Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King
If you know me at all you know that I love Stephen King. He is my all time favorite author and I am one of his "constant readers." Even though that is what he calls all his fans, I somehow feel he is talking only to me when I read his missives to CR. He and I have many firsts. The Stand was the first ADULT book that I read all the way through when I was 12. IT was the only book that I finished and enjoyed so much that I closed it only to open it right back up to read it straight through again. The Green Mile is the only book that so disturbed me that I slammed it shut in the middle of a paragraph, yelled at it "YOU WOULDN'T DARE!" then threw it across the room. It took me a half hour of pacing and muttering to this book on the floor before I was brave enough to pick it back up and finish the journey. Any fans of Mr. Jingles will know of which scene I speak. He brings out my emotions like no other writer. His characters live and breath to me. Like he once said when explaining why he released an updated and complete version of The Stand in the 90's, he gets letters from people asking what happened to Frannie or Stu, like he gets postcards from them occasionally filling him in on what is going on in their lives. They came from his mind but they are alive just the same. Although my love of him is not unconditional. I found Pet Semetary to be hateful, irredeemable and unfinishable. I did not like Under the Dome. I have read many of his books repeatedly and own pretty much his entire output and there are only a few that make him a legend. One is the Dark Tower series. These books are right up there in the pantheon of greatness with Tolkien, Baum, and Lewis. He has created a world just as real and vibrant, with good and evil, bravery and terror and triumph of spirit as any other author of worlds like are own, only not quite.
But I digress. This is a review of his latest book of short stories. If you have ever read any of his other collections of stories you know you are in for a treat. Some of his best work come like this. Very similar to bursts from a machine gun. Fast, furious and hell if they don't get the job done. They are like the AK-47's of the book world. His short stories have been turned into some of the best movie adaptions to date. Think Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist. This collection is no different. It is very similar to Different Seasons as it is only four stories and they are doozies. I enjoyed all of them, some more than others. 1922 had a very HP Lovecraft feel to it. But King is no stranger to writing stories that pay homage to this style. I found it enjoyable but at the same time dark. I don't like having anybody to rote for and still I was enthralled. I just had to see how it ended. King has a way of making even the most unlikable people understandable and relate-able while not even contemplating doing what they did. This story was unlike A Good Marriage. Other reviews have said this was like a black comedy. I did not get that for myself. It gave me the same oogie feeling from it that I got from Pet Semetary. The protagonist had no redeeming qualities and just had a stripe of hatefulness running through it that I did not like. The other two stories were good but not memorable. This was a good book. I enjoyed a taste of King back to form. There was so much of his former power in the prose that I shouldn't complain. Except that he has set the bar so high for himself he has only himself to blame when he does not reach that lofty goal. If you love SK as I do, by all means, do yourself a favor and pick this book up. You will not be disappointed. If you are not a SK fan, don't let this be your introduction. Read Skeleton Crew, guaranteed if you do that you will come back for more. Once you go King, you never go back.
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