A review by cptnmarv41
Four Past Midnight by Stephen King

5.0

Thoroughly enjoyed this old school thriller from Stephen King. In my ongoing quest in 2022 to tie up loose ends, this was a big one for me personally. I've started this book numerous times in the past 30 years and I can't tell you why I never finished it. This time, I did. It's a little funny, b/c not long ago on here I wrote about how I typically don't like short story books. Stephen King is one huge exception to that. He is always the exception. This book was so great. And the throwback to relics from another time and era were really wonderful to read about. OMG, remember pay TV's in the waiting room at airports? When Polaroid cameras were a hot thing? (Yes, I know those are kinda en-vogue again, but they're not exactly mainstream) - Really loved every story in here. And this was still the early days of King cross referencing places and characters as they intersected throughout all his works. The Sun Dog is the perfect transition into 2 more King books from this era that I need to check off - The Dark Half and Needful Things. Once again, two books I'm pretty sure I started and never finished. This time, they shall be finished. Anyway, the Langoliers was so so awesome. Tore through that one - excellent characters and what's more terrifying than weird shit on an airplane? Even though it's probably very low tech and terrible, I think I need to go find the TV movie they made of it. My second favorite story was probably The Library Policeman - so creepy. Again, great characters and a call back to the silly things that scared us in our youth. Secret Window, Secret Garden was probably my third favorite - kind of Hitchcock-ian with a nice twist ending that was probably pretty WOW at one time, but these days I kinda figured what was happening. Still good, all the same. And The Sun Dog too was excellent - a haunted polaroid camera. King really has made a scary story out of everything, hasn't he? Not a bad story in the bunch. Thrilled to finally check this one off my list. Fun read!