Monday, January 27, 2025

Finished reading: Just After Sunset by Stephen King 📚

Read: 2025-01-27 | ★★★★☆ Horror

On a quest to read the few Stephen King books I missed along the way. I forgot how great of a short story writer King is. Probably some of his novels should have been short stories! Gingerbread Girl and N were my favorites in this collection.

  1. Willa. A ghost story about people who died in a train wreck, but didn’t know it. Wistful. Sad.
  2. The Gingerbread Girl. Woman in a marriage break up turns to running as outlet. Soon needs to use it to fun for her life. “Sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight.” Terrific suspense. Personal transformation. Good story.
  3. Harvey’s Dream. Straight-laced Harvey has a dream that his daughter is killed.
  4. Rest Stop. Author/professor uses alter-ego in confrontation late at night at a highway rest stop/
  5. Stationary Bike. Fun story about the cardiac workers inside the protagonist’s body getting laid off after he decides to get fit.
  6. The Things They Left Behind. 9-11 story.
  7. Graduation Afternoon. New York is bombed.
  8. N. Creepy epistolary story about a thin place where demons almost get through.
  9. The Cat from Hell. Noir story about an evil cat. Least favorite.
  10. The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates. Another story about life after death.
  11. Mute. Guy’s wife embezzles from her school, runs away with another man, loses the money on lottery tickets. Tells the story to a dumb mute he picks up hitchhiking, who then kills the wife and her lover.
  12. Ayana. Regular people work miracles for those on their deathbeds. No reason. Just because.
  13. A Very Tight Place. Gruesome story about a guy locked in a portapotty. Yuck.

Reading