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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
The first two stories made terrible screen adaptations, but were pretty good. The second two, I don't think, have made their way to TV of film, but were epically awesome.
Not a bad collection, but one that I'd not be returning to in any foreseeable future.
My hunch was spot on, the library policeman seemed to be the heart of the book. Unlike the others where the story either felt patchy or straight up gimmicky.
My hunch was spot on, the library policeman seemed to be the heart of the book. Unlike the others where the story either felt patchy or straight up gimmicky.
Not my favourite King works but definitely worth a read. Langoliers is the best of the four in my opinion
Langoliers - 4, This made me think of Lost and Station Eleven even though the stories are all very different. It was creepy and I'm glad I'm not flying for a few months! The characters are what made this story so good.
Secret Window, Secret Garden - 2, I would have liked this one more with some editing and without the part about the cat. It was fairly repetitive and I guessed the ending.
The Library Policeman - 5, Why oh why was this so scary???? Supernatural stuff usually doesn't scare me the way psychological stuff does. But this one actually gave me a nightmare! I rarley get truly scared by a story and don't know why this one was scary. Maybe because I love libraries?
The Sun Dog - 1, So, Needful Things is my least favorite King book so far. I couldn't even finish it. I gave up after falling asleep reading it on more than one occasion. So an extended prologue to that book wasn't something I was likely to like. I also don't like scary stories with animals, so I skimmed quite a bit of this. Pet Semetary and Cujo are the only two King books I plan to never ever read. This was not for me.
Secret Window, Secret Garden - 2, I would have liked this one more with some editing and without the part about the cat. It was fairly repetitive and I guessed the ending.
The Library Policeman - 5, Why oh why was this so scary???? Supernatural stuff usually doesn't scare me the way psychological stuff does. But this one actually gave me a nightmare! I rarley get truly scared by a story and don't know why this one was scary. Maybe because I love libraries?
The Sun Dog - 1, So, Needful Things is my least favorite King book so far. I couldn't even finish it. I gave up after falling asleep reading it on more than one occasion. So an extended prologue to that book wasn't something I was likely to like. I also don't like scary stories with animals, so I skimmed quite a bit of this. Pet Semetary and Cujo are the only two King books I plan to never ever read. This was not for me.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
LOVE this compilation. I'm especially a fan of "The Langoliers." DO NOT pre-judge this short story based on the B Movie of the same title. The short story is really interesting and creepy!
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
As of writing this review, the only short story/novella collections of Stephen King that I have read so far are Different Seasons and Skeleton Crew, plus a few stories from Night Shift. While King's full length novels almost always hit for me, I feel like his short works tend to be pretty hit or miss. Different Seasons for the most part I did like all the novellas to a degree, but two of them were more just okay than great. So far, Four Past Midnight is the strongest collection in my opinion. I really enjoyed all four of these novellas and also loved reading King's introduction to each one where he discusses his inspirations for each story and talks about the writing process. Here's my rating for each individual novella:
The Langoliers - 5 out of 5. Easily the best novella out of the bunch, I absolutely loved this through and through. It feels like The Mist and The Stand but taking place on an airplane and in an airport. Effectively creepy and gives the reader such a strong vibe of liminal places, Stephen King somehow achieves magnificent worldbuilding and suspense along with masterfully written characters all in less than 250 pages or so. I think it's one of my favorite stories of any type, not just his short works, of King's, like it has got to be up there in the ranks. And I love so many King stories that that is not a small feat.
Secret Window, Secret Garden - 4 out of 5. I confess, I watched the movie first. Though it was a long time ago so my memory of the movie was pretty well obscured (I remember liking it a lot at least) and I when I watched the movie I didn't even realize it was a Stephen King adaptation until the end credits then I was mad at myself for not reading the novella first. But what can ya do? Anyway, the novella was fantastic. A lot of people compare it to The Dark Half (which is also a great book and I recommend it if you haven't read it yet) but to me the similarities pretty much just start and end with the fact they're both about writers and their relationship with their writings. The Dark Half is a wild, gory, fantastical tale while Secret Window, Secret Garden is a creeping psychological thriller. Also The Dark Half is based off of Stephen King's time having a pseudonym by the name of Richard Bachman and when a fan had confronted him about being both writers, whereas Secret Window, Secret Garden is based off of when a crazed fan broke into King's house and threatened him, claiming King had stolen the novel Misery from him or a family member of his, I can't remember which. Both stories are about completely different events in King's life and both have completely different styles of horror attached, but damn are both stories great either way. I love how subtly but surely Secret Window, Secret Garden becomes exponentially dark as the plot unfolds.
The Library Policeman - 4.5 out of 5 stars. This would be five stars for me but one thing I didn't like, and I'll explain this without giving any spoilers which might make it hard to understand to those who haven't read it yet, is when Sam Peebles comes face to face with his long repressed fear, I don't think he reacts very realistically. Most people in his position would have more PTSD-like symptoms, but he kind of is just like, "Oh yeah, that happened. Now I can work on forgetting it." I don't know, it's the only part of the story that I have a hard time believing. But aside from that, I loved this story. At first I wondered if it was going to end up lame and predictable, after all the concept about a "library policeman" sounds absurd and the story starts off so mundane with the main character needing to prepare a speech. But of course, it's Stephen King. So half way through the novella, it had taken a sharp turn into Horrorville and plowed through Fucked Up Street and raced down What The Fuck Avenue. What you first think will be a simple, straightforward story becomes a complex amalgamation of concepts that work so well together to create a story kind of similar to It and The Outsider but also unique at the same time. Parts of this story also made me think of NOS4A2 by Stephen King's son Joe Hill for some reason. I wonder if maybe Joe Hill had taken some inspiration from this novella? Perhaps either consciously or subconsciously, maybe? I don't know, but I was so pleasantly surprised on how good the Library Policeman ended up being. Though fair warning to those who appreciate it, there is some graphic SA subject matter in it. Definitely not something somebody who has suffered from that trauma would want to read, especially with Stephen King's explicit way of describing things.
The Sun Dog - 3 out of 5. Easily the weakest story out of all of them. While I thought that the Library Policeman was going to be simple and straightforward but ended up nothing like that, I figured maybe this story would be the same, but this one stays simple and straightforward. It's still entertaining, but it's fairly predictable and doesn't do much to be anything new. According to King's introduction to the novella, it's a prequel to Needful Things (which as of writing this review I personally haven't read yet) so at least it serves that function. Honestly this story feels like it would do great in an anthology film filled with Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow style short movies that you always know how each story will end but it's so pulpy and fun that you don't really care and watch it anyway. The fact that it's stretched out to novella length kind of does the story a but of a disservice, probably if it was a shorter short story it would suit it better but maybe not. It's a story that feels like one you've heard all the way through before somewhere at sometime, maybe even multiple times, but it just happens to be better written this time around than all those other times and has better characters. That's the best way I can describe it. Perhaps the whole collection deserves knocking off a star from the overall rating because this ending story is so much weaker than the others, but like I said, it's still a fun, entertaining story, and all the other stories were so phenomenal that they make up for it. I do think they should not have put this novella as the last one. I can see not making it the first one, because if people read this one first it might put them off from reading the rest since it's so vanilla. But it shouldn't have ended the collection either. If it were me who arranged the collection, I'd do this order: Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Sun Dog, The Library Policeman, then end it strong with The Langoliers. But I guess that's just my personal opinion.
The Langoliers - 5 out of 5. Easily the best novella out of the bunch, I absolutely loved this through and through. It feels like The Mist and The Stand but taking place on an airplane and in an airport. Effectively creepy and gives the reader such a strong vibe of liminal places, Stephen King somehow achieves magnificent worldbuilding and suspense along with masterfully written characters all in less than 250 pages or so. I think it's one of my favorite stories of any type, not just his short works, of King's, like it has got to be up there in the ranks. And I love so many King stories that that is not a small feat.
Secret Window, Secret Garden - 4 out of 5. I confess, I watched the movie first. Though it was a long time ago so my memory of the movie was pretty well obscured (I remember liking it a lot at least) and I when I watched the movie I didn't even realize it was a Stephen King adaptation until the end credits then I was mad at myself for not reading the novella first. But what can ya do? Anyway, the novella was fantastic. A lot of people compare it to The Dark Half (which is also a great book and I recommend it if you haven't read it yet) but to me the similarities pretty much just start and end with the fact they're both about writers and their relationship with their writings. The Dark Half is a wild, gory, fantastical tale while Secret Window, Secret Garden is a creeping psychological thriller. Also The Dark Half is based off of Stephen King's time having a pseudonym by the name of Richard Bachman and when a fan had confronted him about being both writers, whereas Secret Window, Secret Garden is based off of when a crazed fan broke into King's house and threatened him, claiming King had stolen the novel Misery from him or a family member of his, I can't remember which. Both stories are about completely different events in King's life and both have completely different styles of horror attached, but damn are both stories great either way. I love how subtly but surely Secret Window, Secret Garden becomes exponentially dark as the plot unfolds.
The Library Policeman - 4.5 out of 5 stars. This would be five stars for me but one thing I didn't like, and I'll explain this without giving any spoilers which might make it hard to understand to those who haven't read it yet, is when Sam Peebles comes face to face with his long repressed fear, I don't think he reacts very realistically. Most people in his position would have more PTSD-like symptoms, but he kind of is just like, "Oh yeah, that happened. Now I can work on forgetting it." I don't know, it's the only part of the story that I have a hard time believing. But aside from that, I loved this story. At first I wondered if it was going to end up lame and predictable, after all the concept about a "library policeman" sounds absurd and the story starts off so mundane with the main character needing to prepare a speech. But of course, it's Stephen King. So half way through the novella, it had taken a sharp turn into Horrorville and plowed through Fucked Up Street and raced down What The Fuck Avenue. What you first think will be a simple, straightforward story becomes a complex amalgamation of concepts that work so well together to create a story kind of similar to It and The Outsider but also unique at the same time. Parts of this story also made me think of NOS4A2 by Stephen King's son Joe Hill for some reason. I wonder if maybe Joe Hill had taken some inspiration from this novella? Perhaps either consciously or subconsciously, maybe? I don't know, but I was so pleasantly surprised on how good the Library Policeman ended up being. Though fair warning to those who appreciate it, there is some graphic SA subject matter in it. Definitely not something somebody who has suffered from that trauma would want to read, especially with Stephen King's explicit way of describing things.
The Sun Dog - 3 out of 5. Easily the weakest story out of all of them. While I thought that the Library Policeman was going to be simple and straightforward but ended up nothing like that, I figured maybe this story would be the same, but this one stays simple and straightforward. It's still entertaining, but it's fairly predictable and doesn't do much to be anything new. According to King's introduction to the novella, it's a prequel to Needful Things (which as of writing this review I personally haven't read yet) so at least it serves that function. Honestly this story feels like it would do great in an anthology film filled with Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow style short movies that you always know how each story will end but it's so pulpy and fun that you don't really care and watch it anyway. The fact that it's stretched out to novella length kind of does the story a but of a disservice, probably if it was a shorter short story it would suit it better but maybe not. It's a story that feels like one you've heard all the way through before somewhere at sometime, maybe even multiple times, but it just happens to be better written this time around than all those other times and has better characters. That's the best way I can describe it. Perhaps the whole collection deserves knocking off a star from the overall rating because this ending story is so much weaker than the others, but like I said, it's still a fun, entertaining story, and all the other stories were so phenomenal that they make up for it. I do think they should not have put this novella as the last one. I can see not making it the first one, because if people read this one first it might put them off from reading the rest since it's so vanilla. But it shouldn't have ended the collection either. If it were me who arranged the collection, I'd do this order: Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Sun Dog, The Library Policeman, then end it strong with The Langoliers. But I guess that's just my personal opinion.