A strong collection of Novellas awaits the readers, with some shining brighter than others.

The Langoliers: This was probably my absolute favourite novella from this remarkable collection. I was completely enthralled by the unique plot and the vividly drawn characters. It had that quintessential Stephen King weirdness and wackiness that I simply adore. The film adaptation was also a great deal of fun to watch. I would rate it a solid 4/5 ⭐.

Secret Garden Secret Window: I really took a liking to this one as well, perhaps in part because I had the pleasure of watching the film first. The concept was extremely interesting and, in my opinion, it was executed splendidly. Another worthy 4/5⭐.

The Library Policeman: Sadly, I find it a bit of a struggle to recall too many details about this particular novella. It didn't quite manage to leave a lasting impression on me. It was just okay, not the strongest offering in this collection. I would give it a 3/5⭐.

The Sun Dog: Here we have another fantastic concept, but for some reason, I felt that this one was just a touch too long and drawn out. If it had been more concise, I'm certain I would have enjoyed it even more. A 3/5 ⭐ for this one.

Overall, this is a strong novella collection from the undisputed Master of storytelling.

As I'm winding down on my ambitious journey to read all of Stephen King's works, I recently took on Four Past Midnight. It's a solid collection, no doubt about it. But to be completely honest, I still have a soft spot for Skeleton Crew and Different Seasons. Now, let me share with you how I rank the stories in this collection, in my humble opinion.

The Langoliers was a pleasant surprise for me. Sci-fi horror is right up my alley, and this one hit the mark. The plot was fast-paced, the tension palpable, and the sense of isolation was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. King's ability to create mismatched groups of characters who somehow gel together is truly remarkable, and it reminded me of some of his other masterpieces like The Mist, The Stand, and The Dark Tower series, which are among my all-time favorites. The looming dread and the eerie concept made this story stand out, earning it a well-deserved 4 stars.

The Library Policeman had me excited when I noticed a Paul Sheldon Easter egg (a shoutout to Misery, another one of my favorites). This story delved more into the supernatural, which I usually love. However, the pacing dragged a bit when a side character's backstory took center stage. It had its share of scary moments and effectively captured that childhood fear vibe, but something just didn't feel quite right. I'd give it 3.5 stars.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is a story that I really enjoyed. I'm a sucker for when King writes about authors losing their grip on reality and descending into madness, and this one did not disappoint. There's no blood and guts here, just pure psychological terror. The idea of losing control of your own mind is far scarier than any monster, and King nails it. The simplicity of the story only added to its chilling effect. I'd rate it 3.5 stars as well.

The Sun Dog had some fun connections to other King works, with mentions of Christine, Shawshank, and Cujo. Pop was delightfully creepy, but the story itself felt a bit lackluster. It had potential, but it didn't quite land for me. The body horror at the end did give it a bit of a boost, though. I'd give it 3.5 stars.

Overall, Four Past Midnight is a decent collection. But if I were to revisit it, I'd probably stick with the first two stories and skip the rest.

Having read and adored 'Full Dark, No Stars' earlier this year, I was excitedly anticipating another compilation of four Stephen King novellas. However, this time I have been markedly disappointed. I have detailed my thoughts on each individual story below, but it suffices to say that this is truly a second-rate collection.

The Langoliers

First and foremost, Stephen King really struggles to write an English accent. In Nick Hopewell, who is a sort of jaded, SAS-graduate James Bond, King attempts to give us an English accent, but it actually reads much more like South African. The frequent use of 'bloody' and referring to everyone as'matey' just made this avid reader think more of Cape Town than Cambridge. Part of me thought King should have cut his losses and just written him as South African, but then no one was going to write a story in 1990 with a member of the South African security services as one of their heroes.

The story itself is a kind of homage to the 'Airport' movies, with a random group of diverse individuals thrown together by a terrible experience on an aeroplane, but with added horror - which makes sense as this is Stephen King rather than Arthur Hailey. But actually, I felt the horror moments were jarring to the rest of the story. There was, of course, a large part of me - the horror fan part - who welcomed the more horrific bits, but those horrific bits are so extreme that they don't match the tone of the rest. This stops being a tale of a group of disparate individuals finding love, friendship, and companionship on a plane in serious trouble and becomes a full-on horror story, but then it tries to switch back to being a tale of a group of disparate individuals finding love, friendship, and companionship on a plane in serious trouble, but it can't do that anymore as those horrific moments are just too powerful. They scar the story, but neither the characters nor the story itself acknowledges this scarring, and the result is a really disjointed, ill-fitting piece of fiction.

In theory, the idea of Stephen King taking on an 'aeroplane in peril' tale makes sense. They're supposed to be scary anyway, so it should be easy for him to crank up the scare factor. As such, I wanted to like 'The Langoliers', but it just didn't work for me. Not only was the tone off, there were too many ill-defined characters, and the ending just left me shaking my head in confusion and bemusement.

Five questions for The Langoliers:

1. At the end, the survivors know they'll have to explain all this to the relevant aviation authorities, but how are they going to do this? What on earth are they going to say?

2. When they return to normal time at LAX, there is now a plane buried into the side of the building. Why aren't there now alarms and sirens blaring?

3. Having visited a point of time (non-time?) beyond the end of the day when the langoliers eat the remains of the old day (a ridiculously fuzzy concept if ever there was one. Seriously, is that what happens?), are they not in danger of slipping back out of normal time again when the clock strikes midnight? Yes, they have come back through the time rip, but they've come back into non-time before the start of the day. Do the rules of normal time still apply to them? Aren't they just going to slip back out of the day twenty-four hours from now and face the langoliers again?

4. I know it's an 'Airport' movie staple for the survivors to be jubilant at the end, but after the horrific things that have happened - particularly the deaths of Nick and Dinah - isn't it a bit inappropriate for them to be so deliriously happy?

5. Is the story really hinting at the end that Laurel and Brian will get together? Seriously, it's only forty-five minutes since she lost her last new-found love. Allow a little grieving time, please.

Secret Window, Secret Garden

Ironically, for a story where a man arrives on an author's doorstep claiming to be the actual writer of one of the author's short stories, there would be no debate at all as to who wrote 'Secret Window, Secret Garden'. It is unmistakably King. A story set in Maine, about writing and the scary things that happen (or might happen) to horror authors, full of down-home dialogue and country wisdom. Who else could it be?

Certainly, King does a much better job with intimate horror than an Airport movie pastiche, and for the most part, this is a highly effective chiller. A psychological horror about one man's inability to control the world around him, until it seems like reality itself is slipping away. Except I can't help but think that the contemporaneous 'The Dark Half' (King admits in the introduction that the ideas were linked) did a much better job with the same material. This is an effective chiller, but if you have read 'The Dark Half' (or even 'Misery'), it might strike you as an afterthought.

Hopefully, I'm not going to use spoilers to comment negatively on the ending of every story in this collection, but we are two stories through and already I'm 100%. My problem with the ending here was not the twist that Mort Rainey and John Shooter are actually the same person. No, the twist is good. It's the kind of thing that encourages repeat readings as the story, and Mort's actions within it, make a lot more sense once you know that twist. No, my problem with it is the sudden switch of perspective from Mort to his wife, Amy. After so long invested with Mort, it feels jarring and abrupt to suddenly switch perspectives. I know narratively why it's done, but it feels emotionally like an abandonment of the central character. The end would have worked far better if the story had kept Mort's/John Shooter's perspective even as he/they die(s).

After that, we have a weirdly deathless epilogue where the investigator explains what happened. Now, clearly, this is based on the last scene in 'Psycho', but whereas to the original viewers of 'Psycho', it would have been a welcome breather after the horror that went before, to modern audiences, it looks like a stilted piece of cinema. Stilted is the best description for the version here too. King tries to jazz it up with the hints of a ghost story, but even that fails to raise the excitement levels.

I don't remember much about the film, but I do remember that the ending was different - Shooter kills Amy and buries her in the secret garden before returning to the Mort personality and not remembering it. It therefore keeps the focus on Mort, loses the dull explanation, and is noticeably darker. Without a doubt, I prefer it.

The Library Policeman

Hooray!

I'm three stories in and I've finally found one of the quality ones that us constant readers have come to want and expect. It's scary, tense, actually manages to be quirkily funny, and has an ending I'm not going to complain about, indeed an ending that goes to much darker places than I thought it would.

Okay, the epilogue where a parasite is pulled off the heroine's neck and wrapped in sticky liquorice is not only unnecessary, it's unnecessarily silly. A small-town businessman visits his local library and has a run-in with the scary librarian, a librarian who becomes even more terrifying when the man - as of course he would - manages to lose his borrowed books.

If I had a wish here, though, it would be that King had eschewed the supernatural element of the story and instead made it about a small-town library whose custodians are given a huge and bizarre amount of power and the placid, conformist town which lets this happen. Then we'd have a man's desperate Kafkaesque quest to return some library books he no longer has, and no paid-for replacements will do. It would have been an off-beat and original tale, and taken the author a lot further out of his comfort zone than this one does.

Still, the story we have here is pretty damned entertaining.

The Sun Dog

I've always been a complete sucker for stories where things start to move in old paintings or photos, so this story of a vicious hell-hound that is advancing further and further out of the front of the frame with every photo that's taken by a Polaroid camera was always going to be right up my alley. Without a doubt, I think it's the best story in this collection - it's menacing, disturbing, and goes to great lengths to tease out every ounce of terror from its premise; while in emporium owner, Pop Merrill, we have a particularly creepy and repellent character - but as is probably clear by now, I have a lot of problems with this collection, so the best story in it still comes with significant reservations.

I love that King is committed to really finding the terror in the central idea, but whereas it sounds great in principle, the resulting story is just too damn long and baggy. It would work much better at half the length. And that point probably ties into the second flaw: that it could do with another edit. Virtually every female character - not that any of them are prominent - is described as behaving like an actress at some point. It's like King thought of that description for a certain type of fake behavior and then couldn't stop himself from using it again and again and again. Finally, there's the ending (what is it with the stories in this collection and crappy endings?) - a twist epilogue that is needless and rubbish on so many levels.

So 'The Sun Dog' is far from perfect, but when it's at its best, this is vintage King. The section where Pop Merrill attempts to find a buyer for this bizarre Polaroid camera packs in one of the weirdest rogues' galleries in King's oeuvre - with all the details picked out being odd and down-home and just brilliant. While elsewhere - and I know I've moaned about it being too long, so please excuse my inconsistency - but the detour from the main plot to drag out in horribly real detail the young lady shop assistant's dread of the creepy customer is just some fantastically scary writing. Downright disturbing in a way - that no matter what the flaws of the story around it - will warm (or is it chill?) the heart of any horror fan.

For me, it seemed salvageable due to the second story, (The Polaroid Dog) and the already known character construction of SK.
I started with these two stories out of curiosity, since the second story is set in Castle Rock and it is already a legendary location throughout the various works of SK.
The problem with the first story, in my opinion, was that, starting from an original premise, it ended up becoming a plot that, to my taste, was overly elaborate, a bit forced, and with some parts not very believable bordering on absurdity.
In essence, this second anthology is saved by the second part, by its setting, construction, and various nods to other works of King that are so liked.

I'm going to take a risk and state that this will potentially be King's worst novella collection. I have read his other works in this genre, and based on my previous experiences, I have this anticipation.

However, I still hold out hope that "IF IT BLEEDS" will prove to be a good read. I'm eager to see if it can break the mold and surprise me with its quality and storytelling.

EDIT: As it turns out, "IF IT BLEEDS" was indeed good. It managed to exceed my initial expectations and provided an engaging and enjoyable reading experience. King has once again shown his ability to craft compelling stories that draw readers in and keep them hooked until the very end. I'm glad that my hope was not in vain, and I look forward to seeing what he has in store for us in the future.

This here book is my 64th book of his and the very first I've DNF'd.

To be honest, I just cannot get into it at all.

If someone were to tell me that this was written during his cocaine years, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

There's a fair bit of rambling and filler in it. For example, like in The Langoliers, I felt there was an excessive amount of irrelevant backstory to the characters and such.

It just seems like a jumble of words that don't quite come together in a coherent and engaging way.

I'm not one to force myself to finish a book that I'm not enjoying.

So, I'm just going to throw a moderate rating on it and move on to something else that might capture my interest more.

I hope his future works will be more to my liking and not have these issues of rambling and filler that make it so hard to get through.

But for now, this book will remain unfinished on my shelf.

3.5 Stars

I'm truly uncertain whether Uncle Stevie has a clear understanding of the definition of a "short" story. The four tales in this collection seem more akin to novellas or short novels. Just like with all story compilations, the ratings vary.

The Langoliers - 2 Stars

The first story was my least favored. The premise is excellent - several passengers on an airplane wake up to discover that everyone else on board has disappeared. However, after the initial 50 pages, the story drags on and on, and it feels overly long. It simply wasn't an enjoyable read.

Secret Window, Secret Garden - 4 Stars

This was my favorite story in the collection, although it was a bit predictable. A writer who is dealing with a divorce and writer's block opens his door to a man who claims the writer plagiarized his story.

The Library Policeman - 3.5 Stars

A man pays an unforgettable and terrifying visit to his local library. It was so close to being my favorite, but it was just overly long.

The Sun Dog - 3 Stars

A boy receives a very strange camera for his 15th birthday. This is the only true horror story in this collection, but like many of Stephen King's works, the ending was a little lackluster.

Four Past Midnight was a good collection, but it's not one of his greatest. Still, it's a great addition to your King collection.

Four memorable novellas centered around the theme of a breakdown in reality await readers.

First up is The Langoliers, a haunting and puzzling 'locked room' mystery set on a plane. The suspense and mystery in this story truly grip the reader; however, unfortunately, the reveal of what caused the mystery doesn't quite live up to the build-up.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is a Derry-set tale of alleged plagiarism and a thirst for retribution. The Dark Half updates this with a more subtle, yet perhaps more malignant threat.

The Library Policeman, set in the Stephen King created Junction City, is an absorbing tale of the sins of our past coming back to haunt us.

And the final novella, The Sun Dog, is the penultimate Castle Rock tale, also known as 'whatever did happen Pop Merrill?'. This novella is a Stephen King old skool masterclass.

Overall, this is a very fine collection of novellas, each and every one worth delving into. It earns a solid 9 out of 12.

I find myself at the edge of the bed, unable to sleep. The shadows of my fears lurk around me, and it's all because of this book.

I enjoyed every moment within its pages. It terrified me and made me suffer for the fates of its characters. In the end, they were just paper and ink, but the fears, those will remain waiting, hidden for the moment when the light goes out and dawn arrives.

King manages once again to infiltrate my past and bring to light what I thought was hidden. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have and remember that not all bad dreams should be forgotten.

This book has truly had a profound impact on me. It has delved deep into my psyche and unearthed emotions and fears that I didn't even know I had.

The way King weaves his stories is truly masterful. He has a unique ability to draw the reader in and make them feel as if they are a part of the story itself.

As I sit here, wide awake, I can't help but think about the power of words and how they can affect us in such a profound way.

This book will stay with me for a long time, and I'm sure it will continue to haunt my dreams for many nights to come.

4 tosses, 3 hits, and there is no bad statistic in this highly varying collection of short works from the man himself.
Langoliers is a rather controversial piece. It's one of the rare cases where King employs some Sci-Fi and cosmic horror elements. However, he doesn't seem to have paid as much attention to characterization as one is accustomed to with him. Something just feels amiss. It's most likely that King isn't the right person for combining worldbuilding and characters, as it seems to make him, or rather the characters he lets do the work, nervous.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is an escalating blackmailing and stalking story with a very finely tuned ending. It's closer to a psychological thriller, a psychothriller, than the horror King usually writes, and it's inspired by real-world problems.

The Library Policeman reminds me of his stories with other strong, mad, and frightening lead female characters, such as the Dark Tower witch and the Misery nightmare nurse, with elements of the old evil from It. I would call it the best of the 4 novellas because it had the potential for a full novel. So much could have been added here.

The Sun Dog is the classic, immediate Kingian gotcha. It's a simple camera used to write a story about occultism, haunting, and greed, even including some ethics about money. It plays with some flashbacks before giving the antagonistic character what he deserves and letting him take a long path of gold fever to self-destruction instead of easily just destroying the danger. It also reminds me a bit of the Needful Things concept.

The stories are especially interesting because after rehab, King was unsure if he would still have the same ultimate writing power as before. But luckily, nothing has changed, and as a bonus, he has added extra years to his life to create more unique art.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph....

A re-read after more than twenty years. Will it stand up?

Short answer: Absolutely. :)

The Langoliers fits snugly in the New Weird category. It's pretty much entirely esoteric SF with gremlin-types, alternate dimensions and/or time travel on a plane. There are no snakes here! :) The characters are a blast and we've got a firm horror vibe going on. We're kept guessing as to who among all these random sleepers will make it to the end. It's a thoroughly enjoyable novella, but not my favorite. It's probably best that it was relegated to a TV movie. :)

My favorite is a toss-up between Secret Window, Secret Garden, and The Library Police.

First, Secret Window, Secret Garden, which only slightly resembles the movie with Johnny Depp. This one was pretty fantastic for the writing insights, the plagiarism scare, the descent into paranoia, and the general ultimate break from reality. What's better than a writer being driven completely crazy by a story and/or a man with a definite grudge over a story? No spoilers, but there are so many wonderful twists that I couldn't help but fall in love all over again.

And then there's The Library Police, which is a wonderful twist on early childhood nightmares, a diatribe on fear, Red Licorice, and a cool twist on vampirism. It was definitely probably the most effective and convoluted of all the novellas in this book. It's also the most scarily fantastic, diving into some of the most weird and eerie escapades, even outdoing Secret Window, Secret Garden on several levels, but maybe not as much for the MC.

The last novella, The Sun Dog, is classic SK not only for setting dropping and character dropping, but also for the twist he's known for. He turns everyday objects into a nightmare of continuing and evolving proportions, driving all those involved into a deeper and deeper despair and fear. :) SK seems to have a thing about mad dogs. Even Cujo was referenced here. But the dog in the photograph in this novella is even better. It's absolutely more elusive and menacing, giving up on immediate danger and far-off menace for a much more paranormal and evil menace that gave me, at least, a more pervasive and ongoing fear. It also happened to be my least favorite of the bunch, but it was still effective. :) The middle two were plainly amazing, though. :)

The Tight Middleman in King's Collections.

Langolieri was liked for its beginning, but the subsequent development of the plot lost the tension and completely killed the interest with a sloppy ending.

The Secret Window is probably the best text in the collection, but the well-preserved plot elements from the同名 film did not allow one to fully feel the story.

The Sun Dog is a typical King story, and while reading it, there was constantly a feeling that I had read too much of this kind of good stuff from him.

As for The Library Policeman, I still haven't gotten around to this text. The previous three wore me out and killed the desire to continue reading.