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The Lawnmower Man: Stories from Night Shift
Contains "The Lawnmower Man," "The Ledge," "Sometimes They Come Back," "Quitters, Inc.," and "The Mangler."
Audiobook
First published October 1, 1995
11 people are currently reading
2730 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,395 books888k 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 142 reviews
March 18, 2014
LOVED THE GRASS GREEN PUBIC HAIR !
December 13, 2015
John Glover makes a great job of narrating these four unsettling tales from the pen of Stephen King.
So much so that I have just downloaded The Graveyard Shift.
If you're a King fan, I can highly recommend these short stories. After the last, you may never want to do laundry again......
So much so that I have just downloaded The Graveyard Shift.
If you're a King fan, I can highly recommend these short stories. After the last, you may never want to do laundry again......
January 8, 2025
Audiobook (4 hours) narrated by John Glover John Glover
Publisher: Books on Tape (Random House Audio)
John Glover is a decent narrator, who is a Tony Award recipient and perhaps best known in the US for his portrayal of Lionel Luthor in Smallville:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gl...
There is an author by the same name on goodreads, and for some reason this John Glover does not come up in the search results for me using the insert book/author tool. I had to click on the linked narrator for the book, insert the author of the same name and change the number indicator to get him linked into my review.
Anyway...
This book is lightly scored with eerie music, intermittently, to enhance emotional response. It's an older audiobook that was, for $ome rea$on $plit into three $eparate audiobook$ by the publi$her. The print edition is still available all in one piece, Night Shift. The scoring is reminiscent of an old style radio show, with some of the music being a bit overbearing and shrill. You can also find this style of musical scoring in 80s slasher movies, where someone is walking around an empty house and the bumbumbum starts up followed by the high pitched creepiness before the character goes around the corner or opens the door, sometimes followed up with jump scare music.
While I didn't mind the scoring, I did notice that it is at times quite high pitched which could be troublesome for those with auditory issues or difficulties with certain sounds.
I am unaware of an official book without the scoring, however, if an audiobook is a necessary read for you do consider checking YouTube or Spotify for a reading.
The horror begins when trying to find the Night Shift audiobook for a book club read. 😨 Somehow I found a link to a reddit discussion where they are talking about it being split into three books for audio, of which I was able to find two of. This is the first.
As I began the book I realized that King has immortalized the Red Sox as being in fourth place, in The Lawnmower Man! 😨
Then we move onto a detail that I had forgotten, that seals the deal before we even get going on the twisted mind of The Lawnmower Man. He is a Yankee fan. 😨
The Lawnmower Man is the big story of this part of the three part novel, and there are another four or five stories, some are very short but very good old school King.
Publisher: Books on Tape (Random House Audio)
John Glover is a decent narrator, who is a Tony Award recipient and perhaps best known in the US for his portrayal of Lionel Luthor in Smallville:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gl...
There is an author by the same name on goodreads, and for some reason this John Glover does not come up in the search results for me using the insert book/author tool. I had to click on the linked narrator for the book, insert the author of the same name and change the number indicator to get him linked into my review.
Anyway...
This book is lightly scored with eerie music, intermittently, to enhance emotional response. It's an older audiobook that was, for $ome rea$on $plit into three $eparate audiobook$ by the publi$her. The print edition is still available all in one piece, Night Shift. The scoring is reminiscent of an old style radio show, with some of the music being a bit overbearing and shrill. You can also find this style of musical scoring in 80s slasher movies, where someone is walking around an empty house and the bumbumbum starts up followed by the high pitched creepiness before the character goes around the corner or opens the door, sometimes followed up with jump scare music.
While I didn't mind the scoring, I did notice that it is at times quite high pitched which could be troublesome for those with auditory issues or difficulties with certain sounds.
I am unaware of an official book without the scoring, however, if an audiobook is a necessary read for you do consider checking YouTube or Spotify for a reading.
The horror begins when trying to find the Night Shift audiobook for a book club read. 😨 Somehow I found a link to a reddit discussion where they are talking about it being split into three books for audio, of which I was able to find two of. This is the first.
As I began the book I realized that King has immortalized the Red Sox as being in fourth place, in The Lawnmower Man! 😨
Then we move onto a detail that I had forgotten, that seals the deal before we even get going on the twisted mind of The Lawnmower Man. He is a Yankee fan. 😨
The Lawnmower Man is the big story of this part of the three part novel, and there are another four or five stories, some are very short but very good old school King.
November 20, 2023
This was hilarious.
Harold Parkette hires a strange man from Pastoral Greenery and Outdoor Services Inc. to cut his lawn. The strange man indeed does a great job cutting his lawn, but in a horrifyingly silly way that makes everyone involved extremely uncomfortable and ends in bloody disastor. Let's just say the title Lawnmower Man is very literal. The mower ain't the only thing mowing around here.
Not scary and not that good of a story, but still pretty damn entertaining and funny just for how ridiculous it gets.
Harold Parkette hires a strange man from Pastoral Greenery and Outdoor Services Inc. to cut his lawn. The strange man indeed does a great job cutting his lawn, but in a horrifyingly silly way that makes everyone involved extremely uncomfortable and ends in bloody disastor. Let's just say the title Lawnmower Man is very literal. The mower ain't the only thing mowing around here.
Not scary and not that good of a story, but still pretty damn entertaining and funny just for how ridiculous it gets.
January 19, 2015
I started to say, "What the hell did I just read?!" Then decided on, "Oh yeah, It's Stephen Fing King!"
August 21, 2024
Typical king!
July 27, 2022
This gets 4 out of 5 stars because of the music on the audio version. The music is so annoying. Stephen King should demand that his audio books leave out the music, his writing is composed well enough that the reader knows when there's an intense moment or a "scary" party is coming, we don't need the music. Other than that, the narration was good. This book had several short stories, I think I remembered the of them. I liked the story of the man who wanted to quit smoking and lose weight, talk about motivation, good thing he really loved his wife.
November 12, 2022
WHY would you name this collection after the worst (by far) story?? The others were fairly standard horror fare but I cannot even begin to think about that lawnmower man.
September 11, 2022
Top quality Stephen King.
June 8, 2021
3.5/5⭐️. Enjoyed Quitters Inc., The Ledge, and The Mangler. The Lawnmower Man was creepy, but I wish it had been a little longer. Sometimes They Come Back could be a bit slow, but had a great twist.
July 15, 2013
Really creepy. NOTE: This story has absolutely nothing to do with the movie; King had to sue to get his name taken off the title.
January 8, 2019
I thought dabbling in the Black Arts would be good for a chuckle, how wrong I was. I should have never read that book.
November 2, 2024
Can't go wrong with King short stories.
March 3, 2025
Just weird bizarre stories
November 7, 2023
Love the Lawnmower Man. It made me laugh. Typical Stephen King fashion. Although the music on the audio book was cheesy and not needed.
December 12, 2020
My first Stephen King Novel. Probably not the best one to start with, but I did and was pretty disappointed.
Let me start by saying I'm not a fan of Stephen King (he's a political hater) and I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but I figured how can I call myself a reader and never had read a Stephen King Novel. I figured I'd give one a shot and to put it gently....this one sucked.
Like I said I haven't read any other King novels, so I probably picked a dud based on his popularity, but this felt like he owed his publisher a book and cranked one out over the weekend. I don't like Horror because it scares me to death, this was the opposite, it bored me to death.
Let me start by saying I'm not a fan of Stephen King (he's a political hater) and I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but I figured how can I call myself a reader and never had read a Stephen King Novel. I figured I'd give one a shot and to put it gently....this one sucked.
Like I said I haven't read any other King novels, so I probably picked a dud based on his popularity, but this felt like he owed his publisher a book and cranked one out over the weekend. I don't like Horror because it scares me to death, this was the opposite, it bored me to death.
March 28, 2021
4.5/5
The Lawnmower Man is a hoot, I loved it. I love it every time Stephen King makes machines murderous and this time it’s a regular push-lawnmower. He added some mythology into the story: Pan is the owner of the lawnmower company and the serviceman is a satyr-like human who eats grass and has feet that resemble cloven hooves. It’s humorous and absurd and dark, which is what I loved about it.
Included in the Night Shift collection.
The Lawnmower Man is a hoot, I loved it. I love it every time Stephen King makes machines murderous and this time it’s a regular push-lawnmower. He added some mythology into the story: Pan is the owner of the lawnmower company and the serviceman is a satyr-like human who eats grass and has feet that resemble cloven hooves. It’s humorous and absurd and dark, which is what I loved about it.
Included in the Night Shift collection.
November 12, 2014
Eating grass....and that's supposed to be scary!? BOOO!!
June 1, 2015
Creepy as hell, so yeah Stephen King.
May 21, 2016
Старые добрые рассказы дедушки Кинга безумно хороши.
Да и как не поставить газонокосильщику отлично, вдруг и тебе когда-нибудь потребуется постричь траву на заднем дворе...
Да и как не поставить газонокосильщику отлично, вдруг и тебе когда-нибудь потребуется постричь траву на заднем дворе...
April 11, 2019
A decent collection of macabre from King's stable, with a rather top-notch narration from JohnGlover. Personal favourites - "The Ledge" and "Quitters, Inc."
My Rating - 3.5/5
My Rating - 3.5/5
April 15, 2024
Haha okej, den här var bra lmao
August 29, 2025
Night Shift
A collection of short stories
By Stephen King
Overview 📝
“Night Shift” was King's first collection of short stories, published in 1978. The original collection contains 20 stories, including famous ones like "Children of the Corn" and “Quitters, Inc.”. This collection is abridged, containing a scant 5 stories. The title of the collection reflects the collection's themes of horror, suspense, and the dark imagination of the author, which are often best expressed or experienced during the "night shift" or the "dead of night" when fear and unease are most prevalent.
#1 — “The Lawnmower Man”
Overview: A guy hires a lawn mowing service but gets a Satyr of the pagan god “Pan” instead. A description of who Pan is will help the rest of this description: Pan is a Greek god of the wilderness, shepherds, and rustic music, known for his half-man, half-goat body with horns. Pan is associated with the origin of the word "panic" due to his sudden, fearsome shouts in the wild. He is depicted as a playful, free-spirited, and lustful figure with a booming voice that could instill terror in those who stumbled upon him.
● Likes: Although absolutely nothing like the movie adaption, it was quite entertaining and humorous in a dark comedy sort of way.
● Dislikes: Way too short.
● Verdict: 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐️ — High replay value.
#2 — “Sometimes They Come Back”
Overview: A high school teacher is haunted by 3 hoodlums who murdered his brother back in the day when the teacher was a kid. Now grown up and these hoodlums are paradoxically students in his class, haven’t grown old because they’re really, in point of fact, already dead. How can he end them, once and for all?
● Likes: Perhaps the only redeeming quality to this short story is the turn to the occult at the very end, which was amusing.
● Dislikes: I tried reading this story several times before I finally persevered through it. It is not scary. It is not all that interesting. The story is kind of humdrum, borderline boring. I cannot understand why so many reviewers rated it positively.
● Verdict: 2 of 5 Stars ⭐️
#3 — “Quitters, Inc.”
Overview: A man meets an old friend in a bar who tells him of a life-changing way to quit smoking. The friend passes over a business card with a cryptic explanation as to how their “program” actually works. Despite this, it sounds too good to pass up.
● Likes: a gripping story from start to finish. It ends quite nicely, if not unexpectedly, too.
● Dislikes: nothing.
● Best line: ”If you do sneak a smoke, it’ll taste awful. It’ll taste like your son’s blood!”
● Verdict: 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐️ — this is the kind of short story that King does so well: dark comedy with sinful or macabre subject matter.
#4 — “The Ledge”
Overview: A Tennis Pro has an affair with the wife of a powerful mob boss. The boss gives him a Devil’s Bargain type ultimatum on the Ledge of his high-rise penthouse.
● Likes: the ending was this story’s only redeeming quality but wasn’t even that good, all things considered.
● Dislikes: there was nothing horrific, gory, or all that suspenseful. What little suspense was trumped by a highly predictable plot that resolves as the reader expects.
● Verdict: 2 of 5 Stars ⭐️
#5 — “The Mangler”
Overview: A police detective seeks to exorcise a demon-possessed industrial laundry machine, which is nicknamed by laundry employees as “The Mangler”.
● Likes: rife with darkly humorous situations, you just can’t beat King’s sense of humor.
● Dislikes: the story kind of fell apart at the end, like King ran out of ideas and went with the most obvious, albeit ludicrous, ending.
● Best line: ”Magical formulas are often ambiguous and elastic… substitute “Jell-O” for horse’s hoof—gelatin is made from horse’s hooves after all.”
● Verdict: 3 of 5 Stars ⭐️
Final Thoughts 🤔
2 gems, 2 duds, and an in-between quality story. A quick read for a King publication. I want to find the other 15 stories that weren’t published in my copy now.
June 3, 2024
Typical Stephen King. Reminds me of Tales from the Crypt.
“Quitters Inc” was interesting and actually enjoyed that one in a weird way 😅
“Quitters Inc” was interesting and actually enjoyed that one in a weird way 😅
August 21, 2024
Some solid short stories from Stephen King. I have been really enjoying these collected stories from "Night Shift."
November 3, 2025
Another compilation of Stephen King short stories: "The Lawnmower Man," "The Ledge," "Sometimes They Come Back," "Quitters, Inc.," and "The Mangler."
October 24, 2023
A decent selection of stories from early in King's career. However: hard to separate the review for the audio, from the review for the book. The recording is really old and it shows, with way too much music, and some over-acting.
But reading these, I can see King's influence all over shows like Atlanta, and for that alone this might merit a 4.
I think I liked Quitters the best.
"The Mangler" December 1972 issue of Cavalier
"Sometimes They Come Back" March 1974 issue of Cavalier
"The Ledge" July 1976 issue of Penthouse
"The Lawnmower Man" May 1975 issue of Cavalier
"Quitters, Inc." Previously unpublished
But reading these, I can see King's influence all over shows like Atlanta, and for that alone this might merit a 4.
I think I liked Quitters the best.
"The Mangler" December 1972 issue of Cavalier
"Sometimes They Come Back" March 1974 issue of Cavalier
"The Ledge" July 1976 issue of Penthouse
"The Lawnmower Man" May 1975 issue of Cavalier
"Quitters, Inc." Previously unpublished
May 6, 2018
Just finished reading the audible book “THE LAWNMOWER MAN AND OTHER STORIES FROM NIGHT SHIFT” by STEPHEN KING. I read the short stories from the hardcover book “NIGHT SHIFT” while listening to the audible version narrated by JOHN GLOVER. This collection of unabridged short stories, included "The Lawnmower Man," "The Ledge," "Sometimes They Come Back," "Quitters, Inc.," and "The Mangler." Harold Parkette disposes of his lawnmower after his neighbor’s cat dies a gruesome death. But the “Lawnmower Man” he hires to do the job proves more than Harold bargained for. A police officer begins to suspect that a series of grisly industrial accidents is no coincidence in “The Mangler”. At “Quitter’s Inc.” a smoker soon discovers that they’ll truly stop at nothing to make sure their customers kick the habit. A betrayed husband goes out on “The Ledge” when he takes vengeance into his own hands. And in “Sometimes They Come Back,” the concept of alumni is given new meaning when a high school teacher, haunted by the past, is assigned 3 new students who seem eerily familiar.
January 3, 2018
"January 2, 2018 –
100.0%
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "People like Stephen King Make my day in 2017 I read plenty books written by this well known author."
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "54:43"
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "Oh god he is alive........."
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "This is like A.I....
...
MOre than VR"
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "Here the things just happen!"
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "1:12:17"
January 2, 2018 –
25.0% "lawn mower and virtual reality... the movie picture is quite damn good as for a movie out of 1992 also what happens in this movie in now in the future is quite possible."
January 2, 2018 –
25.0% "38:34"
January 2, 2018 – page 0
0% "I enjoy being around works which are written by Stephen King, people like him have always what to say. Starting like one of those typical Star Trek TV Serives and movies but the plots moves around"
January 2, 2018 – Shelved
January 2, 2018 – Started Reading"
100.0%
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "People like Stephen King Make my day in 2017 I read plenty books written by this well known author."
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "54:43"
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "Oh god he is alive........."
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "This is like A.I....
...
MOre than VR"
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "Here the things just happen!"
January 2, 2018 –
70.0% "1:12:17"
January 2, 2018 –
25.0% "lawn mower and virtual reality... the movie picture is quite damn good as for a movie out of 1992 also what happens in this movie in now in the future is quite possible."
January 2, 2018 –
25.0% "38:34"
January 2, 2018 – page 0
0% "I enjoy being around works which are written by Stephen King, people like him have always what to say. Starting like one of those typical Star Trek TV Serives and movies but the plots moves around"
January 2, 2018 – Shelved
January 2, 2018 – Started Reading"
August 19, 2022
Steven Kings's "The Lawnmower Man: Stories from the Night Shift " was part of a collection published in 1978 called "Night Shift." It had twenty stories.
The 2022 release includes only five gems with their association with the film industry. They are:
The Lawnmower Man, which has nothing to do with the 1992 movie of the same name
The Ledge, which was adapted into a segment in the anthology horror film Cat's Eye
Sometimes They Come Back, which became a film
Quitters, Inc, which became a part of the anthology horror film Cat's Eye
The Mangler, which was the basis for a movie and two sequels
I remember reading "Quitters, Inc" before. It is still my favorite.
I don't want to say anything about the stories because you should read them without foreshadowing.
If you like horror, suspense, and good writing, you will enjoy "The Lawnmower Man: Stories from the Night Shift."
The 2022 release includes only five gems with their association with the film industry. They are:
The Lawnmower Man, which has nothing to do with the 1992 movie of the same name
The Ledge, which was adapted into a segment in the anthology horror film Cat's Eye
Sometimes They Come Back, which became a film
Quitters, Inc, which became a part of the anthology horror film Cat's Eye
The Mangler, which was the basis for a movie and two sequels
I remember reading "Quitters, Inc" before. It is still my favorite.
I don't want to say anything about the stories because you should read them without foreshadowing.
If you like horror, suspense, and good writing, you will enjoy "The Lawnmower Man: Stories from the Night Shift."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews