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The Green Mile #5
Night Journey
The Green Mile, Stephen King’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel, was first published twenty years ago in six original paperback installments. Inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks about an innocent man on death row, The Green Mile is now available for the first time in e-serial form. Night Journey is Volume Five.
Prison Warden Hal Moores isn’t just Paul Edgecombe’s boss—Hal and his wife Melinda are also friends with Paul and his wife Janice. When Paul learns that Melinda has a brain tumor, he realizes that John Coffey can use his astonishing gift to heal her. Though Paul understands that the warden would never allow John to leave the prison, and Melinda can’t enter it, he also knows that John is Melinda’s only hope for survival. And so Paul and other E Block guards devise a dangerous plan that risks their jobs—not something to take lightly in 1932—as well as their lives. They decide to spirit John away into the night and beyond the confines of the Green Mile.
Prison Warden Hal Moores isn’t just Paul Edgecombe’s boss—Hal and his wife Melinda are also friends with Paul and his wife Janice. When Paul learns that Melinda has a brain tumor, he realizes that John Coffey can use his astonishing gift to heal her. Though Paul understands that the warden would never allow John to leave the prison, and Melinda can’t enter it, he also knows that John is Melinda’s only hope for survival. And so Paul and other E Block guards devise a dangerous plan that risks their jobs—not something to take lightly in 1932—as well as their lives. They decide to spirit John away into the night and beyond the confines of the Green Mile.
90 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 25, 1996
55 people are currently reading
8675 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,499 books886k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, 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 them. 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 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 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 met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. 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 were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English 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.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and 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 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 met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. 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 were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 276 reviews
May 27, 2020
Paul comes up with a very courageous plan to save Melly's life. What is John Coffey's role? This is a very dark and eerie adventure our Cellblock E team is into. It's a real night journey. Couldn't put it down and had to finish in one session. Now we reach the final leg, the last part. Highly recommended!
February 9, 2017
Still excellent, but this time quite subversive in a christian way. :)
Do a good turn for the Warden? Well, playing Jesus usually doesn't come with bugs, so that's delightfully gross. :) Lots of action this time, and we're reaching the crescendo of the Green Mile novellas.
It's taking a near super-human effort to keep myself from just going ahead and reading through. How did the ancient peoples over a century ago ever stand it? Serials are a thing of the devil.
Do a good turn for the Warden? Well, playing Jesus usually doesn't come with bugs, so that's delightfully gross. :) Lots of action this time, and we're reaching the crescendo of the Green Mile novellas.
It's taking a near super-human effort to keep myself from just going ahead and reading through. How did the ancient peoples over a century ago ever stand it? Serials are a thing of the devil.
February 24, 2022
**4.5 stars**
We are approaching the end.
I mean we all know or can guess what’s going to happen in the end. But the quotient of anxiety is so well-balanced here with the wondrous, fantasy quotient that, unlike other Stephen King books, you won’t actually hurry through the pages to find out what will happen next or so. Brilliant as usual, but a bit emotionally bland compared to the sixth part, maybe? I get it. All the parts can’t be equally good even if they all are terrific.
I’m just trying not to get biased here.
We are approaching the end.
I mean we all know or can guess what’s going to happen in the end. But the quotient of anxiety is so well-balanced here with the wondrous, fantasy quotient that, unlike other Stephen King books, you won’t actually hurry through the pages to find out what will happen next or so. Brilliant as usual, but a bit emotionally bland compared to the sixth part, maybe? I get it. All the parts can’t be equally good even if they all are terrific.
I’m just trying not to get biased here.
May 27, 2013
Somewhere in here, life got the upper hand and by the time I strolled once more past that bat tree I was able to buy both the 3rd and 4th booklet in this series and the clerk at the store informed me that the 5th was expected any day. I was on the cusp of a long weekend with a veritable feast in front of me.
And so I ate; ramming it in, taking huge gulps at a time, as Paul Edgecombe suffered through the worst urinary infection of his life, All the time trying not to shiver, because the fever had turned cold, as they sometimes will. Except for my groin which still felt as if it had been slit open, filled with hot coals, and then sewed back up again. when he put himself too close to John Coffey’s magic hands.
Wild Bill Wharton goes to the back room, the one with the soft walls and we meet Melinda Moore, the warden’s wife. It is the characters here, on King’s Green Mile that bring life to the pages, even Mr, Jingles, mouse extraordinaire; all of them so finely painted, so accessible.
And honestly, if King is able to so shake me with emotion over, well, vermin, what other power lay in this man’s hands.
And then Eduard Delacroix walks the green mile and once again Percy Wetmore stains the page and we the reader learn just how bad things can get on the mile. Can any good come of this?
Thankfully the clerk was right, because when I walked past the bats the following day, book 5 was waiting for me.
And so I ate some more, having my lunch with the other guards at Paul Edgecome’s house and listened as he outlined his insane plan, the one that resulted in a journey, late at night, a plan that was fraught with peril and put everybody’s livelihood at risk.
Still, we all went along. only this time Percy Wetmore was surrounded by soft walls, and John Coffey could not take his eyes off the night sky, as our journey began.
Coming back was different, we were all stunned sure, but Coffey was suffering real bad from his own part in the nights adventures, we all were, except nowhere near like this humble, mountain of a man, about whose huge neck hung Melinda Moore’s fine link chain, with the silver St. Christopher medallion.
As it turned out our evening was far from over.
And so I waited for August, as did, countless others.
And so I ate; ramming it in, taking huge gulps at a time, as Paul Edgecombe suffered through the worst urinary infection of his life, All the time trying not to shiver, because the fever had turned cold, as they sometimes will. Except for my groin which still felt as if it had been slit open, filled with hot coals, and then sewed back up again. when he put himself too close to John Coffey’s magic hands.
Wild Bill Wharton goes to the back room, the one with the soft walls and we meet Melinda Moore, the warden’s wife. It is the characters here, on King’s Green Mile that bring life to the pages, even Mr, Jingles, mouse extraordinaire; all of them so finely painted, so accessible.
And honestly, if King is able to so shake me with emotion over, well, vermin, what other power lay in this man’s hands.
And then Eduard Delacroix walks the green mile and once again Percy Wetmore stains the page and we the reader learn just how bad things can get on the mile. Can any good come of this?
Thankfully the clerk was right, because when I walked past the bats the following day, book 5 was waiting for me.
And so I ate some more, having my lunch with the other guards at Paul Edgecome’s house and listened as he outlined his insane plan, the one that resulted in a journey, late at night, a plan that was fraught with peril and put everybody’s livelihood at risk.
Still, we all went along. only this time Percy Wetmore was surrounded by soft walls, and John Coffey could not take his eyes off the night sky, as our journey began.
Coming back was different, we were all stunned sure, but Coffey was suffering real bad from his own part in the nights adventures, we all were, except nowhere near like this humble, mountain of a man, about whose huge neck hung Melinda Moore’s fine link chain, with the silver St. Christopher medallion.
As it turned out our evening was far from over.
And so I waited for August, as did, countless others.
October 20, 2021
The Green Mile was the first King story that I'd attempted to tackle as I wanted to start reading more 'grownup' books, the unique publication history of the serialized nature being a throwback to Dickens era was a tempting way for 13 year old me to try and read something more mature in short bursts.
Each month whilst still buying the latest Goosebumps (more out of loyalty at this point), I'd take a trip to the Cold Mountain Penitentiary and the events surrounding the condemned killers on death row.
King has always been strong on character and both Paul Edgecombe the stories narrator and death row supervisor alongside the massive figure of convinced John Coffey are the heartbeat of the novel.
King needed to work extra hard to establish a connection for his constant readers in hope they'd stick with them each month.
So much of the stories themes were clearly ill suited for this impressionable young reader first time around.
Whilst most of the novel focuses on the magical realism, there's plenty of horrific moments that you'd expect from King.
Firstly John's conviction of raping and murdering two young girls is brutal, it's the gruesome fate that awaits Eduarad Delacroix that's almost as shocking too.
The events of this novel certainly had more of an emotional impact this time around, especially during the sixth and final part.
It's a powerful gut punch of an ending for characters you've grown to love.
This is the highest rated King novel on Goodreads and it's completely justified and will now be my recommendation for anyone who wants to read King for the first time.
December 7, 2023
Night Journey was the penultimate of six installments of The Green Mile, King's serial novel which appeared in consecutive months in 1996. It was, of course, published in a single volume in 1997 and was adapted into one of the very best films based on his work; it returned to the best-seller lists in 1999 as a result, and is now known almost exclusively in its collected form, but I think it loses some of its magic. I picked up The Two Dead Girls, the first volume, soon after it hit the stands, and then made a point of popping into B. Dalton's monthly on release day of the next five months. The serial format, as King points out in his introduction, forces the reader to wait and ponder what might happen next, and spreading the reading experience over a half-year with all of that pondering and speculation really makes it a much more memorable experience. It's a really fascinating story, with some of his best characterization, from Coffey to Delacroix to Elaine and on and on, and never forget Mr. Jingles, the coolest mouse in literature since the iconic Algernon and Brown's Mitkey. It's not a "typical" King story but is definitely one of his best.
April 9, 2020
Excellent writing for book 5. I really loved what coffee did, I always enjoyed it in the movie. Also finally some kind of revenge for the behaviour of Percy. Really good story so far. Let's hope the end is good also.
September 19, 2018
I can't say this enough, I am SO glad I am reading this serial style & building the suspense up with each section!!
October 20, 2019
20october2019
a fellow trainee lent me a copy of this series back in 2002.
then reread most probably in 2008, after 19september, when i was able to acquire the collected volume.
a fellow trainee lent me a copy of this series back in 2002.
then reread most probably in 2008, after 19september, when i was able to acquire the collected volume.
February 23, 2016
This part gave me a bit of a chuckle! Still amazed that John can heal people and putting doubt into our minds if he did actually kill those girls or did someone else do it? Great 5th book.
January 23, 2022
Read when it was first published
November 16, 2019
Best entry so far. Percy finally gets his ass handed to him and Paul and the boys break John out of prison to cure the Warden's wife. Lots of high stakes action, emotional drama and a strong redemption for a man that most likely never actually did anything wrong. I have a feeling that I might know what will happen in the final installment but I hope I'm wrong.
July 3, 2019
So. Good. This story has sucked me in and won't let me go. It would have been torture to read this as a serial how it was released! I will read the last one tomorrow as part of my Owls Readathon 2019.
September 1, 2019
Ugh. This instalment. Pretty much either held my breath or sucked in air through streaming tears. So many damn feels, and the story is STILL ratcheting up.
May 29, 2025
This was great!
August 25, 2020
This story is just so amazing, can't wait for the final part!
July 1, 2017
This was actually one of the most interesting and captivating books that I have read from Stephen King & I highly recommend it for any King fans.
I ended up getting this book from a thrift store and normally following the rules of serial books I was only able to get the last three books for the first three were nowhere in sight. As a result I started off reading "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix" first and I was caught up in the story, knowing the one main aspect of the book and yet not knowing how it would end. Due to life events I was only able to get to "Night Journey". And then I was able to start over this time from the beginning and actually read the whole series.
The characters like most of King's older books are easy to get along with and have a very well-defined personality even with some of the minor characters. You are given a chance to enter a realistic world with very realistic people whether they are inmate, prison guards or the civilians who back up their men within this world.
The best part of this book is the fact that it isn't really a horror story as King is well-known for but an emotional story of the paranormal with some horror elements thrown in. Whether you are enjoying the whole novel put together or the serial novel format this will be one book you cannot and will not want to put down for the ending is just like King - unexpected.
I ended up getting this book from a thrift store and normally following the rules of serial books I was only able to get the last three books for the first three were nowhere in sight. As a result I started off reading "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix" first and I was caught up in the story, knowing the one main aspect of the book and yet not knowing how it would end. Due to life events I was only able to get to "Night Journey". And then I was able to start over this time from the beginning and actually read the whole series.
The characters like most of King's older books are easy to get along with and have a very well-defined personality even with some of the minor characters. You are given a chance to enter a realistic world with very realistic people whether they are inmate, prison guards or the civilians who back up their men within this world.
The best part of this book is the fact that it isn't really a horror story as King is well-known for but an emotional story of the paranormal with some horror elements thrown in. Whether you are enjoying the whole novel put together or the serial novel format this will be one book you cannot and will not want to put down for the ending is just like King - unexpected.
January 5, 2013
The cliffhanger at the end of THE NIGHT JOURNEY is one of King's most dramatic moments of his writing career. Few characters in King's universe engender the sympathy that John Coffey garners. In a novel, instant gratification is there. The reader only need turn the page to ascertain Coffey's fate. Serialization made this impossible. Readers in 1996 were forced to wait a month to learn Coffey's ultimate fate and how Paul Edgecombe would reconcile the need to do his duty with his fear for his soul.
In John Coffey, King has created perhaps his most memorable character. This is remarkable when one considers the hundreds of characters King has developed over his career and the thoroughness he employed in developing these characters through complex and deep backstories and expansive arcs.
Coffey is a simple character. He's one dimensional. Although his gifts are revealed through the narrative, he undergoes no change through the course of the story. His backstory is a mystery.
The essay question at the end of Night Journey reads, “The narrator, Paul Edgecomb, has a strange dream on the way back from Warden Moores’ house. What do you think the dream means?”
In John Coffey, King has created perhaps his most memorable character. This is remarkable when one considers the hundreds of characters King has developed over his career and the thoroughness he employed in developing these characters through complex and deep backstories and expansive arcs.
Coffey is a simple character. He's one dimensional. Although his gifts are revealed through the narrative, he undergoes no change through the course of the story. His backstory is a mystery.
The essay question at the end of Night Journey reads, “The narrator, Paul Edgecomb, has a strange dream on the way back from Warden Moores’ house. What do you think the dream means?”
July 10, 2013
So. Guess what.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I got all of these books for free from my dad. His fiancee's daughter was cleaning out her collection and my dad knows I like Stephen King, so he snagged these for me and they've been sitting on my shelf for a few months.
I just started reading them recently, and of course became obsessed.
Well, little did I know, there are not 5 books in this series. There are 6.
Guess how many books I have?
I am so distressed right now, it isn't even funny. My only saving grace is that The Night Journey did not end on a huge cliffhanger like the last two, so I won't have to obsess until I get my hands on Part 6.
Like, why Dad? Why must you hurt me like this? Your hurts may not be intentional, but oh, how my literary wounds bleed. His birthday is this Saturday, and you bet that the first thing I'll say after "Happy Birthday" will be "Where the hell is Part 6 of The Green Mile?
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I got all of these books for free from my dad. His fiancee's daughter was cleaning out her collection and my dad knows I like Stephen King, so he snagged these for me and they've been sitting on my shelf for a few months.
I just started reading them recently, and of course became obsessed.
Well, little did I know, there are not 5 books in this series. There are 6.
Guess how many books I have?
I am so distressed right now, it isn't even funny. My only saving grace is that The Night Journey did not end on a huge cliffhanger like the last two, so I won't have to obsess until I get my hands on Part 6.
Like, why Dad? Why must you hurt me like this? Your hurts may not be intentional, but oh, how my literary wounds bleed. His birthday is this Saturday, and you bet that the first thing I'll say after "Happy Birthday" will be "Where the hell is Part 6 of The Green Mile?
October 12, 2017
This climactic fifth installment of The Green Mile is a culmination of the plot building presented in the previous installments and, thus, is filled with page-turning action. Like the previous installments, King leaves the reader with a dangling story line that must have made his readers in 1996 quite impatient to have to wait a month to find out what happened next. Thankfully, I just have to turn the page.
August 15, 2018
I am surprised by how much I have been enjoying reading The Green Mile in its original serialised format - and a little miffed at myself for putting it off for so many years.
Paul, Coffey, and even Brutal, have been wonderful characters to pass an hour with, and as much as I have enjoyed reading this book, I am a little sad that my time on the mile is ending. Must remember to have tissues on standby for the last part.
Paul, Coffey, and even Brutal, have been wonderful characters to pass an hour with, and as much as I have enjoyed reading this book, I am a little sad that my time on the mile is ending. Must remember to have tissues on standby for the last part.
September 6, 2018
Wow what a story! Part five is maybe my favorite book in the six book series right now. Paul continues the story with John Coffey and his healing powers. He sneaks John out of the prison (with help) to see If he can heal Hal’s wife. It most certainly is worth the gamble for Paul and his coworkers.
And Percy gets stuck in a straight jacket in the cool off room. Man that is great! Percy is such a prick!
Now the question is do they make it back in time?
And Percy gets stuck in a straight jacket in the cool off room. Man that is great! Percy is such a prick!
Now the question is do they make it back in time?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2011
Honestly, I think this was the most suspenseful installment of the entire series. Edgecomb and his crew sneak Coffey out of the prison to drop in on the warden, and any number of things could go wrong at any moment. Of course, we’re not entirely out of the woods yet, with one more book to go.
September 5, 2013
Thrilling! Read this in one sitting over a long breakfast. As usual, the tension that King creates is tremendous, considering the short chapters. The actual showdown at the warden's house was intense. Somehow, i don't think I'll be able to wait long before I read the conclusion to the story.
November 11, 2015
Mi sembra di sentire la voce di Coffey, provo un odio sincero per Percy e amo follemente King. Che cosa si può dire? Quando dell'inchiostro su carta fa provare emozioni reali e' tutto superfluo. Peccato solo stia per finire
December 4, 2024
Relectura 2024
Aqui es el climax de la historia de Coffey, y sabiendo lo que paso y lo que pasa aqui, si te deja el corazon lagrimieando
le subimos de 4 a 5 stars
Aqui es el climax de la historia de Coffey, y sabiendo lo que paso y lo que pasa aqui, si te deja el corazon lagrimieando
le subimos de 4 a 5 stars
September 6, 2018
Really love reading this in a series,
September 5, 2019
Of course I've seen the film but the novel gives me chills as if I'm experiencing it all for the first time. I know what's coming and my eyes honestly well up when I think about John Coffey....
December 2, 2019
I think this is one of my favourite parts of the series. Coffey is so selfless and just a down to earth good person. Nice to see in a character.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 276 reviews