Joyland (King novel)
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Joyland is a novel by Stephen King, published in 2013 by Hard Case Crime. It is King's second book for the imprint, following The Colorado Kid (2005). The first edition was released only in paperback, with the cover art created by Robert McGinnis and Glen Orbik. A limited hardcover edition followed a week later.
Plot
The novel is set at a North Carolina amusement park in 1973 and involves a carny who must confront the "legacy of a vicious murder and the fate of a dying child". It has been described as a "whodunit" and "a story about growing up and growing old" by Charles Ardai, the Hard Case Crime editor, who noted the ending made him cry.
Devin Jones is a student at the University of New Hampshire who takes a summer job at Joyland in North Carolina. Devin is told, during his interview by the resident fortune teller, that he will meet two children that summer. One is a girl with a red hat. The other is a boy with a dog. One of them has The Sight. After securing lodging for the summer at a rooming house and making friends with some of the other summer help, Jones finds that he has a talent for "wearing the fur," Joyland-talk for portraying Howie the Happy Hound, Joyland's mascot. One day, he saves the aforementioned young girl in a red hat from choking on a park hot dog. The heroics earn him the trust and admiration of the park's owner.
Devin and his friends, Tom and Erin, learn that several years earlier a girl had been murdered in the haunted house, and her ghost still haunts the ride. Devin's friend, Tom, sees the ghost, but Devin does not and becomes interested in the murder. Erin assists him later, showing him pictures and articles, proving that this was only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, which had never been connected by the police.
At the end of the summer, Devin decides to take a year off from school and stay at the park while it is closed. He becomes close to a standoffish woman, Annie, and her sick son, Mike. Mike knows about the woman's ghost and has a dog, and Devin realizes he is the second child in the fortune teller's prediction. Devin is able to organize a private trip to Joyland for Mike; at the end of the trip, Mike's presence helps free the woman's ghost. That night, Devin loses his virginity to Annie with the understanding it was a one-time occurrence.
Devin returns to his boarding house, which is preparing for an upcoming storm. He begins looking through the pictures again and suddenly realizes that the murderer is one of the park employees, Lane Hardy. Lane has guessed that Devin knows who he is, so threatens to kill Annie and Mike unless Devin meets him at Joyland. Lane traps the two of them on the Ferris wheel in the middle of the storm and is about to kill Devin, when Annie shows up and fatally shoots Lane. Mike had been awakened by another ghost (of a park employee Devin had previously saved), who warned him about Lane.
Annie and Mike return to Chicago and Devin goes back to school. Mike dies later that spring.
See also
