Courtney Smith Atkins’s Reviews > The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand > Status Update

The Legion of Swine: 3 stars. Farmstead approached by 3 bad guys who meet their end with the swine.

Keep the Devil down: 4 stars. Lady leaves her abusive boyfriend and has a harrowing car chase with the devil after she picks up a friendly hitch hiker.

Painted Dogs: 1 star, animal abuse, the story was written from the animal’s pov.

Till Human voices wake us: 2 stars, sex with a mermaid that heals illness through orgasms. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ The new guy does free her from the tank.

Kovach’s last case: 3.5 stars. Kind of a Dexter situation.

La Mora Hora: 5 stars. Happy endings are rare in the apocalypse. Plus there was a Mervyns reference.

Prey Instinct: 3 stars, weirdo lady dressed up like a clown stakes claim to a gas station.

Grace: 3.5 stars. Astronauts on a secret mission to stage some nukes and a satellite. The walking dude and mother Abigail find a way to battle against each other even there.

Moving Day: 4.5 stars. I appreciated this connection to Larry Underwood. This is a story about Tommy, the lone survivor in his family.

The Hope Boat: 3 stars. Puerto Rico survivors that are sold a ticket to a better place. A boat of hope.

Wrong fucking place, wrong fucking time: 4 stars. Squelching gore. No way I could watch scary movies at the end of the world!

Lenora: 3.5 stars, lonely guy whose family died years earlier in a fire bonds with a dik dik. IKR?! It’s a miniature antelope from Africa. He sets himself right and heads out to Mother Abigail.

In a Pigs Eye: 4 stars. I’m loving how late 80’s/early 90’s culture pops up in these shorts. This one talks about videos stores! Tree house survival at its best.

Lockdown: an island off the coast of main, right knit community deciding how they were going to ride out the super flu. 4 stars.

Every Dog Has Its Day: best quote “ you know what buddy? Fuck this. Fuck all of it actually. The fucked up mind games. The dreams. Even the guilt. Every goddamn bit of it.”

Story of a young man denying Randall Flag and moving in with a sweet dog. 5 stars..

This compilation of short stories is working because it’s based off of a much larger work.