July 2024 Group Read #1 - You Like it Darker by Stephen King

[Alan]

Our first group read for July is Stephen King's newest, You Like it Darker.

Please remember to use page/chapter numbers and spoiler tags as necessary when discussing.

Happy reading!

[Giovanni]

already in:)

[K.L.]

read it the week it came out, there are some great stories in this collection

[Kasia]

Super curious to everyone's opinions on these stories, I finished the audiobook last week and really had a great time with them. Also the Afterword was super interesting.

[Michael]

I recently finished this and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then again, I've always been partial to Stephen King's short stories and novellas. Because everything is more focused and self-contained. There is less room for Mr. King to wander into some god-forsaken pasture he didn't need to visit and drag us into. And in that regard, this collection doesn't disappoint.

(view spoiler)["Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream" (hide spoiler)] is easily the best story in this collection. Followed pretty dang closely by (view spoiler)["Rattlesnakes," at 89 pages. (hide spoiler)] Both are creepy, fun, original, and engaging as hell. Some other stories are also very good, though a couple are also duds—free of the "darkness" that the title of this collection promises (view spoiler)["The Turbulence Expert" (hide spoiler)] is such a story.

Glad I read this. When Mr. King is on, he continues to impress. And he was on most of the time here, though he could also have been "darker" with some of these stories.

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

I'm currently reading through this collection and enjoying it. I find the title interesting. There was a time when Stephen King was, well, the King of dark fiction. But authors keep pushing the boundaries of how dark readers want their stories to be. I was curious to see exactly how dark King makes these stories!

[Julliana]

Read it, hated it. Nothing dark about it. The title should be “You Like it Lighter”.

[Ina]

Too bad I have started it and didn't save it for July. :/

[Kimberly]

I've finished this one already, and found some pretty good stories in it. Interested to see which are other people's favorites.

[Alondra]

Just finished and it was so comforting; at times creepy, yes; but comforting nonetheless. :)

[Ginger]

Glad to see this won! I loved the collection and curious to see what are favorites for the group. Enjoy all!

[Tanner]

Read the first six stories. My favorite so far is Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream.

[°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Kat Reads °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･]

I just bought this a couple weeks ago! Can’t wait to get started!

[Jay]

I'm on vacation this week and picked up a copy of this book. If I can stay on track, I'd love to follow along with the group read.

[Amanda]

If you have already finished this one, please comment your favorite story here!

[Jade]

Hi everyone! I have a copy of You Like it Darker, but I haven't done a group read yet. Can someone give me a quick rundown of how the group read will go?

[Alan]

You just read at your own pace, comment as you wish. For reference, just use pages/chapter numbers (I'm up to chapter 4) or in a case of a collection which story you're on (just read "such and such"), and avoid posting spoilers. If you do want to comment with something that could be a spoiler, put it between spoiler tags
< spoiler> blah blah blah < /spoiler> (minus the spaces after the <'s)

[Jade]

Thank you Alan! I’ll start on July 1 :) excited for this!

[MM]

Kasia wrote: "Super curious to everyone's opinions on these stories, I finished the audiobook last week and really had a great time with them. Also the Afterword was super interesting."

Do you recommend the audiobook? Thinking of doing the audio vs physical copy this time

[Kaley]

Really excited to read this one! I'm a huge King fan but this one will be new to me.

[Kandice]

MM wrote: "Kasia wrote: "Super curious to everyone's opinions on these stories, I finished the audiobook last week and really had a great time with them. Also the Afterword was super interesting."

Do you rec..."

Wil Patton reads it and he is phenomenal.

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

Kandice wrote: "Wil Patton reads it and he is phenomenal."

I didn't realize he narrates these stories. I intentionally seek out books on Audible that he narrates just because he does such a great job with them. I got hooked on his narrations after listening to the Bill Hodges books and The Outsider. 🖤

[Nicole]

Just got my copy from the library, hoping I enjoy this one more than If It Bleeds lol

[Jessica]

I loved the audiobook. Will Patton does a great job and Stephen King also narrates a bit on it and does great as well.

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

For those who have read the first few stories, I'd love to discuss Finn.

I was tracking with the story and loving it until (view spoiler)[the very end! What was that about? It felt like a "who shot JR?" move for those of you old enough to be familiar with the TV show Dallas and it's unsatisfying ending. Did anyone not feel cheated out of the ending of this story? (hide spoiler)]

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

So far my favorite story is (view spoiler)[Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream. (hide spoiler)] I just have a few stories left now. I just started Rattlesnakes.

[Jessica]

Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem) wrote: "For those who have read the first few stories, I'd love to discuss Finn.

I was tracking with the story and loving it until [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[The mob boss was crazy and didn't believe he had the wrong guy so his crew turned against him, killed him and released Finn. Oh and they also gave him his money back, lol. It was an ok story, not one of my favorites but still fun. (hide spoiler)]

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

Jessica wrote: "[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[Right! I loved all of that! The crazy mob boss was a fun twist. 😅 But the very last few paragraphs threw me. Finn's thinking it's all too good to be true, so it must be a dream. And we don't really know if he is just dreaming it or not. Not getting a definitive answer to that question made my brain scream! Haha. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem) wrote: "Jessica wrote: "[spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I took it more as a figure of speech, like he couldn't believe that just happened and now he's free. 😀 (hide spoiler)]

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

Jessica wrote: "[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[Oh!! Haha. I have a long history of overthinking everything. I like your interpretation better than mine! (hide spoiler)]

😂🖤

[MM]

Kandice wrote: "MM wrote: "Kasia wrote: "Super curious to everyone's opinions on these stories, I finished the audiobook last week and really had a great time with them. Also the Afterword was super interesting."
..."

Awesome! Thank you! I will do the audiobook, I'm fairly new to them so I am excited to hear him narrate the stories

[Kimberly]

Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem) wrote: "For those who have read the first few stories, I'd love to discuss Finn.

I was tracking with the story and loving it until [spoilers removed]"

I felt FINN was (view spoiler)[ more of a dark comedy/horror mash up. The mob boss had gone crazy at some point, and his men eventually let Finn go due to this realization. (hide spoiler)]

[Jade]

I just finished the first story... and I hope these next ones start living up to the title of the book. Nothing felt dark at all, so maybe I'm missing the point or some context? I had some expectations for what "darker" meant, but I'm still hopeful! The story was good overall, but just not what I expected to start out with.

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

Jade wrote: "I just finished the first story... and I hope these next ones start living up to the title of the book. Nothing felt dark at all, so maybe I'm missing the point or some context? I had some expectat..."

Yeah. "Darker" feels very subjective. What's darker to some may not be so dark to others. I hope you find some of the other stories in the collection truly darker, Jade! 🖤

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

Kimberly wrote: "Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem) wrote: "For those who have read the first few stories, I'd love to discuss Finn.

I was tracking with the story and loving it until [spoilers removed]"

I felt FINN w..."

Thanks for your thoughts, Kimberly! I appreciate the input. 😊 I guess (view spoiler)[my disappointment came at the end that felt so ambiguous to me. I did enjoy the dark comedy of the situations throughout the story. I just wanted to know what truly happened to Finn at the end. Like I mentioned to Jessica above, I tend to read too much into things and I like things wrapped up neatly with bows with no questions unanswered. Haha. I can't expect that with every story! (hide spoiler)]

[Canavan]

A few posts here about the story “Finn”, so I thought I’d post my own very vague thoughts. (I posted something similar in another group a few days ago.)

(view spoiler)[My initial impression while reading this story was that King was revisiting ideas found in “In the Deathroom” (2000), but then towards the end “Finn” veers off in a somewhat unexpected direction. King makes an explicit reference to Ambrose Bierce’s famous tale, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The difference is that while Bierce makes clear that his protagonist’s flight is illusory, King leaves the truth of Finn’s escape ambiguous. Whether the reader embraces or rejects that degree of uncertainty is, I suppose, a matter of personal preference. On a side note, Finn’s actions in the final moments on the Twisty reminded me a bit of Cobb’s spinning totem at the very end of the Nolan film Inception. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½

[Tiffany]

I just got the book. I’m in on this one.

[Kaitlan]

Alright, I'll give this one a shot. I've participated in the group reads in the past but I have been pretty inactive on Goodreads for the past year or so. I'm finally coming out of a depressive slump and I'm really hoping this book can help me get back into reading regularly.

[Jade]

You guys I’m so close to DNFing for now😂 I’m not really feeling these first 4 stories. They’re not bad per se, but they are not horror. Anybody have some inspiration?

[Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem)]

Jade wrote: "You guys I’m so close to DNFing for now😂 I’m not really feeling these first 4 stories. They’re not bad per se, but they are not horror. Anybody have some inspiration?"

Please keep going! My absolute favorite of the bunch is "Rattlesnakes." That one gave me some really creepy vibes. I had to pause my reading every once in a while because of it. As it is with a lot of his short story collections, some are way the heck out there somewhere or just plain different instead of scary. But there are scary treasures thrown in as well. :)

[Jade]

Theresa (mysteries.and.mayhem) wrote: "Jade wrote: "You guys I’m so close to DNFing for now😂 I’m not really feeling these first 4 stories. They’re not bad per se, but they are not horror. Anybody have some inspiration?"

Please keep goi..."

Thank you! I'll keep going. I think my expectations have just gotten the best of me this time around.

[Jeff]

Cheated and started reading Sunday.....about 1/2 thru book.

I am agreeing with Thresa....



Jeff Mc

[Stacey]

Just finished. I really enjoyed but not sure it was really super dark overall. Did anyone else find Laurie to be familiar? Not all of it, mostly the ending. I really liked the answer man as well as the 2 favorites of others.

[Jade]

Ok. Rattlesnakes was pretty good. That felt like Stephen King to me, but the rest were a bit different. Am I the only one who was wishing The Turbulence Expert was longer? That was a cool premise imo

[Kasia]

The darkness in some of these stories was very subtle and it was a nice contrast to the more intense ones, its hard to have a collection where everything just hits you over the head. Guess it kept me on my toes, where will the blow come from if there is one lol.

Just my take on this short story collection but I listened to the audiobook while hanging out in my backyard a lot and it was a really nice way to pass these past few hot summer days. I actually had it playing from my laptop but we have a canopy over and lots of trees and bushes all around but I got nervous if I'm spoiling anything for my neighbors lol, I had to watch my kid so I couldn't do ear buds for it.

[Kimberly]

Kasia wrote: "The darkness in some of these stories was very subtle and it was a nice contrast to the more intense ones, its hard to have a collection where everything just hits you over the head. Guess it kept ..."

This is the perfect spot!!!
I found this to be a good mix of psychological, and some lesser "horrors". It stretched the boundary of horror at times, in my opinion. I personally loved The Answer Man, and the idea behind Rattlesnakes.

[Jeff]

Finished it......

Were the stories "darker"? IMHO NO.

Didn't think it was up to his earlier collections - Skeleton crew, Night Shift etc.

"Rattlesnakes" was good....."Danny Coughlin's" reminded me of "Les Misérables".....and "On the Side Inn Road" was certainly a riff on Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find".....O'Connor wrote what I believe is known as Southern Gothic...but I might be wrong.

Not bad...but not his best collection...


Jeff Mc

[C]

I'm only 2 stories in...so far it's OK. Hoping it gets darker.

[Erika]

This cover looks good for the season--like a summer vacation to an island.

[Pisces51]

I read You Like It Darker in May and it had some good stories. Dark? No. However, there was an underlying current of the short time we have on this earth. There are different definitions of dark. The final story is about abruptly one day it is the end of the world. I like King and other collections have contained more enjoyable stories for me.