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1st out of 52 books
—
14 voters
Night Shift
by
Stephen King
More than twenty-five stories of horror and nightmarish fantasy transform everyday situations into experiences of compelling terror in the worlds of the living, the dying, and the nonliving.
"Jerusalem's Lot" Previously unpublished
"Graveyard Shift" October 1970 issue of Cavalier
"Night Surf" Spring 1969 issue of Ubris
"I Am the Doorway" March 1971 issue of Cavalier
"The Ma...more
"Jerusalem's Lot" Previously unpublished
"Graveyard Shift" October 1970 issue of Cavalier
"Night Surf" Spring 1969 issue of Ubris
"I Am the Doorway" March 1971 issue of Cavalier
"The Ma...more
Paperback, 326 pages
Published
July 2nd 1986
by Signet
(first published 1978)
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What I learned from Night Shift:
It ain't easy to quit smoking.
That I know what you need.
That I am the doorway.
That he walks behind the rows.
That sometimes they come back.
It ain't over in 'Salem's Lot.
Don't drink bad beer.
Get off your ass and mow your own lawn, goddammit.
It ain't easy to quit smoking.
That I know what you need.
That I am the doorway.
That he walks behind the rows.
That sometimes they come back.
It ain't over in 'Salem's Lot.
Don't drink bad beer.
Get off your ass and mow your own lawn, goddammit.
Overall – I really liked the first story, but after that the stories really seemed to taper off quite a bit until I got to Battleground. After that one, my interested was piqued and the book continued at a high level through The Ledge and on to the end with a few exceptions here and there raising my overall rating from a 3 to a 4.
Jerusalem’s Lot – The first story is an “historical” account of the events that take place when a man and his faithful servant take residence in his ancestral home and...more
Jerusalem’s Lot – The first story is an “historical” account of the events that take place when a man and his faithful servant take residence in his ancestral home and...more
I can’t recommend this collection enough. Stephen King is at his best when writing short stories, and I love the unpolished, experimental style his writing had when he was just starting out. His focus then wasn’t strictly horror although it does feature a central theme of fear and the surreal. Over the years, his writing style became more polished. Although I love his later short stories just as much, they seem a little more carefully written than his earlier ones. Or maybe I’m just full of it,...more
12 likes · like · see review
Note to self: do not read ANYTHING written by Stephen King after dark. Nothing. Not even if it happens to be comedy, or non-fiction, or freaking poetry. Haven’t you been traumatized enough? You can’t see a clown without pissing yourself! Not that it’s hard to scare me though. I’m the kind of girl that needs to have every light on when she goes downstairs to grab a glass of water, one of those people who knows something’s right behind ready to grab me if I don't reach the second floor as fast as...more
and 
, so please check the expiration date of everything you eat. 
18 likes · like · see review
This is an audio collection of several of Stephen King's short stores with John Glover doing the narration.
Tales from Gray Matter include:
The Boogeyman Reminds me very much of a "Tales From the Crypt" episode about childhood fears and monsters in the closet.
I Know What You Need Boy meets girl, gives her everything she desires, when she discovers his dark, not-very-well-hidden secrets, she freaks. Stupid girl, you know you'll never find a guy like that again!
Strawberry Spring A killer stalks a...more
Tales from Gray Matter include:
The Boogeyman Reminds me very much of a "Tales From the Crypt" episode about childhood fears and monsters in the closet.
I Know What You Need Boy meets girl, gives her everything she desires, when she discovers his dark, not-very-well-hidden secrets, she freaks. Stupid girl, you know you'll never find a guy like that again!
Strawberry Spring A killer stalks a...more
Make you pee your pants scary!
In his introduction to Skeleton Crew, Stephen King writes: “a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair” whereas the short story “is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.” My literary proclivities definitely lean towards those long affairs. I don’t read a lot of short stories nor am I a fan of the format. At least give me a novella! Stephen King is one of only a handful of authors who can make me a believer in the beauty and...more
In his introduction to Skeleton Crew, Stephen King writes: “a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair” whereas the short story “is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.” My literary proclivities definitely lean towards those long affairs. I don’t read a lot of short stories nor am I a fan of the format. At least give me a novella! Stephen King is one of only a handful of authors who can make me a believer in the beauty and...more
12 likes · like · see review
So far I've loved every short story collection of King's I've read (Different Seasons, Everything's Eventual) and this collection is amazing once again.
My favorite stories would have to be:
"I Am the Doorway"
"Quitters, Inc."
"Children of the Corn" (this one especially scared the bejesus out of me.)
"One For the Road" (sequel to 'Salem's Lot)
I remembered "Battleground" from the Nightmares & Dreamscapes series, and for all of you that love The Stand, be sure to check out "Night Surf," it's like...more
My favorite stories would have to be:
"I Am the Doorway"
"Quitters, Inc."
"Children of the Corn" (this one especially scared the bejesus out of me.)
"One For the Road" (sequel to 'Salem's Lot)
I remembered "Battleground" from the Nightmares & Dreamscapes series, and for all of you that love The Stand, be sure to check out "Night Surf," it's like...more
5 likes · like · see review
Stephen King is an absolute master of the short story form.
May 02, 2009
Bobby Bermea
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
the-blood-is-the-life
I had to do a quick review of a King book I liked because I did one of a book of his I didn't like and that was all I had on the guy. That wasn't right because truth be told he's one of my very favorite writers. I don't know if he would take this as a compliment but my favorite stories by King are generally short stories. Night Shift was his first collection and one of the first books I ever read by him. Every story doesn't hit but the ones that do hit hard. And only Stephen King can write a sto...more
I found this book to be hit or miss. Most stories were good with a few being must-reads and few being skip-able.
The highlights:
Jerusalem's Lot - A prequel of sorts to his novel 'Salem's Lot told through a series of letters.
Night Surf - A side-story that fits in with The Stand telling the story of a few teens as they deal with Trips.
I Am The Doorway - A more traditional science-fiction tale with a Stephen King twist.
I Know What You Need - A psychologically introspective story concerning love.
The...more
The highlights:
Jerusalem's Lot - A prequel of sorts to his novel 'Salem's Lot told through a series of letters.
Night Surf - A side-story that fits in with The Stand telling the story of a few teens as they deal with Trips.
I Am The Doorway - A more traditional science-fiction tale with a Stephen King twist.
I Know What You Need - A psychologically introspective story concerning love.
The...more
6 likes · like · see review
King has put out two great short story collection. Skeleton Crew, and this one. Like all collections, this has a few weak ones, but overall, one of the best horror short story collections out there. You're catching King at time when he was hungry, so the stories are meaner and leaner than what you might find in current King efforts.
5 likes · like · see review
More creepy stories! Stephen King is a master storyteller and this is an eerie collection of some of his best. I have read most of his books and these are some of the more memorable of his short stories.
Sin duda, la mejor antología de cuentos del maestro. Y esa penúltima sorpresa que no me esperaba al final del libro de volver a Salem´s Lot......., los pelos de punta!!!!!!
Incredible collection of stories! What an imagination! My five favorites: The Mangler, Battleground, The Ledge, Quitters, Inc., Children of the Corn.
I liked about half of these stories. The others were interesting enough, but not mind-blowing. I noticed I was not touched by those in which devilish objects were involved (The Mangler, Trucks, The Lawnmower Man).
My favorites, more or less in order:
Jerusalem’s Lot - seems to be a prequel to Salem's Lot, which I plan to read soon. This one was really creepy and deserves 5 stars.
Children of the Corn - what can happen if you go off the main road and stumble upon a deserted village. The wise thing...more
My favorites, more or less in order:
Jerusalem’s Lot - seems to be a prequel to Salem's Lot, which I plan to read soon. This one was really creepy and deserves 5 stars.
Children of the Corn - what can happen if you go off the main road and stumble upon a deserted village. The wise thing...more
If you're one of those idiots that calls Stephen King a hack, read "The Boogeyman" in your room at night. Then tell me what you think.
8 likes · like · see review
I love this collection...a lot.
It's funny how much better Uncle Steve's short stories are than his longer novels, which often suffer from clumsy plot structures even when the underlying concept is well thought out and the characters interesting. The early short stories found here are the opposite: In many of them, King takes an idea that sounds silly on paper and gets some genuine suspense out of the final results. (even in the more comedic stories like the bizarre noir parody "Battleground"... well maybe not "The Lawnmower M...more
2 likes · like · see review
*Reread December 2012*
Jerusalem's Lot - 3/5 Very eerie and spooky, a prequel to Salems' Lot which I haven't read, so perhaps that is why I do not like it so much
Graveyard Shift - 5/5. Everyone has a King story that scares them for absolutely no reason. In fact, I have two, the second of which I will mention later. And. Surprise Surprise!! It's not The Boogeyman!!!
Night surf - 1/5. A rather mediocre spin off from The Stand, which actually had not been published when this story was written.
I am th...more
Jerusalem's Lot - 3/5 Very eerie and spooky, a prequel to Salems' Lot which I haven't read, so perhaps that is why I do not like it so much
Graveyard Shift - 5/5. Everyone has a King story that scares them for absolutely no reason. In fact, I have two, the second of which I will mention later. And. Surprise Surprise!! It's not The Boogeyman!!!
Night surf - 1/5. A rather mediocre spin off from The Stand, which actually had not been published when this story was written.
I am th...more
Sure, not every story is perfect, but as a collective whole this collection kicks it.
Almost all the stories are unique, and of course many of them have made their way to the screen. He apparently was still highly in his Salem's Lot world as he put in not one, but two, stories about the town here. One was called Jerusalem's Lot, which is a big treat for Salem's Lot fans especially. Creepy and decent, told through letters, it's a bit slow and the writing style used is old-fashioned to try and dup...more
Almost all the stories are unique, and of course many of them have made their way to the screen. He apparently was still highly in his Salem's Lot world as he put in not one, but two, stories about the town here. One was called Jerusalem's Lot, which is a big treat for Salem's Lot fans especially. Creepy and decent, told through letters, it's a bit slow and the writing style used is old-fashioned to try and dup...more
3 likes · like · see review
Aug 09, 2010
jzhunagev
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Stephen King fans!
Recommended to jzhunagev by:
"The Voice"
Short Tale Excursions to Horror and Dread
(A Book Review of Night Shift by Stephen King)
The short story is a literary form I rarely read, appreciate and enjoy. A handful of writers, O. Henry, Ernest Hemingway and — in light of the book I’m reviewing — Edgar Allan Poe, are some of the authors whose short fiction I’ve liked over the years. Since the short story deals with few characters in one setting that makes a single impression or impact, it's a tricky form to work a story with and sometimes in...more
5 likes · like · see review
Sep 07, 2009
Richie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
King Fans, people who like stories that you can read in a short sitting.
Recommended to Richie by:
The other King books I have read.
Shelves:
stephen-king
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jun 04, 2008
Fabian
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
REAL hardcore S. King fans
These are short stories, not novellas, and serve as delicious intros to popular King mythologies (for a staggering example see [or better yet, don't {with the exception of "Trucks" a.k.a. "Maximum Overdrive" for B-entertainment and "Children of the Corn" with its quaint moments of childlike chills}] all the movies made from like eight of these tales.) Here, King is at his most bizarre, most morbid. Most of his part-time heros and (just a few) heroines, end up dead or suffering the loss of a chil...more
Apr 01, 2009
Aunt Karen The Great
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Horror fans, Stephen King fans
This is a great collection of short stories and includes some of King's scariest tales (notably One for the Road which is a sequel of sorts to my favorite King novel, 'Salem's Lot and is every bit as scary as that tale; Jerusalem's Lot which is a sort of prequel to the 'Salem's Lot story; Children of the Corn and Sometimes They Come Back. I Am the Doorway strays from King's traditional horror in to Science Fiction, with terrifc results. A couple of others leave the genre behind entirely, to mixe...more
Outstanding. First had the opportunity to read this back in 1983. At the time, I worked swing shift at a cardboard box factory. Can remember coming home off of the graveyard shift and reading the short story "The Mangler." It was the first thing I had ever read by Stephen King, and I was hooked instantly. The man can truly write. So many of the stories showed up later as movies--with suspect results at best. The beauty of this book is that it doesn't have to be a horror story to grab your attent...more
How Stephen King has earned any degree of credibility is beyond me. The stories included in this book encompass the tediously unbelievable and extend no further beyond this. Ridiculous concepts tied with banality do not a good tale make, Stephen. The writing is devoid of any character and even the relatively better stories suffer a great degree from horror clichés which make the unfolding of them dull and inevitably frustrating. This is everything wrong with modern horror. Complete and utter tra...more
I read a lot of Stephen King. Stephen King is a short story master so I know that opening one of his collections is opening a door to suspense! Short stories are great for those nights I hit the pillow with just enough brain function to get through a few pages before falling off into dreamland. Short stories also give me a sense of accomplishment when I have but a few minutes to dedicate to my subconscious and though King's story collections for the most part all sail the Styx, lodging themselve...more
[This is an excerpt from a post on my personal review blog.]
This grouping of some of King's most famous short stories was published in 1978, with the majority of the stories first having been ran in publications as varied as Penthouse and Cosmopolitan, to Cavalier (who, in running nine of them, was the real heavyweight). While the book itself was dug out of the dust cluttering some of my Dad's old college gear, the tales held within have lost little of their original appeal... or terror. With we...more
This grouping of some of King's most famous short stories was published in 1978, with the majority of the stories first having been ran in publications as varied as Penthouse and Cosmopolitan, to Cavalier (who, in running nine of them, was the real heavyweight). While the book itself was dug out of the dust cluttering some of my Dad's old college gear, the tales held within have lost little of their original appeal... or terror. With we...more
What's the worst time to read Stephen King? How about being powerless, in the dark, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy? I've done smarter things in my day...
Night Shift is an early collection of Stephen King's stories. At that point in his career, King may not yet have been a master craftsman of language, but the talent and vigor is already evident. The collection has a lot of the pulpy, grim horror of his early days ("Graveyard Shift," "Lawnmower Man," "Trucks."). So to those reviewers who com...more
Night Shift is an early collection of Stephen King's stories. At that point in his career, King may not yet have been a master craftsman of language, but the talent and vigor is already evident. The collection has a lot of the pulpy, grim horror of his early days ("Graveyard Shift," "Lawnmower Man," "Trucks."). So to those reviewers who com...more
Night Shift is Stephen King's first published short story collection, and it contains mainly stories that were first published elsewhere. Many were sold before Carrie became popular and therefore are some of his earliest published writing. There are similar motifs in some of them: the ledge in "Battlefield" and "The Ledge"; someone needing help stumbles into a gathering of old geezers in "Grey Matter" and "One for the Road". That's OK--when he was writing these stories I doubt King ever thought...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Stories Within (Discussion) | 16 | 40 | 2 hours, 0 min ago | |
| Stephen King Fans: Short Stories - Loved and Hated. | 14 | 71 | May 21, 2013 09:22pm | |
| Stephen King Fans: The Boogeyman-NS | 33 | 226 | May 21, 2013 03:16pm | |
| Children of the Corn- which movie was better in your opinion? | 24 | 49 | Apr 26, 2013 11:02pm | |
| Stephen King Fans: The Ledge-NS | 17 | 168 | Mar 21, 2013 06:38am | |
| Stephen King Fans: Battleground-NS | 20 | 126 | Mar 05, 2013 03:34pm | |
| Stephen King Fans: The Boogieman (Night Shift) | 2 | 13 | Feb 20, 2013 01:39pm |
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more
More about Stephen King...
Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more
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“The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real. I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.”
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