Best Novella and/or short story collection

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Blake

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Feb 18, 2013
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That's one thing good about my father, he wasn't abusive, he just drank, and talked rubbish, till 3am, politics. You don't know, you what you know. I have to work hard and you don''t no nothing. The Communists will take over once something happens. (Why did you get kicked out of America?) I was having a few drinks in Texas there and in a place, and there was a cop, I got in a fight and he brought some more cops. They bashed me bad, my son.
 
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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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You have to try your best. I listened to this barmaid, she said to this guy who bought a drink(I'm always looking out a window) she said she had an abusive partner(she looked 29) and she was moving to Ireland. The guy asked her why she was moving to Ireland and she said both her parents were from there.
...and playing left field.......
 

Brittney

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Apr 9, 2018
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Full Dark No Stars
what was your favorite story out of this collection? Big driver struck a cord with me although it was very graphic,
i loved that tess escaped, got her revenge, and survived. i had tears of happiness for this character.
All in all i really loved this book. I read it on my kindle but i love it so much i think i want to buy a hard copy
 
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Brittney

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Apr 9, 2018
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I still haven't read skeleton crew but its on my long list of things to read! But out of the ones i have read i have gone back and reread nightmare and dreamscapes. I love the chattery teeth story. I dont know why but its one of my favorites and the story about the never ending finger is catchy. I reread that one thinking is there a hidden meaning, did the man lose his mind? did he kill his wife thinking it was something else made up in his mind? but the way the story ends I can't help but think it really is about a finger :D which is clever and unique. I read this first in high school and I was like how does he think of this stuff! haha. When i reread it i thought the same thing but with a smile on my face and still as intrigued as ever. What story was the one where the guy was riding in his sports car and it kept getting closer? or the painting kept changing? i loved that one. I read it at night and i was thoroughly spooked! my heart raced a little on that one!
 

not_nadine

Comfortably Roont
Nov 19, 2011
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Nice to see these threads coming back.

Vote Night Shift.

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Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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I think Different Seasons and Full Dark, No Stars are his best written novella collections but I keep coming back to my initiation into King's work and Four Past Midnight was the one I read early on that snagged my attention and dazzled me. I remember my English teacher pulling me aside after class and telling me about this strange story she was reading about a boy who gets a Polaroid camera for his birthday and how all hell breaks loose. To this day, I remember the glint of excitement in her eyes as she talked about this collection and how she knew with me she'd won another convert.

1068365.jpg
 
Feb 27, 2020
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I don't think anyone has mentioned 'Just After Dark' yet, but that one is criminally underrated in imo. A masterful collection of short punches in the gut, very tightly written and great examples of the craft. Within a page of many of these stories, I connected to the characters more than to the protagonists of some big novels by King.

As for the novellas, I really like them all for very different reasons. 'Full Dark, No Stars' was his first collection that I read, and that still holds a special place, 'Different Seasons' is iconic, but it has a bit of (dare I say?) cheap sentimentality at times. 'Four Past Midnight' is the one that keeps fascinating me the most, and from which I once in a while reread a random novella. So I'll go with that one.
 

Moderator

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I don't think anyone has mentioned 'Just After Dark' yet, but that one is criminally underrated in imo. A masterful collection of short punches in the gut, very tightly written and great examples of the craft. Within a page of many of these stories, I connected to the characters more than to the protagonists of some big novels by King.

As for the novellas, I really like them all for very different reasons. 'Full Dark, No Stars' was his first collection that I read, and that still holds a special place, 'Different Seasons' is iconic, but it has a bit of (dare I say?) cheap sentimentality at times. 'Four Past Midnight' is the one that keeps fascinating me the most, and from which I once in a while reread a random novella. So I'll go with that one.
Welcome to the Board!
 
Feb 27, 2020
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Thank you! :)

Maybe a bit about myself: I started reading King in 2006, when I was 11. The first one I picked up was 'Misery', and it's also the novel I have read the most. I read King until around 2013, when he kinda disappeared from my life. I had read about 35 of his books and started to get interested in all kinds of literature and different authors, and only really picked him up again when 'The Institute' came out. I loved it, and right now I'm on a nostalgic King-binge again!
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
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Just north of Duma Key
I don't think anyone has mentioned 'Just After Dark' yet, but that one is criminally underrated in imo. A masterful collection of short punches in the gut, very tightly written and great examples of the craft. Within a page of many of these stories, I connected to the characters more than to the protagonists of some big novels by King.

As for the novellas, I really like them all for very different reasons. 'Full Dark, No Stars' was his first collection that I read, and that still holds a special place, 'Different Seasons' is iconic, but it has a bit of (dare I say?) cheap sentimentality at times. 'Four Past Midnight' is the one that keeps fascinating me the most, and from which I once in a while reread a random novella. So I'll go with that one.
Hi and welcome.
 

king family fan

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Jul 19, 2010
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I don't think anyone has mentioned 'Just After Dark' yet, but that one is criminally underrated in imo. A masterful collection of short punches in the gut, very tightly written and great examples of the craft. Within a page of many of these stories, I connected to the characters more than to the protagonists of some big novels by King.

As for the novellas, I really like them all for very different reasons. 'Full Dark, No Stars' was his first collection that I read, and that still holds a special place, 'Different Seasons' is iconic, but it has a bit of (dare I say?) cheap sentimentality at times. 'Four Past Midnight' is the one that keeps fascinating me the most, and from which I once in a while reread a random novella. So I'll go with that one.
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