Stephen King Book Club

And so we close out Stephen King Book Club with "Holly". There will be future entries upon future King books (for example the collection "You Like It Darker" comes out in May). But this review is the last until those new books come out. I have reviewed everything I own with this.

This happens to be the best Holly Gibney story. Mostly because it's the type of hard-boiled mystery "Mr. Mercedes" SHOULD have been, but wasn't. And also because the lack of supernatural elements make the cat-and-mouse between Holly and the Harrises that much more interesting and evenly matched.

It's interesting that Holly is going through a hard time. Her horrible mother died of Covid and she's started smoking again. She quits again at the end of the novel, but it's such a sad thing to see.

King says in the Afterward that although Holly shares his views on vaccinations, if he had a protagonist or major character who was an Anti-vaxxer, he would hope to reasonably represent their views. Even in 2023 Uncle Stevie still doesn't get it: That crap is NOT reasonable, and should never be treated as such. King's politics have evolved over the years, but his insistence in fair-mindedness in the current climate is lazy thinking. No other way to put it.

It IS a very political book, at least in the background, mostly because Covid was tragically turned into a political issue, as were vaccinations. In a sane country that would never have happened. It's not just the trauma of losing her awful mother. Holly is suffering the same trauma we all went through back then. And truth be told, we're still suffering it.

This is the first book I've seen King write that is very conscious of the fact that he has used (and overused) certain offensive words (like the n-word) in the past, and is sort of him acknowledging he does not have the license he claimed he did there in "On Writing". King's politics HAVE evolved, and his previous refusal to entertain the notion of cutting back on that type of thing, even slightly, is something he's starting to understand is actually something he needs to be more sensitive about. 60 books late, if you ask me. But the selling point of Stephen King is he's in his mid-seventies and you can still teach him new things. Amazing, but true.

Jerome is a wonderful character for the first time ever because Tyrone Feelgood isn't even MENTIONED.

But I especially dug Barbara Robinson, and her bravery in seeking out Olivia Thornsbury, and the fearlessness of her final essay for the poetry contest. "The poetry is my essay." That's hardcore. I also loved Olivia asking her "Do you understand how good you are at this?" What an amazing mentor.

I also cheered at the doomed Ellen Craslow for refusing to buckle under the Harrises' torture and tyranny. That woman had been to hell and back, and I love that she refuses to give those monsters any level of satisfaction. It felt very good.

King Connections Of Notes: Holly Gibney novel, and the events from all of her previous stories ("Mr. Mercedes", "Finders Keepers", "End Of Watch", "The Outsider", and "If It Bleeds") are all mentioned. Also Inside View, although that one's pretty much a gimme at this point.

That's a wrap for Stephen King Book Club (for now). I'll see you all in May when I review "You Like It Darker". Ooh, "Cujo" sequel! Can't wait! 5 stars.

Latest Stephen King short story collection!

Like Full Dark, No Stars, this collection is billed as a grim group of stories. While that IS true of Full Dark, No Stars, I found many of the stories here varied in tone, some with refreshingly positive messages. So even if I DO Like It Darker, not everything actually is, or even needs to be.

My favorite stories are the novella "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream", the "Cujo" sequel "Rattlesnakes", and the morality play "The Answer Man". Good stuff. Collection Overall: 4 stars.

Two Talented Bastids

It's a cool and interesting story. It explores big themes about what creativity actually is, and the harsh truth that many people would do just about anything to harness the latent talent they have, but that they seem currently unable to channel.

Luckily for us, the Two Talented Bastids in the story are decent, morally upright fellows, and despite his skepticism , the son Mark is too.

King Connections of Notes:

Castle Rock. Derry. Dark Score Lake and "The Noonan Place" from "Bag Of Bones" is mentioned (it's been torn down and replaced by condos). The Suicide Stairs from "Gwendy's Button Box" is mentioned. Deadlights is from "IT".

I liked it. 4 stars.

The Fifth Step

The story is predictable, manipulative, derivative, and mean. Not one of King's finer recent efforts. 1 star.

Willie The Weirdo

Nasty, unpleasant story. Fortunately, Willie is SUCH a sucky character you almost feel he got what was coming to him. Though the story is a spiritual successor to "Gramma", the poor kid in that story sure didn't deserve his bad end there. The horrible ending here serves Willie right. 1 1/2 stars.

Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream

Stephen King OFTEN reuses storylines and premises if he can think of new angle. And this novella feel very much like a retelling of "The Outsider".

Full disclosure: That book got positive reviews and critics and fans love it. Me? I think it is the single shoddiest book Stephen King has written in the last ten years. I am bewildered it is highly regarded. It is as shoddy as some of King's shittier novels from the 1980's before he got off cocaine.

Basically, King created a perfect locked room mystery. And it was so airtight, as the book went along, he simply did not have the talent to come up with a good explanation. So he made the explanation "supernatural". In a straight procedural? That is dirty pool, and a completely unfair mystery. Adding to the novel's clear dysfunction is King was so clearly running out of gas, he added Holly Gibney from "Mr. Mercedes" to the main cast to add character quirks, and a way to explain the goofy monster he was forced to use as a mystery solve.

"Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream" shares many surface similarities to that book, but all of the major differences are huge improvements. I think it was an absolutely idiotic decision to make the police chief Ralph Anderson there the protagonist of that book. While Terry Maitland is innocent and being framed, which gets him killed, the idea that the reader is supposed to sympathize with the fact that Ralph refuses to entertain his innocence, and especially digs in upon hearing Holly's outlandish (but true) theories is bullshit.

Basically King decided to make the hero of that book a shoddy cop, who sucks at his job, and lacks even basic common sense or reason, or the ability to admit he might be wrong.

Supernatural cop-out or not, the proper thing would have been to make Terry Maitland the main protagonist of The Outsider and left his innocence without question for the reader and made Ralph the villain. And that's what "Danny's Coughlin's Bad Dream" does.

What's great is that Danny isn't even being framed. The supernatural element is simply how he discovered the crime, and King is wise enough at this point to understand that doesn't even NEED an explanation. It's just A Thing That Is. But while Danny Coughlin is a good Samaritan, Frank Jalbert, every inch as intractable as Ralph Anderson, but mentally unstable, is the actual bad guy. The mystery is actually besides the point. I like that his shoddy police work is being called that, instead of repeatedly excused. The Outsider's "happy" ending involved both clearing Terry Maitland's name posthumously, and saving Ralph Anderson's reputation. It's my opinion, Ralph's reputation did not deserve to be saved. He did not do anything illegal when screwing over Maitland, and to be fair, this is a HUGE difference between him and Jalbert. But there was a point he was severely tempted to, so that asshole gets no credit for it from me.

Danny is not a particularly smart or learned character. What he is is sensible. Arguably there is little tension as to whether or not he'll be charged. Of course he won't. Because he's innocent there will be no actual evidence against him. Even knowing that, he made several cunning moves to protect himself from Jalbert's and Davis' manipulations.

Davis is almost as unforgivable as Jalbert and I see her as exactly as stupid and damaging as Ralph Anderson was. Unlike Ralph, she is not exactly redeemed by the end of the story. Although truthfully, I didn't consider Ralph that either, no matter WHAT King wanted me to think there.

When Danny looks up at the newspapers photo of Yvonne's family grieving and sees Jalbert smiling, I was like "This guy is just as sinister in thought and intention as whoever really did that." The glee is the thing that fucking galls me so much. What an evil character.

King Connections Of Note: Inside View (Unsurprisingly).

Best story in the collection. 5 stars.

Finn

I find the story confusing and the ending unsatisfying. I sense there is humor in the background of it (of the gallows variety) but it all feels so mean, it's not actually funny.

I would very much like to learn the details of how Ludlum and Pando saved the world in 2017.

Weird opinion: Ludlum bringing up the crazy idea that Elvis absorbed his twin in utero does not strikes me as TOO crazy, at least not as far as identifiable markers about that go. Crazy idea or not, if you saw that story somewhere, it's an unknown fact you wouldn't mind spreading around.

The things that told me he's crazy is claiming Elvis was gay. There's somethin' "LATENT" there, by God, and considering where they were, and under what circumstances, that seemed a weirder thing to me for him to note than the fetal cannibalism. Believe it or not. Utterly bizarre thing to obsess about in that moment.

Not loving this. 2 1/2 stars.

On Slide Inn Road

I actually really like this story. It combines several well-worn Stephen King tropes and by the end subverts them all.

The car being stranded in a bad place is a King oldie usually involving a young and fighting couple, but an entire family is seen here. Also a King trope is the nasty old grandfather or grandmother that the parents can't stand but the kids are too stupid to fear. Another classic King trope.

Except it doesn't go down that way. Not only does Grandpop save them all from the thieves, his quick-thinking and heroism makes us understand every unkind thing Frank and Corinne thought about him was actually untrue. The actual hindrances to the crisis and weak links of the family are the parents, mostly Frank, not Grandpop. And I thought that was a pretty cool twist.

I love the phrase "That is one slutty billfold." Stephen King knows the best colloquialisms. Bar none. 3 1/2 stars.

Red Screen

I have mentioned in the past Stephen King has been a problematic writer all throughout his career. And it's still true. This story is the proof. If you told him "Uncle Stevie, are you aware you just wrote a story with the sole purpose of having a thought experiment of giving men justification to brutally murder their nagging wives?" Stephen King is a problematic writer because if you pointed out that true, troubling thing, he'd be shocked, because when he wrote the story that red flag disgusting subtext never occurred to him. He would be shocked to hear it and only even money he'd accept the criticism as legit (even though it totally is). King's career is FILLED with shit like this.

Nasty story. 0 stars.

The Turbulence Expert

I don't really get the logic of how this works.

And Craig is the bastard of the year for refusing to tell Mary what a devil's bargain she'd be making.

King Connections: I am almost positive the facilitator mentioned in this story and The Lisping Man, the Ultimate Evil behind "The Institute", are one and the same. Mary bringing up precogs cinches that idea.

I was a little unclear on the concept. 3 stars.

Laurie

VERY cute story. SO cute, it almost does not belong in this collection, scary climax or not.

King Connections: The story is connected to the novel "Duma Key" and the short story "Rattlesnakes". 3 1/2 stars.

Rattlesnakes

"Cujo" makes a LOT of sense to make a sequel out of.

First of all, King likes the book, but considering he was strung out when he wrote it, he doesn't remember writing it. Which is sad. Revisiting and updating the characters for a story he'll remember writing has got to be very rewarding for him.

The other major selling point is most people think "Cujo" had a shitty ending. And yet, using this story to see the consequences of it over the following decades it cool and you are rooting for the reignition of the Vic and Donna Trenton 'ship.

Vic and Donna. Just realized one of my own couples in my story has the same name except they are both totally evil.

I love that Vic pegs Andy Pelley as a problem. He's not as frustrating as Jalbert, but he's frustrating for the same reason. On the plus side, even if he doesn't like it, the dude knows when he's licked. If Jalbert did, "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream" would not have spiraled so.

The story misspells Heckle and Jeckle as Heckle and Jekyll. I'm a Terrytoons nerd. I notice these things, Uncle Stevie.

King Connections Of Note:

Direct sequel to "Cujo", ties into "Duma Key" and feels VERY much like a spiritual sequel to that book as well. Lloyd Sunderson and his dog from the previous story "Laurie" also cameo at the end.

A great read and great to get extra closure and context for one of King's most unsatisfying endings ever. 4 1/2 stars.

The Dreamers

The story is the scariest in the collection but I like it solely because I like the laconic protagonist. His job interviews are great because he refuses to answer questions and simply mildly agrees with any opinion offered to him. And that adds to his mystique and weirdly impresses his future employers. Davis is a cynical asshole but I forgive him because he's cynical for the right reasons.

I especially love that Davis is all "If the cops were smarter, they'd question why the gas explosion happened in the kitchen and Elgin was found in the study." I love that.

King Connections: Castle Rock and Dark Score Lake. 4 stars.

The Answer Man

Wonderful story. The hook of the premise is great. The Answer Man noting that smart people were more likely to ask impotent questions than dumb people is an interesting insight. The refusal to answer "should" questions is also another great hook.

But tragedy strikes, and Phil is finally able cope after meeting the Burning Woman. The answers stop mattering. Others have it worse. His life of charity and kindness afterwards suggests tragedy only need to define our lives if we let it.

The ending is perfect with all answers free. Phil hurriedly asks a bunch of contradictory questions about the afterlife and the Answer Man's answer to them all is the same: "Yes." That wonderful, and it's a real beaut of a story. 5 stars.

The book jacket describes the latest King novel as a one-of-a-kind experience only he could pull off. In the afterward King all but admits he's unhappy with the book, almost ditched it, and put it out not because it was good, but because he felt he patched it up enough to be "good enough".

Who is right? The marketers or King?

King, of course, but I'm not 100% sure King fully understands why the book is so weak. Yeah, the narrative is shady, and all over the map. But speaking as a person who likes messy fiction that never bugs me.

But I feel like there are things in the book King has gone to the well over FAR too many times, and while it's ALWAYS made me uncomfortable, seeing it yet AGAIN, in a book even he doesn't like bugs me. I'll try to put down my thoughts best here.

Stephen King spent the 1990's trying to be sympathetic and a champion of abused women and also an advocate of women's lib and rights issues. He tackled abuse, rape, domestic violence, and abortion in his work constantly. King finds this era of his writing as him "trying too hard". I won't agree or disagree, and think his success ultimately varies from book to book. What I will say is that King wants to be an ally SO badly and yet does a LOT of shit that shows he's clueless.

In "Insomnia" he made Susan Day, the feminist iconoclast who spoke on behalf of abortion rights unlikable and selfish. The term one of the heroes used was "stirring the pot". And after an lethal attack on the women's shelter by antiabortion extremists, the protagonist Ralph Roberts is a bit discomforted to realize the abused female neighbor he helped is 100% against stopping the Day rally because "Then they'll win!" Her saying something like that is done to show that she has gone over to extremism the same way her abusive husband did.

She's right though. I don't care that it's Derry. People have EVERY fucking right to hold a convention to state their beliefs without fear of it being bombed in a terrorist attack. The idea that Day simply doesn't care about the people who will get hurt is a terrible message, because terrorists like that CAN'T win in a free country. Calling off the rally, even if the fate of the Dark Tower is at stake, is not an actual option. People are dying over this, and it's not something the people getting killed need or even OUGHT to step back from because they are supposedly "riling people up".

King making Kate McKay, a similar character to Day, so selfish and unlikable is King again tone-policing what women should and shouldn't be allowed to say while their lives are being threatened. And here the fucking truth: They should be allowed to yell "STOP!" at the top of their lungs every fucking time. No matter how uncomfortable it makes Ralph Roberts.

Fortunately Holly Gibney is a much cooler character than Ralph was, and although she doesn't like Kate, she at least agrees with her political views, and was a fan before she got to know her. But making Kate completely oblivious to the danger she was putting people in and a total asshole may be a MUCH lighter instance of King tone-policing women than "Insomnia" was. But it's 2025. It hits harder and differently now.

The other thing that bothered me was Barbara Robinson getting captured and being made the damsel in distress. King is trying to falsely empower her all throughout the book. But it's false because he puts her in danger because he needed to up the personal stakes. And it does. But not for the reason he thinks, and not remotely in a good way. Michael Scott on The Office was right that pulling a gun in Improv was a bold move. But he didn't understand why it didn't work, and made the skit in question worse and impossible to get out of. Yes, King, I was nervous for Barbara because I cared about her. But you shouldn't be doing that to your most notable character of color, especially since he's spent the last two books empowering her poetry and musical talents. It technically works. But it works for the wrong, lazy reasons.

One of the biggest problems of ALL of the Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney books is King creates tension via plot-related stupidity. If ever a character needs to give a piece of crucial life-saving information, the person who is receiving the call hits ignore because they are distracted by a much less important issue. Even knowing the people on the end are actually doing important shit involving the main shit, they ALWAYS do. Also frustrating is Holly always ALMOST getting the picture and than getting distracted by something else right before the solution forms in her mind and it utterly evaporates. You can argue that King needs to do SOMETHING to eat up 439 pages, otherwise it would turn into a novella. But why should I read a book where a great deal of it exists solely to eat up pages? How does that make the book better? How I am supposed to compliment King for upping tension when he does it for stupid and unnecessary reasons?

King Connections of note: Events from all of the previous Bill Hodges / Holly Gibney books / stories are mentioned. It's also mentioned Holly has a knack for making herself "dim". Randall Flagg had the same talent. Trig believes the vision of his father at the end is calling him a goal-tender "like Cujo". I have no fucking idea what that means either.

I'll tell you what was good about one of Holly's intuitions. She figured the Deacon was lying to her because he was mispronouncing her last name on purpose. That's a really cool idea.

Her suspicions of the lawyer being the culprit were less impressive, but I liked that scene anyways because his wife basically hands the jerk his ass. He might not be the killer, but he's still a wad of cud.

One of the interesting things about Trig is that although he eventually admits to himself that all this was just an excuse for him to go on a killing spree, the truth is, to start out with he doesn't act much like a killer. There is regret attached to his first murder, and he's not even sure he can go through with it. Learning that he was Juror Number 9 and the Guilty Party that needed to be punished unfortunately, makes his scheme seem ENTIRELY crazy, whereas before we knew he was Gibson it was just MOSTLY crazy. If he weren't Juror Number 9, the idea almost sounds reasonable on paper.

Another thing I like is that unlike many villains, and MOST of King's villains, he's self-aware. When the news calls him mentally unbalanced, a different killer would be smashing the TV and vowing to kill the reporter who said that blasphemy. Instead the first thought that enters his head upon hearing that is "That's fair." You might think his descent to pure delusional madness at the end isn't consistent with how rational he ACTS during the rest of the book. But the truth is he always knew he was crazy. Maybe we should have listened to him.

I hate that Holly realizes she's the employee because she always hands Kate the towel. I hate that bit too. It pisses me off.

Better watch out, bail-jumpers. Holly will call your mom and tell her you were in a bar. One of the cool things about Holly is she doesn't remotely operate like other fictional detectives.

But that shit works, right? You'd figure other hardboiled crime dicks would be threatening Momma-Snitchin'.

I also like Sista Bessie's reactions to Trig. She's extremely cunning and understand realities of the situation he doesn't. She's cautious, smart, and not remotely falling for his crap, even if he believes she has.

Her relationship with Barbara is cool too. Another reason to resent putting Barbara in the position she was put in.

One of the cool things about reading Stephen King books is he often relates well-worn AA sayings, that me not being a drinker, have never heard before. They each tend to be funny and wise. It was sort of cool reading some "new" ones here.

The book is such a fucking mess that with 30 pages to go, Barbara and the victims tied up, and the case unresolved, King spends several pages on the ins and outs of Izzy's charity softball game. I get King loves the game, but that is probably the most self-indulgent thing he has done in years, if not decades. And Stephen King has ALWAYS been a very self-indulgent writer. This was bad even by his standards.

This book is not as bad as The Outsider. But it's the only other recent book of King's I have actually disliked. King's writing has actually improved over the years (it does for most writers over their lifetimes, and King is 77 now) so I notice the misses more now. If he had written this in the 1980's while coked out of his gourd, I'd probably find it almost acceptable. The Stephen King of 2025? King says in the afterward Tabitha read the first draft and told him he could do better. I think she should have said that about the finished book too. King is apparently a little embarrassed of this book, and I don't like it much either. 2 1/2 stars.

Oooh, cool! A new horror anthology set in the world of Stephen King's The Stand, written by a buncha different authors!

Great concept, execution leaves a bit to be desired.

A lot of these stories exude hopelessness and nihilism, which The Stand most certainly did NOT. The Stand has one of the grimmest premises in all of fiction. And it's unrelenting hope and optimism is why it is beloved. It's amazing how many of these writers claim to be huge fans of the novel but don't understand the first thing about its humanism and futurism.

Another problem for me starts in the stories set AFTER The Stand. They are completely inconsistent with each other. Editor Brian Keene says in the Afterward that these are all "possible futures" which is beyond unsatisfying to me. I wish either King or Christopher Golden had mapped out a light history of the future and had the writers follow that loose template. The stories all contradicting each other makes the book feel less like a Companion, and more like a fanfic compilation. I don't hate fanfic. But that's not what the book sold itself as.

My favorite stories are "Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time" by C. Robert Cargill, a light comedic romp, which is kind of a relief considering how heavy the book is otherwise, the way-cool first person campfire tale "The Story I Tell Is The Story Of Some Of Us" by Paul Tremblay, the Mother Abigail prequel story "Abigail's Gethsemane" by Wayne Brady (yes, THAT Wayne Brady) and Maurice Broaddus, the horror story whose twist ending reminds me greatly of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" ("He's A Righteous Man" by Ronald Malfi), and the funky, deep, and beautiful "Come The Last Night Of Sadness" by Catherynne M. Valente. Worst stories are the one following a sociopathic cop ("Room 24" by Caroline Kepnes), the unnecessarily depressing "The Hope Boat" by Gabino Iglesias, the story I was bored with while still recognizing the pathos the author put into it ("La Mala Hora" by Alex Segura), the ludicrously tragic (and ultimately redundant) "Milagros" by Cynthia Pelayo, and the story SO dark and depressing it actually pisses me off ("Hunted To Extinction" by Premee Mohamed). Anthology Overall: 3 stars.

Room 24 by Caroline Kepnes

It's a very odd choice to have the first story in the entire book be from the perspective of a sociopathic cop.

Honestly, I don't much like it. 1 1/2 stars.

The Tripps by Wrath James White

Horrifying.

This story posits that before they died some people with Captain Trips had visions of Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg too. Unlike the stories set in this future, this is consistent with many of the other stories in the book.

Tripps is spelled with two p's here. I've noticed a couple of stories in the anthology spell it differently than King did.

Wicked and scary. 3 stars.

Bright Light City by Meg Gardiner

It's a good story, but MAN is that ending unsatisfying.

The premise is a great hook. What happened to the good people stuck in Las Vegas when the Superflu hit? Answering questions like that strikes me as one of the biggest selling points to this collection.

I enjoyed it, but would grade it higher if not for the cliffhanger ending. 3 stars.

Every Dog Has Its Day by Bryan Smith

Corey Adams is not a protagonist I like very much. It's nice he cares so much about his dog, but I think if he was worth a damn, he never would have lost track of him to begin with.

He and his friends are right that the loss of popular culture would be one of the worst things in this scenario for the survivors. It's something I always felt a little disappointed wasn't really addressed too much in the book. Frannie's diary goes into it some but even if I don't like this story it's good it at least pointed out what a loss it would be.

It's suggested Flagg makes an appearance at the end which confuses me a little. Corey strikes me as a nobody, and in the end decides to stay out of the cosmic game. Why would Flagg even be bothering with him?

Truth be told, I was kind of aggravated by this. 2 stars.

Lockdown by Bev Vincent

Another premise I always wondered about that Stephen King never addressed. What happened to parts of the United States and the world that were isolated, and able to lockdown against Captain Trips better? There had to be SOME places like that.

Here Bev Vincent visits Seacliff Island.

Despite avoiding the virus by the end, I'm not all too impressed by the residents there. They were successful, but they all still struck me as a bunch of dimwits.

Dottie having no dreams at the end is provocative. After she did what she did, did Mother Abigail wash her hands of her? That strikes me as majorly unfair, mostly because MOST of Abigail's followers were at some point forced to kill people to protect themselves and their people. By Mother Abigail always struck me as a self-righteous prig, so I actually believe it. Like I said, provocative.

Interesting story. 3 stars.

In A Pig's Eye by Joe R. Lansdale

A cool adventure story with a wry sense of humor. I liked it. 3 1/2 stars.

Lenora by Jonathan Janz

This is a beautiful and sad story, and the unresolved ending doesn't feel unsatisfying, and sort of fits.

Baker is a tragic figure, even before the superflu, and I see why he doesn't want to get involved or attached to the dik-dik. But he falls in love with Lenora anyways, and her death is absolutely heartbreaking, not just for him, but for the reader.

Baker an asshole. But Lenora helped him come around. I'm as upset as he is she caught the Superflu after all.

The story is also humorous, and the humor (like the dik-dik pissing on the carpet) is very much in line with similar Stephen King stories about pets their owners initially don't like.

I had never even HEARD of a dik-dik before this story.

I thought it was really good. 4 stars.

The Hope Boat by Gabino Iglesias

I don't like this story.

Editor Christopher Golden says in the introduction that the writers of this Companion were all huge fans of The Stand, but I'm thinking if they all were, a majority of them never understood the point of it (especially the authors dealing with events that occur afterwards). But this story has the same problem of not understanding the point.

The Stand was optimistic. The Stand was positive. The Stand treated Captain Trips not just as an ending, but a beginning. The Stand was about the good people could do, and the evil they can defeat if they all stand together. So many of the authors in this collection seem to believe The Stand is about the hopelessness about the world ending. It's not. It's about the hopefulness of what happens when a new world begins.

Maybe MY take is too rosy and King wouldn't entirely agree with it. But I am certain my take is closer to the truth than stories like this are. 1 star.

Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time by C. Robert Cargill

This is one of my favorite stories in the book.

Populations are random. It figures somewhere there'd be TWO best friends who were both immune from Captain Trips. And they're both a couple of lovable doofs.

I love how it ends. Bill saying they were the final girls and this was their catharsis. Even better was Bill just saying "Fuck the guy in Vegas, my home is here." It points out something. Even if all the immune had dreams and preferred one side to the other, it doesn't necessarily mean they ALL went to either Boulder or Vegas. Some people might have been happier where they were.

And the contentment of Alan, Derek, and Bill, and the fact that their situation is tenable (they won't be running out of food or electricity anytime soon and can still watch movies) is really cool to me. I also loved hearing their conversations about horror movies, and the stuff Alan says he read in Fangoria is something Stephen King has been lecturing us about for years. I like those idiots a lot.

It strikes me that with SO many different writers, there ought to have been more variations of tone in this collection than there were. But their are really only a couple of comedies in the book and this is the one I really dug. Good. 5 stars.

Prey Instinct by Hailey Piper

It's dark and scary in places, but to be blunt, it's also kind of boring.

That being said, I feel a filmed adaptation of it would work. A female survivalist dressed as a clown having a psychological game of cat-and-mouse with a woman who calls herself the Angel of Liberty? With a big honking lion at the end? Yeah, that would look super cool in a visual medium in a way it doesn't on the actual page.

It's not that I don't have the imagination to picture those things. It's just, it's not enough. I feel a live-action adaptation wouldn't be burdened with a lot of things this prose story is.

It's interesting Silvia is still careful with her pronouns when discussing who she loves because she isn't used to the idea that nobody gives a shit about that stuff anymore.

I'm with Angel. If the world had ended before I found out who killed Laura Palmer, I'd go nuts.

I feel like prose is the wrong medium for this. 2 1/2 stars.

Grace by Tim Lebbon

In space, no-one can get Captain Trips.

This is the only story besides "Lockdown" and "Grand Junction", where none of the main characters actually have to personally deal with Captain Trips. It's an interesting premise for that reason.

The idea that there is this whole psychic battle between Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg going on the background suggests something a LOT of stories in this collection suggest: As far as defeating evil goes, the Stand in Vegas was NOT the only battlefield. There were smaller and no less important skirmishes along the way that allowed the good guys to win that.

The last two scenes are especially good for that reason.

Cool story. 4 stars.

Moving Day by Richard Chizmar

One unanswered question I always had about The Stand is if in the weeks and months after it took place, did anyone in Boulder ever come across a Larry Underwood CD, look at the photo and yell, "Holy shit! That's the guy from the Free Zone Committee!" This story doesn't answer that question, but for me, it confirms it's definitely a question worth asking, and in fact likelier than not to have actually happened at some point.

I like the story but I think Tommy's journal entry at the end was a little too wise. He's just fifteen and the grace he shows Larry for what he saw him do is far too adult a concept for a kid his age. I never get the sense Tommy was unusually bright either (he smokes) so I find this specific revelation a bit hard to swallow.

Fiction always writes kids smarter than actual kids are. Sometimes, like in "Under The Dome" or "The Institute" that's okay, because King put in the legwork to show Joe and Luke were exceptional all throughout both books. I don't feel like Chizmar put in that same legwork here.

It's a pretty good story though. 3 stars.

La Mala Hora by Alex Segura

Because I tend to be an ungenerous critic, and often unfairly so (yes, I know this about myself) I was toying with handing this story a one-word review, which is pretty much the worst slam I can give a story. "Boring" would basically say everything I needed to say and thought about the story.

But I'm going talk a few more sentences beyond that because I feel that would be disrespectful to Segura.

I did not respond to or like the story. But Segura clearly put their heart on their sleeve when writing this, the pathos was real to them, and just dismissing that out of hand wouldn't just make me a shitty critic. It would make me a shitty person. And the very end isn't terrible, which is another reason I left the snark at home.

The idea that a mother and child BOTH had immunity to Captain Trips is an interesting narrative idea, and I have to think, probably something that must have happened more than once. King very much tried to show all of the survivors of The Stand lost their entire families, but just based on the numbers game, if immunity really IS random, it stand to reason once in awhile a couple of people in the same family would hit that jackpot.

Like I said, I was bored by the story. But it's not worthless. 1 1/2 stars.

The African Painted Dog by Catriona Ward

Interesting to get a story from an animal's perspective.

There is no foul language in this story although plenty of violence and gore. I found it kind of cool. 3 1/2 stars.

Till Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown by Poppy Z. Brite

The story is shockingly sexually explicit. It's not bad, but it's kind of jarring for that reason.

Also interesting is the fact that it contains supernatural elements outside of The Stand. That makes sense as Stephen King stories seem to (mostly) be set in the same universe and all have different supernatural elements and ideas from each other. 3 stars.

Kovach's Last Case by Michael Koryta

A hard-boiled mystery set in the world of The Stand. Cool idea.

I liked a lot of the details. Like Kovach's notion that the woman murderer he caught looked especially nervous once she realized how he was already one-step ahead of her.

King Connections Of Note:

Project Arrowhead from The Mist is mentioned.

I dug this. 4 stars.

Make Your Own Way by Alma Katsu

Another rare King-adjacent story with no foul language.

It's nice but Maryellen was a little too gullible a protagonist for me to fully sympathize with. I DID like the fact that the story was pretty easy to take compared to the other stories in the collection. 3 stars.

I Love The Dead by Josh Malerman

There are SO many clues in the story that for all of his insistence that Jerry Garcia is a wonderful, peaceful man, that Lev himself is dark and hateful. Of COURSE he goes to Las Vegas at the end!

Not bad. 3 stars.

Milagros by Cynthia Pelayo

Ridiculously tragic story. Also weirdly, no profanity.

Also should note, there are a couple of other stories in this volume with similar premises and tones. That's kind of disappointing in and of itself.

Didn't like this. 1 1/2 stars.

The Legion Of Swine by S.A. Cosby

It's an okay story. Not great, but not terrible.

It's kind of nice that Mother Abigail apparently isn't judgmental about what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Although, that frankly may be a bit out of character. 2 1/2 stars.

Keep The Devil Down by Rio Youers

"People like us," is a beautiful notion.

The story is super exciting. Bonus points for essentially being a bit of an origin story for Heck Drogan.

Cool beans. 4 stars.

Across The Pond by V. Castro

Elizabeth is probably the nastiest and most loathsome person in the entire collection. Just her wiping the spend on Joseph's hair makes her utterly repulsive.

I love that Joseph, hugely religious Godbotherer, is drawn to Flagg. That's something that drove me crazy about the original book. How supposedly only the Godly and righteous flocked to Mother Abigail. I think there are plenty of Christians out there who would find Flagg's authoritarianism attractive, and flock to the Big Sky Daddy he represented. Joseph seems utterly unaware Flagg is pure evil. It doesn't even cross his mind that him and Elizabeth being drawn to the same dark person ought to be a huge moral red flag(g).

Another super sexually explicit story. It actually makes sense because the "About The Authors" section at the end reveal both Castro and Poppy Z Brite also write erotica. I can totally see it.

I didn't much like that there were no characters to root for, but that was kind of the point, you know? 3 1/2 stars.

The Boat Man by Tamamarive Due and Steven Barnes

Winces. After reading this, I am annoyed by the character of Marie.

Not just because she should have abandoned Edmund long ago, but she should never have taken him on the boat to begin with. But no, it's like she witnessed Joffrey from Game Of Thrones' growing steadily more violent and insane and thought the mad boy king was a "doofy little shrimp" and him beheading Ned Stark was just "Joffrey being Joffrey".

In absolute fairness to Marie, I have to remind myself this story is set in 1990, and there were not as many psychological studies and dissertations done about sociopaths as there are today. I'd like to think if she was the same age and alive in 2025, and that's when Captain Trips had hit, she'd recognize all the red flags for what they were and ghosted his crazy ass.

It's the fact that she's Black that makes her excuses for Edmund, especially his white supremacist tendencies, so frustrating to me.

Captain Trips is spelled Tripz here.

Sigh. They can't all be winners. 2 stars.

The Story I Tell Is The Story Of Some Of Us by Paul Tremblay

This is easily my favorite story in the book.

I love the way it is told. A first person narrative of half of a conversation between a snarky young woman and who knows? I dig everything about this Narrator even though I don't know her name. I love her asking her new friend what kind of music he listens to, and she then quickly says for him not to tell her so she can pretend he's cool.

Stephen King never had characters who talked like that, so I appreciate her more than most.

And me loving the Narrator is only PART of why the story is awesome. It suggests strongly that Mother Abigail's group is similarly as dangerous as Flagg's group. They are certainly just as zealous. And Art pointing out that if they WERE working for God, maybe they ought to question why God chose NOW of all times to show up and was never there when they could have used Him is righteous. I loved the idea of Art stubbornly choosing "the third option" and staying put. It may have led to his death, but his refusal to get involved is refreshing, because he calls the "sides" thing out for what it is. Isn't the notion of sides the very thing that made the old world the way it was? Forget the Godless ways no longer working, or the Godly ways no longer working, has anybody pointed out maybe the sides ways wasn't working?

This story is the bee's knees and the biz niz. I loved it. 4 stars.

The Mosque At The End Of The World by Usman T. Malik

Another story with supernatural elements outside of the Biblical stuff from The Stand.

Sisterfuckers is my new favorite curse.

I like the idea that people around the world got the dreams, but they were never translated, because they weren't meant for them. I don't know if I was in that situation if I would feel either relieved or helpless, but I think it's an interesting conceit.

All right. 2 1/2 stars.

Abigail's Gethsemane by Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus

Yes, this was cowritten by THAT Wayne Brady.

Hoo boy. I have things to say. Where to start? And considering the sensitive subject matter, how delicate should my words and opinions be?

I'll start off by acknowledging Mother Abigail is a controversial character. Especially in hindsight. Most people believe she is an extremely ugly example of the "Magical Negro" whose soul purpose in the story is to spout wisdom and offer help to white folks.

I have a couple of thoughts there. I hate the character and have always hated the character before hating the character was cool.

Also, I don't think she fits the definition of the Magical Negro. Why?

Because over the entire course of The Stand, Abigail Freemantle proves over and over again she is absolutely 100% fucking useless. If her purpose were to save white people and offer them wisdom, then maybe she should have spent more time doing both of those things. As is stands Trashcan Man had more to do with Randall Flagg's ultimate defeat than she did.

Also, she is deeply unlikable to me. She is a judgmental, self-righteous prig and the type of person I can't stand.

That is where I stand on the controversy about Mother Abigail.

While we are on the subject of racial controversies, because Wayne Brady spent his early career on the (mostly) white "Whose Line Is It Anyways?" and his own daytime talk show, he gained an unfair reputation for being a subservient Black actor catering to white people. I won't repeat the terms used to describe him, but I think it was Dave Chappelle who summed up the feelings of his critics by saying, "He makes Bryant Gumble look like Malcolm X."

But Chappelle was wrong! So wrong, Brady went on Chappelle's Show to do a shockingly hilarious parody of Training Day poking fun at that image.

I love that this story, dealing with Deep South racism, lynchings, and bringing up atrocities that happened back in the day, but most white people have never heard about because they don't like talking about it, is by Wayne Brady. The story very much screams about the horror and unfairness of the Black experience, and it's fucking Wayne Brady who cowrote it.

In the years since Chapelle's Show, Brady's acting career has moved beyond family friendly improv and he's taken on serious Black roles where his Blackness is a major part of the role (his role as a villain on Black Lightning springs immediately to mind). But this story is harsh and true and honest and shows he is no Uncle What-Have-You. And he never was.

I hate Mother Abigail. I don't hate this story. I think it's raw and real and kind of amazing. 4 1/2 stars.

He's A Righteous Man by Ronald Malfi

Got serious vibes of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery".

Can I be honest? I found the horrible twist ending here FAR more satisfying than "The Lottery". I mean when Cree's satchel (which supposedly contained humanity's future) opens and it's empty, and then Zarah kneels in prayer to one of the hammers that killed him, it's a perfect ending. I can't exactly talk shit about Jackson for the lack of complexity of The Lottery's ending, because that story was the first of its kind, and didn't freaking NEED complexity. But whenever I read it I'm always annoyed because the reality is there is nobody to root for. Every single person in that story is a monster.

I like that Benjamin is portrayed as the villain until the rug-pull reveals he's actually the only moral person there.

I thought the conceit of a dude writing a prophetic novel before Captain Trips hit was SUCH a good notion, I'm cross that Christopher Golden never laid down ground rules for people writing the future stories, to keep them consistent. In Malfi's story, all newborn babies die. That changes from future-story to future-story so that these speculative futures aren't canon to the book, and feel closer to fan-fiction. The worst part about this fact is that the first two books dealing with the plague and the dreams seem (more or less) consistent with each other. I wish the third and fourth books had some consistent ground rules set up so we could actually consider the entire book canon. Brian Keene claims in the afterward that the future stuff is possible futures, but that explanation isn't damn good enough for me.

But I won't deny this is a great story. It is. 4 1/2 stars.

Awaiting Orders In Flaggston by Somer Canon

The thing that bothers me the most about the future stories in the book is the hopelessness attached. It's like the writers never grokked that King was trying to state something POSITIVE about humanity's resilience, not talking shit about how we're all inevitably doomed. I hate that fact.

The one thing in the story I responded to is the idea that Amy has no idea why Zeke kept his boyfriend from his family. It's weird what people considered important in the before-times, isn't it? 3 stars.

Grand Junction by Chuck Wendig

I liked the ending. Hope is good.

Three stories in the book (this, "Lockdown", and "Grace") deal with characters who never have to deal with Captain Trips, but this years-later story is the only one where it isn't a factor at ALL, and literally nobody is infected. That was a decades-ago plague, and in Wendig's future, there aren't a bunch of mutations and variants out there still causing trouble.

The evil fought here is more elemental, and if I might be so bold as to opine on Mother May I's insights, possibly crazy bullshit. The folks who died for the baby John Low seem to think it's real, but I am not so sure.

I did like May I's statement that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's doing what's necessary in spite of it. I SO wish somebody who said something that smart didn't turn out to be evil and nuts.

Solid, especially for the speculative future tales. 3 1/2 stars.

Hunted To Extinction by Premee Mohamed

I hate this story.

Goddam what a dark and fucking HOPELESS premise. To suggest ALL the babies after Captain Trips died? Including Frannie's? That is some fucked up shit.

Worse, the science doesn't remotely hold up that this second final variant killed all the babies, a fourth of the original immune, and sterilized the men. Why not? Because a variant of Captain Trips could NEVER spread the way the original did. The remaining population on Earth is so separated from each other that if that variant hit in a city, it would die there because nobody fucking travels anymore. There's nowhere to go. Mohamed not only concocted the darkest scenario of the future stories, but it's a scenario that is not remotely plausible or believable.

It's hopelessness in a world created by King to convey hope. As I said earlier, every single writer in this book may have been a huge fan of "The Stand". Most of them apparently didn't understand a BIT of it. That doesn't just bum me out. It bothers the hell out of me.

Although it's decided the designated culprit for the horrific doing is "It's Flagg, it's always Flagg!" the supernatural things seen here are another rare demonstration of the collection offering supernatural and mythological elements not seen in the original work.

You probably want to correct me that this is ALSO another story in which Captain Trips isn't a factor, but as far as I'm concerned, the sterilization thing means it never actually left.

This story sucks, yo. 1 star.

Come The Last Night Of Sadness by Catherynne M. Valente

I adore this story, and each time I reread it, I appreciate it more and more.

Don't get me wrong. It's not getting five stars. It's imperfect and a lot of the mysteries it raises frustrate me for not being remotely plausible.

But it's filled with hope, and even wicked humor. Catherynne M. Valente was the one writer of the future stuff who Understood The Assignment.

There is just so much stuff in the story that is by turns beautiful and hilarious. It's so fucking deep on so many levels. Fern especially.

My complaint is the timeline doesn't match to me. I guess it taking place at least 33 years after Captain Trips hints that Fern isn't a teenage girl at all and her youth is a glamour of sorts. But her being a mutation makes little sense. How did she survive Nadine's death? Much the less the nuke?

So many frustrating unanswered questions.

I love the descriptions Valente has of Fern's mindset. Riding a zebra is not as hard as the library encyclopedias say. Just have a little belief in yourself, for fuck's sake. Or that people aren't reliable. They always want to take something from you and always pretended they didn't right up until the snatching and the struggling. That's purely raccoon behavior and Fern has no truck with raccoons. How great is that?

Or how about the description of when Fern sees King's Sue's giant barrels of tampons and brand cigarettes labeled "Need" and "Want". Christ, they are so beautiful. Fern wept.

Her tangles with Flagg in her dreams remind me a bit of Laura Palmer's insane fights with BOB in The Secret Diary Of Laura Palmer. My favorite bit was her seeing his face do all the things a face could do at once and she couldn't tell if he might laugh, kiss her, or snap her neck and eat her face. It is perfect prose when she realizes he's probably "an all-of-the-above kind of guy." That's perfect.

Or how about the line in the diary entry about the whale that none of the creatures that live there have any understanding that the whale is not the world? Deep shit. Deep shit, man.

Fern's argument with the crow is great. What does he mean? Figure it out, Fern.

It's very unnerving to hear some of the physical descriptions of Fern, like that she has course silver hair all over her body, her feet are weirdly shaped, she has a huge gray stripe in her hair, and that one of her eyes is larger than the other, and then we are told that Fern is pretty. How does that work? And why do I believe that?

I also loved Fern's opinions about the post-Stand world that a small group of people is okay, and a city can SOMETIMES (but rarely) work if you win the lottery and have the right mixture of people right out of the gate, but towns are just so freaking FRIABLE. This is not something I can relate to in my Universe. But I dig it because it sounds believable and true for THIS Universe. It shows that Fern has a bigger wisdom and better grasp of these kinds of things, not just because she's experienced them, but because this is shit she HAS to know to survive. I looked up "friable" and realized it's the perfect word for that.

I loved the descriptions the stained-glass window-maker had for the Saints. I especially love "the martyr who talks with his hands". If you asked me to describes the complexities of Nick Andros in seven words, I couldn't do it. Surprise! Valente is up to it!

The ending of Fern choosing Robert's path of staying on the ground and being in agony is perfect. Flagg's daughter or not, people are responsible for their own actions. If she doesn't wanna destroy the world, she can make a different choice. It's not actually up to Flagg. Did I mention this was a ridiculously hopeful story?

The final freezer bag being filled with essentials for whoever found the notes is similarly beautiful. All of the previous notes asked Fern to remember them. This one said "I remembered you." That's beautiful.

I'm thinking I need to track down more of Valente's stuff. Because everything expires. But that doesn't always mean it goes bad. 4 1/2 stars.

The Devil's Children by Sarah Langan

It's a great story but it is entirely outside of The Stand.

There, King was pretty adamant the virus got to everybody. That's how bad it was. I always wondered if some people in bomb shelters survived it. But the idea that small societies survived and went underground is the kind of thing that causes little Annie Wilkes to stand up in the theater and shout, "That's not what happened last time!"

Ironically, I MIGHT have bought it if Captain Trips had hit in 2025. Modern-day Survivalists and militias probably have the means to pull that off. But in 1990? I don't believe folks back then did.

One thing I like about the unnamed Narrator is that she recognizes that Ferris doesn't speak badly about people. She seems so unobservant and clueless about him in every other respect, I like that that caught her notice.

The idea of the Chosen and Abigail's people being monsters is dramatically amazing idea, because in this scenario, that's what they are. The only problem is that the scenario is not remotely believable. But that's a pretty huge fucking problem.

As a story, I like it. As a Companion / sequel to The Stand? I don't buy it for a minute. 4 stars.

The Unfortunate Convalescence Of The SuperLawyer by Nat Cassidy

That was something.

The most meta Stephen King-related story ever, this is a black comedy, that veers from dark to outright mean by the end. But it's sure as hell thought-provoking,. Although it's truthfully probably not as funny as Cassidy is hoping it is.

King Connections Of Note:

Huge amount. Peter and Dennis are from "The Eyes Of The Dragon".

The Ur device is from the short story "Ur" as seen in "The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams".

Susie and the A6 designation are from the short story "Night Surf," the story The Stand was based upon, still in print in the collection "Night Shift".

The beams, the low men, Discordia, everything else is from The Dark Fucking Tower.

Do you know what I hate? A huge fucking mistake. It should be THOMAS traveling with Dennis to find Flagg, not Peter. This specific mistake is something I believe was completely unintentional, and I imagine later editions of this collection will actually fix it. But the first edition done fucked up.

The idea that Peter and Dennis are trapped in limbo feels right because while the Stephen King sequel I want most is The Talisman 3 (which King is currently writing) number 2 is easily a sequel to Eyes Of The Dragon. King teased a sequel to that story SO hard at the end of that book, and since it's one of my favorite King books ever (I don't think King has EVER topped the pacing in its climax, even decades later) I am aggravated the muse hasn't hit King yet. I feel as frustrated as George R.R. Martin fans do, except King and Eyes Of The Dragon are good, while Martin is a talentless piece of shit. I am also aware King is not lazy (and Martin is) and despite the fact that King is old, there is a much larger chance of us getting an Eyes Of A Dragon sequel than Martin ever being clever enough to write himself out of the dumbass obvious holes he foolishly and hackily buried his story in. A MUCH bigger chance.

I keep forgetting in 1990, the ONLY Lord Of The Rings film was the Ralph Bakshi cartoon. How would you like the world to end while that is true? That would righteously piss me off.

Is Tom Bombadil Stephen King? A Low Man? Both? Unclear.

The story is wild and more than a little bit mean. No Great Loss. Oh, Discordia! 4 stars.

Walk On Guilded Splinters by David J. Schow

Okay, this story is actually a genre Stephen King himself has never attempted. It's satire, and pretty hard sci-fi satire at that.

The thing is, it's hard to find any of it amusing while the bits about rape exist. God, Schow, know your genre. "She left out the rapey bits" isn't actually funny.

The term "Doubting Frannie", however, is.

The events of The Stand surely deserved their own religious texts. But how would the information be learned and compiled, and moreover how could it be kept in a world where paper has been dissolved? This suggests the subversive possibility that whoever wrote this nonsense down for posterity would invariably focus on the wrong things and miss the point entirely. The satire involves us imagining perhaps the debates about what actually happened in the Bible are equally foolish.

The story might have been funny if they had left out the rapey bits. 3 stars.