Stephen King, Bag of Bones

I have never read a Stephen King novel before. It's astonishing, really. I'd read his book on writing, but never a novel. I stayed away, I think, because horror doesn't appeal to me—I don't really want to have my pants scared off. But while Bag of Bones is definitely scary in parts, it probably doesn't qualify as horror. At any rate, I fell into it almost accidentally, and came up for air infrequently. It was quite good, and what excites me about this, of course, is that King has written about 17 gazillion other books, which are now looking rather inviting.

Bag of Bones is a long read, but it never feels too long, even though there are parts that could probably have been left out. The world King creates here—an unincorporated area in western Maine designated as TR-90 on maps and referred to as the TR by locals—is very real, and his characters became real to me as well. In short, bestselling author Michael Noonan moves back to the TR four years after his wife dies and finds that the place is packing some scary secrets. The locals know a lot more than they're letting on, particularly because they're living under the thumb of evil computer magnate Max Devore, an ugly old man who's out to work evil unto his last breath. The book left me with a couple questions (e.g., did the owl thing peter out or did I miss something?) but otherwise I'm pretty happy for the time I passed in its pages.