This book is one weird Fairy Tale, from start to finish.

Lisey (which we learn right away rhymes with Ce Ce), is a widow. Her husband, Scott, was a super popular writer of scary and strange fiction books, who had millions of fans, many of whom were insane. Remind you of any real life writers? At the beginning of the book, Lisey is just starting to go through her husband’s things, deciding what to keep, what to send away, and who to send these important things to. Its been two years since her husband died, and Lisey is being bothered by fans, colleges, and anyone else who feels they are deserving of Scott’s papers, awards, etc. There is also a madman who couldn’t care less about Scott’s things. He just wants to cause Lisey pain.

There are at least three timelines running through this story. One is the present, where Lisey is at now. One of her sisters has gone crazy, and Lisey and the rest of the sisters are picking up the pieces of that. At the same time Lisey is dealing with and running from the madman who is after her. Another timeline is Lisey remembering moments she spent with Scott, both good ones and bad ones. At first, its difficult to keep track of how all these memories fit into the story. There is a specific memory involving a shovel that becomes very important. I don’t think I am giving anything away there. The dust jacket of the book has a cut out in the shape of a shovel, after all! There is a third story line that tells some absolutely horrifying things that Scott went through as a young child.

Weaving through all of these timelines is a connection to…. well, I guess it is another world. Scott can go there, but he’s not the only one. This world has wonderful things, and monsters, and some things that start out wonderful but become dangerous at night. It’s a fairy tale like world, that draws people in. I found a lot of it to be something a young child might imagine. Lisey must remember what she knows about this other world to not only save herself, but, to find her story.

I am a big Stephen King fan, but, I am not exactly in love with this particular story. It just didn’t do it for me. I don’t know exactly why that is. Perhaps it was because I could make out the path the story was leading the reader down a little before it got there. Maybe it was because I ended up wanting to know more about this other world when I got to the end of the book. I had all sorts of questions in mind, that won’t get answered. I think I also wanted to find some link between this book and some of his other books, since I know King has a tendency to connect characters and settings from his other work. If there is a link, I simply didn’t see it. King has a tendency to use made up language in his books sometimes, and I have come to expect that. In this book, however, he goes a bit overboard. I understand that most long term couples tend to have a few words of their “own”. Words that mean something different for them, or words that are completely made up. So much of that gets used in this book that I found it distracting! The use of the word “Smuck” instead of the similar sounding swear word was particularly vexing to me.

Then again, this particular Stephen King book was on the Barnes & Noble Bestseller list for a few weeks. So, what do I know?