Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
Great Short Fiction From A Master Storyteller
In the introduction to Skeleton Crew (1985), his second collection of
stories, King pokes fun at his penchant for literary elephantiasis, makes
scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes
(gross and net), and tells a story about getting arrested one time when he
was suffused with the sort of towering, righteous rage that only drunk
undergraduates can feel. He winds up with an invitation to a scary voyage:
Grab onto my arm now. Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark
places, but I think I know the way. And he sure does. Skeleton Crew
contains a superb short novel (The Mist) that alone is worth the pric e of
admission, plus two forgettable poems and 20 short stories on such
themes as an evil toy monkey, a human-eating water slick, a machine that
avenges murder, and unnatural creatures that inhabit the thick woods
near Castle Rock, Maine. The short tales range from simply enjoyable to
surprisingly good. In addition to The Mist, the real standout is The
Reach, a beautifully subtle story about a great-grandmother who was born
on a small island off the coast of Maine and has lived there her whole life.
She has never been across the Reach, the body of water between island
and mainland. This is the story that King fans give to their friends who
dont read horror in order to show them how literate, how charming a
storyteller he can be. Dont miss it. --Fiona Webster
Personal Review: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
First off, read "The Monkey", especially if you have the paperback version
that has the creepy monkey toy with the glowing eyes. Then you'll
understand something about Stephen King. I remember the immense
gratitude that I felt as a teen when I first read this story. He too has
shuddered at the sight of those googly eyed toy monkeys! What sadist
manufactured these horrific objects? Nevermind, they exist, and now,
thanks to Mr.King, they serve a greater purpose, to become themes and
storylines of some of the most terrific and terrifying stories King ever wrote.
These are some of his greatest masterpieces of shorts in this collection,
and if critics generally dissaprove of King's short stories I cannot imagine
why. "The Mist" is one of his best works, and includes such psychological
introspections of human reactions to unimaginable situations that one
wonders exactly how much time he has devoted to picking apart the many
varied personifications of humanity. In "The Mist" the story begins with a
man and his young son, waving goodbye to the lovely but doomed wife
and mother as they both go to the local grocery store. As this is happening
a strange fog rolls over into the town, presumably from a secret
government testing facility allegedly called The Arrowhead Project, of
course the "project" being testing atomic particles and radioactive
materials. No one yet knows the strange fog that rolled in during a
thunderstorm carries within its bowels bizzarre, tentacle d, flesh devouring
creatures that can only be partially seen as they carry their victims back
into the misty veils of death they crawled out of. Mayhem ensues as those
trapped in the grocery store reveal their true character as all struggle to
stay alive. Delicious and gruesome deaths occur as the beasts that never
should have been, both outside and inside of the store, collide with each
other, the instinctual inclination of both beast and man strugge each to
survive. For those who saw the movie, get thee to a time travel device and
have it so that you never did! The ending of the movie is so far removed
from the ending of the story that it completely changes the nature of the
tale. "The Raft" is a great one, notching out a sordid tale of college kids
stranded on a creaky raft on a lake trying not to be consumed by the oily
but seductive black creature that (you guessed it!) dissolves flesh right off
the bone, eating them alive one by one, think "rolled roast of beef" and
you're starting to get the picture. This tale is particularly gory yet
irresistible as the creature become more and more inventive as it tries to
get the kids off the raft and into its amoeba-like body. One of the
unluckiest guys gets sucked through a half inch crack between the rottin g
wood of the raft, as the soon to be also eaten watch in horror. Then, God
knows why, the two remainig couple decide that it might be a good idea to
lie down and have sex, I guess watching your two best friends skin
dissolve as they scream in agony would get anyone in the mood, and the
ever increasing appetite of the oily creature pulls down deadgirl#2 down by
her face. The lone survivor is left, stranded and exhausted, unable to sit
down as the thing under him waits...there was a film version of it
somewhere where the last guy somehow makes it to shore and the black
thing lunges out of the lake to pull him back in, but the readers of the
original story know better.
If you loved science fiction as a child, "The Jaunt" is a hearty tale of the
consequences of breaking the rules of nature, a theme that runs
throughout the book's series of ever increasingly perplexing situations.
Several bouts of malevolent poetry, better left to Tabitha his wife, interrupt
the rest of the horrific tales, including my ever favorite story of precious
"Gramma", a demented and senile old woman who happens to be a
powerful witch in the throes of death. Little George is left alone in an
isolated house with an old lady with an agenda, that is to remain alive,
however and whatever form she can. Survival and desperation seep
through the entire series of seemingly unconnected stories, but as a whole,
the book remains of the most cohesive collections of stories King ever
wrote, some of the stories dating back to his own teenage writing years.
You can sense the evolution of his writing as the stories progress, King
explains in the forward that some of these stories date back to the
beginning of his career as a writer. These are the "hungry" Stephen King
stories, as opposed to the slower paced and more opulent writing of his
later years. They are less refined, more frenetic, and even a bit juvenile in
nature, but the intensity of his work is at its peak in this staple of horror
enthusiasts. This is King at his rawest, least refined nature. It is harsh,
brutal, and entirely delicious.
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