Reviews with content warning for Blood - If It Bleeds

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If It Bleeds by Stephen King

11 reviews

spencerreidsiq's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I really enjoyed Mr Harrigan’s phone. Probably my favourite out of the 4 novellas included in this collection.

The life of chuck was my least favourite. Very confusing and definitely takes two reads to completely understand what was going on. Really struggled to finish this one. I wanted to skip to the next story several times.

While I did enjoy if it bleeds, I was unaware it was a sort of sequel to the outsider. I feel as though that should be read first to fully understand what’s going on. I also feel that story may now be ruined for me as if it bleeds does spoil most of that story.

Rat was extremely slow paced and I really had to force myself to finish it. I wish more of the story had revolved around the rat, instead of him just popping in near the end. But alas, the ending was interesting.

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I liked two of the stories a lot, but I was lukewarm on the other two. Am a big fan of Holly Gibney and Jerome. Really enjoyed Mr. Harrigan. Chuck and Rat could’ve been removed, and I wouldn’t have missed either.

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ktdakotareads's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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steveatwaywords's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I've always been partial to King's tighter novella form--enough room to explore but not to sprawl. And If It Bleeds fits alongside Four Past Midnight and The Bachman Books though not quite as wholly successful as Different Seasons or Hearts in Atlantis in either ambition or breadth.

But each of these four works is strong, filling me with dread through most of the narratives. "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" has its darkest moments in our narrator's own doubts and rationalizing (something, btw, the film version completely fails to capture); "Rat" is a wonderfully ambiguous dig back into the writerly unconscious, a dish King serves frequently enough though it always feels a bit autobiographical.

There have been some confused reviews of "The Life of Chuck," likely by readers who skip over the 'boring talky parts' to get to the action. And since King writes this tale in a reverse chronology, such a read leaves them scratching their heads, even angry. And while I don't want to give away the meaning of the story (King kind of does on his own in the afterword), I found the conceit he creates both profound and unnerving and sentimental all at once.

The highlight of the collection for me is the title story, "If It Bleeds," where his new favorite character Holly Gibney stands on her own. Her fifth story, it is her strongest. I admired King's work with her in the Bill Hodges trilogy, though I was anxious of his moving into dangerous problematic territory; I was less excited about the novel (and her role in it) in The Outsider, but this quasi-sequel to that novel stands as a tense and genuine adventure in terror.

Most importantly for me, while each of these stories has its spirits and monsters, it's pretty clear that they are, in the end, all of us: in our brainless consumption of media, in our brainless rationalizations to hide our empathy for the suffering and horror it feeds us, and in our brainless decisions to keep doing so . . . and to ask for more.

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