Night Shift [Paperback]

Stephen King's first collection of short stories spans a decade of his writing life, more than half of it before he broke big with the sale of the novel Carrie. Overall, it's his best collection of pure horror, though there are also studied, moving, non-horror outliers contained here, "The Woman in the Room" and "The Last Rung on the Ladder."

King shows his early range, as the horror stories range from the Lovecraft pastiche "Jerusalem's Lot" through the fairly straightforward thrillers "Quitters, Inc." and "The Ledge" to the loopy tale of beer gone bad, "Gray Matter." There's also a quasi-sequel to Salem's Lot, "One for the Road," and a dry run for The Stand, "Night Surf," inspired in part by a line from a Bruce Springsteen song ("The kids are huddled on the beach in the mist").

The scariest stories showcase King's early mastery of fantasy Grandmaster Fritz Leiber's committment, all those years ago, to trying to come up with a formula for new horrors for the industrial age in the 1940 short story "Smoke Ghost" and subsequent efforts. In stories like "The Mangler" and "Sometimes They Come Back", a matter-of-fact approach to the supernatural that recalls Leiber's Conjure Wife is super-collided with modern technology.

So we get a possessed industrial steam-press in "The Mangler" or magic that partially relies on recorded sound and visual effects in "Sometimes They Come Back." "Gray Matter," while straightforwardly horrific, has as its sinister contaminant a bad can of beer -- this itself a play on a 1970's incident involving beer that had seaweed extract intentionally put into it, with dire (but non-lethal) results.

The scariest story here, and maybe the scariest story King has ever written, is "The Boogeyman." It works perfectly on the surface level of horror, but it also could be a case study for King's occasionally misguided belief that horror is really all about subtext: the monster seems to be a metaphoric stand-in for a child-abusing, wife-hitting husband. But it also isn't. Or is everything in the protagonist's head? In any case, the damn story has made me afraid of closets ever since. All in all, I think this is probably one of the ten best, non-best-of horror collections in English ever assembled.

There are occasional stretches of clumsy prose and a couple of laughable mis-steps in the description department ("The Last Rung on the Ladder", otherwise excellent and understated, gives us dimensions for a barn that would roughly be the size of NASA's vehicle assembly building. Coupled with the ladder shenanigans in The Shining, this makes me wonder if King has never actually climbed a ladder, or at least been told how high those ladders actually were). But like Robinson Crusoe's amazing disappearing-and-reappearing pants, these mistakes simply add a bit of rough charm to an otherwise terrific performance. Highly recommended.

Excellent work by S.K. I am a huge fan, especially the short stories, you will not be disappointed with this one.

This book of 20 stories in which many contain a frightening psychological undertone whether it is a horror story or a dramatic one. But like every short story collection, there are some bad ones and some weird ones. Nevertheless, this book should not be missed.

Jerusalem's Lot: Long, confusing, boring. If you were to skip one story in this book, I'd say skip this one.

Graveyard Shift: creepy story about mutation. I will not say any more.

Night Surf: Most people hate this one, but it caught my interest. Not a horror story, but interesting. How will the world really end do you think?

I Am the Doorway: Sci-fi horror story that addresses aliens controlling a man. Creepy.

The Mangler: Gruesome, but pretty stupid. Not as scary as people say it is, but it makes you wonder about the safety of heavy machinery.

The Boogeyman: I must say, I did not connect with this one like most people did. People say it's the scariest story in this book, but I disagree. I did not like the main character at all, and the ending was a twist but a stupid, unrealistic twist. I read it in the daytime, which can have a large effect on the scare level of horror stories. Whatever. It's scary as [heck] if you read it during the night, but a silly piece of [junk] during the day. Take your pick.

Gray Matter: Weird weird weird. Sort of an anti-beer tale about bacteria and the effects it has on an alchoholic. Never liked beer much anyway.

Battleground: What if toy soldiers came alive? Do you ever ask yourself that? Didn't think so.

Trucks: It's a sort of "what if?" story that's about automobiles rebelling. That's about it.

Sometimes They Come Back: Great great story with great characters. Gets under your skin.

Strawberry Spring: I've never read a better surprise ending in my life. A wonderful yarn about a serial killer.

The Ledge: I tend to like King's realistic stories more than the horror ones I guess. If you are afraid of heights, this will scare the hell out of you.

The Lawnmower Man: Yeah, King must have been high when he wrote this. Seriously, you wonder what that guy thinks about in his free time after reading this. In other words, one of the weirdest and most utterly bizarre stories I have ever seen. Which is not necessarily a good thing.

Quitters, Inc: This was my favorite story of the bunch. About a strange, sinister company that "helps" people quit smoking. I thought it was very creepy.

I Know What You Need: Not really horror either, more of a "not what he seems" type of story. Can you really trust just anyone?

Children of the Corn: I saw the movie before this unfortunately. Kind of spoiled it for me, but a terrifying story nonetheless. DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE.

The Last Rung on the Ladder: Touching, sad story. Not an inkling of horror in it.

The Man Who Loved Flowers: Similar to Strawberry Spring in a way, but shorter and not as good. Read it anyway.

One for the Road: The sequel to Salem's Lot, and I hear it is much better if you haven't read Salem's Lot yet. It is not exactly a screamer, but it is eerie.

The Woman in the Room: Addresses euthanasia, and if thats a subject you would like to address, then go ahead.

All in all, even the stories which I did not give positive reviews for had some bit of worth. So, stop reading this review and go buy the book! Read every story to get the full potential.