Joyland (King novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Stephen King |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Mystery, Crime novel |
| Publisher | Hard Case Crime |
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Publication date
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June 4, 2013 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | |
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. The novel was nominated for the 2014 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.
The novel was first mentioned in passing in Neil Gaiman's interview with Stephen King for The Sunday Times, published on April 8, 2012, and was officially announced on May 30, 2012. The novel's cover art was revealed on September 20, 2012 by Entertainment Weekly. In his interview on NPR's Fresh Air on May 28, 2013, King revealed that the novel grew from a single image he had had for 20 years of a boy in a wheelchair flying a Jesus kite on a beach. King also notes that Canobie Lake Park, an amusement park in Salem, NH, was one of the main sources of inspiration for the novel.
On May 13, 2013, Titan Books, which publishes the Hard Case Crime line of books, announced the publication of a limited hardcover edition of Joyland, to be released on June 11, 2013, one week after the initial paperback publication of the novel. The book was published as three different editions: a gift edition, limited to 1,500 copies; a numbered edition, limited to 724 copies and signed by the author; and a lettered edition, limited to 26 copies and signed by the author. Each iteration features cover art by Robert McGinnis, different from the paperback edition, as well as a map of the Joyland amusement park, created by Susan Hunt Yule.
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". Devin Jones, who takes a summer job at Joyland in North Carolina, is a student at the University of New Hampshire. 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.
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