Plot
Devin Jones seeks refuge, after having his heart broken by his first great love, in a old fashioned amusement park called “Joyland.” While there, Devin learns to move on with his life with the help of his new and exciting surroundings, his blossoming friendships and amurder mystery that surrounds the Joyland Amusement Park. Throw in a ride haunted by the murdered girl and a physically disabled boy with ties to the other side and you have yourself a story by Stephen King.
source: bloody-disgusting.com
Review
I have been a Stephen King fan for as long as I can remember. I will give credit to my brother, Pete, for pushing me to read his novel “Salem’s Lot.” This was a time before vampires were cool and sparkly. Back when vampires were still creatures of the night that sought to suck your blood, not go to the prom with you. After that novel, I was hooked. The man can write horror like no other, though it is not just the horror that makes King a great author. No, the horror is what brings people in. What makes King a great author is how he shapes his characters and plot. Some have said that King is bloated when he writes and I tend to agree. He takes five pages to explain something what could only take a single page. He will add whole chapters that have no purpose except to emphasize a minute concept regarding the plot or a single character. While many see these traits as negative, I enjoy them. I think it adds more flavor to the soup and I enjoy King’s concoctions.
“Joyland” was probably the first King novel that I ever sought out the day it was released. I am an avid fan of crime novels and mysteries so when I heard that King was writing a novel for Hard Case Crime, a publishing company that focuses on pulpy material, I had to get my hands on it and check it out. The book is 288 pages long, which if you know Stephen King is about 500 pages shorter than his usual material. I also loved the basic plot of the story. It was a story that only a true master could pull off. It had a old amusement park. It had heart break. It had murder. It had supernatural elements. It was everything I could want in a pulp novel, yet something happened. Something unexpected – I didn’t really like it.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It is a good novel and one that I would recommend anyone to read but for me it lacked something that made it great. If you read this novel you will enjoy the characters. Devin Jones is a teenage everybody. You will understand his heartbreak and you will connect with him on a emotional side. The secondary characters are fully fleshed out and human. You feel for each of them. King has always been a pro at developing characters that are different and likable. They each have their own individual quirks and none of them are the same as the other.
No, the characters didn’t bother me, at least not entirely.
It was the story that bothered me. I picked up the novel thinking that it would be a murder mystery and while the mystery was at the core of the novel, it just took a backseat for most of the book, being brought up here and there and then being solved in the end. It was more of a coming of age story, which is all well and fine, except I wanted the murder mystery to be the main focus of the novel and for me it just wasn’t. I wanted a web of confusing clues that eventually come together to explain the crime. I wanted suspense of figuring out who did it and why. I wanted Chandler. I wanted Hammett. Sadly, I didn’t get either. Moments perhaps, but as a whole it was no wheres near. I guess I’ll take the blame for that. I built the story up to be something before I sat down to read it. I hate it when that happens, don’t you?
source: joblo.com
Another big issue I had with the book is that I have read it before, just with a different title and different circumstances. I have seen the coming of age story too many times by Stephen King. I know he can write them. I know he understands the minds of children and teens but when you’ve seen dozens of different adolescent children coming to terms with life it gets kind of boring and played out. I am happy that Devin grew up and got over his broken heart, but that was not entirely what I paid for. I paid for Stephen King not Nicholas Sparks. Another major plot point in the story is Devin’s growing friendship with a boy with a physical disability. The boy is wise beyond his years and, even at a young age, understands that he is going to die. Now, the character’s disability and his understanding of his own fate isn’t what makes this kid unique. No, this kid has the ability to see ghosts and have inclinations and premonitions of things that will happen in the future that eventually helps Devin in one way or another. Yeah, I’ve seen that before. A disabled boy with special powers? Look to “Dreamcatcher” if you want to see that. For me, that was all this novel was. Portions of great concepts from other King novels thrown together and tied up in a murder mystery. I would read a chapter and remember other books where King had done something similar. It actually took away from getting lost in this novel.
This review may come off as if I didn’t like the novel. It isn’t that at all. I appreciate the novel greatly and I am glad that I went out and bought it. At this moment there have been discussions that a movie will be made based on this novel. I think this novel has all the elements of a great feature film and I hope to see it on the big screen in the near future. Also, I think that this could be a great stepping stone for individuals who are seeking a way to understand how King works. Like I said earlier, it’s far shorter than King’s other materials and can give the reader a clear insight into how King’s stories unfold. Sadly, for me, after reading many of his other titles, it just seemed like recycled ideas around a promising, yet underused murder mystery.