Bag of Bones

I had never read a Stephen King novel, despite having heard numerous times that King is the most amazing storyteller of our time. So when I came across Bag of Bones at The Goodwill in Gresham, Oregon for $3.99 I decided to find out for myself.

Right off the bat, yes, he is a very good storyteller. This novel was perfectly timed, all the way to the climax when the reader is able to put all the pieces together and suddenly see the big picture. All the tiny glimpses of plot, that often I hadn't realized were actually crucial chunks of information, finally made sense.

But as a Christian reader, well, it's not a book I can recommend. King's imagery is often crass, the book is riddled with profanity and there is a very strong sexual theme throughout. There are ghost and ghouls and psychic abilities that come to the main character as the book progresses. In the end, there are two scenes involving the drowning of kids that I skipped over, and the brutal gang rape and murder of a woman (several pages I also skipped). It's all central to the plot- the murders and the rape- and it works to make sense of the whole book, but it is detailed and disturbing.

And with that I complete my foray into Stephen King novels. One was more than enough for me.