Lisey's Story
by Stephen King
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Two years after losing her husband of twenty-five years, Lisey looks back at the sometimes frightening intimacy that marked their marriage, her husband's successes as a novelist, and his secretive nature that established Lisey's supernatural belief systems.Tags
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Many view this work of Stephen King's as a "different" kind of horror story, and while I found that to be true, it didn't hook me the way other King stories have. There was a great deal of terminology repetition that should have kept me questioning what it all meant, but really didn't (constant reference to blood-bools, smucking, smuckup, strapping it on, SOWISA, to name a few...).
Widow Lisey Landon has a stalker who is after her dead husband's papers. As a well known and prize winning author, his unpublished manuscripts could be worth a fortune. We don't know how Scott died, but we do know he survived an assassination attempt and Lisey has other memories too terrible to recall. Her horrible thoughts are repeatedly cut off in show more mid-sentence, a tactic designed to keep the reader in suspense, but ultimately ended up annoying this particular reader. In the winter of 1996 something happened; something that was too terrible to conjure completely. Lisey stops herself from thinking through her memory.
It is true that damaged people seek out other damaged people to form a warped kind of kinship. It is only natural that Scott, a product of unspeakable abuse and horror, should gravitate towards Lisey whose own sister practices self-mutilation (and ultimately falls into a catatonic state). Lisey sees all the warning signs before marrying Scott but decides to ignore them. The good moments far outweigh the bad. Isn't that always the way in abusive relationships?
King is an expert at hinting at danger to come. There is always something ominous lurking around the corner, just out of sight. Hints, whispers, winking in the dark like strands of smoke from an arson's fire... show less
Widow Lisey Landon has a stalker who is after her dead husband's papers. As a well known and prize winning author, his unpublished manuscripts could be worth a fortune. We don't know how Scott died, but we do know he survived an assassination attempt and Lisey has other memories too terrible to recall. Her horrible thoughts are repeatedly cut off in show more mid-sentence, a tactic designed to keep the reader in suspense, but ultimately ended up annoying this particular reader. In the winter of 1996 something happened; something that was too terrible to conjure completely. Lisey stops herself from thinking through her memory.
It is true that damaged people seek out other damaged people to form a warped kind of kinship. It is only natural that Scott, a product of unspeakable abuse and horror, should gravitate towards Lisey whose own sister practices self-mutilation (and ultimately falls into a catatonic state). Lisey sees all the warning signs before marrying Scott but decides to ignore them. The good moments far outweigh the bad. Isn't that always the way in abusive relationships?
King is an expert at hinting at danger to come. There is always something ominous lurking around the corner, just out of sight. Hints, whispers, winking in the dark like strands of smoke from an arson's fire... show less
Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey had to learn from him about books and blood and bools. Later, she understood that there was a place Scott went -- a place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it's Lisey's turn to face Scott's demons, Lisey's turn to go to Boo'ya Moon. What begins as a widow's effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he show more inhabited. Perhaps King's most personal and powerful novel, Lisey's Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love.
Why I wanted to read it: October 2018 American Author Challenge.
It took me about 200 pages to remember Lisey rhymes with CeeCee, but now, finally, I’ve got it down and think LeeCee automatically. It’s surprising how important that seemed as I was reading this book.
It’s hard to classify this novel, because it contains elements of psychological horror, romance, and the paranormal. Among other things, that is.
I thought the first person female voice totally authentic and take my hat off to Stephen King for achieving this. I kept forgetting as I was reading that a man wrote this book because Lisey is as female and feminine as the day is long. Perhaps, as acknowledged by Mr. King in the Author’s Statement it is his wife and her 5 sisters who formed the ‘sister thing’ in the book and the strong female voice.
Lisey doesn’t start strong, though. Two years after her husband’s death she’s numb and wooly. She hasn’t cleaned out anything of her husband’s. As memories resurface, as a crazy comes after her and she becomes a strong and decisive woman, she combines the impenetrable love of her marriage with the biological love for her sisters to take charge of her life.
King’s writing is sweet, vivid, scary. The book’s length and convoluted timeline, which go back and forth among Scott’s childhood, Lisey’s childhood, their marriage, and her widowhood can be criticized, but not by me. I found the book exactly right, compete but not sloppy, long but not fuzzy. King addresses this potential issue in the Author’s Statement:
Nan Graham edited this book. Quite often reviewers of novels – especially novels by people who usually sell great numbers of books – will say “So-and-so would have benefited from actual editing. To those tempted to say that about Lisey’s Story, I would be happy to submit sample pages from my first-draft manuscript, complete with nan’s notes. I had first-year French essays that came back cleaner. Nan did a wonderful job, and I thank her for sending me out in public with my shirt tucked in and my hair combed. As for the few cases in which the author overruled her… all I can say is, “reality is Ralph."
And, as I have been doing recently, I’ve found a few quotes that I like:
When it was done and you went to sleep, I lay awake and listened to the clock on your nightstand and the wind outside and understood that I was really home, that in bed with you was home, and something that had been getting close in the dark was suddenly gone. It could not stay. It had been banished. It knew how to come back, I was sure of that, but it could not stay, and I could really go to sleep. My heart cracked with gratitude. I think it was the first gratitude I’ve ever really known. I lay there beside you and the tears rolled down the sides of my face and onto the pillow. I loved you then and I love you now and I have loved you every second in between. I don’t care if you understand me. Understanding is vastly overrated, but nobody ever gets enough safety. I’ve never forgotten how safe I felt with that thing out of the darkness. p. 20
… an instant of empathy that was gruesome in its strength and nearly unendurable in its human harmony. p. 450
Some things you never forgot. She had come to believe that the very things the practical world dismissed as ephemera – things like songs and moonlight and kisses – were sometimes the things that lasted the longest. They might be foolish, but they defied forgetting. And that was good. p. 461
Stephen King is a fine writer, and this book is a stunning execution of a complex and layered story. show less
Why I wanted to read it: October 2018 American Author Challenge.
It took me about 200 pages to remember Lisey rhymes with CeeCee, but now, finally, I’ve got it down and think LeeCee automatically. It’s surprising how important that seemed as I was reading this book.
It’s hard to classify this novel, because it contains elements of psychological horror, romance, and the paranormal. Among other things, that is.
I thought the first person female voice totally authentic and take my hat off to Stephen King for achieving this. I kept forgetting as I was reading that a man wrote this book because Lisey is as female and feminine as the day is long. Perhaps, as acknowledged by Mr. King in the Author’s Statement it is his wife and her 5 sisters who formed the ‘sister thing’ in the book and the strong female voice.
Lisey doesn’t start strong, though. Two years after her husband’s death she’s numb and wooly. She hasn’t cleaned out anything of her husband’s. As memories resurface, as a crazy comes after her and she becomes a strong and decisive woman, she combines the impenetrable love of her marriage with the biological love for her sisters to take charge of her life.
King’s writing is sweet, vivid, scary. The book’s length and convoluted timeline, which go back and forth among Scott’s childhood, Lisey’s childhood, their marriage, and her widowhood can be criticized, but not by me. I found the book exactly right, compete but not sloppy, long but not fuzzy. King addresses this potential issue in the Author’s Statement:
Nan Graham edited this book. Quite often reviewers of novels – especially novels by people who usually sell great numbers of books – will say “So-and-so would have benefited from actual editing. To those tempted to say that about Lisey’s Story, I would be happy to submit sample pages from my first-draft manuscript, complete with nan’s notes. I had first-year French essays that came back cleaner. Nan did a wonderful job, and I thank her for sending me out in public with my shirt tucked in and my hair combed. As for the few cases in which the author overruled her… all I can say is, “reality is Ralph."
And, as I have been doing recently, I’ve found a few quotes that I like:
When it was done and you went to sleep, I lay awake and listened to the clock on your nightstand and the wind outside and understood that I was really home, that in bed with you was home, and something that had been getting close in the dark was suddenly gone. It could not stay. It had been banished. It knew how to come back, I was sure of that, but it could not stay, and I could really go to sleep. My heart cracked with gratitude. I think it was the first gratitude I’ve ever really known. I lay there beside you and the tears rolled down the sides of my face and onto the pillow. I loved you then and I love you now and I have loved you every second in between. I don’t care if you understand me. Understanding is vastly overrated, but nobody ever gets enough safety. I’ve never forgotten how safe I felt with that thing out of the darkness. p. 20
… an instant of empathy that was gruesome in its strength and nearly unendurable in its human harmony. p. 450
Some things you never forgot. She had come to believe that the very things the practical world dismissed as ephemera – things like songs and moonlight and kisses – were sometimes the things that lasted the longest. They might be foolish, but they defied forgetting. And that was good. p. 461
Stephen King is a fine writer, and this book is a stunning execution of a complex and layered story. show less
What I love most about Stephen King's books is that he makes his character's narrative so conversational that you feel that you actually know them. Listening to this on audio, I wanted to live in a world where Lisey, Scott, and Amanda all lived. I was overjoyed to turn on my CD player at night and find out where we were going next in the story. Mare Winningham did a fantastic job narrating, with just enough inflection to distinguish the characters without going over the top. Lisey and Scott's pet words for things are infectious, just like when you know people in real life. I know I'll smucking say things from the novel for a while. At times suspenseful, others fantastical, and with shots of laugh out loud humor throughout, it was one show more wild ride. show less
I used to read King all the time, anticipating his new releases like J.K. Rowling's fans did with the Harry Potter novels. But I burned out on him right about when The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon came out. In any case, when I picked this up it had been a very long time since I'd read a Stephen King novel, and I was a bit wary going in.
I was floored. This is not just a Stephen King scary-thriller book. This is a love story. One that is particularly compelling, considering that one half of the couple is dead from the very get-go.
I laughed, I worried, I devoured these pages like a kid who just got her braces off devours bubblegum and popcorn... and when I got to the last page I burst into tears. Big, sloppy, tears. I wasn't even expecting show more them; they just happened. Stephen King won me back with this book, and I think that says everything that needs to be said. show less
I was floored. This is not just a Stephen King scary-thriller book. This is a love story. One that is particularly compelling, considering that one half of the couple is dead from the very get-go.
I laughed, I worried, I devoured these pages like a kid who just got her braces off devours bubblegum and popcorn... and when I got to the last page I burst into tears. Big, sloppy, tears. I wasn't even expecting show more them; they just happened. Stephen King won me back with this book, and I think that says everything that needs to be said. show less
I have an over-active imagination. For as long as I can remember, it’s always been that way for me. I’m afraid of the dark (I can’t go from one room to another without leaving a trail of lights – turn light B on before turning light A off…), I’m convinced that there is always a monster (or worse – a murderer) under my bed and it will grab me when I have to get out of bed in the middle of the night (though now my bed has no space between the floor and the box springs, so that fear isn’t as strong as it used to be), and I’m always creating different dream worlds in my head. So after a week of reading Lisey’s Story, my mind is all over the place. Reading a Stephen King book is always hard work for me – not because show more they’re poorly written but quite the opposite. He writes so fantastically and detailed that it takes up every ounce of energy to read his books because of my imagination. Lisey’s Story was no exception for my mind feels like mush now and I think that I might need a few days of recovery before I jump into my next book.
Lisey Landon is a widow of a celebrated author. Two years after his death, she has finally decided to take on the daunting task of going through her late husband’s papers and books. But it turns into more than just going through mementos…she also has to delve deep into memories she has buried deep into the recesses of her mind. Memories of her husband’s horrifying childhood and the secret place he would go to escape and to recover. These memories are only accessed by finding clues left by her deceased husband and are important for they are the only things that can help save her sister…and, more importantly, herself.
Lisey’s Story is more than King’s typical horror book. Even though there were some pretty freaky parts where I was sitting with my feet curled under my body, biting the inside of my lip and chewing on my fingernails, there was more to it than that. It is a beautifully written story, with clever play on words and plots circling around marriage and sisterhood and the importance of these two relationships. It's a love story as much as it is a nail-biter and the strength of the main character is one that makes you want to cheer her on and hug her at the same time. Whether you are a King fan or not, I highly recommend this book. show less
Lisey Landon is a widow of a celebrated author. Two years after his death, she has finally decided to take on the daunting task of going through her late husband’s papers and books. But it turns into more than just going through mementos…she also has to delve deep into memories she has buried deep into the recesses of her mind. Memories of her husband’s horrifying childhood and the secret place he would go to escape and to recover. These memories are only accessed by finding clues left by her deceased husband and are important for they are the only things that can help save her sister…and, more importantly, herself.
Lisey’s Story is more than King’s typical horror book. Even though there were some pretty freaky parts where I was sitting with my feet curled under my body, biting the inside of my lip and chewing on my fingernails, there was more to it than that. It is a beautifully written story, with clever play on words and plots circling around marriage and sisterhood and the importance of these two relationships. It's a love story as much as it is a nail-biter and the strength of the main character is one that makes you want to cheer her on and hug her at the same time. Whether you are a King fan or not, I highly recommend this book. show less
Lisa "Lisey" Landon has always lived in the shadow of her husband, best-selling author and now deceased Scott Landon. And this is fine. No, this is better than fine. Lisey never wanted anything more than a small, quiet life with the man she loved, the man who has now left her alone and lonely in the house his imagination built. She, however, knows what no one else does — that her brilliant husband trailed a darkness, a darkness that has stalked him since childhood, a darkness that now reaches out for her.
Lisey must be one of my favorite of King's heroines. She is small but plucky, average but strong. The romance of her life with Scott is beautiful. His may be the name splashed across the headlines, and she may be the dutiful silent show more partner as far as the world is concerned, but they both know that her simple solidity is the anchor that keeps him from self-destructing. Their mutual dependence on each other, the sharing of strengths, is what makes this novel more than a supranatural tale of worlds within worlds and the madness that worms in the spaces between imagination. This is a story of a love built brick by brick through the best and worst of a shared life, a love so scarred and so strong that nothing — not even death — can end it. show less
Lisey must be one of my favorite of King's heroines. She is small but plucky, average but strong. The romance of her life with Scott is beautiful. His may be the name splashed across the headlines, and she may be the dutiful silent show more partner as far as the world is concerned, but they both know that her simple solidity is the anchor that keeps him from self-destructing. Their mutual dependence on each other, the sharing of strengths, is what makes this novel more than a supranatural tale of worlds within worlds and the madness that worms in the spaces between imagination. This is a story of a love built brick by brick through the best and worst of a shared life, a love so scarred and so strong that nothing — not even death — can end it. show less
"Nibbled to death by ducks"
A very silly line from the book, but it's one that tickled me.
King doesn't flirt with madness in Lisey's Story. He takes a running leap and dives right into the heart of it. Part ghost story, part stalker thriller and all King this one will make you doubt that the shadow you glimpse out of the corner of your eye is harmless.
A very silly line from the book, but it's one that tickled me.
King doesn't flirt with madness in Lisey's Story. He takes a running leap and dives right into the heart of it. Part ghost story, part stalker thriller and all King this one will make you doubt that the shadow you glimpse out of the corner of your eye is harmless.
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August 2013’s SK Flavor of the Month – Lisey’s Story in King's Dear Constant Readers (December 2014)
Author Information
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, he became a teacher. His spare time was spent writing short stories and novels. King's first novel would never have been published if not for his wife. She removed the first few show more chapters from the garbage after King had thrown them away in frustration. Three months later, he received a $2,500 advance from Doubleday Publishing for the book that went on to sell a modest 13,000 hardcover copies. That book, Carrie, was about a girl with telekinetic powers who is tormented by bullies at school. She uses her power, in turn, to torment and eventually destroy her mean-spirited classmates. When United Artists released the film version in 1976, it was a critical and commercial success. The paperback version of the book, released after the movie, went on to sell more than two-and-a-half million copies. Many of King's other horror novels have been adapted into movies, including The Shining, Firestarter, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Misery, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers. Under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King has written the books The Running Man, The Regulators, Thinner, The Long Walk, Roadwork, Rage, and It. He is number 2 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. King is one of the world's most successful writers, with more than 100 million copies of his works in print. Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages, and he writes new books at a rate of about one per year. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2012 his title, The Wind Through the Keyhole made The New York Times Best Seller List. King's title's Mr. Mercedes and Revival made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2015 for Best Novel with Mr. Mercedes. King's title Finders Keepers made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015. Sleeping Beauties is his latest 2017 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) Stephen King is the author of more than thirty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are "Hearts in Atlantis", "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", "Bag of Bones", & "The Green Mile". "On Writing" is his first book of nonfiction since "Danse Macabre", published in 1981. He served as a judge for Prize Stories: The Best of 1999, The O. Henry Awards. He lives in Bangor, Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. King's book, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories, made the 2015 New York Times bestseller list. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Lisey's Story
- Original title
- Lisey's Story
- Original publication date
- 2006-10-24
- People/Characters
- Lisey Landon; Scott Landon; Dooley 'Zack McCool'; Norris Ridgewick (Sheriff); Andy Clutterbuck (Deputy); Paul Landon (show all 11); Amanda Debusher; Darla; Dr Alberness; Andrew "Sparky" Landon; Professor Woodbody
- Important places
- Castle Rock, Maine, USA (fictional); Maine, USA
- Epigraph
- Where do you go when you're lonely?
Where do you go when you're blue?
Where do you go when you're lonely?
I'll follow you
When the stars go blue.
-- Ryan Adams
"If I were the moon, I know here I would fall down."
-- D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow
"She turned, and saw a great white moon looking at her over the hill. And her breast opened to it, she was cleaved like a transparent jewel to its light. She stood filled with the full moon, offering herself. Her two breas... (show all)ts opened to make way for it, her body opened wide like a quivering anemone, a soft, dilated invitation touched by the moon."
-- D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow
"You are the call and I am the answer,
You are the wish, and I the fulfillment,
You are the night, and I the day.
What else? It is perfect enough.
It is perfectly complete,
Y... (show all)ou and I,
What more -- ?
Strange, how we suffer in spite of this!"
-- D. H. Lawrence, "Bei Hennef" - Dedication
- For Tabby
- First words
- To the public eye, the spouses of well-known writers are all but invisible, and no one knew it better than Lisey Landon.
- Quotations
- In any case she might well have gone on until dawn's early light and it would have gotten her a lot of hot air in one hand and big pile of jack shit in the other.
I got to end all this ding-dong for the freesias. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Then it was silent.
- Blurbers
- Chabon, Michael; Sparks, Nicholas
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3561.I483
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- ISBNs
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