Horror

Holly's story felt fresh. I enjoyed the balance between dealing with her monstrous mother for the holidays, then facing an actual monster. Some of the other stories felt like well-trodden ground. So many writers struggling to write, with shades of Jack just despising Wendy, as he smiles and smiles. If you add a mysterious tunnel to one of the stories you'd get a King novel. I prefer what's in this collection. The tunnel to fairy-tale world wasn't as good as the boy, his dad, and the old man. ( )

Solid Writing but not Five Stars

This isn't my favorite of King's work. As always, King delivers solid writing that keeps the reader interested, if not totally on edge, throughout the four novellas. The works are more thought-provoking than horrifying, which is actually a bit more nerve-wracking. Some of the images might tend to creep into the reader's mind hours, days, or weeks after reading the book. Are the ideas really so far-fetched? How many people have ever put an item into a loved one’s coffin to be buried with that person? Does this item have a profound link to the dead? And have you ever considered the effect your thoughts have once you release them into the world? What is the cosmos, after all?

Yes, this is a book of deep thoughts and deeper meaning. It kind of creates a bit of an earworm, with ideas going on and on and on... I heard King say he isn’t just a horror writer and after reading this I can agree 100% that there is more to this writer. I am a fan through and through and am here for the good the bad and the horrific.
( )

Containing the novellas Mr. Harrigan's Phone, The Life of Chuck, If It Bleeds, and Rat.

Of the four novellas in this collection, my favorites are If It Bleeds and Mr. Harrigan's Phone. In Mr. Harrigan's Phone, we're told "A reader is a carrier, not a creator," which is true-- and I've been carrying around an appreciation of Holly Gibney ever since reading Mr. Mercedes, so it was a pleasure to see her in action once again.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone is a spooky little number that made me smile, and if you like finding out how an author gets his ideas for the stories he writes, don't miss the Afterward.

All in all, If It Bleeds is an enjoyable ramble through the mind of Stephen King. ( )

This book contains four novellas from Stephen King, well known as the monarch of horror, although I've been referring to this book as King's Twilight Zone era as the storylines seem a little more "what if?" musings than "boo!" jump scares. (I know that's reducing both horror and science fiction into just common tropes, but hopefully my meaning comes across.)

The first novella, Mr. Harrigan's Phone, is about a haunted iPhone, which sounds silly but actually built up a layer of dread culminating in creepiness as a young child grows and deals with the usual issues of life, including bullying and the sudden loss of a loved one to old age, but all compounded with bizarre text messages presumably from beyond the grave. The audiobook narrator is Will Patton, who has narrated other of King's audiobooks and is the perfect fit for a slightly spooky story with his deep, gravelly voice.

The second novella, Life of Chuck. starts out strong with an all-too-possible apocalyptic future in which the world is suffering catastrophically from climate change and people sit by suffering as land masses fall back into the ocean, sinkholes open up, infrastructure including electricity and Internet degrades, and staples such as medicine and food become harder to get. The first bit of this ends perfectly, if bleakly. It twists to talk about a man in a hospital, adding a more sci-fi aspect to the reasons behind the first part of the story, which is fine, but then it sidebars into his life before this horrifying future. Frankly I found "Act II," with Chuck not yet realizing how sick he is but feeling nostalgic for his teen years as garage band singer and dancer, to be uninteresting and so disconnected from the rest of the story up to that point that for a moment I was wondering if we moved on to a new tale. The third part, titled "Act I" as we are going back further to Chuck's childhood, was more intriguing but again felt like it should be its own story. In fact, it has its own separate lore in which an old Victorian home has a cupola haunted not by ghosts of the deceased but visions of neighbors' and loved ones' impending deaths. I felt this could have been a really interesting story to explore more of, instead of being mixed up into a story that had a lot going on already. This part of the audiobook was narrated by Danny Burstein, who did a good job with different accents and voices.

The third novella, If It Bleeds, is a continuation of the story of Holly Gibney, a character introduced in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and seen again in The Outsider. I really enjoy Holly as a character and she was the whole reason I picked up this particular collection of King's works. As with the other books featuring Holly, this book has a mystery aspect to the horrifying events that happen, with Holly in charge of a detective agency known as Finders Keepers. Other characters from the previous books also make appearances as do references to events that occurred in them, so I'm honestly not sure how well this novella stands up on its own. However, folks who already read the previous books and liked them are sure to enjoy this addition as well. This novella is also read by Will Patton in the audiobook version, which only makes sense since he read the other titles featuring Holly. I loved how the author's note talked about Holly as though she were a real person, because she does feel that way.

Rat, the final story, is about an academic who teaches creative writing and writes short stories but for whom a full-length novel has always eluded him. Convinced he finally has a great novel-worthy story, he treks to his family's remote cabin and hunkers down despite bad weather and ill health. While there a Faustian bargain is presented to him via a rat, which he is sure *must* be a delusion brought on by fever. Or is it? The idea of the rat continues to haunt him as he returns to regular life, waiting for the other shoe to drop on him. In the author's note, King refers to this as a "maligned fairy tale," and that seems apt. The plotline itself was interesting, but I really didn't like Drew, the protagonist. That was especially difficult in the build up before the crux of the story was revealed. This one was read by Steven Weber in the audiobook version, who does really well with emotional scenes and different voices, but was a bit too placid for my liking in his general narration.

All in all, this was an interesting read, especially for fans of King's previous works. ( )