Liseys Story

by Stephen King

Lisey's Story is the story of Lisey Landon, the widow of a famous and wildly successful novelist, Scott Landon. The book tells two stories—Lisey's story in the present, and the story of her dead husband's life, as remembered by Lisey during the course of the novel.

It has been two years since the death of famous author Scott Landon, and the widow Lisey (pronounced "lee-see") is still in the process of cleaning out her husband's writing area. Over the past two years many academics have come to her hoping to find some piece of writing she might have missed, like an unpublished manuscript. Lisey has sent each away in their turn explaining that she's still working through the clean up, although her lack of progress speaks more of procrastination. Her mentally fragile sister Amanda spends a day with her, searching through stacks of books and magazines to earmark any pictures where Lisey appears or is mentioned. Lisey begins to relive her past, starting with the time she saved Scott from being fatally shot by an insane fan. She often stops herself mid-reminisce to avoid uncovering terrifying memories.

After Amanda discovers that her ex-husband has remarried and is moving back to town she slices open her hands and slips into catatonia. Before admitting Amanda to an institution Lisey hears her sister speaking in Scott's voice, telling her he has created a "bool" hunt with a prize at the end.

One day she receives a disturbing phone call from a man calling himself Zack McCool, claiming that if Lisey doesn't hand over Scott's documents to a professor she had recently chased away he, Zack, would be forced to hurt her. His next step is to leave her a threatening letter and a dead cat in her mailbox. At this point Lisey alerts the authorities, although the most they can offer her is a patrol car stationed by her home unless an emergency arises elsewhere. This does not deter Zack in the least and he eventually sneaks onto her property and mutilates her with a can opener.

Throughout the book Lisey begins to face certain realities about her husband that she had repressed and forgotten. She recalls Scott's past—how he came from a family with a history of horrible mental illness that manifested as either an uncontrollable homicidal mania or as a deep catatonia, how he had a special gift, an ability to transport himself to another world, which he called "Boo'ya Moon" with its own unique dangers, how Scott Landon's brother Paul was killed by their father when, at thirteen, Paul succumbed to the family disease and attempted to kill Scott, and how Scott really died. Using her own repressed ability to cross over to Boo'ya Moon, Lisey is able to pull Amanda out of her catatonia, bring Zack to the other world, and lure him to his grisly death at the claws of a vicious world-crossing beast that stalks the forest of Boo-ya Moon.

The prize at the end of the hunt is a diary of Scott's last days with his family, ending with Scott Landon's confession that he was forced to kill his own father to save him from the madness that had finally taken him over.

Over the next week Lisey is able to pack and give up Scott's things, as she now believes he has moved on. Now Lisey has a hard time keeping herself grounded in this world, often finding that she slips back to Boo'ya Moon in her sleep and sometimes while awake. The book ends with her saying goodbye to Scott in the now-empty study.