If It Bleeds
Ratings175
Average rating3.8
At one point in time, I would have listed Stephen King as one of my favorite authors. In particular, I've song praises about his amazing ability to write compelling short stories and not just those that either keep you awake or give you nightmares. I'm not sure how much time King spent on these stories, but they seem not fully formed. Although I nearly gave up on King's books after reading the truly awful “Tommyknockers,” I will continue with other new releases as I've enjoyed “Fairy Tale” and “The Outsider,” amongst others.
The first story in “If It Bleeds” was odd. Just about everything in the story seemed set in the 1950s or 1960s except for the references to modern technology. I find it hard to believe that a man in his 60s who had been a major player in the business world had not used a cell phone or the internet by the late aughts. I was hoping the story might go the route of the cell phone turning against Mr. Harrigan in retribution for his years of harsh business practices, but no dice.
I tried to read “The Life of Chuck” and it was just boring. Shouldn't the end of the world be more exciting or would everyone go about their business?
After being disappointed by the first two stories, I flipped through the last two stories (Holly Gibney is not my favorite King character and she keeps showing up!) and then back the book went as this is the season of moving quickly to DNF when a book isn't doing it for me.
Mr. Harrigan's Phone - A good Twilight Zone type story. The Life of Chuck - Part one was eerie and wild and then the second part just flopped for me. I don't know how it related to the first part. Did I miss something? If It Bleeds - The whole reason I read this collection and it did not disappoint. Rat - Another Twilight Zone story. Full of tension, teetering on madness.
Short story book. I mainly wanted to read this for the 3rd story “If it Bleeds” since it's a spin off from the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy. I figured I'd read it before I read “Holly”. I liked 3/4 of the stories. I saw the movie for “Mr. Harrigan's Phone” so I had expectations for that story. 3⭐️ “The Life of Chuck” was just alright. Not my cup of tea, but it was fine. 2⭐️ “If it Bleeds” was definitely my fav story in the book! I just love Holly's character. 4⭐️ “Rat” was the last story and I overall enjoyed this one as well! 4⭐️ Whole book rounded to 3.75ish stars! I did like it as a whole!
Die erste Geschichte: 4.25/5
Die zweite Geschichte: 2/5; honestly keine Ahnung was der Plot sein sollte, wenigstens war sie kurz
Die Holly Geschichte: 3/5; gut, aber bisschen enttäuschend dass es wieder ein Outsider ist
Rat: 4/5
“The world is going down the drain and all we can say is ‘that sucks,' so maybe we're going down the drain too.”
any book with holly gibney is instantly top tier
4,5
El teléfono del señor Harrigan ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
La vida de Chuck ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
La sangre manda ⭐⭐⭐⭐
La rata ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wasn't aware that King wrote short stories!
Why shouldn't he? He has had immense success with novels.
Narrating 4 new stories, King doesn't shy away from adding creepy situations and creatures.
The audiobook version is narrated by three brilliant narrators as with their previously narrated books that I listened to. My favorite story was Mr. Harrigan's phone.
I think its safe to say that I dug myself a deep hole with King's work this year, starting with the outsider. But its time to give other authors a chance now.
Out of all the short stories I've read over the years, only one comes to mind that I won't ever stop vehemently recommending, Jeffry Archer.
Long short stories. Liked coming back to the Holly character for another story. Set the book down for awhile unfinished as I thought I wouldn't enjoy The Rat. I picked it up again and realized it went another direction than I anticipated and ended up enjoying it.
Not as spooky as I was expecting. Writing was excellent, of course, and the stories did pose some interesting questions
Four stars mostly for the title novella. Love the Holly Gibney character and the Outsider storyline. King's reliability continues to surprise me. I've been reading his books for forty years and he always delivers. Not always at the same level, but he always delivers.
I always look forward to a collection of Stephen King novellas, ever since Different Seasons, one of my all time favorite books. It seems to be a format in which King really shines.
This collection did not disappoint. My favorite was “The Life of Chuck” which had an unusual structure in terms of the order of events as well as being a bit like nesting dolls. It was not something I would expect from King. Very nicely done.
“The Life of Chuck” as well as “Rat” and “Mr. Harrigan's Phone” all had a bit of a Harlan Ellison feel to me, which is a good thing.
Of course, there's the Holly Gibney story. She's a fantastic fictional heroine and I was happy to read more about her in the title story.
ReviewI pretty much picked this up for the title story alone. For that reason I ended up borrowing it from the library rather than picking up a copy. I generally don't like short fiction much, but Stephen King has long shown himself to be a master of it (think [b:Different Seasons 39662 Different Seasons Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329662611l/39662.SY75.jpg 2248680]) despite being known best for his monster works best .I really love Holly Gibney. She's right up there with Roland Deschain and his ka-tet as among my favorite characters King has written. While not quite as good as [b:The Outsider 36124936 The Outsider Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524596540l/36124936.SY75.jpg 57566471], I still really enjoyed that one best. I'd love to read more Holly Gibney stories in the future.I had mixed feelings about the other stories. I ended up really enjoying Mr. Harrington's phone as well, almost as much as the title story. I thought the idea was interesting, and it was kind of cool to go back to a time when smart phones hadn't taken over our lives completely.The start of Life of Chuck was really hard to read. This was written pre-covid, but the world ending and things falling apart was not something I really wanted to read. Thankfully that part was kind of brief and the rest of the story was better/more interesting.Rat on the other hand was not a great read for me at all. I didn't particularly like the main character so it was hard to enjoy the story. I did think the ending was decent, but it didn't save the story for me.Overall I'm glad I borrowed this book rather than buying it. I don't tend to re-read, but if I did I'd probably only re-read the title story.Audiobook:There were 3 narrators for this book. Will Patton, narrated Mr. Harrington's Phone and If it Bleeds. Danny Burstein narrated The Life of Chuck and Steven Weber narrated Rat. I've listened to Will Patton before, in particular for King's other books with Holly Gibney. I was glad to have him back for that story. He also seemed like a good for Mr. Harrington as well. It probably helped that those two were my favorite stories, but in general I liked his narration the best.I thought both of the other two narrators were fine. Neither jumped out at me as fantastic, but I was probably more focused on the stories, which can be a good thing as well.For me since I listened to the Bill Hodges books and the Outsider, I was glad to listen to this book as well, but otherwise it's probably not a must-listen for me.RatingsMr. Harrington's Phone - 4 starsThe Life of Chuck - 3 starsIf it Bleeds - 4 starsRat -2 stars
I haven't read a lot of Stephen King, mainly because I connect him with horror and that's not my genre of choice. However, in broadening my horizons this year, I decided to dive into this collection of short stories and was pleasantly surprised. The stories felt more spooky than scary. They kept my attention throughout. His writing is so captivating. It may even have tempted me to try another of his books. If you like well written, intriguing stories, this is definitely a collection to try.
The narration was fantastic.
I loved the stories but major issue (spoiler and cw for racial slurs), he used an anti-Black racial slur that I don't think it's appropriate for a white author to use. The context was that a character of the race the slur insults spoke it, and the overall intention King presents is one of anti-racism, but I think this was a mistake and would suggest it get edited out of the next edition. I don't know how I'd feel if I were Black and had to come across this slur, even in a context where it was meant to be non-malicious.
Out of the 4 stories, I loved one of them (Rat), really liked another (If It Bleeds), and found the other two to be just alright. They all held my interest well though.
Word of warning, your milage may vary with this collection if you have not read The Outsider or Mr. Mercedes. If It Bleeds, the longest of the 4 stories, is a sort of continuation of those books.
Overall, yeah it was fun :)
I'm a “constant reader” and I'm all caught up. That means that I read everything SK wrote, and I've been an SK reader for 30+ years. This is to say, that for people who haven't read everything from SK, this book might come out really strong, but for me is just nice, because most of the themes have been explored before in other books of his.
Mr. Harrigan's Phone: Classic King, nothing new under the sun, but it was like being visited by an old friend, maybe with different new clothes. So a nice evening remembering old times. Overall, very enjoyable.
The Life of Chuck: This is the most original of the stories in this book, too bad it feels unfinished, or maybe I didn't get it :-)
If It Bleeds: There's no doubt that “The Outsider” has been a full package success and gave us great hours of entertainment, so why not getting into Holly's world one more time? No reason not to!
Rat: Solid, classic King once again. Nothing new, but well written.
“They exaggerate the weather reports, you know that. They turn six inches of fresh powder into the “Storm of the Century”.
very interesting and very good. However, I now need to read the outsider. I didn't realize this book was it's sequel. oops. lol
King is op dreef laatste jaren. Steeds verschijnen er weer nieuwe succesvolle verhalen van de meester, die, meer en deels worden omgezet tot TV Series of films. Zoals meestal bij King's boeken had het misschien wel wat korter gekund allemaal. Het is overigens niet vervelend om te lezen want schrijven dat kan hij wel. Maar op sommige punten draaft King wat verder door dan nodig is. Wat ik wel moet zeggen is dat ik de verhalen in deze bundel verre van eng vond.
De Telefoon van Meneer Harrigan - Dit eerste verhaal gaat over de tijdperk waarin iPhone's nog nieuw waren. Ik vond de personages zelf interessanter dan het verhaal zelf. Ik had eerlijk gezegd iets engs verwacht. Geen slecht verhaal, maar ook niet wat ik ervan had verwacht.
Het Leven van Chuck - Een heel sterk begin vol met mysterieuze reclameborden. Ik moet bekennen dat ik een filmpje op YouTube heb gekeken om het einde van het verhaal een beetje te snappen. Nu ik weet wat King bedoeld met zijn einde is het een mooi verhaal. Maar weer... niet eng.
Als het Bloedt - Hier maken we weer kennis met Holly Gibney. Een character die ik al kende van de TV serie en boek “The Outsider”. Het monster van dat boek (maar dan een andere) terroriseert de samenleving en aan Holly de taak om het dit keer alleen tegen “hem?” op te nemen. Een redelijk geslaagd, maar lang verhaal.
Rat - In dit verhaal gaat een schrijver die voorheen is doorgedraaid en daar weer van is genezen naar een hut ergens in de wildernis om zijn grote meesterwerk te schrijven. In de hut gebeuren vreemde, bijna fantasievolle dingen. Een verhaal dat ook weer niet eng is, maar zeker niet vervelend om te lezen.
Al met al vond ik de verhalen wel aardig. Ik had misschien wel iets meer horror verwacht, maar dat mag de pret niet bederven. Als je een King fan bent dan zou ik deze zeker niet laten liggen. Ik hoop alleen dat de volgende van King weer ouderwets eng word, en misschien iets minder langdradig.
I was initially going to write my thoughts on each of the stories but after finishing it I realized I was going to be saying the same thing about each of them so I am just going to write my overall thoughts on the book as a whole.
This is a collection of 4 novellas. We have Mr. Harrigan's Phone, The Life of Chuck, If It Bleeds and Rat. Each story gives me everything I am always wanting in a King novel. Not to much detail and an open and shut ending pretty much which is good except every story just seemed so simple for something written by King.
I don't know if it's because I was fighting a slump all month that I just didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would or what. I enjoyed all of them except maybe The Life of Chuck because that was like 3 separate stories in one and I was left confused at how they all went together and rat had a story within a story that I didn't care for but overall they were all ok.
Yeah so I just thought this was ok. I just had higher expectations for it especially with the synopsis saying “intriguing and frightening places”. I seem to have an unpopular opinion because I keep seeing nothing but good things about it. It's not bad or anything but it's not mind blowing either.
Riding with the King is never a disappointment. I note that there is a strong focus on technology in this collection, and also a strong focus on dancing. Although it was a pleasure to visit with Holly Gibney again, my favorite was “Rat”–I always enjoy King's views of the world through a writer's eyes. I'd thought I knew how that one was going to end, but the boss pulled the rug out from under me quite handily. And that's all right.
If you haven't partaken of If It Bleeds yet, you should. Now. Go. Your local library is probably open again.