(If It Bleeds) OK, we’ve returned to Stephen King stories written by Stephen King now. I didn't want to end the year on a non-King book -- that feels wrong -- so you're getting a random Saturday post. Happy end of the year! If It Bleeds is both a novella collection and the title of … Continue reading Love Is A Gift; Love Is Also A Chain With A Manacle At Each End
(Elevation) So, here we are at Elevation. I was actually kind of excited to re-read this one. I didn’t really like it the first time through, but I’ve come across enough King fans who legitimately loved it to make me wonder if I just missed something the first time. So I was looking forward to … Continue reading Why Feel Bad About What You Couldn’t Change? Why Not Embrace It?
(Full Dark, No Stars) So this is one of King’s collections of novellas. It contains four of them: 1922, Big Driver, Fair Extension, and A Good Marriage. The title of the collection is definitely accurate because these are some seriously dark stories. Not even so much in the scary sense as they are dark in … Continue reading Take My Hand, Constant Reader, And I’ll Be Happy To Lead You Back Into The Sunshine
(Blockade Billy) This one is more of a novella than a proper book. Maybe even a short story. It’s not much more than 100 pages. But as far as I can tell, it was published as a standalone, not a collection. King loves baseball, we know that. He loves weird shit and fear/horror/terror, we know … Continue reading Baseball Is Also A Game Of Balance
(Riding The Bullet) Riding the Bullet isn’t really a whole book — I guess it’s a novella, and by King standards, I think it’s a pretty short one. It’s also collected later on — in Everything’s Eventual, I think. So I ordinarily wouldn’t even include it until I talked about that book. If I wanted … Continue reading I Loved Her When She Hit Me As Much As When She Kissed Me
(Four Past Midnight, "The Library Policeman") It’s just my observation, but when I see Four Past Midnight come up in Stephen King groups or subreddits or whatever, it’s not very well liked. Usually, people will say that there are one or two stories they can’t stand, and that the others are OK. And the funny … Continue reading Fear is An Emotion Which Encloses and Precludes Change
(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
(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 