Gray Matter– A demented public service announcement about alcoholism, featuring dead cats, gray slime, and an abandoned apartment. This story had me checking my closet for monsters after I read it. The depictions of children dying is scarily detailed, as is the portrayal of a man being driven to madness. The imagery is dark and gothic, and the story feeds on the primal fears of every one of us. The Mangler– A laundry press turning evil is about exactly as scary as you’d think. I feel like King wrote the idea first, the primary image, and then tried to build a story around it. This is one of King’s more sci-fi influenced stories. I Am The Doorway– A very unusual story unlike anything else in the collection.

It’s one of my favorites in the collection.

It’s a hedonistic tale on the surface, but beneath it’s cheery veneer is a melancholy center of sadness and a life wasted. It’s in essence about a bunch of teenagers partying on the beach when 99% of the world has been wiped out by a deadly virus. It’s a tale all about atmosphere, about decadence. Night Surf– After reading the first two stories, I was starting to feel uncertain about this collection. As such, this story feels boring and not creepy. This is ultimately the stories downfall, a good idea saddled with a multitude of confused concepts. I don’t particularly like stories told like this, they feel forced and don’t give the writer room to describe and elaborate things. The entire story is told through correspondence, like letters and through torn pages from a pocketbook, as a homage to the original Dracula novel. The prose feels old and musty, like it was written by Stephen King at 90. But this story, unlike it’s basis, does not hold up.

It’s a prequel to ‘Salem’s Lot, a novel which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Jerusalem’s Lot– This is one of my least favorites in the collection. I will be reviewing each short stories, judging their merits and spotting their cliches. Today’s spotlight book is Night Shift, a 1978 short story collection that packs in a grand total of 20 stories. So do his novels hold up to a modern reader? Well, let’s dive in and see. His stories have been turned into IT, the massive horror movie hit, and his works have inspired Stranger Things, a show that I’ve written about thrice. It’s no secret that Stephen King is making a comeback. Oliver Barnfield, Cool Guy/Entertainment Editor

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