Just After Sunset (2008) by Stephen King
26 April 2020
I ordered the most recent Stephen King book (If It Bleeds, 2020), but unfortunately it hit delays in shipping. I guess we have COVID-19 to thank for that (Although personally I don't get the comparisons to King's The Stand. However, I did think the movie Contagion is decently topical for today's problems). This weekend I chose to pick up a different King book instead, since I have managed to purchase many at this point but haven't gone through the entire backlog. Since If It Bleeds is a set of stories, I picked up another set of stories: This is Just After Sunset, 2008 and published by Scribner.
This is a collection of 13 stories, and to call out some of what I thought were the most notable stories:
- A Very Tight Place: I'm a fan of stories that build off of simple ideas or fears, because I think they can be used to hone in on powerful stories. This is my favorite story in the book.
- Graduation Afternoon: This is my second favorite story. It's short, strange and vivid.
- N. : The newest story in the book; though not quite the longest story in this book, it felt the longest. I didn't like it as much, but I think it was more because of the source material didn't interest me.
- The Things They Left Behind: A story in the shadow of 9/11 - I think it was ok.
- Rest Stop: A story anyone can accidentally get dropped into in real life, and I think it's the relatability that makes this a nice clever short story.
Overall it's a good collection of tales, of which most of them entertained or engaged the reader. A few of the longer stories dragged a little for me, but they all mostly felt like they weren't bloated in terms of writing. I thought this had several gems in it, and because of a few stories I'll definitely be holding on to this book. 4/5