Reviews
Great little read. Fun to read a collection of short stories versus a full novel, but ready for a novel now. Best story - The Road Virus Heads North Worst - L.T.s Theory of Pets
good short story collection, some genuinely scared me these are my ratings for each individual story: autopsy room four: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ the man in the black suit: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ all that you love will be carried away: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 the death of jack hamilton: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ in the deathroom: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 the little sisters of eluria: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ everything’s eventual: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ l.t.‘s theory of pets: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ the road virus heads north: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ lunch at the gotham cafe: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 that feeling, you can only say what it is in french: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1408: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 riding the bullet: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 luckey quarter: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I enjoyed this collection overall. As with any short story collection, some were more successful than others. But none of them were bad enough for me to skip on to the next. I especially enjoyed “Autopsy Room Four,” “The Little Sisters or Eluria,” and “1408.” There’s an unusually high number of unhappy marriages in this collection. And everyone either smokes or is trying to quit. Every story seemed to be fueled by angsty relationships and nicotine. But I found this to be by and large and fun mix.
* Autopsy Room Four- 5 stars * Man in the Black Suit- 5 stars * All That You Love Will Be Carried Away - 3 stars * Death of Jack Hamilton - 2 stars * In the Deathroom - 4 stars * Little Sisters of Eluria - 4 stars * Everything's Eventual - 5 stars * L.T.'s Theory of Pets - 4 stars * Road Virus Heads North - 4 stars * Lunch at the Gotham Cafe - 5 stars * That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French - 3 stars * 1408 - 4 stars * Riding the Bullet - 5 stars * Luckey Quarter - 2 stars
There were 5 Stephen King type tales. Rather average. Stephen King type creepy. The Gunslinger was my least favorite. But I will still keep the Dark Tower series on my to read list.
3.5*
In all honestly I was a bit disappointed with this collection. The first story "Autopsy Room Four" frightened me, which was great. The thought of being utterly helpless while others around you are moving like nothing is wrong, unaware that they are hurting you. Off to a great start. Then we hit "The Man in the Black Suit" and "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" which I thought were okay, just a few shorts leading up to another good one. I was under the impression that all the stories in here would be scary, horror stories, I wasn't aware that Stephen King wrote anything other than that. So that's on me. King says that he tries to write one short story a year and I think that's great. I like that he just writes, he doesn't box himself into a genre, he tests his skills, it's admirable. I did enjoy both "The Death of Jack Hamilton" and "In the Deathroom" which are both based on real people and loosely on events. "The Little Sisters of Eluria" is where King lost me. This short story was based on another book or series that King enjoyed and he stated that in his short introduction to the piece. (I really enjoyed King's brief introductions before each story. It was a nice little break and tidbit of insight). He said that even if you hadn't read the other books you'd still be fine to follow along. King changed his writing style to match the other author's and I really didn't like it. I've also never been able to get into fantasy, so I guess I should've known going into this that I wouldn't enjoy myself. I'm glad King wrote what he wanted and it was something different, but definitely not for me and I almost gave up on it. I hate quitting books though, so I powered through. "Everything's Eventual" was pretty cool and made me wish for superpowers and "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" was funny and easy going until you remembered that his wife's fate is still unknown. "The Road Virus Heads North" was one of the stories that stuck with me. It made me wish that I had been born a little bit sooner so that I could've read King before so many of his stories were overused or recycled by other authors. Was King the one coming up with most of these original ideas or were authors all writing stuff similar to this, and King just did it the best? King does say in some of his intros that "this is a story every thriller or horror author should do their own version of" or something like that. I could look into some of this, but how did King get as big as he is? Were his ideas that terrifyingly original? Was it because he wasn't afraid to be blunt or a bit vulgar? "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" was one of those stories that make you realize humans can be the scariest monsters of all. "That Feeling, Only You Can Say What It Is In French" was a story I didn't enjoy until the very last page or two when we were told what had happened. I loved the detail about the charred magazine. "1408" is the familiar work in this book. I'd seen part of the movie with John Cusack so I already knew the story. After seeing the movie, however, it made the story feel like it lacked detail and imagination. In King's defense he just wrote a short story, the movie was probably an hour and a half, it's not a very fair comparison. "Riding the Bullet" was a good story, a quick and enjoyable read. "Luckey Quarter" was a happy-ish final story for the collection. I guess my biggest problem with this collection was the lack of surprise or horror in them. So many of these ideas and plots I've seen done before so it took away a lot of excitement. That's not necessarily King's fault because I'm a few decades late to reading these. I have Stephen King's "The Green Mile" on my shelf and I'm still down to read that, but after reading these short stories, it will be awhile. Looking back on these stories while writing this I realized that I did enjoy most of them for differing reasons. All except one, I think, but that one just left a sour taste in my mouth that I never quite got over.
This is probably the first short story collection I’ve ever read that I’ve actually enjoyed all of the stories. Some were just good but a lot of them actually scared me. My favourites were “the man in the black suit”, “the road virus heads north”, “1408” and “riding the bullet”. Can’t wait to read more short story collections from King!
