As my first Stephen King novel you can imagine my surprise when rather than a gripping horror, I found myself enjoying more of a coming-of-age story with an glint of eerie mystery. 

The book is incredibly character driven rather than plot. That alongside the chosen writing style, which portrays the book as more of a memory recounting, did lead the book to feel a
 bit disjointed and slow in places. That being said, the character relationships felt very real and the immersive writing style made Joyland really come to life. 

Whilst I did enjoy this book on some level, I feel the overall plot of the book fell a bit flat for me in the end and did not give me the gripping horror/mystery storyline I had hoped for.

 I doubt I will re-read Joyland in future, I am keen to read some other 'darker' and more plot heavy books by Stephen King.