Sunday, February 28, 2010

Night Shift, by Stephen King

Night ShiftI just finished reading this compilation of short stories by Stephen King. I have been in a major Stephen King vortex since the beginning of the new year. Anywho, this book was a pleasant surprise. For some reason, I had no idea that King wrote "Children of the Corn". I blame the fact that it was written a year before I was born, and I was 6 when the movie came out. Once I made the realization, I promptly watched the movie on youtube [if you look hard enough, quite a few of Kings movie adaptations can be found there, I spend many mornings riding my exercise bike watching them ;) ].

All in all, I have to say I really enjoyed the book, I liked the recurring themes of 'Salems Lot, having not yet read that book. It will now be on my list of must reads.

Of the stories in the book, my two favorites were Strawberry Spring and I Know What You Need.

Strawberry Spring had such striking imagery, and a real haunting quality. But why I liked both of these stories is because, for me, the stories are always scariest when the monsters could actually be real.

Has anyone else read this? What did you like or dislike? Based on this, what are your further recommendations?

I love the fact that King's writing career has been longer than my actual life....I recently read a more recent collection of his short stories entitled Just After Sunset. If you like the more "realistic" scary stories, like me, then I highly recommend!