Paul > Recent Status Updates

“The Dreamers” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 – Probably the best story of the book, but even here it felt like it could have been … darker.

“The Answer Man” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Starts off pretty good then tapers off into a mini-biography of a guy we don’t care about. You can almost feel the point where the part King wrote in the ‘70s turns into the one he wrote in 2023.

“The Turbulence Expert” – ⭐️ – Literally nothing happens except a “middle aged” woman talks about the internet like she’s 75.

“Laurie” – ⭐️⭐️ – Whenever King sets a story in the Keys, you know it’s going to be slow and include far too much mundane detail about the geography of the place.

“Rattlesnakes” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – A Cujo sequel with nice creepy moments.

“On Slide Inn Road” – ⭐️⭐️ – Ugh, another Gen Z child calling a comic book a “funnybook”. Also, another crime story?

“Red Screen” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Thought this was going to be yet ANOTHER crime noir offering, but a nice little twist pulls this back into more familiar territory.

More than halfway through, and this overall doesn’t feel particularly dark.

“Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Some of King’s best writing in this century, reminiscent of the first half of The Outsider. Not really horror at all, but a propulsive crime novella with a supernatural twist that I couldn’t stop reading.

“Finn” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Pretty good, but it’s another non-horror story. I DO like it darker, but does King anymore?

Story-by-story review:

1. “The Talented Bastids” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Not a bad story, though it feels unnecessarily long for a pretty obvious payoff.

2. “The Fifth Step” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Short and a nasty twist, reminiscent of classic King stories like “The Library Policeman.”

3. “Willie the Weirdo” – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 – Another telegraphed twist, but executed well.

This is a weird combination of compelling and terrible.

I'm at the point where if your fantasy novel is called [Concrete Noun] of [Element/Substance] and [Juxtaposing and/or Complementary Element/Substance], I'm not that interested.

Adventure of the Noble Bachelor – 3* – Not bad but not particularly memorable either.
Adventure of the Beryl Coronet – 4* – Had to look up definition and pronunciation of "coronet," but otherwise this is a classic description of Holmes' investigative methods in action.
Adventure of the Copper Beeches – 5* – Exciting all the way through. One of the best of the collection.