(Stephen King) It seems like a Stephen King blog should have a Halloween post. After all, we associate King with horror, and what day of the year do we most associate with horror? Halloween, of course. No doubt there will be a selection of King adaptions available on TV or streaming today — heck, maybe … Continue reading We Make Up Horrors To Help Us Cope With The Real Ones
(It: A Novel) One of the things that I’ve always liked about Stephen King is that when he writes from the perspective of children, he never wraps up by acknowledging that the adults were right all along. Because they often aren’t right, and more to the point, when it comes to the world of children, … Continue reading Grownups Are the Real Monsters
(Skeleton Crew) The nice thing about Stephen King’s collections of short stories is that even if you hate some of the bunch, you will also be able to find some gems. In Skeleton Crew, there are stories that I can’t stand and stories that I absolutely love. Skeleton Crew is not my favorite collection. And … Continue reading Do the Dead Sing? Do They Love?
(Thinner) So, Thinner is a King book that’s really a Bachman book. Except that it has a load of King thrown in. I’m not going to look this up right now, but I sort of think that the secret of King’s pen name was out by the time this story was published. Or shortly after, … Continue reading The Definition of An Asshole is a Guy Who Doesn’t Believe What He’s Seeing
(The Talisman) Whew. This one took me awhile. I’m not sure why. I’m often a little wary of collaborations — I find that just because I like one author in the collaboration doesn’t mean that I’ll like the other, or the mixture of the two. I avoided The Talisman and Black House for years because … Continue reading Boys Are Bad. All Boys Are Bad. It’s Axiomatic.
(The Eyes of the Dragon) Delain is not Gilead, and most of the characters and places in The Dark Tower series aren’t mentioned here in The Eyes of the Dragon. But I still think they exist on the same plane, or level of the tower. Or at most, their levels are right next to each … Continue reading Mischief, After All, Was Flagg’s Cake and Pie
(Pet Sematary) I’ve read Pet Sematary before. I don’t know how many times, exactly — probably a lot. So why does it still scare me? To be fair, the supernatural parts of Pet Sematary don’t scare me as much these days — though I still find Church intensely unsettling post-resurrection. But the things that cause … Continue reading There’s Nothing Natural About Death. Nothing.
(Cycle of the Werewolf) If I remember the story correctly, Cycle of the Werewolf started out as an idea for a calendar. Each month was to be a werewolf picture and a calendar-sized short story by King. It’s a great idea, but Constant Readers will know that while King might be the master of many … Continue reading Love is Like Dying
(Christine) So, I think Christine might be the most horror-novel-type horror novel I’ve read of King’s so far this re-read. Even the main human monster in this book died early on and became a dead human monster, which grounded us firmly in the realm of the supernatural. I mean, a book about a killer car … Continue reading People are Only Rational on the Surface
(Different Seasons -- "The Body") If you aren’t familiar with Different Seasons — first of all, you’re missing out. But what you need to know first is that Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas, and you’ve heard of at least some of them. It begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”, and … Continue reading Love Has Teeth; They Bite; The Wounds Never Close.
Uniquely Portable Magic 