making of a good mystery novel to me. What’s the point of a mystery if there’s no mystery to it? Another thumbs up for Stephen King in this interesting, quick book.
    • 4/5
      Made me feel like I was back in tha day for real, not for play! That was tha shiznat! Steven King ain't no joke! Ok you wanted a review, I gave you one.
    • 5/5
      Awesome book and Narration. Maybe my favourite latter day King novel. He really sticks the ending. Highly recommended
    • 5/5
      This is a gem of a story. More mystery or crime than the horror a lot of readers would expect from King, this is built wholly on atmosphere and character and a few ghastly unsolved crimes. Call it crime fiction or ghost story or general fiction, though, and the result is the same. This is a fast and fun read with some wonderfully atmospheric illustrations, and escaping into it over the last few days was enchanting. The story here took me back to the Hardy Boys books I read as a kid (yep, I read Hardy Boys, not Nancy Drew, girl or no)--feeling-wise, this is the adult version of those escapades, but told in a manner that brings each wonderful scene to life and leaves the characters mumbling their worries in your brain.All told, this is a King book for King fans and readers who haven't delved into his work, but enjoy mysteries and the occasional ghost. It's full, it's fun, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
    • 4/5
      I haven't read Stephen King in years, I'm glad I picked up Joyland.
    • 5/5
      Great book with a super sad ending. I never wanted to stop listening. There are a lot of small details that can get lost if you aren’t listening closely
    • 5/5
      I’m so glad this story wasn’t like all those other amusement park/carnival type horror stories.
      I wouldn’t even put this in the horror category nor would I consider this a thriller. It was like reading an old school murder mystery.
      This was a coming of age story with paranormal elements. It’s was magic in the making....not some cheap thrill ride.
    • 5/5
      Just a good story written by a King’s hand—loved it all.
    • 5/5
      Bar none, remains one of my all-time favorite coming of age stories, nevermind the thriller story that rides at its coattails. Wonderful book read expertly by just the right man for the protagonist (and Kelly does a great job of voicing the other characters as well, appropriately and distinctly).
    • 5/5
      I love Steven King, but this one is a favorite. The writing is picturesque and the narrator fit perfectly - highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      unsettling and heartbreaking. classic King.
    • 4/5
      It’s 1973 and Dev Jones has come to work as a carny. During his summer there he meets all sorts of people including a young boy Mike and his mother Annie. Dare Dev go into the house of horror and confront the ghost of a murdered girl.My Thoughts:Stephen King is one of my all time authors and he has left his mark as the king of horror. So when he delves away from the genre to do something different, in this case a crime novel, does it work ?This case yes it did. The book had an element of a ghost story and a crime that was to be solved by Dev our hero. The story was also a coming of age story as we follow Dev around the fairground. The plot was OK but the book was Stephen King. I was quite surprised how much I did enjoy this book as I do think sometimes authors need to stick at what they are good at. However because it was SK who wrote this then that adds that extra something. I would say it is along the lines of books like ’The Body’. Not for fans of King who want the gory horrors that he does but perhaps for a change something different that worked really well.
    • 4/5
      This one was very enjoyable, a nice story. Great narration. More of a people story than a horror story, not gory. Ranks right up there with my favorites of his.
    • 4/5
      Another short mystery novel by Stephen King, easy to read, that engages from cover to cover. A broken-hearted kid accepts a summer job in an amusement park. There, he will learn about a murder in the horror house that will change his life, and that of the friends he will make there.
    • 5/5
      This was a fun short story. A little supernatural but more heartwarming characters that you wish you had known.
    • 5/5
      Definitely a personal favorite couldn’t get enough great book !!