Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In some respects, it is possible to look upon the literary works of Stephen King and understand that in his novellas and short stories the labour behind them is more intensely arrived at than some of his larger bound novels.

There has long been a question mark about the modern master of horror and his ability to complete a novel with a greater tightness, cruelly perhaps driven by some who seek the alternative narrative of dismissing the saga and only wishing for the attention span to be satisfied rather than working and striving for a greater insight into the man and his nightmares.

This argument divides, but not when it comes the novella, to the shorter story that may deliver a punch to the senses and which plunges the reader into a world that is askew, not just slightly, but completely altered from our understanding of how the universe unfolds.

The master has incredible talent when it comes to the shorter form, and for every It or The Stand, arguably two of the most devastatingly excellent fully formed tales in the entire bibliography, there is a Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption, The Langoliers, Herman Wouk Is Still Alive, and You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band, as well as his authorship under the guise of Richard Bachman in The Long Walk and The Running Man, and for the fan of the shorter delve into the darkness, the latest collection is one to savour, only behind Four Past Midnight in terms of delivery, and as You Like It Darker starts to consume the reader, so the subtly of the tales becomes clear, disturbing, and honest.

Don’t ask the questions to which you know you won’t like the answer, don’t tempt fate by questioning the path it has laid out for you, and those noises, those nightmares that you once thought, hoped, had gone, will come back to haunt you…This is sense of drama that threatens to overwhelm as tales such as On Slide Road Inn, the excellent Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream, The Answer Man, and Rattlesnakes lift the collection of 12 short stories to a place of unforgettable elation; elevating and proving once again just how creative the genre, and the writer can be.

You Like It Darker, perhaps we do, as readers we insist on being taken to places that make our heart pound and even skip a beat, after all it is often the only indicator that we are truly alive; a concept Stephen King fully grasps and is willing to be the guide in the darkness.

Ian D. Hall