Audiobook Review: Lisey's Story

Title: Lisey's Story
Author: Stephen King
Source: My own audio copy 
Narrated by: Mare Winningham

Blurb:

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 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.

Review: 
Let me start by saying that I love Stephen King.  Unfortunately his books have been either a hit or miss for me in the last few years as he moved away from purely horror.  
With Lisey's Story I have found some of that secret mojo that I loved .  The story is not horror although there are some horror elements.  It is a strange story that grips you and just propels you forward with every chapter.  It is fantasy mixed with a little bit of reality and lots of crazy!

We jump around in time as we re-live some of the life that Lisey and Scott shared.  We learn that mental illness lived in Scott's family (and to a certain degree also in Lisey's).  It is portrayed as a separate living being that is always nearby and will one day just suddenly take over your whole existence. And it did, first with Scott's beloved brother and protector, Paul, and then not long after, his father is taken.  Even Lisey's sister, Amanda, is stolen for a while.

In spite of all the subplots of sister-love, mental illness, greedy professors and a madman that threatens Lisey;s life, this is at it's heart a love stroy of a woman that has to keep on living after the death of her husband.  I thought it was handled very sensitively and I could feel Lisey's pain and longing throughout the story. 

I listened to Lisey's Story through the narration of Mare Winningham - her voice was perfectly matched to this story of Lisey's struggle to keep on living. Every day I looked forward to listening to little more of this strange world that engulfed Lisey's life.  I must admit that Lisey's Story was a perfect audio choice for me.  I am sure I would not have enjoyed it as much if I had to follow the words on paper.