6 May 2020
If It Bleeds is a set of 4 smaller stories: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, If It Bleeds, and Rat. Having come off from another set of Stephen King stories from Just After Sunset (2008), this felt in some ways like an extension of his style, with a few differences. For one, If It Bleeds includes recurring character Holly Gibney, originally from the Mr. Mercedes (2014) trilogy of books. For another, I didn't feel like the stories here were quite as strong: Rat felt weakest to me; The Life of Chuck the strangest; the other two were good but neither really blew me away. I will say these were good reads as someone that enjoys his novels, but I don't think they were very strong stories. If you're looking for something of his to read I'd probably skip over this one... Of his recent stories I'd suggest the aforementioned Bill Hodges trilogy or The Outsider if you're curious going down the crime path, The Institute (2019) if you want to read about kid adventures, or Elevation (2018) if you want a breezy short story. 3/5