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...

Before reading: Eeeek, I'm so excited. This is one of the big guns that I've been wanting to read for a long time. There are supposedly some Dark Tower  ties and this is also supposed to be King's greatest romance novel. I watched a few episodes of the show but other than that, I'm going in fairly blind. Let's gooooo! After reading: Wow wow wow. While this wasn't my favorite book from King, I can easily admit that it is truly one of his best. It is beautifully written, action-packed, sci-fi, romantic, scary, funny...it is literally all the things. I don't know how he did it but he did.  I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say this a million more times...but King's books are all about the characters. Yes, the overall plot of this book is going back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination...but is it really? Jake is the real story here and oftentimes, the plot isn't even on his mind. In my opinion the book was a little long and there ...

Before reading: A new King decade! Weirdly enough, this is the decade we started this journey in so I'm excited to circle back to it. This is a set of four novellas, two of which I am familiar with and two that I am not. This is usually a pretty good format from King so I'm excited to get into them. As usual, I will do an overall review as well as individual reviews for each story.  After reading: Wow wow wow. That was actually so good. Dare I say better than Different Seasons ? At first I would have said no, because Shawshank and The Body  are so so good. However, after stewing for a little bit I would say this one is actually better because all four stories are worth reading. While this is a very hard read because all of the stories are, get this, "full dark no stars," it is also an enjoyable read. In the afterword, King says what ties these stories together is the fact that they are all about dark and terrible situations and how people would respond to them. While ...

Before reading: Here we are again...a short story collection. I will say after the last collection I do have high hopes for this one but I am cautiously optimistic. As always, I will do an overall review of the collection as well as mini reviews of each individual story. Let's do it.  After reading: Guess what, you guys? I actually enjoyed this short story collection. So far, it is my favorite that I have read. Now, the format still is not my favorite by any means, but as far as short story collections go I liked this one. Each of the stories were entertaining in their own right and I didn't find any of them to be too long. If you're looking for a collection of short stories...this is one I would recommend! Willa: I thought this was a great start to the collection. I liked this story quite a bit. The concept was really interesting and I think it was the perfect length for a short story. There was some cringey dialogue but I can forgive it. The Gingerbread Girl: I thought th...