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raeleechoins's review against another edition
4.0
Children of the Corn and One For the Road scared the fuck outta me
thecrookedspine's review against another edition
5.0
TL;DR: I highly recommend this book if you’re a horror fan, and feel it’s an especially good introduction to new readers of King.
Stephen King is a pretty “hit or miss” author for me (especially as regards his more contemporary books), but I rank Night Shift as up in his top five, along with books like The Shning, IT, and The Dead Zone. But this book was great, and I think what sets it apart are two things: writing skill and steel nads.
Frankly there are some of the dumbest ideas for short stories I’ve ever seen in here (I’m looking at you Lawnmower Man), but they’re written so incredibly well that they’re still really fun and engrossing to read. I actually found it refreshing that the ideas he ran with were sometimes so odd, and yet he wrote and included them anyway without self-censorship or fear. And the really good ideas he had for stories like Salem’s Lot, Children of the Corn, and Graveyard Shift are written so incredibly well that they were a rare kind of pleasure to read.
The only story here that I completely pan is “The Man Who Loved Flowers” because it felt so intensely contrived in its writing style and prosaic in concept - but that story is also incredibly short.
This book is one of the more “accurately classified as horror books” I’ve read from King because so many of his books are not actually horror despite the hype, but this one most definitely is. I highly recommend this book if you’re a horror fan, and feel it’s an especially good introduction to new readers of King.
Stephen King is a pretty “hit or miss” author for me (especially as regards his more contemporary books), but I rank Night Shift as up in his top five, along with books like The Shning, IT, and The Dead Zone. But this book was great, and I think what sets it apart are two things: writing skill and steel nads.
Frankly there are some of the dumbest ideas for short stories I’ve ever seen in here (I’m looking at you Lawnmower Man), but they’re written so incredibly well that they’re still really fun and engrossing to read. I actually found it refreshing that the ideas he ran with were sometimes so odd, and yet he wrote and included them anyway without self-censorship or fear. And the really good ideas he had for stories like Salem’s Lot, Children of the Corn, and Graveyard Shift are written so incredibly well that they were a rare kind of pleasure to read.
The only story here that I completely pan is “The Man Who Loved Flowers” because it felt so intensely contrived in its writing style and prosaic in concept - but that story is also incredibly short.
This book is one of the more “accurately classified as horror books” I’ve read from King because so many of his books are not actually horror despite the hype, but this one most definitely is. I highly recommend this book if you’re a horror fan, and feel it’s an especially good introduction to new readers of King.
katiescho741's review against another edition
5.0
This is classic King at his best. The quality of these stories is incredible! There's one dud in the whole book, which is "Trucks", but every other story has something going for it. Some of them left me reeling at the end!
I loved Grey Matter, I am the Doorway, and The Boogeyman, and there's a great mix of monster, paranormal, and real horror styles in Night Shift. The realist horror is unsettling and dark, with stories like Quitters Inc and Night Surf. But then you have the crazy monster-type stuff that shouldn't work but, in King's hands, they just do! Stories like Graveyard Shift, I Know What You Need, and Children of the Corn are expertly un-spooled into creepy tales.
This seems to be the place where King started his Easter Eggs. Juresalem's Lot and One for the Road are both mini tales from the world of Salem's Lot, and since I recently read it, they were chilling to read.
I wish King still wrote like this. It feels like someone who has a jumble of ideas but brings them together to make a chaotic and horrifying collection of stories.
I loved Grey Matter, I am the Doorway, and The Boogeyman, and there's a great mix of monster, paranormal, and real horror styles in Night Shift. The realist horror is unsettling and dark, with stories like Quitters Inc and Night Surf. But then you have the crazy monster-type stuff that shouldn't work but, in King's hands, they just do! Stories like Graveyard Shift, I Know What You Need, and Children of the Corn are expertly un-spooled into creepy tales.
This seems to be the place where King started his Easter Eggs. Juresalem's Lot and One for the Road are both mini tales from the world of Salem's Lot, and since I recently read it, they were chilling to read.
I wish King still wrote like this. It feels like someone who has a jumble of ideas but brings them together to make a chaotic and horrifying collection of stories.
rj_owen's review against another edition
3.0
This is my favorite collection of Stephen King stories. In all honesty, I wouldn't say I am a Stephen King fan, perhaps because most of his novels are way too huge for me to want to read. (I've had [b:Needful Things|107291|Needful Things|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171570622s/107291.jpg|1812101] sitting on my shelf for who knows how long). But I think that his short stories are the perfect length so I don't get sick of him. I read all the stories in this collection but some were definitely better than others, in my opinion.
The Good were:
The Mangler
The Boogeyman
Grey Matter
The Ledge
Quitters Inc
I don't think I can say that any of the other stories were bad, per se, they just weren't very interesting to me. The ones I listed, I felt are on the scary/suspenseful side then the more common *I don't get why this is supposed to be scary/weird until the last paragraph* that the rest are.
The Good were:
The Mangler
The Boogeyman
Grey Matter
The Ledge
Quitters Inc
I don't think I can say that any of the other stories were bad, per se, they just weren't very interesting to me. The ones I listed, I felt are on the scary/suspenseful side then the more common *I don't get why this is supposed to be scary/weird until the last paragraph* that the rest are.
sevenof19's review against another edition
4.0
An incredible collection that shows more sides to King than one may think.
The Last Rung on the Ladder and Jerusalem's Lot are sure to stick with me
1 Jerusalem's Lot - 4.5/5
2 Graveyard Shift - 3.5/5
3 Night Surf - 2.5/5
4 I Am the Doorway - 4/5
5 The Mangler - 4/5
6 The Boogeyman - 4.5/5
7 Gray Matter - 3.5/5
8 Battleground - 5/5
9 Trucks - 4/5
10 Sometimes They Come Back - 2/5
11 Strawberry Spring - 2.5/5
12 The Ledge - 3/5
13 The Lawnmower Man - 3/5
14 Quitters, Inc. - 4/5
15 I Know What You Need - 3.5/5
16 Children of the Corn - 4/5
17 The Last Rung on the Ladder - 5/5
18 The Man Who Loved Flowers - 4/5
19 One for the Road - 5/5
20 The Woman in the Room - 4/5
The Last Rung on the Ladder and Jerusalem's Lot are sure to stick with me
1 Jerusalem's Lot - 4.5/5
2 Graveyard Shift - 3.5/5
3 Night Surf - 2.5/5
4 I Am the Doorway - 4/5
5 The Mangler - 4/5
6 The Boogeyman - 4.5/5
7 Gray Matter - 3.5/5
8 Battleground - 5/5
9 Trucks - 4/5
10 Sometimes They Come Back - 2/5
11 Strawberry Spring - 2.5/5
12 The Ledge - 3/5
13 The Lawnmower Man - 3/5
14 Quitters, Inc. - 4/5
15 I Know What You Need - 3.5/5
16 Children of the Corn - 4/5
17 The Last Rung on the Ladder - 5/5
18 The Man Who Loved Flowers - 4/5
19 One for the Road - 5/5
20 The Woman in the Room - 4/5
dullshimmer's review against another edition
4.0
Stephen King is somehow able to take any subject and attempt to make a creepy or scary story out of it. Rats? Check. Closets? Check. Machinery coming alive? Check. Children? Check. I'm sure you get the picture by now. Night Shift highlights this ability by being a collection of 20 short stories that hit these subjects and a lot more. Now as with any collection of this many short stories there will be ones you like and ones that you don't.
If I had to give my favorites they would be "The Ledge", "Quitters, Inc.", and "One for the Road". "The Ledge" is about a tennis instructor who winds up cheating with the wife of a crime boss and has to put his life on the line for a wager. "Quitters, Inc." is about a man trying to quit smoking with the help of a rather severe company. "One for the Road" is a bit of a mini-sequel to Salem's Lot, or an epilogue is perhaps a better word checking in on the cursed little town. These were probably my top three.
My bottom three would probably be "Night Surf", "The Man Who Loved Flowers", and "The Woman in the Room." "Night Surf" is kind of a prototype of "The Stand" but nowhere near as good, with unlikable characters and a story that just really didn't go anywhere. "The Man Who Loved Flowers" was just a rather short and enjoyable little story. "The Woman in the Room" wasn't necessarily a bad story, it was just perhaps was one that felt too real. Maybe that's why some would like it, but I was not one of them.
Of course the rest are all in between and no two stories are completely similar. The closest would probably be "Jerusalem's Lot" since it's also related to Salem's Lot like "One for the Road". However, I didn't really feel that it had the same vibe as the original novel or the other short story. It wasn't bad, but just didn't feel like it entirely fit either.
So overall, if you're interested in a wide diversity of stories that deal with the scary and sinister then this could be a book to check out. It has some duds, but honestly those will probably change from person to person. I certainly found it interesting how King took so many different things and made them horrifying, while at the same time pretty much cementing that the most horrible things are the human characters themselves.
If I had to give my favorites they would be "The Ledge", "Quitters, Inc.", and "One for the Road". "The Ledge" is about a tennis instructor who winds up cheating with the wife of a crime boss and has to put his life on the line for a wager. "Quitters, Inc." is about a man trying to quit smoking with the help of a rather severe company. "One for the Road" is a bit of a mini-sequel to Salem's Lot, or an epilogue is perhaps a better word checking in on the cursed little town. These were probably my top three.
My bottom three would probably be "Night Surf", "The Man Who Loved Flowers", and "The Woman in the Room." "Night Surf" is kind of a prototype of "The Stand" but nowhere near as good, with unlikable characters and a story that just really didn't go anywhere. "The Man Who Loved Flowers" was just a rather short and enjoyable little story. "The Woman in the Room" wasn't necessarily a bad story, it was just perhaps was one that felt too real. Maybe that's why some would like it, but I was not one of them.
Of course the rest are all in between and no two stories are completely similar. The closest would probably be "Jerusalem's Lot" since it's also related to Salem's Lot like "One for the Road". However, I didn't really feel that it had the same vibe as the original novel or the other short story. It wasn't bad, but just didn't feel like it entirely fit either.
So overall, if you're interested in a wide diversity of stories that deal with the scary and sinister then this could be a book to check out. It has some duds, but honestly those will probably change from person to person. I certainly found it interesting how King took so many different things and made them horrifying, while at the same time pretty much cementing that the most horrible things are the human characters themselves.
ashbyteacher77's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0