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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
...in Western Maine there is no early spring; only late spring and winter before it...
alright friends, i tried to do a 2020 reread of this and with everything going on i just need to set it back down for now. below is my very incomplete review (essentially just the notes i took while reading) of the first half:
1. Dolan’s Cadillac, 5
2. The End of the Whole Mess, 4.5
3. Suffer the Little Children, 4
4. The Night Flier, 2
5. Popsy, 2
6. It Grows on You, 2
7. Chattery Teeth, 3.5
8. Dedication, 2
9. The Moving Finger, 2
10. Sneakers, 4
This used to be one of my favorite Stephen King books, I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve reread it. I was a little apprehensive going in after realizing how old it is (the introduction was written in 1992 and many of the stories were written in the ‘70s and ‘80s), as even modern King isn’t the most politically correct. That apprehension was well-warranted. Take the content warnings at the bottom of this review into consideration because if these things are dealbreakers for you, you will hate this collection. I think the only thing that kept me holding on was the nostalgia and knowing that there are some real gems in here.
Even so, I had to take a break halfway through. I told the group chat that I was keeping incognito mode open on my phone browser so I could look up words I didn’t know in case they were slurs — spoiler alert: they were all slurs. One can only take so much jam-packed bigotry at a time, whether intentional or not.
content warnings: racism; death of a loved one; homophobic slurs; child death; misogyny; ableist slurs; child abduction; antisemitic slurs; child sexual abuse; fatshaming; racial slurs; predatory gay trope
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, Stephen King excels at writing solid, short horror stories. There are a number of good ones in this collection and while no single one sticks out to me and the story of the collection, I found that I enjoyed almost all of them upon reflection. It always surprises me that King can write something so short and concise when he so often struggles to end his longer novels. This is definitely a collection to check out and it made for good reading in fall around Halloween.
I found these stories hard to get through, and thought only about half of them were good when I finished. There are better short story collections by S.K. Maybe I'm just not easily creeped out anymore.
This is middling work for Stephen King. I know this is a collection of short stories but a decent chunk of them are not particularly memorable. There are, however, a handful of stand outs.
Particularly, My Pretty Pony which is absolutely fantastic, and quite possibly my favorite King short story to date. Maybe I am in the minority here, but this story holds up against anything McMurtry has written.
Other stand outs include the Dolan’s Cadillac which if slightly longer could have ended up a Bachman Book. Home Delivery, Chattery Teeth, the 10 O’Clock People, and the Moving Finger, which are schlocky, but very Stephen King. And finally the recounting of his Son’s championship Little League season, “Head Down” which genuinely got me excited for baseball season. Otherwise his homages to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lovecraft, and Chandler are all fine but didn’t particularly do it for me, and “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” is particularly bad.
Either way, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is not bad per se. Overall, it displays just what makes King a great writer. The collection just ultimately doesn’t do much to stand out against his other work. It remains a grab bag of Stephen King’s talents and certainly worth reading if already a Constant Reader.
Particularly, My Pretty Pony which is absolutely fantastic, and quite possibly my favorite King short story to date. Maybe I am in the minority here, but this story holds up against anything McMurtry has written.
Other stand outs include the Dolan’s Cadillac which if slightly longer could have ended up a Bachman Book. Home Delivery, Chattery Teeth, the 10 O’Clock People, and the Moving Finger, which are schlocky, but very Stephen King. And finally the recounting of his Son’s championship Little League season, “Head Down” which genuinely got me excited for baseball season. Otherwise his homages to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lovecraft, and Chandler are all fine but didn’t particularly do it for me, and “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” is particularly bad.
Either way, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is not bad per se. Overall, it displays just what makes King a great writer. The collection just ultimately doesn’t do much to stand out against his other work. It remains a grab bag of Stephen King’s talents and certainly worth reading if already a Constant Reader.
I think I read this and forgot about it. The stories were familiar.
In my delusional moments, think, oh I could write something like this.
Then wake up and realise at the feet of a master.
Great writer who makes you turn the page, maybe some award winners of literature could learn from him!
Then wake up and realise at the feet of a master.
Great writer who makes you turn the page, maybe some award winners of literature could learn from him!
The quality of the stories felt uneven, but even the ones that weren't as good I still enjoyed.
A very large, and very disappointing collection of stories by King. Despite its 900 something page count, none of these stories are particularly great. And some felt like filler. Why King and his editors decided to reprint a lengthy non-fiction piece about his son's little league team I couldn't tell you, but it was a slog.
My favorite story in here is probably "Umney's Last Case," a reasonably clever take on the Chandler/noir genre. But even that overstays its welcome. Most of these stories are fine. Not bad, not great. But as a whole Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a completely skippable moment in King's career. Unless you're a completest, you needn't bother.
My favorite story in here is probably "Umney's Last Case," a reasonably clever take on the Chandler/noir genre. But even that overstays its welcome. Most of these stories are fine. Not bad, not great. But as a whole Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a completely skippable moment in King's career. Unless you're a completest, you needn't bother.
This was a very long book but I like King's short stories collections