Customer Reviews

The Stephen King Collection: Stories from Night Shift

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had this collection split up into three different volumes when I was a kid. And I very much enjoyed several of these stories. I read all of these when I was 12, by the way, and quite a few of them gave me nightmares! Here are a few of my favorites.
In Jerusalem's Lot, a type of prologue to Salem's Lot, a man inherits an ancestral home, but discovers that it is haunted. And not by ghosts either. For the undead lerk in the walls, and an even darker mystery lies in a shunned town a few miles from this hell house. Now the protagonist must discover this terrible secret long buried and face an unspeakable evil.
In The Boogeyman, a tormented individual seeks mental help and relates a frightening story in which his family is seemingly haunted by... You guessed it, the Boogeyman itself. This one had such a shocking ending, to me anyway. And I had a heck of a hard time going into my closet at night for several weeks after I listened to this one. I never thought two words,"So nice," would send such a chill down my spine.
Gray Matter is another good one. Timmy's dad Richy has a taste for cold beer most evenings. But something in one of those beers is changing him into something entirely inhuman. And it is up to three old guys and a loaded gun to stop this beast.
The Mangler was interesting. An industrial machine possessed by a demon. And quite an unforgetable ending too.
The ledge was another of my favorites. I can't stand heights, but I love the story. Imagine being forced to walk all the way around the edge of a building. Now imagine having to do that several stories up, and with nothing to hold onto but the brick wall in front of you.
I loved Graveyard Shift. I'm not afraid of rats, but giant mutant rats... Now that's a different story. Night Surf was a nice prelude to the Stand which needs to be put on cd next! hint hint! Some Times They Come Back kept me awake the night I read it. In order for a school teacher to rid himself of some evil spirits from his past, he must literally make a deal with the devil. I also enjoyed Lawnmower man. It was funny and scarry in all the right places.
And John Glover does a spectacular job reading all these stories. He and Frank Muller are two of my favorites to listen to when enjoying an audiobook. The music they threw into each of these tales was also a nice touch. Sure got my heart beating a bit faster. But I wish stories like One for the Road, Children of the Corn, I am the Doorway, and Trucks could have been included too. I can't get the book in braille and would very much like to read these. It wouldn't have killed them if they'd included the rest of the stories from night shift. And I really enjoy listening to Stephen King's introductions and notes following his short story collections too. Maybe some day they'll give us the truly unabridged version of Night Shift.

A copy of this collection stays in my car as a sort of back-up in case I go on a long trip without any audio books. Or at least that's what I tell myself as it's still in my car after six months. Perhaps it impressed/scared me so much that I'm afraid to let it out of my sight.

I listened to these unabridged short stories during my commute to and from work and enjoyed John Glover's narration thoroughly. The stories, though, were a bit of a mixed bag for me.

The Boogeyman: This one reminded me, in the very best possible way, of a "Tales From the Crypt" episode about childhood fears and monsters in the closet.

I Know What You Need: Sorta grungy boy meets pretty girl, gives her everything she desires, then she discovers his dark, not-very-well-hidden secrets and she freaks. Stupid girl, you know you'll never find a guy like that again! I enjoyed this one but was slightly annoyed by the rather rushed ending.

Strawberry Spring: A killer stalks a college campus with a surprise ending. This was a creepy, atmospheric tale.

Gray Matter: This one's about many a man's worst nightmare. That tall cool one you've just downed had some fuzzy gray stuff inside that turns you into an icky flesh eating-gray-creature!

The Woman in the Room: Realistic horror about slowly watching someone you love suffer as she awaits death. Shall you let the suffering continue or put an end to the pain, knowing full well you can? This was too realistically depressing for me.

Battleground: This story is about a man and toy soldiers. It didn't do it for me. I fast forwarded through this as it gave me an urge to snore. Not so good when one is driving!

Graveyard Shift: Everyman has a crappy, thankless job doing the midnight shift in creepy old mill and is tormented by an evil BossMan. The job takes a turn for the worse with the discovery of monster rats, monster bats and a big ol' supersized momma rat. Bet you can't guess what happens to the big bad BossMan? Overall a cliched rat story but very well read by Glover who does rat-love oh-so-wonderfully.

The Man Who Loved Flowers: A young man, apparently wildly in love, collects flowers for his sweetie causing women to swoon with jealousy and non-flower bearing men to become very annoyed. Young man-in-love turns out to have an ugly surprise for his latest sweetie . . . Loved this one!

The Last Rung on The Ladder: Another could've-been-true story filled with suspense. A man is haunted by memories of his younger sister, her loyalty and complete and utter trust. The story focuses on the man when he was a boy and on a pivotal moment in his life that he's reflecting on now that he's filled with oodles of regret.

Night Surf: A tale about a group of college/high school students told from the point of view of a boy who is very cruel to his girlfriend. Girlfriend: "Do you love me?" Meanie boyfriend: well he can't spare the venom to answer "no". As she trails after him, looking for any scrap of love he'll never dole out, he's thinking about how revolting her fat bum looks. Turns out they are only a small handful of survivors of King's nasty flu "Captain Tripps" (ALA "The Stand") and they've banded together to sacrifice a flu victim by burning him alive. Ewwwww. Bitter characters clinging to scraps of life as they await death. This is good stuff.

Jerusalem's Lot: Maybe it was my mood but this story was what I'd consider "work" to finish. My mind easily drifted away, occasionally caught by an interesting bit of creepy narrative before flickering away to ponder all of my own inner thoughts or to swear at some impatient jack*ss who just cut me off. It's told in flashbacks and recounts a man's discovery of his dark family tree, an abandoned village and a really disturbing church.

Lawnmower Man: This was just as weird and chilling as the first time I read it many moons ago. It tells a story of a devious new lawn service. Remember the movie based on this story, anyone? The story is much shorter as it should be.

Quitters, Inc.: I hear attempting to quit smoking is one of the most difficult things imaginable. As someone who sucks in second hand smoke all day at work I wish there were something along the lines of a "Quitters, Inc." I think the problem would be nipped pretty quickly and those with weak willpower, well, they'd be taken care of . . .

The Ledge: This dark edged tale tells the story of a tennis pro who was hitting the sheets with a married woman. The wrong married woman, as it turns out. She's married to a mafia-type who doesn't take kindly to sharing his wife. Somehow or other Mafia-guy convinces not-too-bright-tennis-guy to go out on his ledge which is several stories high and plays all sorts of dastardly tricks in an attempt to get him to fall off the ledge. This is one that'll either have you biting your fingernails in anticipation of a big face plant on cement or you'll be wanting your half hour back.

Sometimes They Come Back: This one is about a school teacher plagued by ghosts from his past. This is a haunting, pain-filled story that is gripping from beginning to ghastly end.

The Mangler: A demon possessed machine that requires a full blown exorcism? You're kidding me, right?!

This product is great. Used it on a roadtrip to Florida. John Glover is Smallville's, Lex Luther's Father. Good reader. After the first few stories he gets into the stories more and they add background sounds into a few of them. I like that. It adds to the story. I recommend this product.

I've read and listened to these many times over the course of years. When I saw them finally in a CD format I thought it was my birthday. My old cassettes are warn so bad. I highly recommend these set if you are an "old" fan of Stephen Kings.

I love Stephen King and find no fault with the narration by John Glover. Having said that, I found the set of short stories to be a little dated in 2008. Most of these SK shorts were early work in his career and while well crafted, a couple seemed a little predictable or dragged on. There are however a few I thought outstanding such as Quitters Inc, The Ledge, and Sometimes They Come Back. All in all a good listen for both a long and short commute.

As a kid this was my first foray into the world of horror. I remember the tattered paperback of father's with the gauze covered hand with the eyes in it.

I took a break from fiction (for about a decade) and now have happily come back.

I don't have nearly as much time to read anymore unless I want to become nocturnal. And that may have worked in my early twenties, but it just doesn't cut it at thirty-nine years old.

As a result, I have begun buying a lot of audiobooks so I can listen to/from work where I leave off reading at night. I am a stickler about unabridged. I MUST have unabridged.

So when I saw this set I was a little confused. On ebay there's apparently 3 versions of the Night Shift audiobook. In reality, it's three different version with three different sets of stories.

The skinny on the CD audiobook of 10 CDs is that it contains the collected previous 3 volumes in on set.

The one question I had before buying this, "What's missing? How incomplete is it?"

The book itself contains 20 short stories, 16 of them are in this set. So the audiobook is nearly complete. What four stories are missing? "I Am the Doorway", "Trucks", "Children of the Corn", and "One For the Road."

It's well read and produced. I love having this on the ipod or in the car. Brings back the good ol' days. Days of sleeping with the light on.

What a fantastic bunch of little short stories. This is Stephen King at his best with his first collection of novellas. I listened to them while i was at work cutting grass and every story made me excited to hear the next. Very highly recommended

I really like this selection. John Glover does an excellent job putting voice to some marvelous King stories. My only complaint with the CD collection is that a number of stories are divided over multiple CDs.
For a short story collection, I would have hoped the items were a little less cut up. But this is a minor complaint, and I find the set worth the
investment in spite of the choppiness.

Stephen King writes excellent short stories. Even better than novels. Not all stories in this collection are worth 5 stars, but enough are. And they are wonderfully read by John Glover. If you like Stephen King and like to listen to audiobooks, this might be something for you.