Novella Collection | Book Chatter

If It Bleeds
By Stephen King
Scribner, 9781982137977, April 2020, 448pp.

The Short of It:

Once again, I was thoroughly swept up with King’s writing. I don’t know what I will do when his books stop coming.

The Rest of It:

If It Bleeds is a collection of novellas. It contains four stories. Four really good stories and one is a little tidbit of goodness that you will enjoy reliving. Think, familiar character.

I won’t tell you what each story is about because it’s more fun to go into them totally blind, like I did. I was happily surprised that many of the themes explored are timely for our “safe at home” / quarantine pandemic days. Views on technology, mortality, desperation, all have their time in the spotlight.

King is an excellent storyteller. His set-ups are so good. Just a few lines in and I’m hooked. I really enjoyed this collection. It made me wonder what I am going to do when he isn’t around anymore and I don’t even want to think about that.

Source: Borrowed
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Strange Weather
By Joe Hill
William Morrow & Company, 9780062663115, October 2017, 448pp.

The Short of It:

Some readers might overlook this collection because they aren’t into short fiction but this collection includes four complete novels and trust me, you’ll forget you are reading short fiction once you get into each story.

The Rest of It:

This is a really excellent collection of stories. I hate to compare Joe Hill to his pop (Stephen King) but he has a very similar sense of humor which comes out in his writing. Not surprising really.

I enjoyed all of these novels but my fave is probably the one titled “Loaded”. A mall cop is hailed as a hero until the full story is revealed. It has plenty to say about gun control and with everything currently going on in our world, this story is timely.

Although I shy away from short fiction, I couldn’t help but fall into these stories. Hill delivers realistic characters and has a knack for pacing. I never felt like the stories were too short which is how I sometimes feel with short fiction.

Strange Weather is a good example of short fiction which is also very satisfying to read.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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