Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Ratings4
Average rating3.4
...in Western Maine there is no early spring; only late spring and winter before it...
alright friends, i tried to do a 2020 reread of this and with everything going on i just need to set it back down for now. below is my very incomplete review (essentially just the notes i took while reading) of the first half:
1. Dolan's Cadillac, 5
2. The End of the Whole Mess, 4.5
3. Suffer the Little Children, 4
4. The Night Flier, 2
5. Popsy, 2
6. It Grows on You, 2
7. Chattery Teeth, 3.5
8. Dedication, 2
9. The Moving Finger, 2
10. Sneakers, 4
This used to be one of my favorite Stephen King books, I can't even tell you how many times I've reread it. I was a little apprehensive going in after realizing how old it is (the introduction was written in 1992 and many of the stories were written in the ‘70s and ‘80s), as even modern King isn't the most politically correct. That apprehension was well-warranted. Take the content warnings at the bottom of this review into consideration because if these things are dealbreakers for you, you will hate this collection. I think the only thing that kept me holding on was the nostalgia and knowing that there are some real gems in here.
Even so, I had to take a break halfway through. I told the group chat that I was keeping incognito mode open on my phone browser so I could look up words I didn't know in case they were slurs — spoiler alert: they were all slurs. One can only take so much jam-packed bigotry at a time, whether intentional or not.
content warnings: racism; death of a loved one; homophobic slurs; child death; misogyny; ableist slurs; child abduction; antisemitic slurs; child sexual abuse; fatshaming; racial slurs; predatory gay trope
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This was a book I read as a teen, and recall enjoying enough to read several times. Unfortunately, I don't have as much love for it now as I did then. Most of the stories were mid at best, and this really was such a...mismatched collection.
There are a few stories I enjoyed, notably Chattery Teeth, Rainy Season, The Moving Finger, Popsy, and Suffer The Little Children. The rest were either just okay or...just downright bad.
I'd only recommend reading this one for a select few stories, but otherwise it's a miss.
