Actually Reading the Book I’m Named After (And All of Stephen King’s Other Work)

Before reading: Joyland  is the second story King put out under the crime/noir Hard Case Crime books after The Colorado Kid. I ended up liking TCK more than I expected to so I'm hopeful for this one. I know literally nothing about the plot but I do enjoy a little palette cleanser.  After reading: This is quite a short book so sadly this will be quite a short review.  This book, along with King's other Hard Case Crime stories, are some of the rare ones that have absolutely nothing to do with other King books. Yes, there are mentions of Maine in this one, but if you're just a crime/noir genre fan, you could completely read this as your first King book.  However...is this a crime book? I don't know, I guess technically it is butttttt. Going into this expecting a mystery/crime story, I was pretty disappointed. Let's start with the positives. This is Stephen King. The characters are great, the setting is detailed and immersive, the prose is great, and the story has a lot...

Before reading: I don't really feel like saying anything here, I'm just so excited and my heart is so full to get to have a little kinda sorta journey back with the Ka tet. I'm not crying, you're crying. I'm also crying. After reading: And one more, I don't really feel like saying anything here either. So this one should be short and sweet for you. So good. It was so much fun to go back into this world and revisit these characters that we have spent so much time with and have been through so much together. It is a super quick read (it took me a hot minute because I took a vacation in the middle of it). It is just in-your-face fantasy and adventure. It really takes the more fantastical elements of the DT series and runs off with them. There is a lot of lore and world-building built in so that you're immediately back into this specific series. So much fun. We all know I'm a sucker for a story within a story. Well, this is a story within a story within a st...