A review by the_weirdling
Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
4.0
There is extremely little that I can add to what so many people have said about this book. So, instead of anything more substantive, I am just going to put out a few impressions.
Four Past Midnight is a collection of four short novels. I intentionally do not use the word novella. I think all four works in this book are too long to be classified as such. I think the only reason they were not issued as separate books is because they are so much shorter than Stephen King’s usual novels and his productivity is so high his publisher was trying not to glut the market.
The first of the four is “The Langoliers”. It is a clever paranormal tale about people waking up on a flight where the pilots, crew, and most of the passengers have suddenly gone missing. This story plays to Stephen King’s best strength. He is a master at character craft. He is even better at creating a whole community of characters, who interact with one another in bizarre or stressful circumstances.
The other thing I like about this story is the use of cosmic horror, which is often my favorite sub-genre of horror. In particular, I appreciate how he does not choose to flush out the cosmology of this story. One is hinted at, but you never know more than the characters do. So you are left with the fun of speculating what kind of wild world they (and we) are living in.
The second novel is “Secret Window, Secret Garden”. I am always up for a good tale with an unreliable narrator slowly descending into insanity... or is he? King does a good job here. Again he plays to his strengths. The protagonist is a writer struggling with creating and sanity, a common theme for Stephen King.
The third novel, “The Library Policeman”, might actually be my favorite of the bunch. In some ways it is primarily a character study of the protagonist. The star of the show is “bad guy”. I think this is one of Stephen King’s creepiest creations. It is right up there with Pennywise the Dancing Clown. I am so much surprised that this story has never been tapped to be turned into a movie.
The last novel is “The Sun Dog”. This one shares a lot of themes in common with Needful Things, which was released at almost the same time. Is the story of a boy who was given a Polaroid camera as a gift. However, whenever you take a picture with it, you get the next frame of a sort of movie from another dimension. The hijinks ensue from that point. It is a deeply unnerving story. If the implications of the story do not disturb you, I would go so far as to say you were not reading it right. My favorite character isn’t the boy who serves as its protagonist. It is Pop Merrill, who was used for the second season of the TV show Castle Rock. I find him to be one of the most intriguing characters King has created. It was a joy to spend time with him.