Joyland by Stephen King

After being disappointed in the last few King books, I am excited to say that I believe this new novel is one of the best he's ever written.

Those who anticipate a horror novel will perhaps be disappointed, since this one has no really creepy bits and only a touch of the supernatural. Admittedly, King is the Modern Master of Scarey; the novel It gave me bad dreams and I still feel anxious when I think about it. But he is capable of excelling in other genres as well: post-apocalyptic (The Stand), psychological thriller(Misery), fantasy (The Dark Tower series), western (again The Dark Tower), historical (11/22/63), mystery (The Colorado Kid), and coming-of-age (many of his novels, most notably the novella "The Body").

Joyland is a combination of genres, as are many King books. It's a mystery thriller with a few supernatural aspects combined with a very convincing coming-of-age story. The hero (in every sense of the word) is a 21-year-old college student with a heart which has been broken by his first love who takes a summer job at an old-style amusement park, where he encounters a mystery, perhaps a ghost, danger, and the untimely deaths of innocents. Most of all he grows up.

King has an uncanny ability to delineate characters who seem so real you feel as if you could pick them out in a crowd. He is surprisingly adept, at age 60+, at conveying what it feels like to be young and confused. These talents are on display here in spades.

Many would denigrate King and classify him as a genre hack, but if a reader is looking for a good story with believable characters, an understanding of real people and how they behave in situations of stress, prose that is highly readable and natural, and even important themes that are relevant to real life, Stephen King, when he is at his best, is your man.