Customer Reviews

Night Shift

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Having read the majority of Stephen King's works and now finish up with "the rest" of them, I am always excited for what the master storyteller has in store for me. With "Night Shift", one of King's early story collections, I was not disappointed and pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the stories.

To me, reading this collection was like randomly picked out about ten episodes of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" and watching them back to back. Some will be terrifying, some will be suspenseful, and some will be morality plays, while others will be downright funny and charming. Serling had a creative mind to write in all those genres, and (in this novel) King showed a similar proclivity with diverse material. From giant rats to a brother/sister bond to a guy who just wants to quit smoking, King is able (in relatively few pages, at least for him!) to tell a variety of stories that will keep you guessing as to what will happen next.

In all honesty, what I found to be the best (and most chilling) story of the whole collection was only a few pages long and entitled "The Man Who Loved Flowers", about a young man who is completely taken with the love of a woman (including an ending that will stun you).

Only a few stories in the collection were lacking, while all the others are prime examples of the genius of Mr. King. Read with confidence knowing that each and every little tale he tells will pull you in a different emotional direction.

One of the best collections of short horror available, period. I've read and watched more horror shorts, anthologies, serials, etc. than 'd like to admit, and this is among the very best.

Two main elements make Night Shift my favorite Stephen King short story collection; first, the quality of the writing, and second, the age and familiarity of the stories. The influence of Lovecraft and Poe is apparent in most of these tales, resulting in a tone that earns all the same adjectives used to describe the work of those writers; gloomy, bleak, eerie, disturbing, anxiety-inducing, and many others along those lines. A few of these titles include Jersusalem's Lot, The Mangler, Strawberry Spring, The Lawnmower Man, and The Man Who Loved Flowers. Then, at times, King shows his influence from sci-fi mags and comics, with stories like Battleground, Trucks, and I Am the Doorway, which, despite the variation in genre, manage to retain the same morbid, spooky essence of Lovecraft or Poe. In addition, more movies have been made from this collection than any of King's others, including a few of those already mentioned, plus Graveyard Shift, Sometimes They Come Back, the duo of The Ledge and Quitters, Inc. (both part of Cat's Eye), and Children of the Corn. King had an intensity and urgency in his early writing that is on full display in Night Shift, published just a year after the Shining and nine months before The Stand. It's a great reading experience for anyone looking for something less involving than a novel.

I scoured the internet for suggestions for REALLY scary books. This book was one of the suggestions of an "ALL GUY" website. THey said it would keep you up at night. It ended up being a gift for my little brother so I havent actually read it.