A review by bookbelle5_17
Skeleton Crew: Stories by Stephen King

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

2.5

Review of Skeleton Crew
By: Stephen King
            This is one of King’s collections of short stories, though some of them aren’t that short, starting with The Mist.  Like most collections I liked some stories more than others and the collection had a mixture of creepy as well as fun concepts, but some were meh.  It does demonstrate that King isn’t just a horror writer, but good character writer and is able to write in other genres.  I enjoyed The Jaunt, a science fiction story, about a machine that’s like the Transporters in Star Trek, but instead of looking at as a cool advancement it shows the risks involved.  Another favorite is “The Monkey” where a toy monkey decides people’s fates. I love the idea of a toy being a threat and how possibly our protagonist might be crazy.  The “Word Processor of the Gods” is about a man being given a whole made word processor from his nephew, which can delete and return people.  This begs the question of what you would you do this situation.  “Gramma” is about a boy who fears being alone his dying his grandmother. It is relatable with the discomfort of having to taking care of your grandparents as the grow old and become cranky and irritable.  Some of the stories left me confused or unsatisfied like “Here There be Tygers”, “The Wedding Gig”, and “Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game”.    I must admit I had to look up other’s reviews just to see what happened in “Morning Deliveries”.  “The Raft”, “Nona”, and “Uncle Otto’s Truck” were unsettling and creepy while “Beachworld” and “The Reach” were boring for me. “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet” deals with a favorite theme of mine, which is a character losing their mind.  Even with the boring stories he writes authentic characters that feel real.  With his shorter works King is blunt in a more instantaneous with the horror because the length of the stories is shorter, so he doesn’t take as much time to get to know the characters and build towards the horror when it’s there, though not all the stories have horror elements, or the horror is subtle.  Of course, he has characters that are alcoholics, cocaine addicts, and writers. Each of these stories have something of King’s usual uncomfortable content like villains, or unlikable characters, being described as fat in a grotesque way and men with vulgar minds.  And of course, the females are overly sexy, mean, or too passive, which is a downside of some of his work.  This collection was just okay, but I did like some of the stories, so I’m content with my reading experience.
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