I have a confession to make.
I have been a Stephen King fan since junior high school. I’ve read his books for decades. I own every single one of them. Every. Single. One. So when I discovered that I had somehow managed to miss “Joyland“, I was both shocked and slightly embarrassed. How does a person who has made it her personal mission to read everything Stephen King has written simply overlook an entire book?
Apparently, it happens.
Thankfully, someone in a book club group I belong to recently recommended “Joyland”. I didn’t waste any time wondering whether I should read it. Stephen King? A book I haven’t read? Obviously, I needed it immediately.
And I’m so glad I did.
“Joyland” takes us back to 1973 and a summer at a small North Carolina amusement park. Devin Jones is a college student looking for a summer job and perhaps a little escape from a broken heart. Instead, he finds himself working at Joyland, where there are colorful characters, carnival rides, summer romances, a decades-old murder mystery – and rumors that the ghost of the murdered girl still haunts one of the attractions.
But this isn’t simply a ghost story or a murder mystery. It’s a coming-of-age story wrapped up in the sounds, smells and slightly worn magic of an old-fashioned amusement park. It’s about friendship, heartbreak, growing up, the people who unexpectedly change our lives, and those strange little moments when we realize that childhood is slipping away and adulthood is waiting just around the corner.
And I loved it.
The characters. The dialogue. The setting. The mystery. The whole wonderfully strange little world of Joyland. King has a way of creating places that feel almost like characters themselves, and I could practically hear the carnival music, smell the cotton candy and feel the sticky summer heat while I was reading. There is something wonderfully nostalgic about it all, even though I never worked at an amusement park in 1973!
What surprised me most was how much heart this book has. Yes, there is a murder. Yes, there is a ghost. Yes, there are secrets lurking beneath the cheerful surface of Joyland. But underneath the mystery is a surprisingly tender story about life, loss and the people we meet along the way.
And there were moments when I found myself thinking about my Dad. This is one of those books I wish I could have handed to him and said, “Here. You need to read this one.” I know he would have loved it – the mystery, the characters, the old-fashioned feel of the story, and that little bit of the supernatural that Stephen King does so well. Knowing that made reading “Joyland” feel even more special somehow.
I also loved discovering that after all these years, Stephen King could still surprise me. I thought I knew his books. I thought I had already wandered through all of his strange little worlds. And then along comes “Joyland”, sitting quietly on the shelf all this time, waiting for me to finally find it.
Maybe that’s one of the best things about being a reader. There are always books waiting for us. Some we find exactly when we need them. Some we discover decades after everyone else. And every once in a while, we stumble across one that feels like it was waiting there just for us. “Joyland” was that book for me.
Five stars. Absolutely.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a very important question to ponder: “What other Stephen King book have I somehow managed to miss?” Because apparently, after all these years, I shouldn’t be trusted to know whether I’ve actually read them all. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing. There might still be a few more literary ghosts waiting for me at the end of the ride.
Have you read this book? Tell me what you thought about it in a comment below!
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