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Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 32,134 ratings · 872 reviews

International bestselling author Stephen King is in terrifying top form with his first collection of short stories in almost a decade. In this spine-chilling compilation, King takes readers down a road less traveled (for good reason) in the blockbuster e-Book "Riding the Bullet," bad table service turns bloody when you stop in for "Lunch at the Gotham Café," and terror bec...more

Paperback, 596 pages

Published December 30th 2002 by Pocket Books (first published January 1st 2002)

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Mar 20, 2013 Nelvi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 1. Everything's Eventual- It's the story of a young man that can cause people's death through his drawings. I didn't enjoy this story very much, but it is unique.

2. Autopsy Room Four: I loved this story about a man who was bit by a poisonous snake while golfing and goes into a deathlike coma. He is "awake" while in the autopsy room but can't move. He is saved by a crude but very creative means.

3. The Little Sisters of Eluria: this story is so absorbing it's like actually being there. Then once t...more

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Oct 03, 2010 Dawn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-suspense, read-in-2010

I haven't read much King, this is actually only the second book I've read by him (the first being Gunslinger). I've always wanted to get into him though, and I think this was the perfect book to start with. Fourteen short stories, a King smorgasbord, so to speak. Some I loved, some I just liked, some just weren't my thing - but overall it was a great collection. Every one was well written, and even if a story wasn't my favorite, I still found myself enjoying it. Highly recommended, and I'll defi...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Gayane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-dark-tower-related

My first thought after turning the last page: no afterword, Mr. King? I want an afterword!

There are two Dark Tower related stories in the collection - The Little Sisters of Eluria and Everything's Eventual. I reviewed the former here.

As of Everything's Eventual, it's about Dinky Earnshaw, remember him from the The Dark Tower #7? He's one of the Breakers who appears as a mail assassin in this short story. To be honest, I liked the narrative of this story the best. Dinky has a boring life (apart f...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Ben Charette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This being my first short story collection by Mr. King, I will score each story individually, and average them together (for those of you who aren't keen with math, that means I'll add them up and divide by the number of stories - in this case fourteen). In order:
(note: asterisks ***means spoilers)

Autopsy Room Four: 3
I know, Four is in the title, but somehow I still give it a 3. This story was a good example of fun old horror (and I don't actually mean fun). A man is trapped in his soon-to-be-di...more

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Jun 10, 2010 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dark-fantasy, horror-esque

3 1/2

I picked up this book for a few reasons: I was between books and undecided on what to read, I did want to read a short story collection for a group book challenge task, I had wanted to read '1408', and my b/f is a big fan of King and, thus, recommended this collection. Notice that none of these reasons include a burning desire to read it. I mention this to give my review proper context, I suppose.

As a collection of short stories, I liked some better than others - and most of this commentary...more 3 1/2

I picked up this book for a few reasons: I was between books and undecided on what to read, I did want to read a short story collection for a group book challenge task, I had wanted to read '1408', and my b/f is a big fan of King and, thus, recommended this collection. Notice that none of these reasons include a burning desire to read it. I mention this to give my review proper context, I suppose.

As a collection of short stories, I liked some better than others - and most of this commentary is found in my updates, so I don't really feel the need to expand all that much.

I do want to comment on the fact that the story for which I picked it up - 1408 - was interesting, but I think I actually preferred some of the changes the movie made, including everything with the daughter, and definitely the ending. Also, for much of the strory I was sort of chuckling to myself instead of being frightened - but this is more my b/f's fault than anything. He likes this story quite a lot, and has told me of many of the changes, and things he missed from the translation from story to screen. He's also quite fond of randomly quoting from the story at odd times...

"That's not a real plum. That's a plastic plum."
"Fuming oranges"
"Tango light!"

In other words, he's completely ruined the story for me, making it read more like a running in-joke than a story of terror. For all that, I did enjoy it, though, as I've enjoyed the movie.

Other than that, as I said in my statuses, I liked 'The Death of Jack Hamilton' and 'The Sisters of Eluria' the best. Both of these were interesting and touching and sad in parts. Poor Roland. Next were 'Everything's Eventual', parts of 'L.T.'s Theory of Pets' (particularly the part that the dividing line amongst people is not men and women, but cat-people and dog-people) and, yes, '1408'. I might've liked the autopsy story and 'Road Virus' more is I hadn't already experienced them via adaptation, too, but 'The Luckey Quarter' was so blah and predictable, I didn't think it was a good closing story at all.
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Feb 09, 2011 Milan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Stephen King, horror fans

Shelves: short-stories, owned-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. As this is a short story collection comprised of 14 individual stories, I see fit to rate each on its own, in the order in which they appear in the book.

Autopsy Room Four: ****
A suspenseful story about a man in an unfortunately tense situation: He is paralyzed after an accident, but presumed dead, and sent into an autopsy room while still alive. Unexpected twist ending.

The Man in the Black Suit: ****
An interesting tale about death.

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away: **
A story I personally co...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Walt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those with open minds who love horror and loudness.

Recommended to Walt by: Brian Osborne

SK can't help being SK. That includes profanity and poor taste. Often, it seems like it's trying fine cuisine at Denney's. Every once in a while, you'll find something that tastes excellent. Mostly it'll be when you are famished.

Month after month and year after year, he churns it out, and he has for decades and decades now. I read this collection of horror stories after the members of my reading group--mostly women--caved in to the only other male in the group besides me. Many of the women had n...more

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Jan 24, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Stephen King, Everything's Eventual (Scribner, 2002)

Rumors of Stephen King's demise have been greatly exaggerated. 2002 is gearing up to be another highly productive year for King, and he starts us off with his first short story collection since 1993, Everything's Eventual. It sure is nice to know that King doesn't feel the need to turn everything into a novel, and while his short stories have gotten longer, they still pack the punch that the early tales did. However, they pack it in a more lite...more Stephen King, Everything's Eventual (Scribner, 2002)

Rumors of Stephen King's demise have been greatly exaggerated. 2002 is gearing up to be another highly productive year for King, and he starts us off with his first short story collection since 1993, Everything's Eventual. It sure is nice to know that King doesn't feel the need to turn everything into a novel, and while his short stories have gotten longer, they still pack the punch that the early tales did. However, they pack it in a more literary style. This is great stuff. It's still recognizably King, but it's New Yorker King rather than bargain-basement porn-mag King (check the prepub credits in Night Shift).

After reading the title story in this collection, I briefly fantasized about a world where the millions of people who reflexively buy King's works who've never so much looked inside a literary magazine would bring away from this (and other such tales in this volume, notably "Luckey Quarter" and "Lunch at the Gotham Café") an understanding of the complexities and ambiguities of the modern short story such that they could crack the binding on the new issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, say, and not feel out of place. (From there, it's one step to getting them to like poetry, and than I can take over the world at leisure.) I came to my senses a few minutes later, but there's still something to be said for it. Up till now, King's stories have always been well-defined pieces of work, with strong beginnings and endings and enough happening in the middle to keep people reading. No one would ever accuse, say, "Survivor Type" or "Grey Matter" of being an ambiguous piece of writing. But King was already showing his literary hand as far back as Skeleton Crew (with the haunting story "Nona"), and he tipped it last year with the brilliant "Blind Willie." Now comes Everything's Eventual, and he's laid it on the table; this is the new King, the one I've been waiting for during the last couple of transitional releases. These stories are ambiguous, they require thinking (and sometimes leaps in logic) from the reader, and they're simply better-written than his early work. King the literary author has finally caught up with King the storyteller.

As seems almost obligatory these days, yes, there's a Dark Tower story. However, it doesn't feel as invasive as most recent Dark Tower references, because it's actually set in mid-World (rather than showing up as a reference, as in "Low Men with Yellow Coats" or Bag of Bones). It's also very much in the style of early King, despite actually being in a series, and thus begging for loose ends. Oddly, "The Little Sisters of Eluria" stands on its own more than any Dark Tower material since the first book. Go figure.

King's back, and better than he's been since The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I knew he'd get there sooner or later... (less)

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Jun 30, 2010 Maryse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: horror fans

Shelves: booksale-finds, short-stories, supernatural, books-to-film

Yeah, finally found a copy at Booksale. WooHooo :)

I adore King. I love how he twists what is completely natural into something unbelievably supernatural. And, of the (few) short stories anthologies I've read, I think I love this volume best. King seems to reached his stride in terms of short story writing with this volume, with "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French" -- a story about deja vu -- being my current favorite (to the point that scenes and voices still echo in my head day...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Dave Moore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I kept picking this up & reading a tale or two at a time. Each time I did this, I was struck by the way in which King brings a certain quality to his writing that just plain makes him better than most. He brings a certain assumption of the intelligence of his readers and gives us credit for being able to pick up the dark humor, the allusions, and the ironies he weaves. He has a unique ability to construct setting and characters so quickly and seamlessly that we have an instant picture in ou...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Peter added it · review of another edition

A 5-star dust cover: Perhaps I should read short story collections more often. They're easy to review; assign a score to each story, add 'em up, and determine the average.

So, let's apply the formula to EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL. The star values for the 14 chapters are, in the order they appear: 5, 3, 1, 1, 4, 2, 1, 3, 4, 4, 3, 5, 3, and 2. The total is 41, and the average 2.9285714. OK, ok - we'll call it 3.

The two five-stars in the lot belong to "Autopsy Room 4" and "1408". In the former, a golfer

...more A 5-star dust cover: Perhaps I should read short story collections more often. They're easy to review; assign a score to each story, add 'em up, and determine the average.

The two five-stars in the lot belong to "Autopsy Room 4" and "1408". In the former, a golfer wakes up completely paralyzed and speechless in an autopsy room. He was pronounced dead after a mysterious mishap on the green, and now they're about to autopsy his "corpse". In the latter, a skeptical writer of books about haunted places takes a room for the night in The Dolphin, a New York hotel, despite the manager's earnest attempts to dissuade him. As it turns out, the room isn't so much haunted as alive.

As an example from the other end of the spectrum, there's "The Death of Jack Hamilton", the tedious tale about the lingering demise of a mortally wounded, 1930s gangster. Or the listless "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away", in which a travling salesman contemplates suicide in a Motel 6 along I-80 west of Lincoln, NE.

I especially liked the concept of the artwork on the front dust cover of my hardback copy. It shows a blood droplet descending to the bottom of a water-filled goblet standing amidst a table setting. It was inspired by the 4-star "Lunch At the Gotham Cafe".

In "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" (3 stars), I discovered a nugget which, if not wisdom, is a nicely phrased metaphor about emotional volatility in marriage:

"In marriage, words are like rain. And the land of a marriage is filled with dry washes and arroyos that can become raging rivers in almost the wink of an eye."

In the Introduction, author Stephen King asserts that writing short stories is, for him at least, an exercise in "dues paying". Indeed, he states that writing these fourteen was not so pleasurable except for "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" and the title story, "Everything's Eventual". But for the fact that King desires to keep alive the art of the Short Story, it therefore wasn't clear to me why he needs the bother regardless of the entertainment value afforded the reader. Hasn't he paid his dues to the literary world?

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Jan 25, 2009 Jared rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An absolute must read. This book is a compilation of 14 short-stories written by Steve. There are a few stories that are good one-timers, but there's also a few that I find myself reading over and over again. My favorites are "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" and "The man in the Black Suit." Steve won an award for the latter, which deals with a young boy who goes fishing in a creek out in the woods and has an encounter with the embodiment of evil. The man appears from the deep, dirty woods, but as the...more

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Jan 02, 2009 I.haveanidea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone.

Autopsy Room 4: Hilarious, and really well written. But...just hilarious.

The Man in the Black Suit: Really cool and well written, if anything keeps you up at night.

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away: REALLY great little story, up to the climatic point and every little detail preceding it. I don't remember if he dies or not (or it doesn't say), but any of those things would still make it great.

The Death of Jack Hamilton: This book just keeps on giving with this one, a short little "biography"...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Donald Kendall (The Goremet) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For me part of the enjoyment of a King book is in the presentation. All of the stories in Everything's Eventual are very unique; some are sad and others are just for fun. Some are thrilling, fascinating and gory while others are epic. The title of this collection (and the story itself) is wonderful. So why did I rate this one only 4? Again, I like presentation. the cover art is awesome and if you start from the front cover and go left towards the back it gets bloodier....love it. The fact that t...more

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May 29, 2013 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-author, horror

I keep forgetting I've read this, so I always start reading it again. This probably isn't a good sign, but it could be typical of most short story compilations : some good, some bad, some mediocre. So, without reading it again, I'll list the stories I remember. It won't be all, but dang it, I need to move on.

The good: Little Sisters of Eluria, The Road Virus Heads North (this is particularly memorable somehow), Lunch at the Gotham Cafe (also very memorable), Man in the Black Suit. L.T's Theory o...more

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May 21, 2013 Jonathan Janz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*This review was originally published on my blog (http://jonathanjanz.com) and focuses on the story "The Road Virus Heads North" (though I've read the whole collection and certainly believe it's worthy of five stars). Here's the link: http://jonathanjanz.com/2011/10/08/th... ‎

Stephen King's Everything's Eventual is loaded with great stories. In addition to the one I'm about to discuss, the collection contains "1408," "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," and a cool entry into the Dark Tower canon called "...more *This review was originally published on my blog (http://jonathanjanz.com) and focuses on the story "The Road Virus Heads North" (though I've read the whole collection and certainly believe it's worthy of five stars). Here's the link: http://jonathanjanz.com/2011/10/08/th... ‎

Stephen King's Everything's Eventual is loaded with great stories. In addition to the one I'm about to discuss, the collection contains "1408," "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," and a cool entry into the Dark Tower canon called "The Little Sisters of Eluria."

So in a collection packed with great stories, why'd I choose to blog about "Virus"?

Let me try to explain...

First of all, like Stephen King---and I'll shamelessly seize any opportunity to be like my favorite writer ever---I love stories about pictures. Specifically, I love stories about pictures that change. King has worked in this shadowy corner before, notably in "The Sun Dog," and it's a territory into which other great authors (T.E.D. Klein's unforgettable novella "Petey" comes to mind) have ventured as well. So is this tale King's most original?

I don't give a crap. Sure, sometimes it's dazzling to find an author blazing a completely new trail, but for me it's just as exciting to see a master take a tattered old idea and breathe new life into it.

Like "The Road Virus Heads North."

It's about a horror author who finds a rather...arresting painting at a garage sale. The painting has a macabre backstory that I don't want to ruin here, but as we'd expect from a horror author (a bizarre species prone to excessive curiosity), he purchases the piece and continues, well, north.

The name Richard Kinnell reminds me of both Richard Bachman (King's pseudonym) and Dr. Richard Kimble of The Fugitive fame; whether or not either of these connections are intentional, they both add texture to the character for me. I don't want to give away what happens in this story, but if you've been reading, you'll already know that the painting changes. How it changes and where it changes and how Richard reacts to these changes and what these changes mean for Richard and those with whom he comes into contact...all of these are what make the tale so elegant and ghastly.

As has been pointed out by people far smarter than I, horror is the only genre named after an emotion (although I felt a bit "men's adventury" today when I attempted to parallel park in a space two inches longer than my car). That's because horror can affect the reader in a very unique way. And man, did this tale affect me. I felt dread when the first layers of the mystery peeled away to reveal just how sinister the painting might be. I felt terror when Richard Kinnell realized that the picture could defy physics and reason. And I felt horror during those last few pages when...

Read the story. It's a darn good one. (less)

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Mar 07, 2013 Angel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I chose this book because I read "The Green Mile" and decided to see if his short stories were as awesome as his regular novels. There were definitely some stories that were better than others. The one about Roland and how he's trapped with these women who are dangerous took me a week to read since I really wasn't interested. Overall, this was an interesting book to read although I prefer his novels, which are sometimes slow, but rewarding. My favorite quote is from King's commentary before one...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Sergei Franson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, creepy

I've only been exposed to King through a terrifying scene I found on YOUTUBE from the movie IT. The scene showed a group of children, crowded around a TV (picture, window?) where a clown was dancing down a street, and it saw the children in the screen, and ran to the screen, climbed a lamp post an said (screamed, cried, something) to the children. It was no Five Children and It, it was King's IT. From the scene I have grown to expect total fear from King's book. If you want to be scared, don't r...more

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May 22, 2012 Erik Hanley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

This was my first introduction to Stephen King back in my Sophomore year of high school and it started my love for his work. King is a master of the short story, I think it's more his element than novels, even. Every story in here sticks with you, I can remember every one in detail because they were both so unusual and so brilliant.

Autopsy Room Four I remember was the first one that I read in the collection and it was fantastic. It's reminicent of the stories people say of going into surgery but...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Close your eyes and imagine being on an autopsy table parralyzed and unable to move yet the people about to slice into thought you were long dead. This is just one example of the page turners Stephen King put into this "collection" of stories.I am steadily becoming a stephen king addict, and would like to start by saying that this particlular book is a little out of the ordinary for him........
I absolutely loved it. This book featured fourteen short stories written by King. All of these were h...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Leah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am of the opinion that no author alive better understands the complexities of horror like Stephen King. His understanding of what terrifies us transcends conventional horrors like monsters and murderers. His story, "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" is about a married woman on a car ride repeating a gruesome event over and over again. It is implied in this story that the wife and her husband have been killed and are suffering eternal torment. It is essentially the myth of Si...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Kate Canan Rizzo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While I'm not usually a fan of short stories, due to the unsatisfying feeling that the story's not really over, King usually triumphs in his 14-story compilation. "Autopsy Room 4" is the hardest story to read, even for a non-squeamish person like myself. "The Man in the Black Suit," "Everything's Eventual," "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" and "Riding the Bullet" are nearly perfect short stories, leaving the reader needing nothing more.

Yet, there are some stories that fall sh...more

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May 03, 2011 6jaydony added it · review of another edition

Everything’s Eventual

By Steven King

The book “Everything’s Eventual” by Steven King is a book about 14 dark tales that all tell a lesson in a way that we can understand. The book starts out with a story of a man in his forties and he is brought into an autopsy room and has been killed while golfing when he went into the bushes. It is very unfortunate that he had to go at such a ripe age, the even more unfortunate fact is that he is still alive! He is paralyzed and cant move a wink! What will he d...more

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Apr 19, 2011 Clint rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

I stopped reading Stephen King when I was 13, I can't remember which book was out then, Four Past Midnight or Needful Things. I can't remember why exactly, I think it was moving on to Clive Barker and HP Lovecraft, then I got into all kinds of literature and rarely read horror at all anymore. But a couple of months ago I read Under the Dome on a whim, and decided I like Stephen King again. Sometimes I get so mentally tired putting up with pretentious shit and Stephen King is exactly what I want....more

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Jan 25, 2011 Alex Telander rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2002

It has been almost a decade since Stephen King released a short story collection, with Nightmares & Dreamscapes, released in 1993; and while his latest novel, From a Buick Eight, was slated for release this month, it was pushed back to September in lieu of a release of these fourteen dark tales entitled Everything’s Eventual.

What makes this collection different from any other by this bestselling author is that in the nine years since Nightmares & Dreamscapes King has made a lot of bold a...more It has been almost a decade since Stephen King released a short story collection, with Nightmares & Dreamscapes, released in 1993; and while his latest novel, From a Buick Eight, was slated for release this month, it was pushed back to September in lieu of a release of these fourteen dark tales entitled Everything’s Eventual.

What makes this collection different from any other by this bestselling author is that in the nine years since Nightmares & Dreamscapes King has made a lot of bold adventures in the publishing world. He wrote a shot story that was only published in ebook form called “Riding the Bullet” which is included in this collection: a boy catches a ride with a dead person. He released an audiobook collection of three short stories (which are all included in this collection): “Lunch at the Gotham Café, about a chef who goes shitfire (a Kingism) in a restaurant and starts cutting people up; “1408,” about a haunted hotel room that is visited by a ghost hunter who has yet to see a real ghost; and “In the Death Room,” about a reporter who is caught by a Columbian drug cartel and tortured in new and interesting ways.

In his introduction, King makes a pleat for readers to bring back to life short-story collections that are going the way of Dickens and James. “The Little Sisters of Eluria” gives you Dark Tower fans a sidebar on one of Roland’s “tests” on his way to the infamous tower. “L.T.’s Theory of Pets” was originally a short story published in audiobook form last September, but is now on paper for the first time. Also included in Everything’s Eventual are three stories that King published in the New Yorker. There is also the title story, which was originally only available on the Stephen King CD-ROM F13

“Autopsy Room Four” tells the unique story about a man who appears dead to the outside world, but on the inside is very much alive. “The Road Virus Heads North” is about a picture bought by the main character on his trip home, but as he watches the painting along his travels, he notices that the picture is changing. King also adds a bit of info on each story, telling of how he originally came up with the concept.

On a final note, while Stephen King has not officially announced to the world that he is turning in his pen and quitting the writing business, he has claimed that he will write five more books (including Everything’s Eventual) and then decide where to go from there. What he has promised to the fans is the completion of the Dark Tower series, so all we can do in the meantime is wait for From a Buick Eight in September, and then for the fifth Dark Tower book – Wolves of the Calla – some time in 2003 and hope.

Originally published on March 18th 2002.

For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.(less)

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Nov 22, 2010 Meredith Enos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: b-plus-reading

So, the summer before sixth grade I read "The Stand" and that pretty much changed my life. It was a lot of things: what happens after the end of the world? How do you pick out good and evil? Where would I get food and supplies if that were me (when Costco opened, I was palpably relieved--no joke)? And the scene where Fran buries her dad will probably stay with me my entire life.

And then, when I was in eighth grade, I read "Different Seasons," and that changed my life some more. At that point, I...more So, the summer before sixth grade I read "The Stand" and that pretty much changed my life. It was a lot of things: what happens after the end of the world? How do you pick out good and evil? Where would I get food and supplies if that were me (when Costco opened, I was palpably relieved--no joke)? And the scene where Fran buries her dad will probably stay with me my entire life.

And then, when I was in eighth grade, I read "Different Seasons," and that changed my life some more. At that point, I had become interested in writing, so I was hooked by the characterization, the coolness of the novella, the pacing.

I was a Stephen King-reading fiend, but my interest petered out during the Dark Tower series. First, it was interminable. Second, by this time I was in high school and a lot more interested in doing other things on Saturday nights than reading novels. And finally, I think I just got tired of being scared silly and by the style of it, and the feeling that everything shitty happens in Maine. So I took a break from Stephen King for, um, 15 years or so. "Everything's Eventual" is my third foray into Stephen King as an adult (The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was all right, but just slightly patronizing in tone) and Lisey's Story (good, but slightly self indulgent). "Everything's Eventual" came out between those two works, and to me is a really good example of how life feeds art, how this whole damn thing is a craft, and how art helps you, I guess, deal with life.

First off, I really admire Stephen King and his work ethic. He just keeps writing, and he keeps writing about different things. He doesn't even care that something's been written before (In the intros to "Riding the Bullet" and "1408" he straight up says "this is my version of the XXX story"), he'll write it anyway, with his flavor, even if he doesn't really add anything to the, say, "hitchhiker picked up by a ghost" storytelling fabric. "Riding the Bullet" is a way for him to ruminate on his own mother's death (I'm not analyzing this--he says it in the intro), not the only way surely, but a creative response to a real-life event. The whole collection seems like a good snapshot of where he is in his life, actually.

Some parts are still crude, some parts still have that great horror-movie pacing, that great word choice designed to freak you out the most. A few parts are actually scary. But most of it is, frankly, better than that. Maybe it's just because they are short stories (but having read three other of his collections, I doubt it), but he's not as long-winded as before. The narrators are confident in their tales, and the tales themselves don't have to rely on shock value. They are stories about characters and the things that shape them, how their perspectives change based on things they've experienced, secrets they've kept or uncovered, things they've done that they're ashamed of. There's more subtlety.

I look forward to, maybe, five or eight books from now. Judging by "Lisey's Story," and the thing with the boob, he's not past the theatrics. I think he's on his way, though, to really blowing the doors off the genre. So I give it an extra star because this work promises greater things from him.(less)

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Jul 23, 2010 Jerry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

King's vivid imagination > 14 tales that please and scare !

Maybe the most prolific, influential writer of our times, his name synonymous with the "horror" genre, Stephen King gives us here his sixth (depending how you count a couple of his books) collection of short stories, a medium for which he makes an impassioned plea in an introductory essay. Of the 14 tales, half are under 30 pages, which will please the folks who like "one sitting" opportunities to finish something. The longest one, "...more

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Apr 16, 2010 Brett Starr rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great collection of Stephen King's short stories!

Unlike alot of reviewers, I haven't read alot of Stephen King, I've never read one of his novels yet and other then a few of his short stories in magazines over the years, this was my 1st King book.

I'm a big fan of the movies, "Stand By Me", "The Shawshank Redemption", "Hearts in Atlantis" and "1408". I figured if King wrote all these great movies as (short stories) first, maybe I should be reading his other work.

"Everything's Eventual" has 1...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Bryce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three and a half stars, really.

I’ve always thought that Stephen King excels at short form. He’s able to build realistic, sympathetic characters is just a few pages and he doesn’t always rely on the twist ending, like so many other authors of short stories. There are no “classic” stories here – for me, the never-forget SK shorts are The Jaunt, Quitter’s Inc., and Survivor Type – but if you like his other collections, Everything’s Eventual will not disappoint.

Some highlights (and low-lights) inc...more

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Jan 14, 2010 BarkLessWagMore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, horror

I listened to a few of these stories in audio format.

The first story “The Man In The Black Suit” tells a dark edged tale laced with grief that centers around a young boy and his fear of losing his Mom. Out fishing one day the boy has a run-in with the devil who attempts to take advantage of his fear. It manages to be creepy, funny and heartbreaking and the characters come to vivid life. This is a story I’ll be rereading before passing along.

Next up is "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" abo...more I listened to a few of these stories in audio format.

The first story “The Man In The Black Suit” tells a dark edged tale laced with grief that centers around a young boy and his fear of losing his Mom. Out fishing one day the boy has a run-in with the devil who attempts to take advantage of his fear. It manages to be creepy, funny and heartbreaking and the characters come to vivid life. This is a story I’ll be rereading before passing along.

Next up is "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" about a suicidal traveling salesman with a quirky habit of collecting little snippets of bathroom graffiti in a notebook. As he contemplates suicide and the trauma it will have on his wife and young daughter he reviews his favorites for what may or may not be the last time. This was a downright gloomy story filled with despair and hopelessness about a lonely life spent on the road. There’s an itsy bitsy glimmer of hope at the very end and the emotion felt very real but I wish I hadn’t “read” this one in such an intimate format. I can deal with gloominess, darkness and all the grossness you can splatter at me but a suicidal father is something I never, ever wish to read about if I can avoid it.

“The Death of Jack Hamilton” takes a step back in time. It’s all about a gang of bank robbers, one who is gravely wounded, running from the law. I’m not a big fan of this sort of thing but King’s voice managed to hold my attention. His characters are full of color and wit even when facing down death. It’s also very gruesome. It’s a good thing I have a cast iron stomach because brilliantly insisted upon listening to the bullet removal scene while eating lunch.

The final story, “You Can Only Say What It Is in French “, features a long-time married couple on their way to their second honeymoon. While traveling, the wife has an odd sense of déjà vu and “sees” some disturbing images. She knows bad things are going to happen to her husband. She’s seen his glasses melt right into his face amongst other gruesome images. She also knows she can prevent them if she changes one thing in their routine but, for reasons that are explained later on, isn’t compelled to do so. As the story begins she appears to adore her husband who has given her riches beyond her greatest expectation and seems to have been a decent guy during their time together. As the story progresses it turns out he’s done some not-so-nice things along the way. He’s also the reason why she feels she is doomed to burn forever in hell if those Christian School teachers of her past have their way. This was entertaining but slightly predictable.(less)

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About Stephen King

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 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 was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

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Quotes from Everything's Eventual:...

“This is nine! Nine! This is nine! Nine! This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is six! Six!"
[...]
"Eighteen! This is now eighteen! Take cover when the siren sounds! This is four! Four!"
[...]
"Five! This is five! Ignore the siren! Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room! Eight! This is eight!"
[...]
"Six!' the phone screamed. 'Six, this is six, this is goddam fucking SIX!” — 19 people liked it

“Luck was a joke. Even good luck was just bad luck with its hair combed.” — 9 people liked it

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