(Later) But is it a horror story? Later is published as a Hard Case Crime novel. Which I actually find a little strange… I mean, I guess it is a crime novel but is it more of one than, say, The Institute? Or Mr. Mercedes? Neither of them were Hard Case Novels, but both of … Continue reading As I Said At The Beginning, This Is A Horror Story
(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
(Six Scary Stories) Six Scary Stories isn’t a Stephen King book at all, but the stories were selected by him and published by Cemetery Dance, which is a specialty horror press that releases a lot of special Stephen King books. There’s also an introduction by King, in which he explains how this book came to … Continue reading The Monster Is Always Scarier When It’s Still Under The Child’s Bed
(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 Repost for Halloween: We Make Up Horrors To Help Us Cope With The Real Ones
(The Bazaar of Bad Dreams) The Bazaar of Bad Dreams is another collection. It’s got short stories and novellas. We’ve been through some of it already — this collection has both Ur and Blockade Billy in it, and we’ve already covered those in their standalone forms (Ur is revised here, but I don't think it's … Continue reading I Don’t Bite. Except… We’ve Known Each Other For A Very Long Time, And I Suspect You Know That’s Not Entirely True
(Finders Keepers) You know, I didn’t really remember that the middle of this series didn’t really have much to do with Brady Hartsfield, AKA Mr. Mercedes. Or that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson — the heroes of the previous story and of the trilogy — didn’t even come into it until late in … Continue reading I Think Different. And I Can Think Different If I Want To
(Revival) Revival gets my vote for the most frightening King book of all time. It’s probably the most a King book has scared me since encountering Thinner around the age of 13. And unlike Thinner, Revival scared adult me and still has the power to scare me on re-read. I’ve only read Revival once before … Continue reading Any Day Could Be The Day We Go Down, And We Never Know
(Mr. Mercedes) To me, Mr. Mercedes feels like the mark of a new era in King's books. That sounds grander than I actually mean it to, but I don’t know how else to put it. It differs from what came before, though, in some ways that seem important. Mr. Mercedes (taken alone — this is … Continue reading That’s All History Is, After All: Scar Tissue
(The Wind Through The Keyhole) I don’t know if Stephen King will return to the Dark Tower again, or if he wants to, but we know that he at least did at one point, because this is part of the main Dark Tower series. Although it came years after the end of the series, it … Continue reading The Stories We Hear in Childhood Are The Ones We Remember All Of Our Lives
("The Gingerbread Girl", Just After Sunset) I had that strange experience with Just After Sunset — the one where I know I’ve read this book, I am pretty sure that I owned a hard copy of this book at some point and read it immediately upon acquiring it, as I do with most Stephen King … Continue reading There Was Magical Thinking; There Was Also Magical Doing
Uniquely Portable Magic 