Book Review: Lisey’s Story by Stephen King

As a Stephen King fan, I was interested to check out this novel about an author’s widow dealing with her husband’s demons. It seemed to be a subject that King would know a lot about. After all, if anyone’s wife has to deal with some intense demons, I’d say it’s Tabitha King. You don’t just forget that your husband has created some of the scariest characters in fiction. But what does a widow do when she finds out that some of her late husband’s fictional demons were real?

Lisey’s Story follows Lisey Landon, the widow of Scott Landon, an incredibly popular author of thrillers. After Scott’s death, Lisey is besieged with calls from fans and collectors looking to secure unreleased works for themselves. One in particular is extremely pushy. All the while Lisey resists, not because she doesn’t want Scott’s work to find a home, but because it would mean she would need to clean out Scott’s office. She has been procrastinating, hoping to put off reliving memories for as long as possible.

As Lisey starts to clean out her late husband’s office, we learn more about Scott Landon through her memories. Scott had demons that Lisey tried to forget about. But when Scott’s fanatical fans start getting threatening, and Lisey’s sister winds up in the nuthouse, Lisey needs to remember Scott’s demons and his escape in order to save her own life and her sister’s.

While not my favorite King book ever, Lisey’s Story definitely shows off his excellent story-telling skills. I found that I wasn’t all that interested in Lisey’s crazy sister Manda or whether or not the crazy people seeking Scott’s unpublished works would get them out of Lisey, but I still kept reading because the journey Lisey was on was interesting. It’s an extremely long novel, but if you’re a King fan it’s definitely worth the read.

Lisey’s Story is available for the Kindle and in paperback