Very sad to read this thread. Not only was Bag of Bones the book that made me want to become a "real" writer (instead of just someone who wrote poems while cutting himself to My Chemical Romance albums), but as a writer who has taken a crack at adapting it into a screenplay, I'm shocked. This book had emotional depth, and power, that Stephen King had yet to reach in his career, up-to this point. That being said, I am about a half hour into Mich Garris' version on Netflix, and am appalled. So many things were either blatantly ignored, outright cut out, or otherwise left on an editor's floor, that this just is not the same story. I have no idea if Stephen King cares-or if he even watched it-but if he had, he would have found himself lost in an act of visual plagiarism. Instead of changing the names to protect the innocent, they kept them, to the detriment of a finely crafted, old fashioned ghost story (which, a its heart, that's what Bag of Bones is...or was, till Garris hacked it to pieces, which he inevitably does with all his films {see Riding the Bullet, Desperation, or, to a lesser degree, The Stand. Don't get me started on Sleepwalkers}). I will continue to watch, but in bewilderment.
To all those who say this book is not readable, maybe you shouldn't think of it in the same vein as Pet Sematary or Carrie. This was not a gore-fest by any means (until the third act, really). Rather, it was an exercise in American Tragedy. I have nothing but praise for this book, and am proud to say I've read it yearly since 1998 (it feels good to visit old friends, if you will). I haven't like a lot of his books since, I'll admit (From a Buick 8, Dreamcatcher, and Lisey's Story come to mind), but it's easy to see where King had both Duma Key and Under the Dome in his arsenal after penning Bag of Bones. Honestly, and I could be ridiculed for this, but it set me on the right path (wow, did I just equate this book to The Bible? That's my cue to leave, lol.)
"I said, uh, I'm-uh gonna go to Hell when I die," -Conan O'Brien
Foster M. Wolf
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