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Just After Sunset: Stories |  | Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Seller: bulldogbooks8
Rating:  218 reviews
Sales Rank: 94790
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 367
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 1416584080
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416584087
ASIN: 1416584080
Publication Date: November 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
STATED 1ST SCRIBNER HARD COVER EDITION 2008. LIKE NEW, WILL SHIP FAST!!
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 218
 Enjoyed King's new collection of short stories September 1, 2010
M. K. Finnell (Lacey, WA USA)
While I'm not a rabid Stephen King fan, I do enjoy his works & have read enough of his fiction over the years to give a fairly decent review of these stories.
Willa: The author admits to being overfond of this story since it was a trial run at getting back to short fiction. I think its well done and only falters in the creep-factor everyone seems to expect from King. It seems if this were from someone we'd never heard of, we'd all be terribly impressed & moved, but since its from King, not so much. Makes you better understand his desire to use the Bachman name to publish some of his work. That aside, its a touching & haunting story which left me a little disappointed. I wanted to know more about them, the restrictions or benefits of their changed selves... the world around them and how it functions, how they relate to it, if anyone else ever joined Willa & David. So, I guess with all its charms it still leaves you with too much left undone and gets a 3 out of 5 rating from me.
The Gingerbread Girl: I actually found the first of half of this tale a bit maudlin and dull. The second half kicks into high gear and we see our main character almost getting herself killed by a serial killer. There is such a contrast between the pitch & action in the first half and last half that it makes for almost separate stories. It may have been a deliberate move on King's part to jar the reader into the same panic the protaganist is experiencing, but for me it felt forced and detracted rather than added to the tale. Overall I give it 4 of 5 rating.
Harvey's Dream: Not my favorite of the bunch. It seemed to just be a blah story. A dire premonition within a disappointing marriage. 2 out of 5.
Rest Stop: Enjoyed this one immensely. Loved the main character's dilemma, his terrible fear of getting involved or, even worse, not getting involved. His eventual action is choice! 5 out of 5!!
Stationary Bike: Again, enjoyed this one a great deal. Seemed strangely terrifying while involving my sympathies for the Lipid Company crew. The final confrontation was beautifully done. 5 out of 5.
The Things They Left Behind: I'm one who's willing to let a story unfold a bit, which this one does. I was tremendously impressed by this one and touched by how simple yet kind the resolution proved to be. 5 of 5.
Graduation Afternoon: Very short & almost pathetic in its need to be dramatic and dreadful. 1 out of 5.
N.: Now this is a story! I was creeped out, fascinated, frightened and painfully sympathetic to N.'s story. While his OCD seems somehow juvenile in its practice, it has come to rule him as has the terror at Ackerman's Field. The therapist is so concerned by N.'s story, he keeps notes and considers writing a book on this patient. But any good researcher knows you have to go to the source to understand a patient's behavior. Dun-dun-duuuuun! 5 out of 5!
The Cat from Hell: OK, I admit it. I've read this before. This may be why I was less than impressed with it. Still, its a great little story that freaks you the hell out the first time you read it. So, 4 out of 5.
The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates: Don't we all, who have suffered loss, long for some sort of communication with those we've lost? This story speaks eloquently to that longing. It is tremendously heartfelt, somewhat desperate and struck me as both kind and cruel in its function. Would ALL the dead have words of comfort for us? I shudder to think what some might say if I picked up the phone and caught a call from the otherside. 5 out of 5.
Mute: This is a tale of unintentional second-hand vengeance. Have you ever spilled out your current crappy life story to someone you were sure was indifferent to your plight? What if they weren't? What if they decided to help you? By destroying the people who were making your life a misery? (lol, Misery) What would you do? Thank God? In this case, our main character goes to Confession to figure things out. 5 out of 5.
Ayana: This seems almost a repitition of the John Coffey character in some ways. But it seems that the Healer requires a Robin to his/her Batman. But in The Green Mile, didn't John need the help of the Guards to heal the Warden's wife? hmmmmm... Its a bit of a puzzler, but its also powerful in its impact. 4 out of 5. Just because it seemed like regurgitation in some places instead of creation.
A Very Tight Place: This one was so gross and yet so compelling I could not NOT read it! The very idea of being trapped in a Portapotty... it makes my gag reflex flex! Excellent read. 5 out of 5.
Hope that helps & doesn't spoil too much! Kick my butt if I spoiled things for you, it keeps me honest! :)
 Great short stories-13 August 6, 2010
Cheryl Wedesweiler (So. Cal.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have never read one of Mr. King's works because they are so scary, so I'd thought I would start here. They were not all that scary; in fact, they reminded me of the old "Twilight" series from the early 60's-I bet King was a fan.
I liked his writing style: the main character talks like he or she is your closest friend.
Of all the stories, "New York Times at a Special Bargain Price", was my favorite. Many loved ones die amidst unanswered questions, so it was sweet!!
And I would read other works from this author.
I am the author of Dreams in August: Life, Love, and Cerebellar Ataxia and Summer Born: A Life With Cerebellar Ataxia.
 Dim lights August 5, 2010
Wiggles (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm a big fan of King and short stories so I really wanted to like this. Unfortunately there were only a handful, about 4, I liked out of the 13 available. There was just too much cheese to really recommend this as a great short story collection. One story was about two ghosts who don't realise they're ghosts until the end, another was a bad pastiche of an Arthur Machen story, and another was about a possessed cat.
There were some good ones here though. "Mute" features a recently cuckholded travelling salesman who picks up a deaf mute hitchhiker one night. Realising the hitchhiker won't hear him, he tells him his tale of woe about his wife and an embezzlement scheme gone wrong. Then something terrible happens weeks later and he realises the hitchhiker might have been mute but wasn't deaf...
"Stationary Bike" is bizarre King, where an artist trying to lose weight via an exercise bike somehow taps into an alternate universe where his body cells are somehow maintained by a group of roadside workers who need the man to remain unhealthy in order to survive.
"Rest Stop" is about a crime writer who publishes under a pseudonym, stopping one night at a rest stop, overhears a couple arguing, hears the man begin beating the wife, and steps in, not realising the part his pseudonym's identity will take...
"A Very Tight Place" is about two bad neighbours, one of whom decides to trap the other inside a port-a-loo and leave him there to die. Will he escape and exact revenge?...
Some great stories then but too many average-to-lousy ones stop me from recommending this to non-King fans as a great story collection. If you're a King fan though you'll probably enjoy it. If you're a short story fan I recommend TC Boyle's recently published "Wild Child" and Helen Simpson's "In-Flight Entertainment" for top class writing and short stories.
King's best short story collection June 28, 2010
Geert Daelemans (Leuven Belgium)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Just After Sunset is a collection of short stories: In "Willa" a husband goes looking for his wife after a terrible train wreck; "The Gingerbread Girl" tells the story of how Emily, after losing her daughter, starts to run away from everything. But in the end, you will have to face your foes and stand up to fight; It is only to hope that "Harvey's Dream" doesn't become reality; An authors alias tries to solve a lover's dispute at a "Rest Stop"; Riding on your "Stationary Bike" is good for your health. Or not?; In "The Things They Left Behind" a man gets worried when random objects start to appear in his room; Something drastic happens to Manhattan during "Graduation Afternoon"; "N." is the remarkable account of an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder and a port to another world; "The Cat from Hell" is not so easy to get rid of; In "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" Annie gets a call from someone she did not expect; Even a "Mute" hitchhiker can cause some trouble; "Ayana" suddenly shows up at the bedside of a dying man; There is "A Very Tight Place" that you certainly don't want to get stuck in.
If ever Stephen King has to defend himself as Master of Horror, then rest assured that Just After Sunset will be submitted as strong evidence. All 13 stories reach a level that is seldom seen in the genre. They are witty, funny, horrendous and sometimes even nauseatingly gruesome gems of craftsmanship. Don't expect any experiments or completely new insights into the horror short story, just some plain and decent, I tend to even claim classic, examples of how you write a good fright story. While reading them, you just can feel how Stephen King was enjoying himself as he was jamming on his keyboard. And that is a lot of the enjoyment that Just After Sunset has to offer.
Do not hesitate: read this book... but only just after sunset!
King is always good! June 24, 2010
William H. Folk II (Racine, WI)
Short stories are great and when they are written by King they are even better!!
It took me no time at all to read the stories in Just After Sunset and in the end I wanted still more.
Occasionally King freaks me out only because of the timing of things...case in point is only a week ago my wife and I were discussing OCD and the havoc it must play in a family's life and what happens only 3 days later? I'm reading "N." and wondering where did that come from!
I almost always recommend King to people wanting an easy read because while the storylines can be ragged and twisted the writing is fluid and thought provoking.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 218
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