Book Review: If It Bleeds (2020) - Stephen King

 

Caveat - King is one of my two favorite authors. That said, he's very prolific and with that comes for me, not every story is a hit. He's always a great writer, but it's okay to me that sometimes novels just don't connect with me. This was one of them that didn't. The titled story definitely carries a lot of the weight of this novella collection. The rest of the stories didn't really do anything for me.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone - 2/5

Pretty good premise, but in King fashion, falls apart in the last act. Was at it's best when he was doing the Coming of Age thing, no one is better at that than him. The junior high stuff is great, the rest of the story is so-so, predictable. All amounts to nothing. Sometimes dehd is beddah.

The Life of Chuck - 1/5

Feels like someone trying to capture what The Stand was so successful at, the fall of modern civilization and whiffing badly. Some characters are of no real consequence. King's politics lead the story, instead of focusing on telling a good story. The Benjamin Button style seems an odd choice as well, it doesn't add anything to the story worthwhile, a gimmick for gimmicks sake.

If It Bleeds - 4/5

I've only read the first book in the Bill Hodges trilogy, Mr. Mercedes. It didn't click with me. I'll read them all eventually, they're definitely lower on the list though. The stuff with the Uncle hits hard though. Have not read The Outsider yet nor seen the show and that seems more interesting than the Bill Hodges trilogy. Enjoyed this one quite a bit, kind of want to read more of Holly Gibney's adventures.

Rat - 1/5

A Stephen King story where the main character is a writer, imagine that! I wish he kept the real world out of these stories, though it's no surprise judging by his twitter account that he was sort of consumed by Trump. Dates the stories in unnecessary ways. Solvable by being vague about who the President is. Treads a lot of water that King has already covered before in other stories like Secret Window, Secret Garden.

Comments

  1. walkonpoohMay 7, 2021 at 9:29 AM

    This is exactly what I mean haha, Stephen King today (05/07/21) on twitter: "If ignorance is bliss, Donald Trump must be in a constant state of orgasm."

    He's been out of office for 107 days, but living rent free in King's head.

    ReplyDelete

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