I've enjoyed reading King's novels for decades now. But I always get a special pleasure from reading his short story collections. They're all wonderful page turners and this one is no different. A completely captivating collection. ( )

"N" is the highlight of this collection. It's one of King's best -- eerie, disturbing, and it lingers long after the final page. Loved it.

The other stories range from enjoyable to passable. It makes sense that, as King indicates in the book's opening, many of these stories were written as he was getting back into writing shorts. Some stories, like "Harvey's Dream", feel like idea exercises. But other stories, like "Mute", are chilling in that way only King can evoke. And other stories ("The Cat From Hell" and "A Very Tight Place" feel like old-school King in the best way). ( )

Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love?
A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well.
Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating--and then terrifying--journey.
Set on a remote key in Florida, "The Gingerbread Girl" is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable--and resourceful--as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark.
In "Ayana," a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand.
Just After Sunset--call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you.

This is a collection of King's short stories, all but one of which have been previously published in various magazines. As usual with any story collection, there is a variation of quality. Or, I guess I should say, a variation in how much I liked them. They are all quality tales. A couple are sort of sweet, even though they deal with death. (I could think of worse afterlives than spending my time dancing, although I'd prefer a different music selection than what they have in "Willa"). Some seemed like they could easily make episodes of Twilight Zone. A couple bored me. I prefer my horror supernatural, and some of these tales are not that. They're scary- "Gingerbread Girl" is a very tense tale of a lone woman being pursued by a serial killer- but not to my taste. Oddly, the one that made my skin crawl with horror wasn't a supernatural tale. The last story in the book, "A Very Tight Place" is a revenge story- one where the main character is trapped inside a Porta-Potty. This just happened to hit on one of my personal phobias. I give the book 3.5 stars. ( )

Book 71 - was enjoyable enough, some of the stories are better than others. I enjoy the short story format that King employs.