Night Shift By Stephen King
What I learned from Night Shift:
It ain't easy to quit smoking.
That I know what you need.
That I am the doorway.
That he walks behind the rows.
That sometimes they come back.
It ain't over in 'Salem's Lot.
Don't drink bad beer.
Get off your ass and mow your own lawn, goddammit. 9780451134271 I reread this book, because I'm about to start working on my own collection of short stories, and I wanted to reconnect to the book that inspired me to be a writer, 35 years ago.
I enjoyed it so much more as an adult than I did as a kid, because I have lived more and have more of my own experiences to relate to the stories, characters, and experiences in the different chapters.
But the thing I loved the most about this was how much it inspired me to write my own stories, and how much it reminded me about plot, structure, and narrative in stories that are about 5000 words, each.
Really glad I read this again. Thanks, Stephen King! 9780451134271 King's first short story collection comes in at 4.125 stars. As you can see below, I rated and reviewed each story. Then, I added all the ratings together and took the average to get my overall rating.
This was my second time through and better than I remembered. A few stories that could be skipped, but you might as well read them all to get the full experience!
************************
Jerusalem's Lot - 4.5 stars
And earlier story of the same town and environs found in the novel 'Salem's Lot. Written in a style - letters and journal entries - that reminded me a lot of horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. This is a nice little taste of demonic shenanigans and eerie foreshadowing. A great way to start off a short story collection!
Graveyard Shift - 5 stars
Time for some spring cleaning! Nature is crazy sometimes. Your boss can be a jerk sometimes. Combine the two and you get this terrifying story of revenge. I spent most of the time cringing!
Night Surf - 2.5 stars
Not bad, but not really a full story. As it takes place in the world from The Stand, it feels more like a writing exercise that King used to help build the bigger story. Or, maybe an anecdote he was thinking about including, but pulled it out of the final product. Without knowing the backstory of The Stand, I am not sure this story will mean much to a reader.
I Am The Doorway - 5 stars
This story explains the cover of the edition I am reading. Great horror sci-fi. King does a great job jamming a lot of content in ten pages or so. I also love it when the very last sentence of a story hits just as hard as the whole rest of the story. Awesome stuff here!
The Mangler - 5 stars
More demonic possession - I am sensing a theme here! I am pretty sure that most King fans consider this short story one of his classics. It led to a series of what I am sure are very cheesy horror movies. I never saw them, but I have read this short story many times and I know that I love it!
The Boogeyman - 4 stars
This is an allegorical tale about a racist, sexist, generally unpleasant man who is willing to judge others but cannot see his own faults. But, you can't hide from the boogeyman!
Gray Matter - 4 stars
Does this taste a little bit off to you? In an age of e-coli and biohazard scares, this story will play off your fears about what might be out there waiting to get you from the inside out. 10 out of 10 on the gross meter!
Battleground - 5 stars
Definitely one of my top 5 favorite Stephen King short stories. Probably the best King ending of any of his stories. This story is short but sweet and worth reading even if you don't read the rest of the book.
Trucks - 5 stars
The basis for King's only directorial endeavor, the classic Maximum Overdrive (yeah, I said classic! FIGHT ME!) They also made another movie based on it, but I am not sure why. What if all those semis on the interstate took over? Maybe they're mad? There is a nostalgic place in my heart for this story!
Sometimes They Come Back - 3.5 stars
You guessed it - demons again! This was the longest short story so far in the collection. When reading short stories I feel like they have to be crafted perfectly to get in, get out, BOOM! You end up blown away in just a few words. While I enjoyed this one, I think it rambled on just a little bit too long and the end was probably the least shocking of any so far in the book.
Strawberry Spring - 4 stars
I like the story telling in this one a lot. I also think is is interesting how the rumor mill and media twisting of stories we see today was just as big of an issue back in the 1970s; everyone had a different take and everyone believed it 100%. A bit of a cheesy twist at the end, but overall, not bad!
The Ledge - 5 stars
This is another short story favorite of mine. Also, this is one that made its way to the big screen in the 80s classic Cat's Eye. No demons or monsters in this one, just humans pushing morality and fear to the limit in the name of money and pride.
The Lawnmower Man - 3 stars
I remember reading this story a long time ago and it is always what I think of when I think of King short stories that I do not like quite as much as the others. It is just out there; kind of creepy, but not super enthralling (to me). They also (for some reason) made a terrible movie based on this that was mainly just the same title.
Quitters, Inc. - 5 stars
Another classic King short story and probably one of his most well known. Like the previously discussed story, The Ledge, this is also one featured in the 80's King movie Cat's Eye. The plot of this one is just so oddly cool and the means to an end so logically maniacal that you can't help but say That's f#%$ed up! But, kinda makes sense!
I Know What You Need - 4 stars
Stephen King's version of the movie What Women Want. But, of course, it isn't a comedy!
Children of the Corn - 4.5 stars
Kids can be super creepy! You won't taking driving through the country-side for granted after this one. This is another classic King that I think most people have heard of. Also, I believe it has led to more movies than any other King story or novel. I just checked and there have been 10 - the earliest in 1984, the most recent in 2018.
The Last Rung on the Ladder - 2 stars
Meh. Not a bad story, but just kinda doesn't feel right in the context of this book. So far, my least favorite in this collection.
The Man Who Loved Flowers - 4.5 stars
Now that is an awesome way to tell a whole story in 6 pages. Well executed and mysterious. To be blunt, young love can be painful!
One for the Road - 4.5 stars
We've been here before . . . many times . . . and we will definitely go here again someday. But, whenever we go, evil is sure to follow. A very creepy sequel!
The Woman in the Room - 2.5 stars
As my mother is in a nursing home, I struggled a bit with this one. Kind of an unexpected end to this collection. I think it would have done better to end on the story before this one. 9780451134271 The very young King´s first short story collection, a Bradburyian and Lovecraftian overkill of short, sharp, and vicious terror pearls.
King likes to talk about the art, mentioned the influence of these authors on his work several times, talked about imitating them in his book On writing, and how his short fiction changed over the years is amazing, especially seen under this perspective. It would be interesting to check if his other reads, he openly lists each year, had a similar influence if these authors' voices can be seen in the works of the King. I´ve already talked about this and have a redundancy problem, so just try it yourself and mix old, middle age, and fresh short stories or novels from his collections together and see how he evolves. Or disturbingly mutates, that´s a more appropriate word and what we Kingheads are desperately looking for.
Some of this was created in his twenties, quickly written before his success and full writing career. Some cynical fans and critics might say where there is the difference between the full job writing King mass producing books and the young King not having enough time to edit his work as often as other authors do, but I guess a bit of envy and suspicion how a normal person is capable of producing so much amazing work plays in here too. How a single man should be able to create so many masterpieces by just letting the characters tell their story, not knowing a definitive ending, not plotting, whiteboarding, storyboarding, just jumping into fantasy land mode, and imagining art of an unknown dimension.
What´s amazing, and a shame at the same time, is that King is so creative that Hollywood desperately took any grain of premise to make a movie out of it, as if there were no directors, screenwriters, and other authors capable of creating a short story or novel that could be made a movie. Also, a proof of that the book is always better, which might be a subjective obsessive reader´s opinion and not the universal, forever wisdom I am famous for. Fart joke, lol.
Magazines lost much of their importance for young authors to become popular, but at least they made a King writing in the shortest format ever possible, distilling the horror to the absolute minimum necessary and enabling something even the devil deemed impossible. Making him write in short, not wordy, form.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... 9780451134271 4.5 Stars ⭐️
1. Jerusalem’s Lot - 3 Stars ⭐️
2. Graveyard Shift - 4 Stars ⭐️
3. Night Surf - 3 Stars ⭐️
4. I Am The Doorway - 4.5 Stars ⭐️
5. The Mangler - 4.5 Stars ⭐️
6. The Bogeyman - 5 Awesome Stars ⭐️
7. Battleground - 3 Stars ⭐️
8. Gray Matter - 3 Stars ⭐️
9. Trucks - 4.5 Stars ⭐️
10. Sometimes They Come Back - 2 Stars ⭐️
11. Strawberry Spring - 5 Stars ⭐️
12. The Ledge - 2 Stars ⭐️
13. The Lawnmower Man - 2 Stars ⭐️
14. Quitters, Inc. - 4.5 Stars ⭐️
15. I Know What You Need - 2 Stars ⭐️
16. Children Of The Corn - 2 Stars ⭐️
17. The Last Wrung On The Ladder - 2 Stars ⭐️
18. The Man Who Loved Flowers - 3.5 Stars ⭐️
19. One For The Road - 3 Stars ⭐️
20. The Woman In The Room - 3 Stars ⭐️
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 9780451134271
These twenty stories of horror and nightmarish fantasy transform everyday situations into experiences of compelling terror in the worlds of the living, the dying, and the non-living.
Jerusalem's Lot Previously unpublished
Graveyard Shift October 1970 issue of Cavalier
Night Surf Spring 1969 issue of Ubris
I Am the Doorway March 1971 issue of Cavalier
The Mangler December 1972 issue of Cavalier
The Boogeyman March 1973 issue of Cavalier
Gray Matter October 1973 issue of Cavalier
Battleground September 1972 issue of Cavalier
Trucks June 1973 issue of Cavalier
Sometimes They Come Back March 1974 issue of Cavalier
Strawberry Spring Fall 1968 issue of Ubris
The Ledge July 1976 issue of Penthouse
The Lawnmower Man May 1975 issue of Cavalier
Quitters, Inc. Previously unpublished
I Know What You Need September 1976 issue of Cosmopolitan
Children of the Corn March 1977 issue of Penthouse
The Last Rung on the Ladder Previously unpublished
The Man Who Loved Flowers August 1977 issue of Gallery
One for the Road March/April 1977 issue of Maine
The Woman in the Room Previously unpublished Night Shift
Did an entire reading vlog for this book, you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/HP4vVSk_3Ts
Here are my individual ratings for each story in this collection:
Jerusalem's Lot - 2/5 ⭐️
Graveyard Shift - 4.5/5 ⭐️
Night Surf - 2/5 ⭐️
I am the Doorway - 4/5 ⭐️
The Mangler - 5/5 ⭐️
The Boogeyman - 5/5 ⭐️
Grey Matter - 3/5 ⭐️
Battleground - 4/5 ⭐️
Trucks - 2/5 ⭐️
Sometimes They Come Back - 3/5 ⭐️
Strawberry Spring - 3/5 ⭐️
The Ledge - 4/5 ⭐️
The Lawnmower Man - 4/5 ⭐️
Quitters, Inc - 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Know What You Need - 3/5 stars ⭐️
Children of the Corn - 4/5 stars ⭐️
The Last Rung on the Ladder - 2/5 ⭐️
The Man Who Loved Flowers - 2/5 ⭐️
One For the Road - 3/5 ⭐️
The Woman in the Room - 3/5 ⭐️ 9780451134271 Night Shift, Stephen King
Night Shift is the first collection of short stories by Stephen King, first published in 1978. In 1980, Night Shift received the Balrog Award for Best Collection, and in 1979 it was nominated as best collection for the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. Many of King's most famous short stories were included in this collection.
Contents:
Jerusalem's Lot,
Graveyard Shift,
Night Surf,
I Am the Doorway,
The Mangler,
The Boogeyman,
Gray Matte,
Battleground,
Trucks,
Sometimes They Come Back,
Strawberry Spring,
The Ledge,
The Lawnmower Man,
Quitters, Inc.,
I Know What You Need,
Children of the Corn,
The Last Rung on the Ladder,
The Man Who Loved Flowers,
One for the Road,
The Woman in the Room.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز نخست ماه مارس سال2021میلادی
عنوان: شیقت شب و داستانهای دیگر؛ نویسنده استیفن (استیون) کینگ؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه ترسناک از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا، سده20م
عنوان: بعضی وقتها برمیگردند: داستان؛ نویسنده استیفن کینگ؛ مترجم سمیه جعفرینژاد؛ ویراستار: رویا روحی؛ تهران، آواز، سال1398؛ در52ص؛ شابک9786008698500؛
داستان «بعضی وقتها برمیگردند» به روایت داستان «جیم»، معلم مدرسه ی سی و شش ساله ای میپردازد که اسیر رویدادی شده که سالها پیش برای او و برادرش رخ داده، و زندگی هر دو را دگرگون کرده است؛ «جیم» کوچک است و همراه برادرش، به سمت کتابخانه میروند، تا کتابشان را پس بدهند؛ در همان لحظه، چند نفر به آنها حمله میکنند....؛ «جیم» نجات پیدا میکند، اما تمام تلاشهای «جیم» برای داشتن یک زندگی عادی بی نتیجه میماند؛ بگذشته نه تنها در پی اوست و نمیگذارد آب خوش از گلویش پایین برود، بلکه تا میتواند آدمهای حال را هم نابود میکند؛ پس «ج��م» تصمیم میگیرد تا با قربانی کردن آینده اش، از بگذشته انتقام بگیرد
نقل از متن داستان بعضی وقتها برمیگردند: (موضوع رابطه پیچیده بین خود، مادرش و برادرش مایک (مایک بیچاره که به قتل رسیده بود) ر�� کنار گذاشت و ادامه داد: «همان کاری را کردم که مادرم میخواست؛ هفته دوم تدریس کارآموزیام، نامزدم تصادف کرد؛ راننده به او زده بود و فرار کرده بود؛ راننده یک بچه با ماشین شکاری بود؛ پلیس هیچ وقت نتوانست دستگیرش کند.»؛
سیمونز صدای ضعیفی از خود درآورد و او را به ادامه دادن تشویق کرد
- رفتم پیشش؛ چارهٔ دیگری نداشتم؛ او خیلی درد داشت؛ استخوان یکی از پاهایش بدجور شکسته بود، و چهارتا از دندههایش ترک برداشته بود، اما به خیر گذشته بود؛ واقعاً نمیدانستم که تحت چه فشاری هستم
به خود گفت: «حالا دقت کن، حالا هر لحظه ممکن است سر بخوری و بیفتی.»؛
جیم گفت: «وارد دبیرستان فنی حرفه ای سنتر استریت شدم.»؛
فنتون گفت: «آنجا را میشناسم؛ مثل باغ وحش میماند. پر از چاقوی ضامندار و پوتینهای موتور سواری؛ در کمد بچهها حتی تپانچه دستساز هم پیدا میشود؛ برای محافظت از پول ناهارت باید با چوب بیسبال کتککاری بکنی، و هر کس مشغول فروختن مواد به دو نفر دیگر است.»؛
جیم گفت: «دانشآموزی به اسم «مک زیمِرمَن» آنجا بود؛ بچه ی حساسی بود حتی گیتار هم میزد؛ در کلاس انشاء، سوگلی من بود؛ یک روز صبح وقتی وارد کلاس شدم، دیدم دو نفر او را نگه داشته اند و سومی گیتارِ یاماهایش را به رادیاتور میکوبد؛ «زیمِرمَن» فریاد میکشید؛ من سرشان داد زدم، گفتم که بس کنند و گیتار را به من بدهند؛ داشتم به طرفشان میرفتم که کسی من را با مشت زد.»؛
جیم شانه ای بالا انداخت و ادامه داد: «همش همین بود، استعفا دادم؛ هیچ خبری از جیغهای ترسناک یا مخفی شدن در یک گوشه نیست؛ فقط دیگر نمیتوانستم برگردم؛ وقتی به مدرسه نزدیک میشدم، قفسه سینه ام تنگ میشد؛ نمیتوانستم نفس بکشم. عرق سرد میکردم.»؛
فنتون با مهربانی گفت: «این اتفاق برای من هم افتاده است.»؛
جیم ادامه داد: «برای تحلیل رفتاری رفتم؛ یک گروه درمانی بود؛ نمیتوانستم از عهده مخارج روانشناس بر بیایم؛ جلسات نتایج خوبی داشت؛ من و «سالی» ازدواج کردیم؛ او کمی لنگ میزند، و جای زخمش هنوز باقی مانده، اما بجز این موارد انگار دوباره متولد شده است.»)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 11/12/1399هجری خورشیدی، 26/01/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی 9780451134271 These are short stories (though not truly novellas) which actually serve as delectable intros to popular King mythologies (for a staggering example see [or better yet, don't {with the exception of Trucks a.k.a. Maximum Overdrive for B-level entertainment and Children of the Corn with its quaint moments of childlike chills}] all the movies made from like eight of these tales.) Here, King is at his most bizarre, most morbid. Most of his part-time heroes & (just a few) heroines, end up dead or suffering the loss of a child, wife, mother. Sometimes one story seems to bleed onto another one by motif (corn... rats... snow... death machines... death [duh]). The editing I must admit is masterful. The most avant-garde stories bookend it nicely; it even makes reference to 'Salem's Lot, one book I must admit I still have to read, and there are comical undertones & some misogynist parts (!!!!). I love how un-Stephen King this is, for someone who's used to being satisfied with around 78% of his work. 9780451134271 Twenty! Yes, I said TWENTY short stories that include some major classics including Trucks, Quitters, Inc, The Mangler, Sometimes They Come Back and The Ledge. This collection includes a Salem's Lot follow up - One for the Road: An Illustrated Story. A classic collection from the 1970s!! A must read for Constant Readers - six Films (including Lawnmower Man nicking the title of one of the short stories!), Four TV Adaptions and ten short films are the legacy of this outrageously commercially successful collection! It was only on later readings did I really appreciate the creativity and cross-book continuity of this collection, especially considering when it was written. 8 out of 12.
9780451134271 No me he podido resistir. Relectura después de tantos años.
Esta colección de relatos del maestro King salió allá por los años 80, y creo que fue si no la primera, una de las primeras lecturas que hice de este genio. Tanto me marcó, que desde entonces he seguido su carrera y sus libros como el conejo persigue a la zanahoria. Y, aún así, aún me quedan unos cuantos libros suyos por leer. Entre estos relatos estaban el archiconocido “los chicos del maíz” y otros muchos tan buenos o más que este. Recuerdo con mucho cariño “los misterios del gusano, “un trago de despedida”, “soy la puerta”, “la trituradora”, “la primavera de fresa” y “el coco”. Pero no tiene ni uno solo malo. Todos los disfruté de principio a fin.
Es, quizás (siempre en mi opinión), el mejor compendio de relatos abarcados en un solo volumen. Aunque eso es mucho decir, dada la cantidad de lecturas de este tipo que ha publicado, y las cuales he disfrutado en su inmensa mayoría.
Y aunque no sea de los que suelen releer cosas que me han gustado mucho en el pasado, con este no me he podido resistir. Y creedme, sigue siendo una recopilación INSUPERABLE.
9780451134271
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