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steveatwaywords's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
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