Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
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Book Reviews of Skeleton Crew
Book Review: It's Good t'be Da King
Summary: 5 Stars
...In his second and comparatively subdued anthology of short stories, King's distinctive prose comes off as more haunting than all-out horrifying; a deliberately paced walk through a haunted mansion rather than an amusement-park simulation thereof. The stories are no more or less effective for the wear, but <i>Skeleton Crew</i> doesn't so much grab you by the lapels and order you to be frightened as shrewdly offer you the option to be...and, should you accept it, you are methodically jangled from gut to psyche, and left to reverberate once the last word glides across the page. This is something an evolutionary jump for the Stephen King anthologies, somehow darker and far more intimate than its predecessor. Self-image, paranoia, and survival are recurring themes (The open-ended question "Do you love?" is sprinkled throughout the book like an ancient yet timeless chant of infinite power and potential)...whereas <i>Night Shift</i> focused primarily on society's external structure and surreality overlapping the real world. In these writings, you'll find only what you choose to take with you.
THE BALLAD OF THE FLEXIBLE BULLET: A poignant and complex tale with massage both universal and deeply personal.
BEACHWORLD: Science fiction as interpreted by King; somewhat superficial in contrast to other stories, but can easily get under your skin. The futuristic pidgin lingo is a tough go, but I gotta admire the man for having the patience and skill to create a universal dialect in the first place.
BIG WHEELS: A TALE OF THE LAUNDRY GAME (MILKMAN #2): Something of a day-in-the-life that abruptly crescendos into a revenge drama. Not the best this collection has to offer, but solid entertainment.
CAIN ROSE UP: An unnerving tale of cynicism, disenchantment and impulse, eerily foreshadowing the acts of school violence prevalent from the late twentieth century to now.
FOR OWEN: A breezy and touching poem dedicated to his youngest son, showcasing King's elusive sentimental side.
GRAMMA: A harrowing tale focusing on youth and the unknown, raw and evocative.
HERE THERE BE TYGERS: A strange, juvenile but effective mini-study on the parallels between a child's everyday concerns versus the perils that could potentially befall us out of the clear blue nowhere.
THE JAUNT: Another slice of sci-fi a la King, every bit as twisted as Beachworld, but far more purposeful/cautionary overall. Tinges of Cronenberg's <i>The Fly</i>. This one scared the [daylights] out of me--I thought about it for literal DAYS afterward.
THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT SHAKE HANDS: A brief meditation on paranoia; it seems alost satirical to me.
THE MIST: An apocalyptic novella that takes the classic final-showdown-of-mankind scenario and transports it into a most unusual locale. Hints of <i>Jurassic Park, Dawn of the Dead</i> and John Carpenter's <i>The Fog</i>.
THE MONKEY: A classic horror story, and as close to vintage King as you'll find in this anthology. The angel of death manifests itself in the form of a mechanical monkey-doll.
MORNING DELIVERIES (MILKMAN #1): A conceptually interesting kind of horror farce, more a hypothetical situation than a telling of actual events...as with Ellis' <i>American Psycho</i>, the reader is almost led to believe the scenario exists only within the wishful thoughts of the main character. Flawed, but readable.
MRS. TODD'S SHORTCUT: A woman's desire to save time and resistance to change leads her life into a series of strange events. Deep.
NONA: Almost a love story, it seamlessly fuses the mythic images of the anima and the succubus...a theme that's been touched upon in modern literature, but not fully or effectively explored until now.
PARANOID--A CHANT: Another poem, this one brimming with kinetic imagery and dark satiric humor. A personal favorite.
THE RAFT: Another straightforward horror story featuring what could best be described as the Blob's bastard cousin, with strong subtexts of post-adolescent angst, envy and sexual (im)morality.
THE REAPER'S IMAGE: Haunting and original, yet strangely anticlimactic. Not my favorite.
SURVIVOR TYPE: A survival tale with a shocking--and sickening--twist. By no means superficial, though.
UNCLE OTTO'S TRUCK: A wealthy elderly eccentric is driven literally crazy and to poverty by his Cresswell truck. An odd premise with a webwoven theme of irony and gossip.
THE WEDDING GIG: A sad tale set in the Prohibition era, representing a refreshing change of venue in King's world. A provocative look at, of all things, family ties and prejudice.
WORD PROCESSOR OF THE GODS: An interesting take on the nagging what-ifs of life and the hypotheticals of reversing personal regrets...both disturbing, yet not without a strange sweetness.
Book Review: Skeleton ewww
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, read "The Monkey", especially if you have the paperback version that has the creepy monkey toy with the glowing eyes. Then you'll understand something about Stephen King. I remember the immense gratitude that I felt as a teen when I first read this story. He too has shuddered at the sight of those googly eyed toy monkeys! What sadist manufactured these horrific objects? Nevermind, they exist, and now, thanks to Mr.King, they serve a greater purpose, to become themes and storylines of some of the most terrific and terrifying stories King ever wrote. These are some of his greatest masterpieces of shorts in this collection, and if critics generally dissaprove of King's short stories I cannot imagine why. "The Mist" is one of his best works, and includes such psychological introspections of human reactions to unimaginable situations that one wonders exactly how much time he has devoted to picking apart the many varied personifications of humanity. In "The Mist" the story begins with a man and his young son, waving goodbye to the lovely but doomed wife and mother as they both go to the local grocery store. As this is happening a strange fog rolls over into the town, presumably from a secret government testing facility allegedly called The Arrowhead Project, of course the "project" being testing atomic particles and radioactive materials. No one yet knows the strange fog that rolled in during a thunderstorm carries within its bowels bizzarre, tentacled, flesh devouring creatures that can only be partially seen as they carry their victims back into the misty veils of death they crawled out of. Mayhem ensues as those trapped in the grocery store reveal their true character as all struggle to stay alive. Delicious and gruesome deaths occur as the beasts that never should have been, both outside and inside of the store, collide with each other, the instinctual inclination of both beast and man strugge each to survive. For those who saw the movie, get thee to a time travel device and have it so that you never did! The ending of the movie is so far removed from the ending of the story that it completely changes the nature of the tale. "The Raft" is a great one, notching out a sordid tale of college kids stranded on a creaky raft on a lake trying not to be consumed by the oily but seductive black creature that (you guessed it!) dissolves flesh right off the bone, eating them alive one by one, think "rolled roast of beef" and you're starting to get the picture. This tale is particularly gory yet irresistible as the creature become more and more inventive as it tries to get the kids off the raft and into its amoeba-like body. One of the unluckiest guys gets sucked through a half inch crack between the rotting wood of the raft, as the soon to be also eaten watch in horror. Then, God knows why, the two remainig couple decide that it might be a good idea to lie down and have sex, I guess watching your two best friends skin dissolve as they scream in agony would get anyone in the mood, and the ever increasing appetite of the oily creature pulls down deadgirl#2 down by her face. The lone survivor is left, stranded and exhausted, unable to sit down as the thing under him waits...there was a film version of it somewhere where the last guy somehow makes it to shore and the black thing lunges out of the lake to pull him back in, but the readers of the original story know better.
If you loved science fiction as a child, "The Jaunt" is a hearty tale of the consequences of breaking the rules of nature, a theme that runs throughout the book's series of ever increasingly perplexing situations. Several bouts of malevolent poetry, better left to Tabitha his wife, interrupt the rest of the horrific tales, including my ever favorite story of precious "Gramma", a demented and senile old woman who happens to be a powerful witch in the throes of death. Little George is left alone in an isolated house with an old lady with an agenda, that is to remain alive, however and whatever form she can. Survival and desperation seep through the entire series of seemingly unconnected stories, but as a whole, the book remains of the most cohesive collections of stories King ever wrote, some of the stories dating back to his own teenage writing years. You can sense the evolution of his writing as the stories progress, King explains in the forward that some of these stories date back to the beginning of his career as a writer. These are the "hungry" Stephen King stories, as opposed to the slower paced and more opulent writing of his later years. They are less refined, more frenetic, and even a bit juvenile in nature, but the intensity of his work is at its peak in this staple of horror enthusiasts. This is King at his rawest, least refined nature. It is harsh, brutal, and entirely delicious.
Book Review: A Great Collection
Summary: 5 Stars
This is quite a huge book - at almost 800 pages - but it's definitely worth your time.
"The Mist" is the size of a novella (almost a novel by itself) and if you can get yourself into that B-movie mode, you should enjoy it. As King makes clear in his notes (at the end of this book), this story should be read the way one watches a classic horror flick. Not aware of that, but aware that Stephen King enjoys B-movie-like stories, I found the characters to be very stockish, the plot pretty good for a short story (but kind of a let down for a story of this size; by the end, you expect more closure than what you get), and the overall feeling was precisely that of a short story gone swollen. I didn't dislike it, but it's by far not my favourite of the lot.
"The Monkey" is yet another story in which an inanimate object seems to come to life - Stephen King is obsessed with those - and so far, I haven't read a story based on this concept that worked well for me.
I'm not going to review all of them, by the way, just a couple. Let's continue.
"The Jaunt" is pretty splendid. If you play videogames, it'll remind you of Portal. This story is a mix of sci-fi and horror, thoughly mostly sci-fi, and it was a good read. Recommended.
"The Raft" is about a group of young people who get chased by some eerie entity as they find themselves trapped on a raft. Another good one.
"Beachworld" is another sci-fi piece. It takes place in the distant future, on a planet seemingly made of nothing but sand, where two spacemen got stranded... Nicely done.
"The Reaper's Image" is a story that I actually found chilling, and that almost never happens to me, sadly. But this one had it going.
"Nona" is a VERY impressive story. The writing is stellar, the story is gripping. Throughout this one I was impressed by King's literary abilities. This is the sort of story that lets me know King doesn't nearly get the amount of respect he deserves as an author. Highly recommended.
"Survivor Type" is another jewel from this collection. It's about a man who gets stranded on a strip of rock in the ocean. All he has is a couple of matches, a knife, and lots of heroin. It's a fun story in a very sinister way, a true master-piece of dark humor, and I very highly recommend it.
The two "Milkman" stories are good stuff.
"Gramma" is another chilling piece, about a dead grandmother that may not have said her last word...
"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is an extraordinary piece about a writer and his madness. This is a very imaginative story, very enjoyable.
"The Reach" is another of these stories that show King's true literary talent. This one is about an old lady who never left her island for the mainland. In her old age she doesn't have much to live. This is a beautiful story.
This was a rather dry review of most of these stories. But on the whole, it's a great collection. I haven't liked all of them, but none of them bored me. Having read some of the negative reviews on this site, I have to insist on the fact that Stephen King is a real author, and that you'll appreciate his stories better if you read them as stories, and not as scripts for horror flicks.
This book was a perfect follow-up to NIGHT SHIFT, another collection of stories. If you're into short stories, you won't go wrong with this one.
Book Review: Creepy, creepier, creepiest.....oo ee oo
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I shifted in literary tastes from mostly science fiction and fantasy to Tom Clancy-style military thrillers, I was a regular reader of Stephen King's macabre masterpieces. I have about two-thirds of his literary output, and if books were not as expensive now I'd still be a regular reader of King's works.One of my favorite books by Steve-o is Skeleton Crew, his second collection of short stories, including the novella "The Mist." And as in any collection of short fiction, some of the 22 stories stand head and shoulders above the rest.
The creepiest, by far, is "The Mist," which begins with, as in all good King works, with a seemingly normal event (a storm) and a routine occurrence (a trip to the supermarket) and slowly but surely morphs into a situation which becomes scarier as the story progresses. While not wanting to give anything away, I can tell you this much -- I'll never go to the Kash n' Karry and look at it quite the same way again, particularly in the spaghetti sauce section.
"Survivor Type" is King's take on Robinson Crusoe. Its protagonist is Richard Pine, a surgeon who, unfortunately, has also been involved in the narcotics "business." Now, after he is shipwrecked and marooned on a desert isle, Pine is forced to face his inner demons and, by the way, cope with the problem of what to eat in a place where there is no viable food source. Suffice it to say that in his desperation he will have to use his surgical training to solve this dicey problem.
While there are other stories that give me the willies, I am always drawn to "Word Processor of the Gods." I first read it before I ever owned -- or even used -- a personal computer, and its premise involving a word processor with supernatural powers, while silly on the surface, was very compelling to me as an aspiring writer. King asks: What if you simply typed a sentence like "I wish I were married to the loveliest, kindest person on earth," and by pressing ENTER, it came true? Maybe in the hands of a lesser writer the premise is silly, but King tells his story with a fine balance of spookiness and wit. The closing paragraph is a gem.
The beauty of an anthology like Skeleton Crew is that you can read as much or as little of it as you like, choosing whatever story strikes your fancy at any given moment. If you are a newcomer to King's storytelling and don't want to commit yourself to a major novel such as IT or The Stand, this is a fine place to start.
Book Review: King's best!
Summary: 5 Stars
To be perfectly honest, I've never been a huge fan of King's novels, but his short stories are truly incredible. This was the first King collection I read, and it's still the best.
Let's start with the best story here, and quite possibly the best short story ever: "The Mist". Brilliant. Worth the price of the book itself. A great story about a curtain of fog that sweeps over a small town in Maine, trapping a very diverse group of people in a local supermarket while the mist--which, by the way, contains some very big and nasty otherworldly monsters--slowly tries to get in. Human nature fills in the rest as tension mounts. At over 150 pages this could have been a novella, nevertheless it stands as one of King's best works in my opinion. No explenation for the mist or the horrors it conceals is ever given (though it's hinted it may be connected to a government project called "Arrowhead" that was being conducted in the nearby wilderness), and this lovecraftian story ends absolutely perfectly.
My second favorite story in this collection was "The Raft". Everything about the story--which follows four teen trapped on a raft by a giant jellyfish with the concentration of battery acid in the middle of nowhere--is deceptively simple, but it's raw, nasty, scary, and features an ending that will haunt you long after you've finished the book. The creature itself can also be read as a metaphore for what drugs can do to you (swirling colors, hypnotyzing it's prey, eventually moving in for the kill, etc...remember it was first written during the big drug boom) that's still effective even today.
"The Jaunt" is a sci-fi story about teleportation, and even though the science is sketchy at best (King himself has pointed this out), it remains a haunting and intelligent cautionary tale.
"Survivor Type"...oh my God, pardon my language but this story is f*cked up, big time. Just read it and you'll agree.
Another sci-fi entry, this one fun and a tad creepy, is "Beachworld", which follows two space travelers stranded on a barren desert planet that really, really doesn't want them to leave. This is a quirky and enjoyable story, that actually gets quite exciting near it's conclusion.
There were of course a couple vestigial entires in the book, like "Here there be Tygers" or another one about a femme fatal that sends a man on a senseless killing spree (name escapes me), but this is a must own if you love King or horror in general.
Great stuff.