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labunnywtf's review
3.0
201st book of 2014, 1st book of 2015.
Not my favorite short story collection of his, but not that terrible, either. Let's go down the list.
Autopsy Room 4 - Takes the idea of waking up during surgery and amplifies it to 1,000. What an absolutely horrible thought, and it's told so brilliantly. The coda at the end always cracks me up.
The Man in the Black Suit - Average boogey man story. Not especially scary, but it would make an excellent campfire tale.
All that You Love Will be Carried Away - The thoughts a person has before they commit suicide. I do love the title.
The Death of Jack Hamilton - I adore this story. Different from King's usual stories, and I love it all the more for that.
In the Deathroom - The least interesting of all the stories, to me. The idea should be, but it's just not my style.
Little Sisters of Eluria - Didn't even give it a shot. It's part of the Dark Tower series, and I still haven't gotten the motivation to read those.
Everything's Eventual - Such a weird, but awesome story. I want to use the word eventual like it's used in this story. I'm still not entirely sure what happens at the end of the story, though. Death, or escape? Just confused.
LT's Theory of Pets - So funny, and it ends so darkly. I adore it. This is narrated by King himself, live. So his introduction is fantastic. Also, I completely agree with LT's theory.
The Road Virus Heads North - One of those stories that stuck the first time I read this collection. It still freaks me out, and makes me think hard about anything I would hang on my walls.
Lunch at the Gotham Cafe - I love this story so hard. I want more information. I want to know why Stephen's wife hates him. That's obviously not important, but it drives me nuts. Also, this is another narrated by King. Hearing him do the screaming "eeeee!!!"s is inappropriately hilarious.
That Feeling You Can Only say What it is in French - I didn't remember this one. And I didn't see it coming. Yeesh.
Room 1408 - I was so confused when this was made into a movie. Mike is in the room for 70 minutes, and everything is LSD trips and anxiety. How do you make THAT into a movie? One of the few times Hollywood got a great King story right.
Riding the Bullet - Excellent. Slightly too long, but everything really is necessary to tell the full story.
Lucky Quarter - Sad, and sweet.
Not my favorite short story collection of his, but not that terrible, either. Let's go down the list.
Autopsy Room 4 - Takes the idea of waking up during surgery and amplifies it to 1,000. What an absolutely horrible thought, and it's told so brilliantly. The coda at the end always cracks me up.
The Man in the Black Suit - Average boogey man story. Not especially scary, but it would make an excellent campfire tale.
All that You Love Will be Carried Away - The thoughts a person has before they commit suicide. I do love the title.
The Death of Jack Hamilton - I adore this story. Different from King's usual stories, and I love it all the more for that.
In the Deathroom - The least interesting of all the stories, to me. The idea should be, but it's just not my style.
Little Sisters of Eluria - Didn't even give it a shot. It's part of the Dark Tower series, and I still haven't gotten the motivation to read those.
Everything's Eventual - Such a weird, but awesome story. I want to use the word eventual like it's used in this story. I'm still not entirely sure what happens at the end of the story, though. Death, or escape? Just confused.
LT's Theory of Pets - So funny, and it ends so darkly. I adore it. This is narrated by King himself, live. So his introduction is fantastic. Also, I completely agree with LT's theory.
The Road Virus Heads North - One of those stories that stuck the first time I read this collection. It still freaks me out, and makes me think hard about anything I would hang on my walls.
Lunch at the Gotham Cafe - I love this story so hard. I want more information. I want to know why Stephen's wife hates him. That's obviously not important, but it drives me nuts. Also, this is another narrated by King. Hearing him do the screaming "eeeee!!!"s is inappropriately hilarious.
That Feeling You Can Only say What it is in French - I didn't remember this one. And I didn't see it coming. Yeesh.
Room 1408 - I was so confused when this was made into a movie. Mike is in the room for 70 minutes, and everything is LSD trips and anxiety. How do you make THAT into a movie? One of the few times Hollywood got a great King story right.
Riding the Bullet - Excellent. Slightly too long, but everything really is necessary to tell the full story.
Lucky Quarter - Sad, and sweet.
peachesandhoney's review against another edition
I wanted to try some Stephen King but none of these stories captured my attention. Also a bit put off with constantly finding a way to discuss male protagonist’s sexual attraction to female characters.
courtneyann's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, I would rate this collection of short stories from Stephen King a 3.25 when all is said and done. I seem to like King's short stories a little better than his novel as a general statement, but that definitely wasn't true for these. Maybe it has to do with when he wrote them? I don't know, but I can tell you that I had a difficult time focusing on the stories while they were being read.
Everything's Eventual - 3.75* This story had an interesting concept (a teen has strange powers that involve killing things). The narrator of this story did a good job keeping me interested, but I wanted more overall. There were some parts that felt pretty mundane and I couldn't figure out from listening to this if this was supposed to a confession in a letter to someone of if he was talking to someone... I just wanted more overall.
Autopsy Room Four - 3.75* This story was pretty good too. A guy comes conscious and has to try to figure out where he is - an autopsy room. After quickly figuring that out, he needs to find a way to communicate to the people who are about to perform his autopsy that he is not in fact dead. But surprise surprise, he can't move anything at all. I didn't like the narrator as much in this story, nor did I like any of the characters.
Little Sisters of Eluria - 3* I couldn't really get into this story. It sounds like this was an in between story of the Dark Towers series, which might have been where a little of my confusion came in, but overall this story didn't intrigue me as much and that parts that did intrigue me (the sisters) weren't given much background. I wanted to know more about their history. I didn't feel very invested in the main character either.
Lucky Quarter - 3.25 This one had an interesting concept, but once again, I wanted more. What was the history of the quarter, what was the main character going to do with it? Was there going to be any bad outcomes from using the quarter and becoming lucky?
The Road Virus Heads North - 3.25 Once again, just didn't feel invested. If this was a novella versus a short story, I think I could have become more invested in the concept and the characters.
Everything's Eventual - 3.75* This story had an interesting concept (a teen has strange powers that involve killing things). The narrator of this story did a good job keeping me interested, but I wanted more overall. There were some parts that felt pretty mundane and I couldn't figure out from listening to this if this was supposed to a confession in a letter to someone of if he was talking to someone... I just wanted more overall.
Autopsy Room Four - 3.75* This story was pretty good too. A guy comes conscious and has to try to figure out where he is - an autopsy room. After quickly figuring that out, he needs to find a way to communicate to the people who are about to perform his autopsy that he is not in fact dead. But surprise surprise, he can't move anything at all. I didn't like the narrator as much in this story, nor did I like any of the characters.
Little Sisters of Eluria - 3* I couldn't really get into this story. It sounds like this was an in between story of the Dark Towers series, which might have been where a little of my confusion came in, but overall this story didn't intrigue me as much and that parts that did intrigue me (the sisters) weren't given much background. I wanted to know more about their history. I didn't feel very invested in the main character either.
Lucky Quarter - 3.25 This one had an interesting concept, but once again, I wanted more. What was the history of the quarter, what was the main character going to do with it? Was there going to be any bad outcomes from using the quarter and becoming lucky?
The Road Virus Heads North - 3.25 Once again, just didn't feel invested. If this was a novella versus a short story, I think I could have become more invested in the concept and the characters.
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