Just after Sunset

Settle in ... to be taken away!

This is like going back to King's very first collection of short stories, except this time the writing is so much more mature and the thrills are of the more psychological kind. No more does he rely so much on the "jump out and grab you" horror elements. Now, as with "Duma Key," King scrapes, claws and even burrows deep into your mind to find what unsettles you in everyday life. Reading these stories, especially "Rest Stop" and "Stationary Bike," you feel yourself lost in the fear of the places you never want to go because your not sure you will come back whole and sane. This time you realize that if what you were reading were actual experiences you just might SNAP! You might become something you can never find the way to leave behind you. "Willa" also reminds you of what happens when King finds the beauty in placing you in unusual territory. There is an amazing peace to this story much like that found in the best parts of "The Green Mile." Different, still unsettling to be sure ... but the amazing peace of it overwhelms you. Don't get too settled in though. "Gingerbread Girl" and "A Very Tight Place" remind you that King is still that kid around the campfire. He still wants you to scream, jump, squirm ... and, oh yeah, be very disgusted! A prime effort overall. I cannot recommend it enough!

12 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

My Man King!

I've had a problem with King's short stories lately, but only because they end too soon. Just After Sunset is an outstanding compilation of some of the author's finest tales and my only complaint is that I wanted more and more! As usual, King does not fail to send shivers down the spine while throwing in hilarious little tidbits and silly phrases. His insight into the human psyche is more finely tuned than ever and true King fans will undoubtedly love his latest publication. He is so much more than just a horror writer.

10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

Stephen King delivers once again. . .

Just After Sunset hooked me right from the very first story and never let up on it's grip, even after I had finished the book. It was the first collection of short stories that I have read by King, so I cannot compare it to his other collections. But I can compare it to other short story collections, and Just After Sunset surpasses all of them. It would be hard if not impossible to find another author who can match the creativity of Stephen King. He really is a master at what he does, and this collection of short stories is more proof of his greatness. This is a must-have for any Stephen King fan or anyone who wants to get a book that is deserving of their hard earned money.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Just After Sunset

This is my second favorite short story collection by Stephen King. It features some of the most beautifully written stories that are touching, heartfelt, scary and real. "Graduation Afternoon" took my breath away and "N." is just about a close to perfect you can get. "The Things They Left Behind" is a 9/11 tale that will stun you. The only story that beats all these is from my #1 collection, SKELETON CREW: and that is "The Reach." Try these tales and see that King is just getting started.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Great Stephen King WORK!!!!

I must say, I have read a lot of Stephen king short story writings. But this one to me it is his best short story book. I really enjoy the story N, to me that touch home for me cause I'm a little OCD not much but enough where sometime its unbearable. And I felt very connected with Mr.N on so many different levels. I also enjoyed 'A very tight place', that was also very good and funny. But what is the saddest of all the story is 'Ayana', that story there was very touching and also had a Stephen King twist on it as well. But 'Cat from Hell' was published in March 1977 in Cavalier.The winning entry, as well as King's complete story, was published in the magazine in June of the same year. King revised the story and it was reprinted in Tales of Unknown Horror (1978).It also was very interested and kind of gross to read at the end.LOL. But over all a very well written book. It is a must read and a must have for all Stephen King fans!!!!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Highly recommended

Stephen King is by far one of the best authors. He really knows how to describe each scene and grab the readers in and make them feel as if they're right in the room with the characters. There are a few stories that seemed to linger in the back of my mind, even after I'd put the book down and went about my day. That's when you know an author has really grabbed his audience's attention. I would love to see some of these stories made into movies! A great read overall!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Get the print hardcover version, its cheaper

I'm finding a lot of remainder sale titles are still full price on here. Be cautious!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great collection of King's stories.

After reading the fist few stories in this one I was thinking to myself "King has lost his touch". The first few stories were so predictable. But then it started getting really good. There were only a handful of the stories in this one that I didn't love. It wasn't that they were bad, they were just predictable.

I think my favorite stories were Stationary Bike, The Things They Left Behind, and N. I really think that they could have been turned into full-length novels. But they were still really good as short stories. N kind of had a IT feel to it. The Things They Left Behind was just weird, but in a good way. Stationary Bike was also weird. I thought it would be kind of like Thinner when I started reading it.

I usually don't like to read short stories, as I don't get enough time to connect with the characters and it's hard for me to get a real feel for things. With a few exceptions in this collected that was not the case. King's ability to write a short story that doesn't seem abrupt was great. And the characters were all fairly well-rounded.

This one did take me a while to read. Although at 539 pages it didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would. The short stories were fairly fast paced and so they lent themselves to be read very fast.

Overall it was pretty good. The preview of Under The Dome in the back has me chomping at the bit to get my hands on that one.

A review copy of this title was provided by Book Cove Reviews.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Yessir; He's Back.

I have to admit, I thought he had fallen off, lost the touch etc. Mr. King
However with this collection of short stories he has proven himself to be the
true king of the short story horror genre.An enjoyable read that you truly
hate to put down.This is definitely his best work in years!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Vintage Steve

Steve returns to his short story roots and turns out a work on par with Skeleton Crew and Nightmares and Dreamscapes. This book is PERFECT for travelling, as the majority of the stories are about 15 pages long and engrossing enough to make you move right on the the next story when the previous story ends. Steve has been on a roll as of late with Duma Key and now Just After Sunset. I sincerely hope he keeps it up!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great collection of stories, but....

I'm of two minds about Stephen King's latest book. He doesn't have anything left to prove since the recent releases of "Lisey's Story" and "Duma Key", his best books in years, which re-established his place as America's best modern horror writer. But he's always struck me as someone who needs to keep doing what he loves - in this case, write horror stories - or he'll just wither away. Which in King's case wouldn't be a bad way to go, really.

But after finishing "Just After Sunset", I have to wonder if that very dark place from which King pulls his stories has (temporarily, one hopes) shut down. His style and prose are top-notch, which is why I'm giving this book four stars. He can still write rings around most of today's other so-called horrormeisters. But with the exception of "N", none of the stories in this collection fit the Stephen King definition of horror as I've come to understand it. They all deal with the dark side of the world, but none of them except for "N" would give me nightmares after finishing them.

Some of these stories, such as "Willa" and "The Cat From Hell", read as though King wrote them at the beginning of his career, before he'd found his niche. And indeed, the postscript at the end of this book indicates that for these two stories that is exactly the case.

I'm still recommending this addition to the canon, warts and all. It's light-years better than the trash King put out years ago - trash such as "Firestarter" and "Cujo". But I'm hoping that King's next book, whatever it is, will follow the path he set with "Lisey" and "Key".

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Simply one of the BEST short story books every written!

Every page, every story, every line... all worth every second of your time. Stephen King surely out did himself in this one. Every short story was captivating from beginning to end and left you wanting more! He truly lives up to his name, the King of horror and suspense! I highly recommend this one, its a MUST READ!

Eh.

It is very iffy.

I enjoyed this book

From start to finish, this collection kept me enthralled
I really liked every story, none disappointed me
I recommend this collection for good quick, thought provoking reading

Worst Ever

This is the worst compilation of King's stories that I ever read. The stories seemed to be pulled from an editor's wastecan. If you want to be bored, buy this book. If not, do not buy it.

Haunting and chilling!

Buy this and embrace king's supernatural delights. Classic king!

Not as good as I had hoped

A few years ago I had read [[ASIN:0743457358 Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Tales]], a collection of 14 short stories by Stephen King. For years I had been a big fan of Stephen King's novels, and I had always enjoyed short stories as a genre. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Stephen King is not only able to write book-long narrative thrillers, but was equally if not more at home with the constraints that short story imposes on the writer. I saw that King's writing style is in its own right a very compelling tool that he deftly uses to keep readers interested in the story, even there is nothing supernatural or out of this world in the narrative. This sentiment had led me to look forward to [[ASIN:0618713484 The Best American Short Stories 2007]] collection for which Stephen King was a guest editor. However, this collection of short stories proved to be a complete disaster - the stories were some of the most boring and unimaginative that I have ever read in the Best American series of books. It had shaken my impression of King as someone who can truly appreciate a well-crafted short story, but I still believed that it bore no relation to his own writing ability. So when I came across this new collection of his own short stories, I was very eager to give it a try. The first red flag came in the introduction. It turns out that King was inspired to write this collection by his experience as the editor of "Best American Short Stories" collection. As I read through the stories my misgivings got confirmed. The stories, by and large, turned out to be the worst of the two worlds: they had all of the discursive, aimless rambling of some of King's longer works, and none of the shocking potency of immediacy of a short story. The characters find themselves in a variety of supernatural and otherwise strange situations, but for the most part we are not sympathetic enough to their plight to care what happens to them in the end. There were a couple of stories that I genuinely enjoyed, but overall this has been a rather disappointing reading experience. I still believe that Stephen King is a great writer of suspenseful stories that reflect on some of our deepest fears and anxieties, but this collection of short stories doesn't do justice to his talent.

Stephen King...what else can you say.

I love Stephen King and this book did not disappoint me.

just when you thought it was safe to read short storys again think again

stephen king returns with this amazing book with amazing charecters amazing storylines amazing everything the king of horror has returned with a comeback so awesome itll leave twilight fans begging to stop the authors style of writing stephen king is both a good author and short storyteller something ms meyer is not but king is back in business with just after sunset under the dome cell full dark no stars and this amazing novel with amazing short storys

Spooky. Leaves you thinking.

I thought this book was great. After every story it left me thinking. What I really liked about it was how it was made up of a lot of short stories instead of just one long one. And every one would grab my attention until the end. I would recommended this book to anyone who likes to read even a little or a lot.