Bag of Bones
by Stephen King
★ Top 5 book of 1998 · #4 on Best Books of 1998
Stephen King's 1998 horror novel follows an author struggling with severe writer's block and delusions at an isolated lake house, four years after his wife's death. It echoes plot elements of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, including a dead wife and a haunted house.
Best for: Horror readers who like isolated settings, grief, and echoes of Rebecca
Bag of Bones is #4 on BookWard's Best Books of 1998, out of 36 1998 books that cleared our data bar.
What Bag of Bones is about
Mike Noonan is a bestselling novelist who stops being able to write after his wife, Jo, dies suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Four years on, he returns to his lakeside vacation house, called Sara Laughs, in the Maine town of TR-90. There he meets Mattie Devore, a young widow, and her three-year-old daughter, Kyra, and soon finds himself drawn into a fight over the child's custody with her wealthy and relentless grandfather.
The house is not quiet. The ghost of blues singer Sara Tidwell is said to haunt it, and the town carries an old, ugly history tied to her. Grief, guilt and the secrets of a small community run through the story, which is haunting and melancholic as much as frightening. The author nods to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca in the opening pages and borrows from its plot. It won the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the 1999 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1999 Locus Award for Best Dark Fantasy/Horror Novel.
Bag of Bones on the Best Books of 1998
Bag of Bones came out in 1998. Of the 36 books first published in 1998 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #4 on our Best Books of 1998 list.
Why it made the list: 596 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (38 ratings); 36 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1998 list
- Holes Louis Sachar, #2
- A Clash of Kings George R. R. Martin, #3
- Among the Hidden Margaret Peterson Haddix, #5
- Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson, #6
See all Best Books of 1998 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1997 Best Books of 1999.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 466 want to read it, 36 are reading it now and 94 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.9 out of 5 from 38 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 89 | 55% |
| Reader love | 56 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 86 | 20% |
Questions about Bag of Bones
When was Bag of Bones published?
Bag of Bones by Stephen King was first published in 1998.
Was Bag of Bones one of the best books of 1998?
Bag of Bones is #4 on BookWard's Best Books of 1998, out of 36 1998 books that cleared our data bar. 596 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (38 ratings); 36 are reading it right now.
Why is Bag of Bones on the Best Books of 1998 list?
596 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (38 ratings); 36 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1998
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J. K. Rowling, #1
- Holes Louis Sachar, #2
- A Clash of Kings George R. R. Martin, #3
- Among the Hidden Margaret Peterson Haddix, #5
- Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson, #6
- No, David! David Shannon, #7
See the full Best Books of 1998, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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