If I had to choose which one of Stephen King's book that I think is the best, I would have a difficult time choosing. I love 'Pet Sematary', a story about a man who was desperate to have his 4 years old son -who died after being hit by a passing truck- alive again, that he buried the boy's body in the pet sematary (cemetery), after being told by a local residence and neighbour that people who buries their pets there, the pet will come back to them.
I also love The Shining, a story about a guy who tried to rebuild his life and family again by taking a winter job in a hotel, without knowing that his past will soon haunt him.
But of course I love STephen King's short stories. And though I've wrote about 'Night Shift' it wasn't my favourite book. But this is.
(this is the actual cover that I bought. I find it beautiful in a horrific kind of way. The blood in the glass is like, summarized the whole idea)
It was published in 2002 and the second King's book that I bought after PET SEMATARY. There are 14 short stories in the book. And by each endings, King will put some notes about what inspire him to write the piece or just anything he wanted to say to readers and I find it interesting every time. It gives a sort of connection between his readers and himself. I will put here some of my favorites;
The Man in the Black Suit
This was told by an old guy who is nearing death about his experience when he was a young boy. One day he went out fishing when suddenly he met a man in a black suit (hence the title) and smell of burnt match heads who told the boy that his mother is dead by the time he speaks and that the man (in the blacksuit) will kill him. By then he realized that the man is a devil. He escaped the man by throwing the fish that he caught towards the man and ran away while the man eats all the fish. As he is now old and will soon die he was terrified of the question if he will die in the presence of God or would the man in the blacksuit came to him again as thistime he would be too old to run away.
The Road Virus Heads North
I would never read this one at night alone. Let me clarify that! Even when trying to remember the storyline to write it here (I am doing this at midnight) I have this weird feeling on my neck. It tells a story about a man who bought a painting from a yard sale of a dead artist. The painting is of a sinister looking man driving his car somewhere and was named 'The Road Virus Heads North'. He then stops at his aunt's house to show her and realized that there was something different about the paintings but he can't put his finger on. Along the way the painting changes and the man realized that the change is in the scenery of the painting, that it has the same scenery of the road that the man use! Deeply unsettled by this he throw the paintings away on his way back only to his house only to find the painting inside his house hanged on the wall. He then heard in the news that the woman who sold the painting has been brutally murdered thus he burned the painting but later saw that the painting is again upon his wall. By the end of the story, the man saw in the painting himself in the road virus' car, predicting what would happen to him.
Lunch at Gotham Cafe
Most people who I force to read this one think that its not scary. But maybe that's because we have different imaginations. It's about a guy who is attending a lunch with his wife and her lawyer to discuss about their divorce/pre-nupt or sth like that. However the maitre'd of the cafe kept telling him that he cannot bring his dog in although he didn't have a dog and only carries his umbrella. Whatscares me about this piece is when the maitre'd went berserk and screamed at him that he cannot bring his dog inside and screech on something like "That dog.... Eeeeeeee!... Itold you time and again about that dog... Eeeeeeee!.... All that time I can't sleep..... Eeeeee!...." and went totally whacked and stab the lawyer.
Riding the Bullet
This piece was also the first e-book that King did and it was so popular that it made King a celebrity. It is about Allan Parker, a hitchhiker whose on his way to see his mom in hospital who arrives at a graveyard on a tomb with the name George Staub and later a car picked him up and who else the driver but George Staub himself.
1408
This will come out in Malaysia in August or September starring John Cusack. But the story is about Mike Enslin, a writer who writes about haunted places, heard about a room in a hotel; room number 1408 that is known to be a scary place that its inhabitant never came out after coming in. Rise to the challenge, he went against the manager of the hotel, Mr Olin's warning and stay a night there, thinking that he would be able to stay there longer than Mr Olin's expectation. Never he had known that 1408 is not just another spooky room but is everything a man would be afraid of... I got goosebumps especially the part where the phone suddenly rings and there's a disembodied voice saying;
"This is nine! Nine! This is nine! Nine! This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is six! Six! […] Eighteen! This is now eighteen! Take cover when the siren sounds! This is four! Four! […] Five! This is five! Ignore the siren! Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room!"
I dunno if the movie would have the same effect as my own imagination though...
