Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Different Seasons

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

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average's review against another edition

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I found the second story too icky for me. About a kid obsessed with his nazi neighbor and his cruel stories from the lager.

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queergoth_reads's review against another edition

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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

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sunny_not's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Some of the stories were super brutal and awful, they left me with a sense of dread while others were almost hopeful. Apt Pupil was not what I expected at all and I hated it. I hated the characters so much, it was dreadful, awful and really portrayed humanity's lows. I really liked Shawshank redemption it was a great novella and the breathing method although sad was a great one as well. Since I liked some stories I gave 3.5

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jenny_wren's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is a collection of 4 short stories/novellas that have a link to Shawshank. The first is the story that inspired the Shawshank Redemption film. The second is a book about a teenager and his attempts to exploit a former Nazi soldier - but like most teenagers, Todd thinks he has the upper hand despite only being 14. In the third book a group of 4 friends go on an 'adventure' to find the body of a missing class mate. In the 4th book we meet a lady who is pregnant but not married in a story within a story in a club that isn't a club!

The author explained all these books were written immediately after some if his some length novels. Some of these are really difficult to read. Apt Pupil, contains really detailed descriptions of animal cruelty and 'experiments' that took place in concentration camps. However, all the books are really gripping. Despite being short stories they still have that classic Stephen King feel about them - the feel like a long ramble through a story where you get to know the characters... and some of them are not very nice! Todd is just awful!!

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