If It Bleeds by Stephen King
Sometimes I feel like I am too hard on Uncle Steve. The man is a genius, and he set a very high bar for himself with early classics. I mean Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, and The Dead Zone are unfuckwithable. Pet Semetary, and Misery are high bars but you can’t release as much as Stephen King does and have all hits. The reality is I am always curious like a new Metallica album. They will never release anything as powerful as Master of Puppets but they always cause conversation. A new Stephen King novel is always a conversation.
When SK is on, his powers are pretty amazing to behold. I thought LATER released from Hard Case Crime last year is one of those amazing pieces of work. I also think Doctor Sleep is underrated, but that being said it is always his four novella collections I get excited about. This is the perfect length for King in my opinion. Full Dark No Stars for example is a perfect collection of all four stories, just perfect.
So why three stars? I think half maybe ¾ of this book is really great but I didn’t like the title story. We will get there.
Perhaps the most naturally Stephen King feeling story in the book is the opening story Mister Harrington’s Phone. In the early King days of collections like Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, he had a habit of finding random objects or various set-ups to build horror stories about. Last Rung on the Ladder, The Monkey, The Raft, etc. In the same way, I imagined SK staring at his phone and this story all came flowing to him.
“And what makes you think you’re the main character in anything but your own mind?”
The first story is about Craig a young man who lives in rural Maine and is hired by a billionaire recluse to read for him as his eyes are failing. What follows is a few short years while Craig grows up and gets to know the Luddite rich man. Before his death, Craig teaches him how to an iPhone that he gives him as a gift.
“Henry Thoreau said that we don’t own things; things own us. Every new object—whether it’s a home, a car, a television, or a fancy phone like that one—is something more we must carry on our backs.”
The phone is the Maguffin, and it drives the story a bit, but the thing that makes this story click is the intense and meaningful relationship between Craig and Harrington. There are creepy moments but they wouldn’t mean much if not for this foundation. This story is an excellent character piece.
The second story The Life of Chuck is probably my favorite the reasons why are not super easy for me to identify. As a devoted reader of Philip K. Dick, this story is positively Dickian.
“Because there really is a second world. It exists because people refuse to believe it’s there.”
The story is broken up into narrative slices that might not seem to connect but this is a story about alternate realities. The fact is this strange end of the world story goes backward. It is a fantastic story that is really well written except for one exchange of forced exposition. The story has a mood and vibe I liked but also felt profound. I thought was playing with the idea of our lives flashing before our eyes. This is a story that might benefit from a second or third time through. It would be easy to miss what is going on in the transitions. VERY GOOD stuff here.
I was feeling good. Then came the title story that I knew was featured Holly Gibney who has been a character in many King novels. I know he was eager to come back to her after The Outsider. Her character was not the problem with that book that had a fantastic set-up but fizzled out for me. My review is up here to read if you want to read it. This novella kinda recycles the set-up of the outsider but mashes it together with the genius Dan Gilroy movie Nightcrawler. Both of which reminded me of San Diego author Ryan C. Thomas’s second novel The Ratings Game, it is just an accident. Just pointing out the idea of journalists creating violence and chaos for their own ratings is hardly anything groundbreaking at this point.
The idea that the media are tragedy vampires certainly deserves more than one examination so I don’t think that is the problem. I wanted to like this story but it was the longest and biggest slog for me in this book. I didn’t really feel much interest in the mystery at any point. This novella just felt like a re-do of the previous novel shoe-horned into this theme. So, I know this is a contradiction as it felt too long and not developed enough at the same time.
Holly is a good character and this does provide some details into her family and that did spark a little interest. The only thing that kept from skipping was Holly. I figure this stuff will be important when we see her again.
The final story RAT is another writer’s story and is mostly vibe and tone. I related to this one a bit, but I am a writer. Although the writer is so desperate to finish something I can’t relate to. I am never sure how these stories work for non-writers. It is a moral story, like Matheson’s classic Button, Button meets the misery of writer’s block. There are some moments where the writer at the heart of the story questions reality and there were some fun narrative tricks, but ultimately I wonder if the stakes are relatable. SK does what he can to make them clear.
If It Bleeds is a must-read for constant readers. If you’re not I would suggest Different Seasons or Full Dark No Stars before this one.
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