Review – Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

Deciding to finish this collection, I read the last two stories back to back. If the title doesn’t give you enough of a clue, these stories are dark, gripping and unapologetic, making for a great set of novellas.

Fair Extension, the shortest of the four collected here, is a mean spirited tale of jealousy and hidden feelings. Suffering late stage cancer, Dan Streeter who seemingly is a morally upstanding husband and father meets a stranger on a quiet road at the edge of town. That man offers him a deal, an extension on his life. He thinks the man is insane, especially when it’s revealed that for the deal to be complete, Streeter must choose someone he hates to transfer his pain upon.

It’s this point that’s so important and so hard to swallow. Choosing his best friend against whom he’s harboured all manner of ill will since childhood, reveals something awful. That friend relied on Streeter to help him through school, stole Streeter’s girlfriend who he married and ended up coasting into a massively successful business. The deep seated resentment Streeter feels pours out, much to the strangers glee. Weeks later, the man’s cancer is gone but his friend’s life begins to deteriorate in truly terrible ways, classically narrated in King’s inimitable style.

Less complex than other stories it still retains that central kernel; a pivotal moment that changes everything and the consequences thereof. But, the darkness here is of much different quality and is more brutal for it.

The last story, A Good Marriage, is truly intense and deeply unsettling. An unassuming and pleasant girl, Darcy, meets a young man and together they build a life full of marriage’s little quirks and compromises but also joys and love. A nice house, two beautiful children – now grown – and a routine that includes Bob, her husband, going on frequent trips to trade for rare coins, his passion. An accountant, a little soft in the middle, he’s a man of careful routine.

It’s whilst he’s away on one of those trips that Darcy makes a discovery. A bondage magazine hidden amongst old catalogues in a box kept in the garage. A box that was left out. A box that Darcy tripped over looking for batteries. That first uncovering peels back the veneer on Darcy’s quiet but happy life. It’s the consequences, once again, that have such profound ramifications; the implications of which pierce through the story and make it so harsh. Realising her husband, the person she loves so deeply and has shared her whole adult life with, is something completely other is brutally portrayed.

A fascinating look into the notion that you never truly know another, that there’s always another side to the looking glass, A Good Marriage is a terrifying moral dilemma and a visceral tale. Yet, once again, like Big Driver, though the evil is vanquished the required action leaves it’s mark; another irrevocable change.

Dark, personal stories cleverly crafted and reaching into the depths of human psyches, Full Dark, No Stars is an immensely captivating collection.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – Big Driver by Stephen King

The second story in the Full Dark, No Stars collection and the grittiest I’ve read from King in a while. A wonderfully written character but an awful scenario combine into a gripping, and dark, tale of revenge.

Whilst I’m not a fan of books that reference films as a way to signpost ideas, what King has produced in Big Driver is a meta fiction worthy of praise. Taking the collective consciousness around horror stories and, rather than using it as a crutch, using it as a framework, he displays an insightful connection between reality and fiction and that liminal space where imagination rests. What unfolds is a fascinating look into the mind of someone forced to endure and solve a terrible situation.

A cosy mystery writer, Tess subsidises her income with speaking events. Offered a short notice gig, not far from home, that meets her criteria, she accepts. A particular but pleasant woman, Tess does everything with honesty from her meet and greets to making sure her cat, Fritzy, isn’t left alone too long. When her host offers to show her a shortcut home, she readily accepts, a fact upon which everything turns.

The backroad she travels is quiet and the debris in the road causes her to suffer a flat tyre. It’s here that Tess’ imagination begins to wander and when one of the biggest men she’s ever seen arrives to help her, she’s suddenly gripped by a fear she derides herself for feeling, worrying her overactive mind has snagged on a horror movie theme. It’s not unfounded.

Tess survives. What King then does with the story is intriguing. A tale of a woman’s perspective including shame and guilt but also privacy and self-preservation, there’s a cold logic about Tess’ point of view that is both maddeningly and sadly real. It’s also one of an unravelling and that’s to be expected; the incident is a changing point with out the option to return. Tess displays a strength and character that’s immense and it’s less the revenge and more about how she goes about it that is so compelling.

Not an easy read but a gripping work of fiction, Big Driver is all about character and, yet, whilst the collection is titled Full Dark, No Stars there is some light at the end of this one despite its source.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – 1922 by Stephen King

Once more looking toward reading more recent Stephen King stories, I picked up this collection of novellas Full Dark, No Stars secondhand. Opening with 1922 it set the tone with a dark, insidious story that had me gripped from the outset.

Written by Wilf, as a confessional eight years after the fact, the story is a first person and very personal insight into an extremely grim series of events. After his wife inherits a large plot of land, the couple argue about whether to add it to their small farm or, as Arlette would prefer, selling it all and moving to the city. Determined to remain a country man, he recruits his teenage son to his cause hoping to sway the conversation in his favour. But months of disagreement turns, becoming bitter and hateful as both seek to get their own way. For Wilf, his determination curdles into something murderous, adamant that he’ll keep his family farm and refuse to let developers pollute the land around him.

Setting himself on a path, he manages to convince his boy to help him; made easier by his wife’s behaviour. The pair commit to the killing but it’s a vile affair; the reality of it more brutal than either could imagine. The son, distraught and disturbed changes from a bright, hopeful young man. Wilf, realising the poison he has poured into the well, does all he can to look to the future. But, as 1922 plays out, it’s the worst year the spells the beginning of the end.

A cleverly constructed first person narrative, it’s a window into self- conviction and an act of appalling consequences. Greed or stubbornness or a desire to just be free set his hand but Wilf’s plan is a descent into darkness steered by the memory or ghost of the woman he killed. Spiralling away from the vision he had, the murder is a catalyst of destruction taking everything away from him. But whilst the horror of the killing, the guilt and lies weigh heavy, it’s the thing he thought buried which truly haunts him.

Wonderfully woven and told with such a first person presence, 1922 is a forceful and captivating novella. Once again putting King’s character work on display, it’s a story that contains that dark seed that makes his work so compelling.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – The Institute by Stephen King

After recently rediscovering Stephen King, I was recommended The Institute by a Constant Reader as I was looking for one of his more modern novels. I wasn’t disappointed. A vast cast of characters and a fantastic premise with a dark mystery at its core, this is King the way I remember.

Opening on a seemingly random event, Tim Jamieson, an ex-cop, chooses to disembark his flight to New York and hitchhike. It’s a decision that sees him follow some inexplicable flow, ending up in a small, nowhere town. Lucas Ellis, on the other hand, is driven by something wholly different. A genius with a future as bright as his intellect, the twelve-year old is about to go to university – two in fact – as he tries to satiate his need for knowledge. Neither Lucas or Tim end up where they set off for.

Kidnapped in the night, his parents murdered, Lucas (or Luke) is spirited away to a strange place. A military or scientific compound, he meets other children who know bits and pieces about why they are there. Experiments and tests, kids that disappear to the “Back Half” and a zealot staff who don’t care for the children, it’s a strange and frightening place. Luke, brilliant but also street smart, soon realises that cooperation is the safest option. What is also quickly apparent is that all the children are there because they display abilities, telekinesis or telepathy, which the scientists are using. Using in ways that aren’t fully clear.

It’s a brutal regime. The kids are forced to undergo physical and emotional deprivations. Yet, it seems to only make the bond between Luke and his new friends, Nick, Helen, Kalisha, George and Avery, stronger. Something the head of the Institute, Mrs Sigby, doesn’t understand. Demanding complete cooperation, and using tactics to repress and control the children, she and the rest of the staff have become complacent. A fact Luke is sharp enough to take advantage of as he plans his escape. How his bid to freedom reveals the terrible truth about the Institute is a breakneck revelation as gripping as it is dark. Told with a deft touch as the perspectives shift between the huge cast of characters, it builds to an extraordinary and emotional conclusion.

Stuffed with social commentary about the prevalence of ignoring awful realities in return for a peaceful life, The Institute questions political directives that overlook moral values. Deciding to sacrifice the few for the “greater good”, one which removes all agency based on the supposition of a higher understanding, is an idea scrutinised with a keen eye when it comes to the current state of western government. None more so relevant today than when it critiques those decisions that actively harm and disregard the young and innocent. Yet, it’s the children who make such an impact on the story. Brilliantly crafted, each individual portrays an important aspect in the face of such awful circumstances. Displaying the true strength of friendship and the power of hope, the likes of Avery and Luke offer light despite the darkness.

The Institute is a classic Stephen King novel. Told with an ease and a voice that beguiles, the battle between good and evil, between zealous brutality and unconquerable decency, is set against a supernatural background of epic proportions. Yet, it’s those individuals and the places they inhabit which makes this exploration of the human condition so poignant. Engaging and entertaining, it’s a heartbreaking but hopeful novel that has reminded me, once again, what makes Stephen King such a powerful horror writer.

My copy

Published by Hodder

Review (part 1) – Dark Forces edited by Kirby McCauley

I’ve heard about this book and it’s influence on other, great short story collections from a number of sources. When I found a secondhand copy, I couldn’t resist getting myself a copy. Bringing together the likes of Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Joe Halderman and Ramsey Campbell, it’s not hard to see why it’s such a lauded anthology.

Opening with The Late Shift by Dennis Etchison, a story as sharp as it’s writing, the feel of the collection is introduced perfectly; a sense of innovative and different work outside of publishings parameters at the time. A chance encounter at a late night convenience store sees two young men confused to see a man working the tills who’d known them before but doesn’t recognise them. Indeed, he owed one of them money and his indifference only angered one of the men, Whitey, even more. When his friend is woken by a call from the hospital the next morning, stating Whitey had been in an accident, something seems amiss. What ensues is a strange journey down a dark rabbit hole.

Etchison isn’t an author I’d read before but his approach to the macabre idea of corpses being used as night shift workers was clever. Better was how the narrative manoeuvred from the normal to the bizarre in mere brushstrokes to leave a creeping sense of dread behind.

I jumped ahead in the anthology next as I had a few stories that caught my eye. First of which was Ray Bradbury’s A Touch of Petulance. A blend of sci-fi and dark speculation, the tale finds a man meeting his future self one evening on a train ride home. Able to convince him that he is him, the older man explains that he has murdered their wife in the future and is here to stop it before it even starts. It’s an understandably strange conversation. The pair go home to their wife and the older version tries to give advice and to discover the early signs that led to such an awful act.

In Bradbury’s strange but inimitable style, the story is a weird thought experiment. But it is the last few lines that truly mail the idea perfectly.

Joe Halderman’s Lindsey and the Red City Blues completely caught me off guard. I expected a sci-fi story but what I got was a strange and unsettling piece of work that stitched dark magics through a realistic and, equally, nightmarish trip to Marrakesh. An American seeking new and different experiences ignores his own advice and ends up stumbling into encounters and ambushes he knew to avert. Allowing a young boy to guide him to a market, Lindsey finds himself lost. What was meant to be escapism becomes escape. The ambush and robbery was expected but not what happened next.

Brilliantly crafted and cinematically described, the story takes a well trodden path only to subvert it perfectly.

Charles L. Grant is an author I’ve been looking to read for a while and getting to experience his work in this collection was a great introduction. A Garden of Blackened Roses is an odd piece of speculative fantasy that suggests much more than it describes. Central to it all is a house whose garden is always full of beautiful flowers, especially roses. Told in four parts, each one concerned with those who have poached roses from the house, it constructs a strange and dark, almost mystical tale. Perhaps slightly more old fashioned in its style than others in the anthology, it is nevertheless a unique and intriguing story.

Fantastical and somewhat enigmatic, there’s a quality to this short piece that sets it apart.

Ramsey Campbell’s Brood is equally strange and subtle with an almost ethereal quality to its writing. A vet, seemingly disturbed by the bustle and business of daily life, becomes obsessed with nighttime observations from his kitchen window. High above the street, his flat looks down upon destitute Liverpool back alleys and abandoned houses. It’s the out of the ordinary that captures his imagination, not least a strange old woman who dances under the light of a lamp post and takes in stray animals. But as more odd characters disappear and more strange noises emanate from the house behind his flat, the puzzle becomes too much to bear and he goes looking.

Written with an off centre rhythm and capturing a weird sense of dread, Brood is a dark and foreboding tale.

I’ll definitely be dipping into this anthology again and soon as it’s a fascinating window into the history of horror short stories.

My copy

Published by MacDonald Futura Publishers

Review – Skeleton Crew [continued] by Stephen King

After reading The Mist, I couldn’t resist reading a few more stories by Stephen King, albeit much shorter ones. As a format, it’s one I’ve become fascinated by lately and King is a great master of his craft.

First up, I’d heard King discuss how he came up with his ideas during an interview. He talked about a few of the tales in Skeleton Crew including the excellent Word Processor of the Gods. It’s the perfect opening to a short story; dropping straight into the situation whilst shaping the protagonist’s environment, the narrative is deftly laid out. Taking possession of his dead nephew’s homemade word processor, Richard laments his own feckless son and bitter wife as he marvels at the machine. Killed in an accident the nephew was kind, good but most of all very smart. The word processor, it turns out, was a gift for Richard but it’s ability is far beyond that of a simple computer. What it offers is the ability, the choice, to delete or add things to reality. A fascinating narrative, it’s a sharp look at wish fulfilment.

Startling different is Survivor Type. Where the previous story was strange but whimsical, this short story is an awful descent into madness. Shipwrecked on an tiny island, a doctor finds himself taking drastic measures. Written as diary entries, the doctor confesses and reveals much about his life, from escaping his poor neighbourhood, running scams to make money to becoming a surgeon with a number of side hustles. His reason for being on the ship, however, concerns an attempt to smuggle a few kilos of very pure heroin. And, as the days pass and his situation deteriorates into starvation, his medicinal expertise comes into use in some very disturbing ways. Cleverly constructed, the desperation and hunger are palpable. But, it is the final entries that pack such a horrifying punch.

I’ll probably be dipping into this collection more as I continue to judge entries in the SPSFC2 as these stories are truly excellent.

Published by Futura

Review – The Mist by Stephen King

After a long hiatus, I’ve come back to reading Stephen King as often as I can. One thing I remember from my younger days was his ability to craft fantastically creepy short stories. Looking for a quick read, I decided to pick up The Mist, a terrifying and unsettling masterpiece.

After a storm batters a small lakeside town in New England, David, his wife and young son set about inventorying the damage. But, whilst the heat wave has been dissipated by the hurricane, and the town sets about picking itself up, something much worse has been unleashed. Driving to pick up supplies, David and his son, along with his litigious neighbour, head into the local supermarket only for a strange fog to close in all around the building. At first, it seems like a oddity but the novelty soon turns to fear and panic when it becomes clear that it’s more than weird weather.

King crafts the growing tension in the supermarket perfectly. The reactions of people, the initial alarm curdling into real terror, is executed with masterful strokes. As it becomes apparent that something – or things – are lurking in the mist, and that they are trapped, people begin to display their true characters; acts of machoism end badly whilst disbelief and mania begin to seep into things. With his child to care for, David is forced to manage and observe his own building dread. And, when the real horrors are unleashed, it’s effect is profound.

The Mist is a brilliant story. The sense of helplessness and the claustrophobia of the fog creates a perfect background to the monsters lurking outside. Cut off from everything and with little knowledge of what has happened, David is a great character to experience things through. There’s a realism to the responses of feeling trapped, along with the desire to just wish the evil away, neither of which end well. Though David’s son doesn’t act like a five-year old (in my experience), he does work as an emotional lodestone for the story. However, it’s the horrors borne by the mist that really nail the short story. Nightmarish and otherworldly, the desperation and fear of David and his companions when faced with these terrors is visceral.

Whilst only 150 pages, The Mist is an intense and captivating read. King’s ability to sketch in characters is clearly on display but it’s the terrifying scenario that makes this story such a masterpiece. Tense, terrifying and exceptionally good.

My copy

Published by Futura

Review – Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

A classic when it comes to Stephen King novels, rereading Salem’s Lot reminded me (again) of just why I was so obsessed with his work as a youth. Atmospheric and evocative, it brings vampires to a small American town with a brilliant and bloody tale.

Returning to Jerusalem’s Lot, Ben Mears hoped to exorcise the demons of his childhood and explore the Marsten House, the site of many a nightmare. Looking to find inspiration for a new book, he finds himself gazing in on the town from the outside. A chance meeting with a young woman, heavy with consequence, blooms into something hugely important and, yet, he isn’t the only newcomer to ‘Salems Lot.

The Marsten House, abandoned after a murder-suicide decades previously, looms over the town. And, when it is bought by Mr Straker and Mr Barlow it takes on an even more nefarious presence. A child goes missing whilst out with his brother. The elder boy is confused at the events, eventually dying in mysterious circumstances, and so a series of terrible events are set in motion. The town, slowly and inexorably, descends into a dark and awful change.

Ben, along with his new girlfriend Susan and a few others, begin to notice the differences; the disappearances and absences. When eleven-year old Mark sees a face floating at his window, desperately wanting to be invited in, the pieces fall into place and a battle for the heart of the town begins in earnest. But, Barlow is far ahead, playing chess whilst the others think it’s checkers.

Taking its time to build the story, Salem’s Lot meanders through the many lives of the town’s residents. Histories are unraveled in a slow yet steady fashion, displaying the humanity – both good and bad – of the people caught up in the horrible game that Barlow plays. Much like his other books, King considers that age-old adage of what is true evil and whether good can overcome it. Yet, it is tempered with some quite astute observation regarding the small evils; the ignorant and the mindless actions that cause so much hurt and repercussions and repetition. But, when it gets to it, the intensity is ramped up, pages flying past in a rush of action.

One of the best, early examples that portray the vampire as the horrible creatures they are, Salem’s Lot digs into the tragedy and loss they trade in. Engrossing and entertaining, it’s old school King at his best.

My copy

Published by NEL

Review – The Stand by Stephen King

After reading 11/22/63 recently, my interest in Stephen King’s works has been firmly rekindled. As such, I decided a reread of The Stand – a book I first read as a teen – was in order. A massive and epic story, it remains a classic in the post-apocalyptic genre and in the ‘complete and uncut’ version (obviously longer and updated), King manages to construct a riveting narrative that leaves no stone unturned.

Set during the 1990s, the book opens with a soldier desperately trying to get his family away from the military base where they’re living. Telling his wife that something has gone wrong and that he was lucky to escape his post before he was locked in, he gets them on the road. That small insurrection, as the base’s alarms ring and everyone is locked down, is the beginning of a terrible end for humanity.

Whilst the US government try to contain the facts as well as the spreading virus the soldier has carried with him across various States, the super-flu is not something that can or will be stopped. Soon, whole communities are suffering illness and death, and the book deftly handles the burgeoning social reaction to the pandemic; from the opening attempts to dampen fears to the militarily imposed media blackout. Amongst all this, a vast cast of characters are introduced, each dealing with the virus in different ways and giving their unique insight into the events unfolding.

From deaf-mute Nick who found himself in a small town, suddenly thrust into the role of deputy sheriff, to Stu, a small town factory worker trapped in the epicentre of the apocalypse, all are blessed, or cursed, with immunity. And there are more survivors, of course; a whole spectrum of them. It’s this that makes the novel so fascinating. Each actor faces different challenges and undergoes different experiences, creating a stunning tapestry of America unraveling. Yet, one thing links them all; the dream of corn fields and an old lady beckoning them, and the alternative nightmare of a faceless man.

Within weeks America is a wasteland. Roads chocked with unmoving traffic jams, houses and buildings shuttered, and everywhere the dead. Having survived the end of society, the few survivors must struggle on, try to find companions and decide whether to seek out the cornfields or the dark man. These stories are each as gripping as the other, full of detail and consideration of the human condition. As each journey develops and as characters connect and band together, another, larger narrative is unveiled.

Written in 1978, The Stand postulates a pandemic induced apocalypse with frightening precision. But, in classic King style, that ‘what-if’ is infused with something more. It’s nothing less than the battle between good and evil, God and the devil, yet it’s far from romanticised. Sacrifice is demanded, loss is expected and redemption comes at a cost. King offers no plot armour to his characters and what unfolds is an unforgiving journey through the apocalypse from the end of the world to the beginning of the new one.

Brutal at points, beautiful in others, The Stand is a sprawling story of almost unparalleled proportions. It asks questions about every aspect of humanity and remains dedicated to the overarching narrative with an unswerving hand. Brilliant, engrossing characters and uncompromising detail makes this an absolute classic in King’s library of work.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – 11/22/63 by Stephen King

Despite reading a fair amount of Stephen King novels as a teen, I haven’t read anything from him in a while. This novel, though not his usual brand of horror, had the same feel as many of his other works; gripping, troubling and with a brilliantly cast set of characters. A fantastical thought experiment and an intriguing premise, 11/22/63 is King at his best.

Jake Epping is, in many ways, a man adrift. After his alcoholic wife leaves him for another man, Jake’s life is lonely though not unfulfilled. A teacher, he relishes the chance to help students expand their horizons. One such student, the school janitor looking to earn his diploma, becomes a catalyst of sorts – a signifier within the story. However, it is Al, the proprietor of a burger bar, that sets things in motion. Calling Jake out of the blue with a strange yet desperate request to meet, Al reveals something almost beyond belief.

Between lunch the day before and their meeting, Al has aged considerably and, inexplicably, developed late stage cancer. What he explains, or rather shows, to Jake is that a wormhole in time exists in the pantry of his restaurant. It takes the traveller back to September 1958 – the same day every time. As wonderful and mind blowing as this is, Al has a different reason for calling Jake. Though the time in the present only ever moves forward by two minutes, the traveller can spend years in the past. It explains Al’s illness. But, Al’s real mission was his attempt to stop the assassination of JFK.

There’s little time to deliberate. Al’s place is soon to be repossessed and the wormhole will likely disappear. To save JFK and potentially stop all kinds of terrible events in history, Jake must complete the mission. It’s not simple and he takes on another quest to ensure what they are attempting will work – saving the janitor’s mother and siblings from murder – itself a complex and deadly mission.

11/22/63 asks a lot of questions. It puts Jake into situations that are both morally and ethically searching. Yet, it also considers and contrasts the vastly different worlds of 1958 and 2011. Jake is an every man, given the opportunity to, hopefully, change the world for the better. Yet, doubt persists. And, as he lives year after year in the past, becoming his alter ego whilst simultaneously continuing to track Lee Harvey Oswald, his mission becomes warped. Time is obdurate. The past doesn’t want to be changed. It’s something Jake doesn’t fully understand until the end.

What’s fascinating is how 11/22/63 weaves elements of King’s other works into itself with references to things like Derry, and a Plymouth Fury. More so, how they build an idea of a malevolence behind certain events. Complicating things further is Jake’s own growing uncertainty that his existence in the past isn’t changing things, nor whether it’s for the better or worse. But, he is living and that comes with its own hurdles too.

11/22/63 is a complex novel in many ways. It ponders the conspiracy theories behind the JFK shooting and Oswald’s place in it all. However, it also contemplates the larger issue of time travel – not only the ethics but, more importantly it’s consequences. And, it all revolves around Jake and his own heartfelt story. Brilliantly weaved together, it’s a fascinating book of almost epic proportions with a conclusion that leaves as many questions behind as it does answer others. Wonderful, complex, unsettling and thoughtful, 11/22/63 is a brilliant, hard to categorise work of fiction that is a must read for fans of Stephen King.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton