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Jan 12, 2011

Aaron rated it:

I think I'm over giving literary names when people ask my favorite author. My favorite author is Stephen King - DEAL WITH IT.

The problem with loving anyone with prolific genius is that they tend to fall into an every-other movie / album / book scenario. If you really love it, chances are the director’s / musician’s / author's next offering will be terrible. For King, short stories collections are the exception to this rule.

If breaks my heart that people believe his b More...

21 comments like (28 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2008

Michael rated it:

I love Stephen King stories. There are lots of authors I read, but few that I am as eager to consume as any new work by King (Elizabeth George is a close second). Any new offering by King is a cause for celebration for me.

"Just After Sunset" is King's latest collection of short stories, written over a period of about two years. Thematically, several of the stories look at what happens to us in the moments and years after we shuffle off this mortal coil and several of th More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Evil_Dead_Junkie rated it:

More of a 3.5 a lot of the stories are kind of standard, but the ones that connect really knock it out of the park and even the more average have at least a few memorable moments. Still even in an average collection like this, so few authors write short story collections (that sell anyway) that I can’t help but be grateful that King keeps doing them.

+’s

-The Gingerbread Girl a taught thiller.

-The Thing’s They Left Behind, a surprisingly sensitive well done loo More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2008

Jamie rated it:

Just After Sunset is Stephen King's latest collection of short stories, containing a hodge podge of different tales that with one exception had been previously published in various magazines or anthologies. I've liked Stephen King's similar works in the past, despite the fact that some of his so-called short stories have clocked in at novella or even full novel length. This collection, however, contains relatively short works that can all be easily read in one sitting. Unfortunately I didn't car More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

This scrumptious lil' candy box of nasty short story surprises is vintage King, each darkly delicious tale accompanied by a ghost ("Willa"), serial killer ("The Gingerbread Girl") or demonic being ("The Cat from Hell"), and all with a chewy moral center. Almost all of these 13 tales have been previously published, but my favorite might be the only one original to the collection, "N.", a story of a psychiatrist who comes to believe that his obsessive compul More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

R. marked it as to-read

"Cat from Hell" - Our Mutual Uncle in Vault of Horror mode.
"N." - An incredibly effective Lovecraft pastiche. Had me enthralled.*
"A Very Tight Place" - A delightfully gross revenge fantasy.

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* http://www.simonsays.com/specials/stephe...

Original impression:

Not a very promising title. Isn't it always darkest Just Before Dawn ?

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Anderse rated it:

One story in so far and while it is a good short story as I expected it would be, his overuse of favorite phrases grates on my nerves.
"It's not the heat, it's the humidity" appears in probably at least 3 other SK stories/novels. Pretty sure it's in The Mist and I *know* it's in Rainy Season - so I rounded up to a probable 3. Stephen King math is fun!
At least he's not using expletives as shock words so far.

FINAL REVIEW:
More repeated phrases throughout that More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 04, 2009

Vera rated it:

Although I have read many Stephen King novels, it's the short stories that I enjoy the most. At first read, the tales in Just After Sunset aren't all the frightening, but they have a Night Gallery/Twilight Zonesque way of creeping into one's psyche.

I ended up liking all of the stories, but the one's that really made me think were "The Things They Left Behind", "N", and "Graduation Afternoon."

I found "A Very Tight Place" and "T More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Sequoia rated it:

A great collection of short stories. Some I loved, some I didn't care too much for, but all of them kept my attention. Either I had to find out what happened next or the writing was just amazing.

My favorite stories were: Harvey's Dream, Stationary Bike and N. It's also cool that Mr. King did notes at the end (with a warning not to peek at them until you're done reading the stories). From past experiences, I tried not to read this at night. I did pretty good at not getting scare More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Erin rated it:

though i've read everything stephen king has ever written, i don't typically review his books. why? mainly because every reviewer in the world has something to say, and king is such a mainstream author that he's widely read without the benefit of my recommendation. either you're a fan of stephen king or you think he's overrated.

i am thrilled king has stepped back in to short stories. as an art form, short stories are dying... i work in a bookstore, and it is tough to get custom More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2011

Bill rated it:

I'm reading this collection in bite-sized pieces, between novels every now and then. I'll review each story as I read them.

Since I need to rate this to have it saved, I'm setting the bar at 3 stars for now.

Willa: This was okay, there wasn't much of a storyline, but King creates an eerie sense of place with this one. 3 stars.

The Gingerbread Girl: A fairly longer short story, but it sure doesn't feel that way. King ratches the suspense meter up to full with this More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it:

Warning! This review will be incredibly long because I find it impossible to review a collection of short stories without reviewing each story. Feel free to move along.

Overall, this was not a typical Stephen King short story collection. His short stories generally give me nightmares. There were a few horror stories in here, but really he was exploring the post-9/11 world, grief, loss, and the afterlife. Some of his efforts were more successful than others, but the ones that work More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

I'm giving this book four stars with one exclusion, to be discussed later in the review. Overall, a great, versatile collection. Over the years King has moved away from monsters and vampires and gore and moved into the realm of psychological boogie men and supernatural possibilities. Some of these stories don't have anything otherworldly in them at all. Just regular old human beings are scary enough!!

I really liked:

1)Mute: Real life "horror" with nothing superna More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 08, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

So far, of the first five stories I have read I disliked 2 of them. I didn't like the 10 page story about the dream Harvey had...I kept waiting to find out his wife was really a ghost or something but it was just stupid. I also thought "Stationary Bike" was alittle boring. It got okay toward the last 10 pages of it, but honestly, I just didn't like it. "Willa" I enjoyed a lot. "The Gingerbread Girl" was very good and suspenseful. I also liked "Rest Stop" More...

9 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 26, 2009

Henrik rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 24, 2008

Cassie rated it:

This is a great short story collection -- subtle and thought-provoking and sometimes, of course, downright horrifying. King explores issues of death and the afterlife in quite a few stories and, as is pretty typical of his works, reveals the horror in the mundane. The best story in the collection by far is "N.," never before published, which tells of a world beyond our own and its keepers -- and their slow descents into madness.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 27, 2009

Naida rated it:

Read this book in under 12 hours. I Love Stephen King short stories and this one does not disappoint. The Stationary Bike was my favorite in this collection and it is pure King - Great imagery & dialogue and an idea that could have only come from his head.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2009

Laura rated it:

Since I bashed King for his stupid and gratuitous Kindle-only UR, it's only fair to give the devil himself his due for this collection of short stories. Of course, anyone who reads short story collections already knows the selections are uneven -- and pretty much dependent on what kind of story any given reader likes. That's pretty much true in King's Just After Sunset as well. First, although my personally favorite King stories are those that rely on psychological horror (think Misery) as oppos More...

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Feb 16, 2009

Carrie rated it:

This is a new collection of Stephen King stories, in which he show us all how it’s done. Sorry, Joe Hill, but as good as your stories were, your dad is still the master of the creepy short story. Which is not to say these are all perfect, but unlike his recent novels (which often creep to the bloated), these are lean, mean tales that get you in and out and get it done. I just enjoyed the heck out of this book.

And, at least one of them has hit me so hard that I still can’t think More...

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Feb 06, 2009

Amanda rated it:

Stephen has been on my shitlist recently. Finally though, a book of short stories, exactly what I was craving from him. Luckily, this didn't disappoint.

King has a distinct knack for short stories, drawing you in and scaring the bejeebus out of you that he just didn't do in his later novels. In short stories, you have such a limited space to tell your story so you have to be a bit more adept with words. My favorite stories are the ones that plop you right in the middle of a situation an More...

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Feb 01, 2009

Deirdre rated it:

An uneven collection of short stories that left me pleased and a little confused. There are several class A tales in the book like "A Very Tight Space," "N," "The Things They Left Behind" and "Rest Stop."

Part of what was so fascinating about the book is the introduction and end notes by King. It seems that Mr. King found himself craving the old groove he used to have when he was banging out short stories for men's magazines. It seems he edited More...

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Jan 26, 2009

Rose rated it:

I can't see me ever giving a book by The Master *less* than at least four stars -- but this was still an exceptional read. The slightly lower score is simply because of my personal preference for novels over short stories collections; I read primarily for Character, but it's a difficult thing to fall in love with a character in a short story simply because you don't get to spend that much time with them. My prejudice aside, however, this was a marvelous collection, with stories ranging from horr More...

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2008

Robert rated it:

Stephen King is back once again with a collection of short stories. Most are hit or miss here. I have read the many reviews and it seems to consist mostly of either fans who glorify the author they worship and what they read or fans that just abhor the new tales of Mr. King. Of course there is one that brings back something that Mr. King said about the Army and Iraq. I have always enjoyed reading Mr. King's novels and short stories, and even though I am in the military, I will continue to read h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

April rated it:

This came out a few years back but I had not had opportunity to read it. In short, it's SK's return to the medium that first earned him a living as a writer--the short story. There REALLY is an art to being able to let a story unfold in its entirety in the space of what would equal a mere chapter in a novel. SK's reaffirms once again that he is master of this craft.

The stories contained in Just After Sunset are all very thought provoking. I found myself relating to the stories on More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Bobby rated it:

Out of all of Stephen King’s short story collections I would say Just After Sunset sits at the bottom of the list as weakest, but that does not mean it was bad. Willa was okay. The Gingerbread Girl had something missing, I can’t put my finger on just what exactly, a little bit predictable, it feels sort of passionless. Harvey’s Dream was weird, not too much else, I don’t think the surreal aspect of Stephen King’s dream translated very well into this story. Rest Stop was weak and out of place More...

0 comments like

Aug 09, 2011

Daniel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Aug 06, 2011

Linda rated it:

Reading this book, filled with short stories written by the infamous Stephen King has made me realize something; there is not need to leave the details out of a short story simply to make it short! Recently, I have found myself reading a few anthologies, one of the things I have complained about was the lack of detail in the short story; and then, I read this Stephen King compilation.

The book consists of thirteen short stories, a brief introduction and notes concerning the book. Whi More...

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Aug 02, 2011

Ryan rated it:

This one was somewhere between a great read and a snoozer! Not anywhere near the horror that was achieved in SK's work from the 70's or 80's, although still really vindictive, and often really dreamy. The best part of this book was that I read the large print edition, what a page turner!
It didn't take long to get through this one, that is one thing I like about the short story collections of this author. I found that the style of writing for all stories concerned were somehow similar yet their s More...

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Jul 08, 2011

Scott rated it:

Early in Stephen King's amazing career, the short story was a literary form for which he was perhaps best known. "Night Shift" and "Skeleton Crew", his first two short story collections, were a treasure trove of the best of King's writing. Short stories such as "The Bogeyman", "Jerusalem's Lot", "Children of the Corn", "Trucks", and "The Mist" would be the inspiration for some of the horror films that would be made based on h More...

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Jun 12, 2011

Bojan rated it:

A few years ago I had read 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 v More...

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