Product DescriptionStephen King -- who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times bestsellers, and many unforgettable movies -- delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything's Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007, King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications.
Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating -- and then terrifying -- journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, ''The Gingerbread Girl'' is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable -- and resourceful -- as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark. In ''Ayana,'' a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In one of the longer stories here, ''N.,'' which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside...or keep the world from falling victim to it.
Just After Sunset -- call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It's the perfect time for Stephen King.
What Others Say
"It ain't dark but it's getting there"
"Just After Sunset" is Stephen King's most recent collection of short stories. I guess I should preface my review by saying that I am a one of those readers that runs out and buys (in recent years, pre-orders) every SK book as soon as it becomes possible to do so, and have been doing that since "The Stand" first came out in paperback. I think most of them are very, very good, a fair number outstanding and a few just so-so. "Just After Sunset" falls in between the very good and so-so categories. I rate it at 3.5 stars but since that is not allowed I rounded up to 4.
KIng is one of a relatively small cadre of well-known and successful authors who is just as good writing short stories, novellas and novels. In general, I think the ... Read More
Average King
When I first started reading this, I was going to give it only two stars. The first seven stories were very slow for me to get through. They were not really scary or even interesting in the way King can be interesting in a non-horror fiction story as in Different Seasons. Also, I feel the first seven would have been fine if they had been written by a first published writer. King is a seasoned professional so therefore I was expecting more. My expectations weren't high to begin with. I do think the editor should have done his job much better when putting together Just After Sunset: Stories.
When I started reading N, it got my attention. I had already read Machen The Great God Pan, so I knew where the story was coming from. Sometimes it helps to know the source ... Read More
Nothing Scary
I have been looking forward to Just After Sunset: Stories since I heard about it - I usually like his short stories. Not so much this one. There really wasn't anything that was scary - occasionally thought provoking yes, scary no. The only story I really liked was the one about the stationary bike - and it was more of a black comedy.
What really bothered me in Just After Sunset: Stories was the amount of violence towards women. Yes, I hear you laughing - that is usually a staple in horror stories in general and I can't escape the fact that Rose Madder, Dolores Claibourne and Gerald's Game were full of violence towards women. Maybe it disturbed me this time because there was so much of it in one place and it was so graphic, I can't quite put my finger on why it bothred ... Read More
Can't get warm.
This collection of stories, written over a number of years (I remember reading "The Cat from Hell" when I was 18 or 19, in the Year's Best Horror Stories) shows that King has never lost his touch, and that short stories are still his finest format. "Harvey's Dream" is breathtakingly terrifying for anyone who has children, "The Gingerbread Girl" is better than 99% of the movies made with similar themes these days, and reading "N." was like plunging into an icy lake in Canada in the middle of February. I still can't get warm. Whole-heartedly recommended.
Read "Everything's Eventual" instead ...
I enjoy King's stories very much (having read "Night Shift" twice and "Everything's Eventual" three times) so I was looking very forward to SK's new book of short stories. However, these stories fell flat for me. You could see what was coming a mile away ("Willa", for example) in some and others seemed like an exercise for creative writing class ("Harvey's Dream"). As an almost lifelong King fan, I STRONGLY recommend reading "Everything's Eventual" instead. With the exception of "Luckey Quarter" (maybe I just didn't get it), EVERY story in that collection is excellent and "1408" will blow you away - much, much better than the film adaptation.
