I have long maintained that, for me, Stephen King’s short stories and novellas hit harder than most of his books. I just like them more; they are snappier. While I do enjoy taking my 1,000-plus-page journey to Derry in IT, sometimes it’s nicer to have a story come in, do its thing, and then leave. You Like It Darker is Stephen King’s latest short story collection and is a mix of previously published stories (something I did not realize until I was like, “Wait… have I read this before, or is King reusing plot points?”) and new works.
I found this to be a decently solid collection (as with every short story collection I’ve ever read, some hit harder for me than others) and one that I would probably lend to someone like my mother. She’s a reader who is not a huge King fan and doesn’t love it when things get full-on supernatural horror. When people are being horrible to each other? She’s okay with that! But she likes things supernatural-lite, and a lot of these stories aren’t overtly supernatural. (Except the ones that are, and oh wow, some of them get dark. You better like it darker for some of these stories.)
I have found since the Mr. Mercedes trilogy that King has been writing more in the vein of crime/mystery. Yes, sometimes there are supernatural aspects, but there is a fair amount of “this is how we deal with a crime” aspect to the stories. Often, while there are ghosts/monsters/evil doppelgangers around, that vibe is present in one of the stories here. Other ones read more like straightforward “here are some bad people committing crimes” stories. Then you go from that to full-on, in-your-face, brain-melting, and body-modifying horror. To be clear, I’d advise my mother to avoid “The Dreamers” in this collection. That one would be too “fantastic” for her.
One of the novellas in this collection is “Rattlesnakes,” billed as a sequel to Cujo. As someone who has not read Cujo or seen the movie (look, I have a thing about dogs being okay in fiction), I can attest that you don’t need to read that to enjoy this. Although I should put “enjoy” in brackets, as this had a very neat premise but, as the title kind of hints at, there are snakes. This one is going to be the story out of the book that haunts me. It is very much supernatural horror.
Willie the Weirdo and On Slide Inn Road feel like they are speaking to each other in a way. They feature some of the older (and downright ornery, in one case) protagonists. Although I do feel “Willie” is retreading ground King has tread before. Speaking of older protagonists, the “Bastids” in Two Talented Bastids are also in their elder years, and one is a writer. I do feel this may be a reflection of where King is at in his life.
On the flip side, “Finn” was good but really made me think, “Maybe King needs to not write teenagers.” It just felt very jarring. While younger characters show up in other stories, this one just felt off; there was something about the way the main character talked that tossed me right out of the story, and I was never able to really get back in.
While Rattlesnakes is going to haunt me, my personal favourites in the collection were The Turbulence Expert, Laurie, and The Answer Man. Notably, Laurie is supernatural events free. An odd choice when it comes to me and King, but I just really liked this little slice of life (also – featuring an older protagonist.)
In the afterward of You Like It Darker, a collection of short stories and novellas, King notes that he feels he has never quite written a story that lived up to its original concept, but that “… I’m proud of my short fiction, probably because they have always been hard for me.” I think he should be proud of these stories. Yes, it is kind of a mixed bag, as I most find short story collections. But this was a solid one, its got appeal for not just an “oh I like scary stories” audience” (like me!), and I think looking back it is going to serve as a kind of snapshot of a particular time in this writer’s career.