If It Bleeds

At one point in time, I would have listed Stephen King as one of my favorite authors. In particular, I've song praises about his amazing ability to write compelling short stories and not just those that either keep you awake or give you nightmares. I'm not sure how much time King spent on these stories, but they seem not fully formed. Although I nearly gave up on King's books after reading the truly awful “Tommyknockers,” I will continue with other new releases as I've enjoyed “Fairy Tale” and “The Outsider,” amongst others.

The first story in “If It Bleeds” was odd. Just about everything in the story seemed set in the 1950s or 1960s except for the references to modern technology. I find it hard to believe that a man in his 60s who had been a major player in the business world had not used a cell phone or the internet by the late aughts. I was hoping the story might go the route of the cell phone turning against Mr. Harrigan in retribution for his years of harsh business practices, but no dice.

I tried to read “The Life of Chuck” and it was just boring. Shouldn't the end of the world be more exciting or would everyone go about their business?

After being disappointed by the first two stories, I flipped through the last two stories (Holly Gibney is not my favorite King character and she keeps showing up!) and then back the book went as this is the season of moving quickly to DNF when a book isn't doing it for me.