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The things they left behind (2016)
Published
Just After Sunset. Objects a man recognizes from his coworkers’ desks begin turning up in his apartment after the World Trade Center attacks. He’s alive to recognize them, and the owners aren’t. Read it for a ghost story that pays more attention to what a small object holds than to proving how it arrived.
More about The things they left behind44
The Cat from Hell
Just After Sunset. A wealthy man wants to pay a hit man to kill a cat. The job sounds comically beneath him until you hear enough of the offer to wonder who is really in danger. Pick it for a short, gleefully nasty story that lets a small animal unsettle an entire arrangement.
More about The Cat from Hell45
Under the Weather
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A husband worries about his wife’s illness while his dog is determined to get into the bedroom. The story works best if you only take in what he takes in, including a problem with the apartment building he wishes somebody would deal with. The unease is in how much he can still call routine.
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The Dune
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. An aging judge tells his lawyer about a small island he started visiting as a child. Read it for the way a man trained to make decisions talks about a phenomenon he can’t do anything to change. The story keeps its scale small enough for a single mark in the sand to matter.
More about The Dune47
Bad Little Kid
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A prisoner tells his lawyer about a boy who keeps appearing when people he loves are in danger. King gives you two reasons to listen: what the man says the boy can do, and what you have to decide about someone telling this story from a prison cell.
More about Bad Little Kid48
Batman and Robin Have An Altercation
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A man takes his father, who has Alzheimer’s, out for their usual lunch. They order the same food and go over familiar ground in conversation. Give this one a try when you want a quietly moving story that notices how easily routine can hide a person you love in plain sight.
More about Batman and Robin Have An Altercation49
Herman Wouk is Still Alive
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. Two friends set out with their children after a lottery win. On the same road, two older poets travel in the other direction. Choose it for the different lives King puts into motion in a small space, and the dread of knowing how little one group can see of the other.
More about Herman Wouk is Still Alive50
Mile 81 (2011)
7.3/10on Open Library
Published
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A boy wanders into a closed rest area off the Maine Turnpike and finds the sorts of things teenagers leave behind. Read it for the time King gives you to understand an ordinary roadside place before a car makes the whole stop feel wrong. This one takes longer than the sharpest single-scene scares here.
More about Mile 8151
Obits
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A writer at a gossip website discovers that his obituaries can have an effect beyond making people laugh at the headline. Go here for a fast, sour story about how an urge to have the last word begins to feel like a job skill. It makes a familiar kind of online cruelty hard to shrug off.
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Two Talented Bastids
You Like It Darker. Two men develop remarkable abilities, and the question of where those abilities came from lasts for years. This is a good choice when you want a story about talent told with the warmth of a local tale and the worry of knowing something that big will eventually be explained.
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The Dreamers
You Like It Darker. A Vietnam veteran takes a job that leads him into an attempt to see beyond ordinary dreams. All the promise of being allowed a look becomes the thing to be afraid of. Try it for King’s cosmic horror when you’d rather follow one uneasy employee than an entire town.
More about The Dreamers54
Laurie (2018)
Published
You Like It Darker. A recently widowed man gets a puppy from his sister, who can see how far he’s withdrawn since his wife died. Read it when you want King to spend time on the slow business of returning to daily care. The dog gives the story its warmth and some of its anxiety.
More about Laurie55
The Answer Man
You Like It Darker. A man gets chances to learn something about his future and has to live with what he asks. Read it for the long view King takes of one life, and the tension of wondering whether knowing what’s next could ever help you to bear it.
More about The Answer Man56
The Fifth Step
You Like It Darker. Two men share a park bench. One asks the other to listen as he works through a step in his recovery. It’s one of the quickest ways into King’s recent work, with very little between sitting down and realizing what agreeing to listen has let into your day.
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On Slide Inn Road
You Like It Darker. A family’s car gets stuck in mud on a road trip. A delay that ought to make people hungry and cross instead leaves them somewhere they badly need to get out of. Try it for an unusual use of the family outing, where impatience gives you a way into the characters before anything worse happens.
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