Night Shift

Night Shift: This is like Lovecraft but with actual good characters and comprehensive vocabulary! 7/10

Graveyard Shift - RATS. Probably should not have read in a loud café for the true immersion, but still kinda spooky - just doesn't feel very unique. Just big carnivorous rats. 7/10

Night Surf - oh boy, a post-apocalyptic drama about overcoming prejudice after the wake of a virus from “Hong Kong” that was downplayed as just a flu. 7/10 in retrospect to current events

I Am The Night - it's a slightly spooky body horror with a narrator descending into insanity, but it's not exactly scary or well written. Not much of consequence happens - the character dynamics weren't explored enough for it to make an impact to make it feel like anything did. So...eh. A very low 6/10

The Mangler - Seems like an experiment to make a mildly scary machine scary and it worked with the amount of mystery surrounding it. Was I scared? Not particularly, but it was well written given the concept. Interesting ending too. 7/10 (which if anything, this book has been consistent in delivering 7/10 stories)

The Boogeyman - 6/10. One of the more “serious” and non-pulpy horror stories here, but it doesn't make an impact like it's supposed to for me. Probably the minority in this, was wondering what the point was aside from making the reader feel miserable - up until the end which I found sort of cheap. Not a great horror story, but a sad tragedy.

Gray Matter - 7/10. A little disappointed since this was supposed to be THE best story out of the bunch. But aside from that ending, the story wasn't any better from the rest. Great ending though holy cow, and the way it builds up to that ending was cool. But it didn't exactly scare me.

Battleground - 7/10. I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be read as a dark comedy and honestly, it's pretty funny imagining toy soldiers absolutely destroying this dude. Man just can't catch a break.

Trucks - 6/10. Arguably the weakest story here. I get King's schtick to make the not scary scary, but sentient trucks taking over the world is far too much of a stretch for me. It's written fine, but there wasn't enough time to develop either the concepts or characters.

Sometimes They Come Back - 8/10. Actually a really thrilling and interesting character study about a man who abides by the law and is still haunted, almost arbitrarily, by gangs. Very interesting story, my personal favorite thus far.

Strawberry Summer (8/10). Surprise favorite thus far, so quaint and restrained in talking about the terror - which makes it scarier that the narrator has grown cold to it. I just really liked the vibe the story was giving off.

The Ledge - just a good story, and then that ending hits and it satisfies that primal instinct for revenge. One of the rare King endings where it's actually really really satisfying and outclasses the rest of the story. 7.5/10

Lawnmower Man - 7/10. I actually don't know what to rate this, but reading this literally minutes after watching some Chainsaw Man actually made this 10x more entertaining. Idk what tone this was going for, but imagining a Lawnmower Man drawn in the way of Chainsaw Man gave me a good laugh.

Quitters Inc - 9/10. Best story so far. Don't want to say more than that to preserve the story but this is the one that I am walking away from feeling a bit shaken. Taps into a now newfound fear of mine.

I Know What You Need - 6/10. It's good, but lacks that extra stuff that makes this story stand out from the usual fare. The protagonist is too passive and the romance as a result isn't very convincing, which is the point but it doesn't make the ending have that impact it should have had.

Children of the Corn - 7/10. Evil children can be scary, but the concept runs thin even for a short story. Typical scary cult story, but it is an interestingly macabre idea for it to revolve around Christ like that. Other than that, it's just another typical good story.

The Last Rung on the Ladder - 7/10. Surprisingly somber and bereft of any supernatural horror, it is probably the most out of place story in this collection. It's melancholic and tragic, but it just doesn't develop the deceased character outside of the tragic incident. It's still a good story nonetheless.

The Man Who Loved Flowers - 6/10. Interesting concept, but a little half baked in execution. Caught me by surprise but just lacked the build up for that ending.

One For the Road - 7/10. Another story that falls into the “it was good camp”. It builds the mystery as to what the secret is (even though I knew it bc of Salem's Lot's concept) and actually builds interesting foreshadowing around it. It's just the story itself isn't great and the climax isn't long enough to justify it. Still good.

The Woman in the Room - 8/10. Surprisingly realistic horror to end off on. Used the narrative trick of ending off a section mid sentence a bit too much, but it also is intentionally disorienting. A very painful scenario that I'm surprised made it in this collection, as it's not horror but instead a frighteningly realistic situation. Good story.

So even if the average is a 7/10, it is very consistent in delivering the scares and the concepts elevate it above its execution, if that makes any sense. My time spent with this book was time well spent.

Didn't like the way it was written. 

Quick thoughts: What can I say. A collection of some of the finest horror shorts I have read. The wide range of genres and excellent story telling will have you devouring each one.

Here are all the individual updates:

Story 1 of 20: “Jerusalem's Lot” - What a fun, brooding, spooky tale featuring a family home and a town with a dark past. LOVED the letter writing perspective and the church sequences. (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Story 2 of 20: “Graveyard Shift” - A deceptively fun story that quite literally creeps up on you at the end. Stay out of the basement!

I'm not into short story collections in general, but this was a good read. One can take a break from more challenging reading with books like this, or by "killing time" when you're waiting for the fifth one in the office.

Of the collection, I liked Quitters, Inc. and The Ledge the best, they seemed the closest to reality of all the stories. I'd have to say the Battlefield was the most boring. So far so good for a first King story, next time I'll tackle the author's more familiar work.

Enjoyably varied mix of stories, only a couple of which didn't land for me. I especially liked the killer inanimate objects and the crossovers with ‘Salem's Lot. Some really imaginative and exciting concepts here, even if many lean on the silly side. Rankings by running order:

FAVOURITE: Jerusalem's Lot, I Am the Doorway, The Mangler, Quitters Inc, Children of the Corn, One for the Road

GOOD: Graveyard Shift, The Boogeyman, Gray Matter, Battleground, Trucks, Sometimes They Come Back, Strawberry Spring, The Ledge, The Lawnmower Man, I Know What You Need, The Last Rung on the Ladder, The Woman in the Room

LEAST FAVOURITE: Night Surf, The Man Who Loved Flowers

The first King book of 2023 is finished and unfortunately it was just an ok read for me. If you didn't know I have been reading a Stephen King book every month with a group on Instagram for 2+ years now so at this point I have read a lot of his books. He's my most read author but he's not a favorite author of mine. His books are hit or miss for me and there are quite a bit that fall in the middle like this one.

This is a collection of 20 short stories. Some worked for me and some just didn't. Some were too short and ridiculous but there were some that gave me exactly what I want/need for a short story to work for me. A lot of these felt like a young King. By young I don't really mean age wise I mean like it felt like he wrote these when he first started writing. I hope that makes sense. They just didn't feel like the King writing I've come to know over the years. 

I do have to mention there were some problematic things in here as well. There was a story that mentioned hand controls (which if you didn't know hand controls are used by people who can't use there legs to drive a car using pedals.) I myself use hand controls because I am a double amputee. I loved this inclusion but what I didn't love was how it was insinuated that he wasn't a whole man because he had to use a wheelchair for legs. There were a couple different statements that irked me the wrong way when it comes to people who are handicapped but that is by no means the only problematic things. King pretty much always includes racism which is always a topic of discussion in our group when we talk about his books. It would be one thing if these types of things were challenged in the story but they never are and they are never needed for the plot. 

Overall I thought this was an ok read. I'm glad I've read it but it's easily forgettable and I most likely will never read it again. There are some classics in here though like Children of the Corn and Jerusalem's Lot.

Me gustaron más los últimos 10 relatos que los 10 primeros. Como siempre, King no decepciona

MEDIA GLOBAL 3,3
En la línea de King, historias brillantes y otras mediocres.

-El último turno ★★★★✰
-El hombre de la cortadora de cesped ★★✰✰✰
-El hombre que amaba las flores ★★✰✰✰
-Un Trago de Despedida ★★★★✰
-Basta SA ★★★✰✰
-A veces vuelven ★★★✰✰
-Marejada Nocturna ★★✰✰✰
-Soy la Puerta ★★★✰✰
-La Primavera Fresa ★★✰✰✰
-Los Misterios del Gusano ★★★★★
-Campo de batalla ★★✰✰✰
-Los chicos del Maiz ★★★★★
-La Cornisa ★★★★★
-La Mujer de la habitación ★★★★✰
-Camiones ★★✰✰✰
-La Trituradora ★★★★★
-Materia Gris ★★★★✰
-Sé lo que necesitas ★★★✰✰
-El último peldaño de la escalera ★★★✰✰

I probably rated this higher than it “deserves,” but it was definitely a formative book in my adolescence, and I still love it. Some of the images from these stories are so memorable that they made more of an impression on me than the novels.

I love short stories and especially love Stephen King's anthologies. I have read “Nightshift” many times and the stories are just as chilling now as when I first read it 30 odd years ago.

Da piccolo sono stato un grande amante del primi King, in particolare questa raccolta di racconti è uno dei suoi migliori, in poche pagine riesce a terrorizzarti... in particolare il racconto “baubau” è assolutamente SPAVENTOSO!