College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life—and what comes after—that would change his world forever. With all the emotional impact of King masterpieces such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, JOYLAND is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled of readers profoundly moved.
Amazon.com
Joyland feels like a bit of a departure from the type of creepy, gruesome stories King is typically known for, but for me that wasn't a bad thing at all. I will say though, if you go into this looking for classic King horror, you may be left somewhat wanting. If you just like his writing in general and are down to try anything he churns out, I definitely recommend this one because it seems to have a little bit of everything to it -- ghost story, murder mystery, coming of age tale.
This story opens in the 1970s, on the North Carolina coast area. College freshman Devin Jones suffers his first major heartbreak when his girlfriend blows him off for guys at her new college. To help take his mind off things, he decides to take a summer job at the amusement park Joyland. He also spends his off-hours going through his vinyl record collection, playing all his darkest music. As Devin describes it, he had "such a bad case of the 21s." :-P While working at the park, Devin finds out about a murder that was committed on one of the park rides decades earlier, now leaving the ride (still in use) haunted by the spirit of the girl. Is there a possibility that the murderer is still out there, still targeting women at various amusement parks or carnivals?
While I ended up really enjoying this story as a whole, I will recommend to readers to be patient with the pace of the storytelling. It's definitely a character-driven slow burn. I mean, it's no secret to King fans that the man likes his descriptors! With the whole novel only being 309 pages, it took about 130 pages or so for the pace to really get going for me. Also something to be aware of -- there are no chapter breaks, only a little heart ♥ (which I thought was adorable for a Stephen King book lol) to break up sections. Oh, and if you start to miss classic King horror, no worries.. he wrote in a nice little spider dream sequence for all us arachnophobics. Blech!
It was definitely a fun read for someone who loves all things carney-themed like me. In fact, I read it right before I went to our local Fall season mountain fair, which had me looking at the rides a little differently that night! Still, a perfect fall read with just the right amount of spookiness. I would also recommend it for readers who haven't read any of King's books before and are maybe skittish or unsure of where to start, if they're not horror fans. Well, consider this one a King starter story ;-)
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