Stephen King

Age-old images of fear fuse with the iconography of contemporary American life in this collection of tales from the modern master of horror.

Stories

Skeleton Crew

Patrick Book

King's exciting collection contains twenty short stories, a short novel, THE MIST, and two poems, each tale showing the distinctive blend of unimaginable terror and realism that typifies King's early work. We meet GRAMMA - who only wants to hug little George, even after she's dead; a primeval sea creature with an insatiable appetite in THE RAFT; an innocent-looking monkey with evil powers in MONKEY and a host of other memorable King creations as he takes the unsuspecting reader on a fantastic journey through the dark, shadowy areas of our innermost fears.

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Jusqu’ici, une de mes histoires préférées. Le suspense est intense. Se lit d’une traite !

This book got me into reading in a big way, so many fun stories that I look forward to re-reading. 

John Vetter

Age-old images of fear fuse with the iconography of contemporary American life in this collection of twenty-two horror tales by the grandmaster of the genre. Reissue.

Lara Engle

Not my favorite of his short story collections, but there were some bright spots. Most of the stories were longer than they needed to be. I started putting a post-it tab on the last page of the story so I would know how much longer it was going to drag on. I usually really like King's short stories because they are more tightly plotted than his full length books, but I didn't find that to be the case here.

High points:
Revisiting 249B East 35th (from "The Breathing Method") even though the story itself was pretty forgettable
Four stops in Castle Rock
Some good scares and horror imagery sprinkled throughout

Deep low points:
Consistent body (fat) shaming
Casual racism
Gross sexual references to women's bodies and women's experiences he knows nothing about (Want to talk about root vegetables or maidenheads, anyone?)

I'm not mad I read it, but I don't think this collection holds up with his best work. I'm glad he's grown since writing these stories.

Sian Wadey

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

I bought this book solely because it had The Mist in it and I'd recently seen the film. King does 'end of the world' really well and The Mist was a prime example of that. This book is a great example of Stephen King's work and as I always say, it's a great place to start, because if you don't like one short story, a new one will be there in just a couple of pages.

Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way. Just don't let go of my arm . . . Unrivalled master of suspense Stephen King takes the unsuspecting reader on a fantastic journey through the dark shadows of our innermost fears. Do the dead sing? In this bumper collection of chilling tales, which includes the brilliant story adapted into the acclaimed movie The Mist, we meet: a woman who has never crossed The Reach, the water dividing her from the mainland; a gramma who only wants to hug little George, even after she is dead; an innocent looking toy with sinister powers; and a primeval sea creture with an insatiable appetite.

Celeste Richardson

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. 

Stephen King is such a master storyteller. I’ve come to love him over the past few years, and I now count him among my favorite authors. I have to agree with the masses, however; King tends to fall flat when it comes to endings. Thankfully, that’s not really an issue when it comes to short stories. They’re not supposed to really end, which I think is a huge boon in King’s favor. As with Night Shift, the first of King’s short story collections I read, Skeleton Crew was chockfull of the interesting, terrifying, and uncomfortable. While not every story was a resounding success, there were far more hits among these twenty two installments than there were misses, and a handful of these stories will be staying with me for a good long while.

The first selection in this collection is one of King’s novellas, The Mist, my review of which you can read here. Beyond that, the stories that resonated the most with me were The Monkey, The Jaunt, Word Processor of the Gods, Nona, Survivor Type, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, Gramma, and The Reach. All of these stories I would have rated anywhere from 4 to 5 stars, which I think is a pretty high percentage for a short story collection. Some of these story were scary, while others were merely uncomfortable. Only one story actually gave me nightmares, and that was a tale of self-cannibalism that included not a single supernatural element. It was absolutely horrifying. Then there’s The Reach, which was a poignant way to close out the collection. Also, there were a handful of Castle Rock stories, which is always fun to come across if you’re one of King’s Constant Readers, which I’m beginning to consider myself. One thing that I think King should steer clear of though is poetry. There were two poems in this collection and they just didn’t land.

If you’ve never read Stephen King and would like to give his work a try, I cannot suggest highly enough picking up one of his short story collections. You’ll get a taste for his style, and there’s something about King’s storytelling in short form that I find a good deal scarier than some of his novels. Whether he’s spinning a tale that spans a dozen pages or more than a thousand, King is undoubtably the master of the horror genre, at least in my eyes. Long live the King!

Hannah Futterman

* The Mist - 3 stars 
* Here There Be Tygers - 2 stars 
* The Monkey - 4 stars 
* Cain Rose Up - 2 stars 
* Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut - 4 stars 
* The Jaunt - 5 stars 
* The Wedding Gig - 3 stars 
* Paranoid: A Chant - 2 stars 
* The Raft - 4 stars 
* Word Processor of the Gods - 3 stars 
* The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands - 4 stars 
* Beachworld - 3 stars 
* The Reaper’s Image - 3 stars 
* Nona - 4 stars 
* For Owen - 3 stars 
* Survivor Type - 4 stars 
* Uncle Otto’s Truck - 3 stars 
* Morning Deliveries (Milkman No. 1) - 3 stars 
* Big Wheels: a Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman No. 2) - 3 stars 
* Gramma - 4 stars 
* The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet - 4 stars 
* The Reach - 3 stars

For use in schools and libraries only. Age-old images of fear fuse with the iconography of contemporary American life in this collection of horror tales.

Skeleton Crew Stories

Reviews