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FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT by STEPHEN KING
“Writing, it seems to me, is a secret act—as secret as dreaming—and that was one aspect of this strange and dangerous craft I had never thought about much.”
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A 4-part collection of novellas from the mind of Stephen King. In this book we’ve got; The Langolears - where a small group of plane passengers awaken to find all others aboard have vanished, Secret Window Secret Garden - where a writer is confronted by a stranger claiming the writer stole his story, The Library Policeman - where a man fails to return some library books on time and finds himself being hunted by a very unfriendly librarian, and Sun Dog - where a Polaroid camera keeps showing photos of a demonic dog, no matter what else you take pictures of.
So I’m really only a fan of Secret Window, Secret Garden. It’s a great mystery that builds into a good ending (they changed the ending in the Johnny Depp movie version and I’m undecided which I like more). You’re made to wonder at the legitimacy of it all right until the end.
The other 3 stories a kind of forgettable for me. Langolears gets a slight pass because of the sheer oddness of it all, and it made me want to watch the 90s miniseries.
But unfortunately the other 2 stories were kind of meh for me, and I can see why they’ve never been adapted to screen. Library Policeman is actually a nod to IT though, possibly a tie-in with the same sort of being?
I actually found Sun Dog pretty boring, though if you look at it as a prologue of sorts to Needful Things then that spices it up slightly.
All in all not the strongest of SK’s shorter works, but they can be enjoyed in their own ways too.
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