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austinghelms's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
plaidpladd's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
Mediocre white men really could succeed way out of proportion to their talent when they were keeping everyone else out of certain fields, is the lesson this book taught me. These stories are mostly extremely boring, so nothing distracts you from how tirelessly sexist, racist, and fatphobic they are. Was the existence of fat women supposed to terrify me? Lol okay, Stephen.
mistysbookspace's review against another edition
3.0
When it comes to Stephen King my ratings are all over the place. I've absolutely loved some of his books I've disliked some of his books and some of his books are just ok to me. This is one of those books where I thought it was ok. This is a collection of 22 short stories. Some were hits and some were misses. There were only 6 stories that I gave higher than 3 stars. I say this every time a review a collection of short stories but most of the time I feel like we weren't given enough and that was the case for a good bit of these stories. There were also some that once I finished them, I was just like what the heck was the point in that? Overall while there were definitely some standout stories this was just an ok collection for me.
dramallama042's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
ionsquareatkreuzberg's review against another edition
4.0
While 'Skeleton Crew' is not Stephen King's strongest short story collection by any stretch of the imagination, it is still a solid, entertaining collection of his early- to mid-career short fiction adventures, and there are more than enough good tales in this book to balance out some of the ones that snuck in here and would've been better kept on the cutting room floor.
'The Mist,' a novella that starts out the collection, is an awesome short novel in essence, a story about a town that gets caught in some kind of other-worldly mist that sends Lovecraftian creatures for the surviving inhabitants to battle and survive against. The ending here is pretty different than the Frank Darabont movie, but I would say it is just as satisfying.
'The Monkey' is an interesting short story about a wind-up toy that seems to have the power to kill people, and 'The Jaunt' seems to be one of King's only explorations of science fiction, something I wish he would've done more of considering it's a pretty good short story. 'The Raft' is a perfect example of pulpy short fiction that King excels at, the story itself short and simple but gory and awesome, and 'Nona' is a more mature but still intriguing character study of two young lovers set during a night in the bleak mid-winter. 'Nona' reminds me more of King's later work, the 'mature and realistic and not horror-based' novels of the 1990's and early 2000's, and it is an interesting non-supernatural pause in between the rest of the stories in the collection.
There are a few middling short stories as well, some better than others, but the worst of the bunch are 'Here There By Tygers,' written by what sounds like a young teenaged King based on the style and content of the story, and 'Cain Rose Up,' a story that I don't know why King hasn't killed if he's banned publishers from keeping 'Rage' in publication.
Overall, good collection, and a solid add to the King short fiction canon.
'The Mist,' a novella that starts out the collection, is an awesome short novel in essence, a story about a town that gets caught in some kind of other-worldly mist that sends Lovecraftian creatures for the surviving inhabitants to battle and survive against. The ending here is pretty different than the Frank Darabont movie, but I would say it is just as satisfying.
'The Monkey' is an interesting short story about a wind-up toy that seems to have the power to kill people, and 'The Jaunt' seems to be one of King's only explorations of science fiction, something I wish he would've done more of considering it's a pretty good short story. 'The Raft' is a perfect example of pulpy short fiction that King excels at, the story itself short and simple but gory and awesome, and 'Nona' is a more mature but still intriguing character study of two young lovers set during a night in the bleak mid-winter. 'Nona' reminds me more of King's later work, the 'mature and realistic and not horror-based' novels of the 1990's and early 2000's, and it is an interesting non-supernatural pause in between the rest of the stories in the collection.
There are a few middling short stories as well, some better than others, but the worst of the bunch are 'Here There By Tygers,' written by what sounds like a young teenaged King based on the style and content of the story, and 'Cain Rose Up,' a story that I don't know why King hasn't killed if he's banned publishers from keeping 'Rage' in publication.
Overall, good collection, and a solid add to the King short fiction canon.
bibliobethreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
coleridgegirl's review against another edition
3.0
With the exclusion of Night Shift, I don’t think there have been many short story collections that aren’t a mix of good, bad, and awful. This was better than many but still had a lot of junk.