Night Shift part 2, finally. When it comes to writing, I’ve been slacking. I need to get back on this horse. I’m not a big short story reader and so getting though collections of them is hard for me. Night Shift wasn’t the only short story book I’ve read this year. The other was Out There Screaming, another but much newer horror collection of black authors. It was awesome, but I still took a long time to roam through the pages. I couldn’t tell you why I take so long exactly, but my theory is that I get into the stories so much that I have to ruminate on each one after they’re done. I try to figure out where they might go if the author were to continue or where they could have gone to be even more impressive. No, I’m not really so arrogant to think I could improve on so many amazing authors’ works, but sometimes I wish I knew what happened to a character or what would have happened if the main character made different choices. Short stories are oftentimes incomplete to me. I want more.
Night Shift was a book of wonders to me. So many of the stories have been brought to life on TV or in movies. I was surprised by a couldn’t of them. I didn’t know Children of the Corn was Stephen King, or The Lawnmower Man, though the movie is only loosely based on the short story. There’s also Sometimes They Come Back, Trucks (Maximum Overdrive is the movie), The Boogeyman, and The Mangler. The two others that are built around other stories that have made it to the screen are Jerusalem’s Lot (‘Salem’s Lot of course and Night Surf set in the Stand world). Just a treasure trove of Stephen King was compiled in this book.
Without getting into each story, I’ll tell my favorite and least favorite stories. The latter first. I didn’t really like Gray Matter. The story is about a boy whose father was ill or injured at home. He would get beer from the local convenience store and at some point began sending the boy for the drinks (ah, the days when you could do such a thing). The boy comes in one day and is afraid. The men in the story come to help and find the dad has transformed into a large fungus-like creature that is ingesting cats and possibly some missing people. While a reasonable enough story, it just wasn’t my favorite in the book.
My favorite on the other hand was Trucks. The angry vehicles come to life were almost comical to me. I loved that they negotiated for gas to keep terrorizing the humans. Just an almost light horror story and the obvious fantasy element was enjoyable. This one could be longer for me though. Like what happened in other places, did the humans ever win out, etc. Other points of view would have been fun to add. I need to see the movie now.
Anyway, that’s it for Night Shift. Next up I’ll write something up for The Stand. My favorite book still after reading it for the third time. Thanks for reading if you made it this far 🙂
S. E. Baran 