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Abandoned by Booklikes

Government drone by day and book lover and geek girl by night!

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Joyland (Hard Case Crime)

Joyland (Hard Case Crime) - Stephen King
Man when Stephen King is "on" he is "on". I loved everything about this book. I am not going to lie, you have to get past the first few chapters because things kind of drag. When the main character goes back to his time before returning to college and his experiences at Joyland (amusement park in North Carolina) the book really starts to hum at that point.

The main character Devin Jones can be a bit whiny, and at times you may say to yourself boy get over it. But Stephen King really does write this character very well. An older man now looking back over his life and feeling some regret over things that have transpired. We have Devin looking back to his time when his first love was falling out of love with him and he took a summer job at an amusement park in order to make some money.

As someone who grew up in a small town I have to say that King hits all of the right notes for how children look at amusement parks like this. It feels like summer. I don't know how else to describe it. If feels like summer, you're happy. You have all of these people surrounding you and doing things in order to just make sure that the people there are happy. The closest I have felt like that since I was an adult was when I went to Disney World for my best friend's bachelorette party. I have never seen so many people that seemed quite happy to make sure you were having a good time.

Devin's feelings when he gets to Joyland and how he describes it and how good he feels to make sure that people are having a good time and the kids are happy was great. Mixed with that is his bitterness over his girlfriend for dumping him for another guy.

When Devin hears about a girl who was murdered by a stranger during one of the rides at the park, he finds himself getting focused on her and who did this to her. He wants to "meet" her or at least meet something that is more "other" because we readers realize that Devin is angry/suicidal and feeling lost. And something about the dead girl's story pulls at him and two other park employees who he becomes best friend's with for life.

Even though this is not a long book, it felt long (not a bad thing). I just gobbled this thing up within a day because I loved everything about it. Reading about how the rides work, how employees saw attendees, codes of conduct, etc. was pretty great. And once Devin meets two other people who are somewhat just as lost as he is right then in his life makes Joyland become bittersweet more than halfway through. Because you as a reader knows how King is, and you know how that is probably going to end.

The writing was great. For once I don't recall that many swear words (well not til the end I think) and I found myself relating to Devin a lot. And since we have a bit of religious evangelical in this book this book made me think of the nicer (slightly) side of Revival. The flow was not great in the beginning, but it improves the more you read.

The setting of Joyland felt real and really does evoke every memory I had as attending amusement parks when I was a kid.

The ending was bittersweet. I did find myself wanting to know more about Devin though. We get little hints and answers here and there, but for the most part he is left a mystery to readers. I am a bit surprised at that since King likes to spell things out for us Constant Readers more than not.