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"The Things they left behind" is mildly sappy, but heartfelt and worth reading. Overall, I have to say - not Kings best collection of short stories. well written and constructed, but not gripping in any way - technically good but lacking any soul. - Show solidarity with the Amazon affiliates - buy this from Overstock or someplace other than amazon.
Overall, the collection is a solid 6 out of 10 stars. If the first half had been cut out, it would have been a 8.5 bordering on 9 out of 10.P.S. And the last story "A Very Tight Place" is just pure King-Gore that made me cringe a few times, and is also a brilliantly constructed allegorical tale to boot.I still can't say that the book is worth the price in hardcover, but it is well worth reading. "The New York Times at special low prices" (I might have the title of that one wrong) is really good.
and things change. But I won't hold that against it. The first half of the collection seems to be filled with what are essentially throwaway stories. "Graduation Day" is fun, but I feel it's oddly placed, being right after "The Things they left behind".
The stories that come after that are uniformly good - with one or two truly great ones. Then the reader gets to the story "N.". "N." is perhaps one of the best written modern Lovecraftian stories I have seen this side of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The best book I have read in a long time. It says something about the quality of this book that it has spurred me to write a review after all these years on amazon as a 'lurker.' I do enjoy Stephen King's novels, but I think he may be at his best in the short story medium.
Also, as some have probably come to expect, the back of the book is filled with notes to understand how they were conceived and what King was aiming for. For some stories (such as "Ayana") the notes at the back are necessary to help readers understand the story (for example, King notes that for "Ayana" he wanted to write a story about questions and not about answers). It's a great book to keep on your nightstand when you need a quick fix before bedtime. But without a doubt the best story in the collection is "N" and it's good to know that it's published for the first time here. "The Cat From Hell," which was previously published is but one example of a very fun read. "Willa" is a good example of a story that does so. For King fans, Just After Sunset is a nice read to pass the time. Of all the stories in JUST AFTER SUNSET, "N" is by far the scariest and most curious one.
It doesn't come off as a story that is meant to be scary. It is the prime example of a story that lifts off very well, but doesn't stay up in the air for long. Perhaps King is right. It was a story that was just impossible to put down once I began. This is one thing about JUST AFTER SUNSET that sort of gets your attention immediately. Many of the stories are still quite rewarding to say the least.
Obviously with a collection like this you're bound to find a bad egg or two, but at the very least, the majority of the stories here are good. The next story, "The Gingerbread Girl," is a much better story, however. Many of the shorter stories in the book are not nearly as worthwhile as the longer ones. But most all, the majority of stories packed within this collection are good stories. A suspense story that can begin to frighten readers.
So even if you managed to find these stories before, it's good to know that many of them are still quite fresh. Stephen King is no stranger to the short story, but his novels probably get much more attention than his shorter works do. Simply put, not every story is a winner. Yet some of the longer stories such as "The Cat From Hell" and "Mute" are all around fun reads, filled with the kind of flair Stephen King is greatly known for. Luckily there are more good stories than bad.
It's a good story to get the ball rolling, however, and is somewhat heartfelt. So it's not so unusual that in the Introduction to "Just After Sunset" he talks about how the short story form can be forgotten, and that it shouldn't be. As I said before, however, this can't be helped with a collection of short stories. Nevertheless, the majority of them (almost all of them, actually) were written within the past year or two. The collection begins with a story called "Willa." It isn't exactly a scary story, but there is some heart there. The only real unfortunate thing is that not all the stories will stand out as being good. And that's saying a lot when there are only 13 to choose from.The book itself isn't really all that long. There a couple of good stories here.
And with most of the stories being no longer than 20 pages or so, it'll be easy to ration them out. At times King is a good enough writer to get by like this, but when you notice that a story doesn't really make too much sense, or that the ending doesn't really satisfy, you're well aware of it. They're all worth reading at least once, though, but they're not all necessarily stories you might find yourself picking up again. Often, though, they just provide neat snippets of trivia for readers.
It comes in at just under 400 pages. "Ayana" is a very touching story, but leaves the reader with the feeling of dissonance. King has always done this with his short story collections, but it's hard not to notice the irony here. They are well written short stories, sure, but they don't really have the pull that some of the longer stories do because they're so short. They move at an extremely fast pace as well.
Speaking of how King writes how one can forget how to write a short story, it's odd that there are a few stories in here that were previously published. As I mentioned, some of the shorter ones aren't really that memorable (but thankfully most of the stories aren't as short as "Rest Stop"), and some just don't have satisfying conclusions. And yet, there are other stories that can feel a bit ambiguous. Over the years King has shown us that he can write horror and that he is capable of transcending the genre. Stories such as "Harvey's Dream" and "Rest Stop" are short and sweet, but don't exactly leave readers satisfied.
I am very pleased with purchase. This book was exactly as described and I recomend buying from this vendor to any and everyone.
Was Stephen King serious when he said he wasn't in touch with the intricacies of the short story format like he used to sometime prior to this. Something that could threaten the existence of this world as we know it. His stories are akin to the Twilight Zone episodes you used to enjoy as a child, all terrifying and very, very interesting. 13 short stories by Stephen King. So don't believe King when he said he wasn't at the top of his game, I loved this collection, I think it could even be his very best. But we soon find out that he's, in fact, not seeking therapy for his OCD problem but seeking therapy for something else entirely, something that's far more terrifying. Heresy, yes, but honesty is the best policy, I suppose.
From the first tale (Willa) to the very last one (A Very Tight Place), King has kept me turning the pages, wanting to know just what is up next, and he has never failed to impress. Horror is a difficult artform unique in and of itself and King shows his prowess here in this story, and all the other stories as well. He said once that Horror isn't a field where hacks can come and excel in anymore, and I certainly agree with him. His prose is fragmented and sometimes resembles street language, but it is still infinitely readable. It's nothing like the prose of Dickens or even his wife Tabitha but King shows that language isn't the only element that's crucial for good fiction, taste and story are much more important in that regard.
All published previously, except the one tale N. It was a great story not because of King's mastery of the English language (which he certainly has) but because of the way he structures it and also the way he has conceived it. N's an epistolary tale, and much of it are comprised of accounts written by a man who suffers from OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) and is reportedly seeking therapy. One word: No.All of these stories are nothing short of extraordinary and all of them were written by someone who clearly was at the top of his game, at least to me. Take N, for example.
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