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A review by kandicez
Mile 81 by Stephen King
4.0
April 2015 -
This is a fun story. Seems wrong to call a horror story fun, but it is. I have always loved King's short fiction. I can never get enough of his writing, but he is well aware of the limits in short fiction and so writes differently. The ending of this one felt almost like a cheat. I'll get to why later.
I want to say first that King's description of the taste and feel of vodka is perfect! I took a swallow of straight vodka after reading the bit where King describes it as hot in the mouth and throat, then an explosion in the stomach, almost oily liquid and then a hot burp later. I wonder little things as I read his stuff, like did he take a swig of vodka so that his description would be perfect? Or did he write it from memory? I'd love to know.
King peppers his writing with pop culture references that may date it years from now, but feel like little "in jokes" with his Constant Readers now. He mentions shows that we know he likes, the comic for which he wrote the first issue, mentions music we know he likes, etc. I love that!
His use of foreshadowing in this little story is almost clumsy. I'm referring to the magnifying glass in Pete's pack and King's continual references to the sun or lack of it. I'm not sure if it really is literary clumsiness or simply due to short number of pages King has limited himself to. Again, I'd like to know.
The cheat I referred to in my first paragraph is the way he ends the tale. I understand and enjoy the fact that short stories are usually small helpings of what could be a bigger story. We are often dropped into the middle of a situation and seldom given a complete or satisfying resolution. I'm ok with that. What I found sloppy here is that two children are left with no parents. Usually when King creates some crazy, wackado event that can't be believed, he also makes it possible for the other characters to just forget or ignore it. That can't happen here. There are TWO orphaned children to deal with!
Overall, great little story.
This is a fun story. Seems wrong to call a horror story fun, but it is. I have always loved King's short fiction. I can never get enough of his writing, but he is well aware of the limits in short fiction and so writes differently. The ending of this one felt almost like a cheat. I'll get to why later.
I want to say first that King's description of the taste and feel of vodka is perfect! I took a swallow of straight vodka after reading the bit where King describes it as hot in the mouth and throat, then an explosion in the stomach, almost oily liquid and then a hot burp later. I wonder little things as I read his stuff, like did he take a swig of vodka so that his description would be perfect? Or did he write it from memory? I'd love to know.
King peppers his writing with pop culture references that may date it years from now, but feel like little "in jokes" with his Constant Readers now. He mentions shows that we know he likes, the comic for which he wrote the first issue, mentions music we know he likes, etc. I love that!
His use of foreshadowing in this little story is almost clumsy. I'm referring to the magnifying glass in Pete's pack and King's continual references to the sun or lack of it. I'm not sure if it really is literary clumsiness or simply due to short number of pages King has limited himself to. Again, I'd like to know.
The cheat I referred to in my first paragraph is the way he ends the tale. I understand and enjoy the fact that short stories are usually small helpings of what could be a bigger story. We are often dropped into the middle of a situation and seldom given a complete or satisfying resolution. I'm ok with that. What I found sloppy here is that two children are left with no parents. Usually when King creates some crazy, wackado event that can't be believed, he also makes it possible for the other characters to just forget or ignore it. That can't happen here. There are TWO orphaned children to deal with!
Overall, great little story.