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asourceoffiction's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
RITA HAYWORTH AND SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟/5
Just one of the best things King has ever written, in a little over 100 pages. The film does absolute justice to the story (though I'm pretty sure Red was originally a redhead, and Andy is supposed to be short 😂) and it lives rent-free in my heart.
It's amazing how much is packed into such a short story, given how long some of King's books go on (I'm looking at you, The Dead Zone). Andy Dufresne is almost deified the way Red tells it, because he represents hope when life is at its most hopeless. And that's what the whole novella is about, and how it ends. With hope.
APT PUPIL
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
In stark contrast to Shawshank, there's no hope to be found in Apt Pupil. It's a study of darkness, and it only gets darker as it goes on. As the longest of the four stories by far, it's heavy. Todd scares me a lot more than Dussander as he sets everything in motion, and their association just gets creepier. I'd forgotten almost everything about this story except that ending, which haunts me.
THE BODY
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The first half of this is 3⭐, the second half is a solid 5⭐. It's the classic coming of age story, but has so much beauty and melancholy as the boys get further into their journey and Gordie becomes more reflective. Chris is just a wonderful character.
THE BREATHING METHOD
⭐⭐⭐/5
Wow. I mean... I read this 20 years ago and didn't remember any part of it. I think I repressed it. Only in Stephen King's mind could the Lamaze Method = horror story...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Racism, Rape, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy
uhm_kai's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
nice and spooky
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy
chambecc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A collection of King from the early '80s that contains some very well-known stories of his (who hasn't heard of Shawshank Redemption?). If you want a different side of King that isn't purely horror, this is a great place to start. I'd qualify that a bit by saying most of the stories in here contain elements of horror, but only one is purely a horror story (The Breathing Method).
I'll quickly give brief reviews - more or less spoiler-free - of each:
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A story about a man who insists he's been wrongly convicted of killing his wife and her lover and his attempt to navigate the difficulties and hardships of prison life, told from the perspective of his friend in prison. Andy Dufresne is one of the most memorable King characters I've ever read about, and you'll probably find yourself rooting for him. 4.5/5
Apt Pupil: This story follows Todd Bowden and his unusually keen interest in Arthur Denker, an elderly German immigrant with a seemingly normal enough past spending his later years in southern California in the mid 1970s. But all is not as it seems - and young Todd's interest in Denker turns out to be quite sinister. This story is incredibly unsettling though I wouldn't consider it technically horror, and offers an examination of what forms evil can take and how it can be modeled for others to follow. 4/5
The Body: I initially read this as a stand-alone book, only later coming to find that it was originally part of a broader collection. This story is about Gordie Lachance and his 3 friends' adventure to find a dead body in the woods of Maine - or, superficially, it is. What it's more accurately about is the hardships of coming-of-age, how we remember our childhoods, and how people come in and out of our lives for all sorts of reasons. You may also know this story by its movie adaptation Stand By Me.
King is an absolute maestro at writing coming-of-age type stories, and even you though you'll probably find these 12 and 13 year old boys rough-around-the-edges, you can't help but feel a load of sympathy for them and the predicaments they end up in. I was really moved by the story when I first read it and liked it well enough, but now that I've sat with it for several weeks, I've come to realize I loved it. King's writing in this is at his absolute best. In my opinion, this is definitely the best story in the collection. 4.75/5
The Breathing Method: The only pure horror story in the collection - in the traditional sense, anyway. It gave me vibes of Poe, Lovecraft, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and is a brisk, haunting read. What happens at club 249B? Well, it's a club for telling tales, following the somewhat cryptic motto It is the tale, not he who tells it. Our protagonist - by seemingly pure happenstance - receives an invite to this exclusive place. But something seems.... off about the atmosphere of it, including the butler, Stevens. And while some of the stories are fairly standard fare, others are tales of... the uncanny. The very uncanny, in the case of the story told by one of the elderly club members that he titles "The Breathing Method". This is a horror story in the true King sense - if you like King's horror writing, you'll like this. 4/5
I'll quickly give brief reviews - more or less spoiler-free - of each:
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A story about a man who insists he's been wrongly convicted of killing his wife and her lover and his attempt to navigate the difficulties and hardships of prison life, told from the perspective of his friend in prison. Andy Dufresne is one of the most memorable King characters I've ever read about, and you'll probably find yourself rooting for him. 4.5/5
Apt Pupil: This story follows Todd Bowden and his unusually keen interest in Arthur Denker, an elderly German immigrant with a seemingly normal enough past spending his later years in southern California in the mid 1970s. But all is not as it seems - and young Todd's interest in Denker turns out to be quite sinister. This story is incredibly unsettling though I wouldn't consider it technically horror, and offers an examination of what forms evil can take and how it can be modeled for others to follow. 4/5
The Body: I initially read this as a stand-alone book, only later coming to find that it was originally part of a broader collection. This story is about Gordie Lachance and his 3 friends' adventure to find a dead body in the woods of Maine - or, superficially, it is. What it's more accurately about is the hardships of coming-of-age, how we remember our childhoods, and how people come in and out of our lives for all sorts of reasons. You may also know this story by its movie adaptation Stand By Me.
King is an absolute maestro at writing coming-of-age type stories, and even you though you'll probably find these 12 and 13 year old boys rough-around-the-edges, you can't help but feel a load of sympathy for them and the predicaments they end up in. I was really moved by the story when I first read it and liked it well enough, but now that I've sat with it for several weeks, I've come to realize I loved it. King's writing in this is at his absolute best. In my opinion, this is definitely the best story in the collection. 4.75/5
The Breathing Method: The only pure horror story in the collection - in the traditional sense, anyway. It gave me vibes of Poe, Lovecraft, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and is a brisk, haunting read. What happens at club 249B? Well, it's a club for telling tales, following the somewhat cryptic motto It is the tale, not he who tells it. Our protagonist - by seemingly pure happenstance - receives an invite to this exclusive place. But something seems.... off about the atmosphere of it, including the butler, Stevens. And while some of the stories are fairly standard fare, others are tales of... the uncanny. The very uncanny, in the case of the story told by one of the elderly club members that he titles "The Breathing Method". This is a horror story in the true King sense - if you like King's horror writing, you'll like this. 4/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Murder
Moderate: Misogyny and Racism
queergoth_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Antisemitism, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Suicide
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Abortion, and Alcohol