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Joyland Audiobook
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(4.67) - 3 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Stephen King's Joyland is now be available from Encore at a great low price!
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
“Joyland is a breathtaking, beautiful, heartbreaking book," said Charles Ardai, Edgar- and Shamus Award–winning editor of Hard Case Crime. "It’s a whodunit, it’s a carny novel, it’s a story about growing up and growing old, and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time. Even the most hardboiled readers will find themselves moved.”
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"I read a lot of Stephen King in college, so I thought I had seen just about every kind of writing he does. This touching coming of age story is quite unlike the Stephen King I know, but wonderful. Narrated by Michael Kelly (as my child puts it "Is that Doug (from House of Cards)?", it conveys all the emotions and turmoil of growing up and becoming an adult. It is sad and sentimental, and yet uplifting overall, with almost no "horror" scenes. "
— Twigsy (5 out of 5 stars)
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“Set in a dying amusement park in the south, Joyland features a ghost and a serial killer, but the real heart of the novel is a coming-of-age story, one that took me vividly back to my own youth, working the rides at Uncle Milty’s in Bayonne.”
— George R. R. Martin, New York Times bestselling author -
“Features some of King’s most graceful writing…ruminative, amused, digressive, marvelously unaffected, and finally, devastatingly sad.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“Wrapped in a gloriously pulpy cover, Joyland is a coming-of-age story set in 1973 at a North Carolina amusement park—creepy!—that’s haunted by a murderer.”
— Time -
“An amusement park and murder figure into a coming-of-age tale in this miniature thriller with a hint of the supernatural.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“A moving, immensely appealing coming-of-age tale that encompasses restless ghosts, serial murder, psychic phenomena, and sexual initiation…The melodramatic aspects of the story are great fun, but the real strength of Joyland stems from King’s ability to connect with his characters directly and viscerally.”
— Washington Post -
“Joyland, narrated by Michael Kelly with just the right touch of innocence, is a creepy story about a young man who gets involved with a dying boy, his beautiful mother, and murder…Kelly is convincing as the earnest, confused young hero…We are passengers in Jones’ mind as he tries to chart the course of his life, which was difficult enough before he got involved in a series of grisly murders. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
“Period murder mystery with a heart…King brings his usual finesse to this tale’s mystery elements.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Undeniable…charm [and] aching nostalgia…[Joyland] reads like a heartfelt memoir and might be King’s gentlest book, a canny channeling of the inner peace one can find within outer tumult.”
— Booklist -
“Joyland is a breathtaking, beautiful, heartbreaking book…Even the most hardboiled readers will find themselves moved.”
— Charles Ardai, Edgar and Shamus Award-winning editor of Hard Case Crime
Awards
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An AudioFile Editors’ Pick, June 2013
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Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award
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A #1 New York Times bestseller
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A #1 Publishers Weekly bestseller
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A Washington Post bestseller
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A #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller
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Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books, Best Fiction 2013
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A USA Today bestseller
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Amazon Top 100 Book of 2013
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A 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominee for Best Paperback Novel
Joyland Listener Reviews
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Phil Mathewson, 4/15/2020
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Olivia, 5/5/2018
About Stephen King
Stephen King has written more than sixty books, many hitting the #1 spot on the New York Times bestsellers list. He has won the World Fantasy Award, several Bram Stoker Awards, and the O. Henry Award for his story “The Man in the Black Suit.” He is the 2003 recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2007 he received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His epic works The Dark Tower and It are the basis for major motion pictures.
About Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly was born in Philadelphia but raised in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He went to college at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina with the original intention to study law, but changed his mind after taking an acting elective. He has appeared in numerous television shows including three Law & Order series, The Sopranos, and the Netflix original series House of Cards. He is a lifetime member of the Actor’s Studio and lives in New York.