dark – Tony's Horror Corner

Review Time: “Nightmares & Dreamscapes”

“Nightmares & Dreamscapes” was Stephen King’s third short story collection, and my 69th book of his and it was absolutely incredible. Check out my review below!

King released this 960-page collection of 24 short stories in 1993. The only King collection I have left to read is “Hearts In Atlantis,” which has novellas and short stories mixed in, so really “Nightmares & Dreamscapes” was the last one… and for me, it was the best one.

The introduction, which King titled “Myth, Belief, Faith, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” was truly incredible and inspirational. It was without a doubt the best introduction to anything I have ever read. I highly recommend you check out the intro, even if for some stupid reason you don’t read the rest of the book, at least read that.

“First, repeat the catechism after me:

I believe a dime can derail a freight-train.

I believe there are alligators in the New York City sewer system, not to mention rats as big as Shetland ponies.

I believe that you can tear off someone’s shadow with a steel tent-pole.

I believe that there really is a Santa Claus, and that all those red-suited guys you see at Christmastime really are his helpers.

I believe there is an unseen world all around us.

I believe that tennis balls are full of poison gas, and if you cut one in two and breathe what comes out, it’ll kill you.

Most of all, I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks.”

– Stephen King

Forewarning, this post will be long because I am going to briefly go over each story, so sit back and enjoy the ride!

“Dolan’s Cadillac” – The lead-off story, as King put it, got readers right in the zone. A noir revenge story with an extremely intricate build-up. I really enjoyed this tale and it was one of my favorites in the collection.

“The End of the Whole Mess” – Another gem, and probably my favorite in the collection, just purely for the thoughts you’re left with afterward. One man’s genius brother discovers the saying “there’s something in the water” is actually true. The cure to violence ends up having some serious side-effects.

“Suffer the Little Children” – this story was very dark and pretty disturbing. It leaves you questioning what the right “answer” was. Once you read it, you’ll understand.

“The Night Flier” – A writer for a tabloid magazine, one that seems to specialize in blood, guts, horror and all things supernatural, chases a vampire with a private pilot’s license down the east coast. The final confrontation was intense. The 1997 film adaptation was decent too.

“Popsy” – A young boy gets abducted and later saved by his grandfather, Popsy, who displays similar characteristics to the antagonist of “The Night Flier.” In the notes at the end of the collection, King confirms they are indeed the same person. This story started off somewhat disturbing in the sense of the subject matter but finished in classic bloody-King fashion.

“It Grows on You” – I was disappointed with this one. I was intrigued with the Castle Rock setting and the elderly characters whom had survived the events of “Needful Things,” but the story was just… meh. It has a couple creepy bits but overall, I think it would actually serve better as a novel where we could get more detail.

“Chattery Teeth” – A classic case of King turning something mundane, such as the toy wind-up teeth with feet, into something utterly horrific.

“Dedication” – This story was strange. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. It had a sense of realism that made it good, but overall it was slow and not very exciting. This story would be better suited in the collection “Full Dark, No Stars.”

“The Moving Finger” – CRAZY. That’s seriously the best way to describe this one. A man discovers a finger prying around his sink poking through the drain… It was intense, and the way King wrote it made you feel like you were going insane too. WAS IT REAL????

“Sneakers” – this was a strange ghost story, but it definitely gave me the creeps and I really liked it. You’ll never look at a pair of shoes underneath a bathroom stall the same way after reading this one…

“You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” – A couple takes a wrong turn and ends up in a town called Rock and Roll Heaven. Little do they know, it IS Rock and Roll Heaven, and they are now trapped and must listen to nightly concerts from dead rockers. Doesn’t sound too bad actually.

“Home Delivery” – King spins out another gem here. A pregnant woman on an island off the Maine coast, loses her husband while he’s catching Lobsters. She decides to have the baby in the comfort of her own home. Why? Well only the small matter of a zombie apocalypse on the mainland. This is one of my favorites in the collection mainly because of the way King hides the horror and spins a great tale around it.

“Rainy Season” – This story has a very classic King feel to it. A couple staying at a summer home in Maine decide to stay there the wrong year. That night, they get rained on by killer toads with razor sharp teeth. As you can guess, this one doesn’t end well for our “heroes.”

“My Pretty Pony” – A slower tale about a grandfather sharing some wisdom with his grandson. Reading it I really didn’t think I was going to enjoy it, but as the tale unfolds, I grew to really appreciate it and the lesson it left me with. A great message about the passage of time. Not a favorite, but really a beautiful story.

“Sorry, Right Number” – This one blew me away. I didn’t cry, but I definitely got close. King wrote it like a screenplay and I think it really added to the pace and atmosphere of the story. Super dark and depressing but a great tale with a wild twist.

“The Ten O’clock People” – King spins an excellent story here, tapping on real social issues while also adding his usual supernatural twist to it. Every day, at 10 O’clock, people converge outside to smoke their cigarettes (since the office buildings started to ban smoking inside). These people can see things… What they see, are people in higher-power positions with giant grotesque bat heads. This story escalates quickly and is super interesting. One of my favorites.

“Crouch End” – Another favorite of mine from this collection. A couple (huh, King likes screwing with couples, doesn’t he?) gets lost in the suburbs of London and find themselves in the mysterious town of Crouch End. The wife loses the husband after a series of creepy events and begins seeing and hearing disturbing things. She finally makes her way to the police station to share her story. The ending makes readers shout “NO!” King wrote this one as a little ode to Lovecraft.

“The House on Maple Street” – Four siblings discover metal growing beneath the floors and behind the walls of their house. In the cellar, they then discover a control panel with a series of numbers counting down. The eldest hatches a plan to trap their evil step father in the house when the countdown hits zero. When it does, the house takes off. It was a crazy little tale but very fun and left you with a smile on your face.

“The Fifth Quarter” – This felt like a Bachman story, and King even admitted as much in the notes at the end. A man discovers one of his friends got mixed up with some bad people. These people stole money, buried it, made a map to find it again, and tore the map in four pieces to be distributed amongst themselves. Of course, no one trusts one another, and all are trying to get the pieces for themselves. Our main character, the fifth quarter, seeking revenge for his friend, slowly gathers the pieces. It was a cool little tale and I don’t think I did it justice here.

“The Doctor’s Case” – King writes about the classic characters Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in this murder mystery. In this case, Dr. Watson is the one to discover the murderer, but Holmes, Watson, and an Inspector all decide to hide the evidence and leave the mystery “unsolved.” This was a really interesting tale and pretty ballsy of King to do his own take on such classic characters.

“Umneys’ Last Case” – Umney is a private investigator or detective of sorts who goes about the same daily routine. The day of the story however, things have changed and Umney can’t deal. He gets to his office where he meets his doppelganger who happens to be “God” aka the man who created Umney. Umney is fiction and the doppelganger is the author of the Umney stories. The author intends to write himself into Umney’s life and Umney into the real world. It is a very unique and very cool story.

“Head Down” – This is a non-fiction essay, originally published in “The New Yorker,” about Stephen King’s son Owen’s baseball team, Bangor West, and their run at the Little League championship. King, being a huge baseball fan, and a gifted writer (obviously) was able to spin the tale of his son’s team’s triumph out for readers like one of his own stories. He kept it light and factual but still extremely intriguing and heartwarming. When King told readers of a non-fiction tale in the intro, I was like “Oh boy this will be boring.” WOW was I wrong. Reading this story gave me HUGE feelings of nostalgia back to my little league days.

“Brooklyn August” – King spins out a little poem about baseball for us. It’s a nice conclusion before we reach the notes section where he tells us about some of the stories.

“The Beggar and the Diamond” – After the notes, King hid an extra story. This one is somewhat religious and its King’s take on a Hindu parable. The story wasn’t anything amazing, but the message and the lesson were nice.

Overall, this short story collection was absolutely incredible. I was blown away. If I could give this collection more than a perfect score, I would. But alas, I give “Nightmares & Dreamscapes” a:

5 out of 5

Review Time: “Just After Sunset”

“Just After Sunset” was my 68th Stephen King book and the 5th Short Story collection of his that I have read… it also happens to be the 5th collection of short stories that he wrote. Without further ado, read below and check out my review!

“Just After Sunset” was released in 2008. This 360 page collection containing 13 stories, had a somewhat depressing tone throughout. I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. It was underwhelming.

This is the first time I have reviewed a story collection. I’m going to go through each story individually, so be prepared for some spoilers, but I wouldn’t let that stop you from reading, they won’t be bad, I promise.

The first story, “Willa,” tells the tale of a group of people waiting in a train station. David realizes his wife, Willa, is missing and decides to leave the station to find her even though the other waiting passengers advise against it. He finds her in a bar with live music.

Throughout David and Willa’s discussion, it is revealed to the reader that they, along with the other passengers waiting at the station, are all dead. Their train derailed, killing everyone, but only a few have accepted the fact that they are ghosts stuck in this station.

“The Gingerbread Girl” is the second story and this one was fun. A woman, grieving after the loss of her infant daughter, leaves her husband and lives alone in Florida. While there and on one of her daily runs, she is abducted by a neighbor. She escapes and is chased by her abductor down the beach. I wont ruin the ending, but this was definitely one of the stronger stories in the collection and it is being adapted into a movie.

Next up is “Harvey’s Dream.” This story was more of a tale of foreshadowing than anything. Harvey has a dream, tells his wife, and then they receive a phone call and, as you would expect, Harvey’s dream came true. It’s a little creepy once you read what his dream was about.

“Rest Stop” followed and this one was okay. A man stops at a rest stop to use the restroom and hears a couple arguing and hears the man begin to harm the woman. Our hero steps in to save the day.

“Stationary Bike” was a very interesting story that fell flatter than the Earth (haha just kidding). This story had so much promise, but the ending sucked, it just didn’t wrap up how you’d want. The concept was very cool, touching on aspects from “Rose Madder” or “Duma Key.”

“The Things They Left Behind” was depressing and creepy as hell. A man who decided to call out of work one day, survives 9/11 because of this decision. About a year later, his coworkers’ possessions start showing up in his apartment and he hears things coming from each one. Creepy and depressing are the best words for this story. It is a good one though.

“Graduation Afternoon” came next, and King stayed with the depressed, destroyed New York theme. A girl is being a loner at a graduation party and watched New York city explode in the distance. The story was alright, but that feeling of dread really hit you.

“N.” was my favorite story in the collection. It was also adapted as a comic by Marvel and in my opinion, it deserves a movie. It was creepy, disturbing, and just great. A man finds a Stonehenge-like stone circle in a field in Maine. Looking upon these stones gives him extreme OCD and makes him believe he must act upon these compulsions to keep demons from escaping the circle.

Each person that sees these stones and becomes infected with the compulsions commits suicide after passing the infection onto someone else. The story is very dark but its fantastic. The comic version had an alternate ending that was extremely disturbing.

Next up was my second favorite, “The Cat from Hell.” This story started out a little slow and strange, but the later half and ending were CRAZY. An old man hires a hitman to kill a cat. The old man tells the hitman about the cat’s history of murdering his family members. The hitman, thinking “this will be the easiest job of my life,” takes the cat, but during the car ride, the cat attacks. This story also appeared in the 1990 film version of the horror anthology series from the 1980’s: “Tales From The Darkside.”

I won’t say anymore because its wild, you have to read it. In the “Sunset Notes” section of the collection, where King talks about why he wrote each story, King says he actually wrote “The Cat from Hell” 30 years ago but never used it in a collection until “Just After Sunset.” The story is definitely different from the others, and I think that 30-year difference is why.

“The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates” was next and this one was interesting. A woman receives a call from her husband during his funeral. Yes, you read that right. Her husband is in a building reminiscent of Grand Central station waiting to move on. He tells her a couple premonitions because “time moves differently here.” The story is depressing but has a nice little twist.

“Mute” came next and I really enjoyed this one. A man is in a church confessional telling the pastor about one time he picked up a supposedly def-mute hitchhiker. While driving the man tells the hitchhiker about his cheating wife who is also in trouble with the government for stealing money. Later his wife and her lover turn up dead. Police say the mute hitchhiker is responsible. A very interesting concept and a dark little tale. I liked it.

“Ayana” followed, and this was another interesting one. A family taking care of their terminally ill father are visited by a woman and a young girl, Ayana. Ayana kisses the sickly father and one of the sons and days later the father is no longer dying. The son who received a kiss also, was given a gift. Every now and then, a man visits the son and takes him to hospitals where he must kiss someone else with a terminal illness and save them. This story was mysterious but uplifting, it was enjoyable.

The last story, “A Very Tight Place,” was my third favorite. This story was disgusting but awesome. A man gets locked in an overturned porta-potty by his rival neighbor. I don’t need to say anymore because you can probably smell the fecal matter now. It was so gross to imagine being trapped there, but the story was so good.

Sorry this ended up being long-winded, but it was the best way to show you that the collection as a whole, was underwhelming, but it had some very, very good stories. Overall, I enjoyed it, but of five collections I’ve read, it is number five. I am currently reading the collection “Nightmares & Dreamscapes,” and it is incredible (review coming soon).

Before my rating, I’ll leave you with the last few sentences King uses to close out the collection:

“Take care of yourself… and say! Did you maybe leave the oven on? Or forget to turn off the gas under the patio barbecue? What about the lock on the back door? Did you remember to give it a twist? Things like that are easy to forget, and someone could be slipping in right now. A lunatic, perhaps. One with a knife. So, OCD behavior or not… Better go check, don’t you think?”

Anyway, here is my rating for “Just After Sunset:”