Read Dates: January 8, 2019 – February 8, 2019
Publication date: November 3, 2015
Source: Borrowed paperback from a friend
“I know you,” she said. “You’re Stephen King. You write those scary stories. That’s all right, some people like them, but not me. I like uplifting stories, like that Shawshank Redemption.”
“I wrote that too.”
“No you didn’t,” she said, and went on her way.
This was my first Stephen King book, guys. That’s right. My SK cherry has been popped. Growing up, we were told SK books were bad. That having them in the house led to odd occurrences happening in the house due to evil spirits. Mind you, I never saw that in action as we didn’t have a single SK book in the house. I didn’t necessarily steer clear of SK books because I WANTED to, I just grew up to believe we shouldn’t have them. So out of habit, I didn’t read any Stephen King books. Ever. Now, going back to odd occurrences from books, THAT I have experienced before. As I was in the middle of the third installment of the Beautiful Creatures series, weird things started happening in my house. Mom and I both witnessed some odd things going on. We got rid of the books and BOOM, problem solved. No more weird stuff.
This is why I chose the above excerpt from Stephen King’s The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A woman in a supermarket recognized him as the “horror writer” and refused to believe he was anything but. I feel like a lot of people live with the misconception that everything King writes is purely horror in the form of exorcisms and demons and otherworldly happenings. And that’s just not true.
This book brought out the poet that King is. Yes, there’s a POEM by King in this book!
This book isn’t any one thing, though. It is many things. This is a collection of stories King was inspired to write based on his own personal experiences or his own imagination giving him ideas about real places he passed every day.
Before each story, he gives us a look into his life and what gave him the inspiration to write these stories in the first place.
We read about a wrecked car with monsters that lurk inside. A man who writes hateful obituaries for celebrities who have passed away and discovers an interesting side effect to his writings. Two struggling mothers who are in over their heads and looking for an out. A kid in a propeller hat who lives only to make one man’s life miserable. A rich man who is in a great deal of pain but finds out the pain is not related to his injuries involving a plane crash. A man who dies and finds that the afterlife is actually a choice given to you by a man behind a desk. A man whose kindle provides a service that no other kindle owner can obtain.
I also really enjoyed “Under the Weather” but saying anything at all about that one would certainly give everything away.
These were just some of my favorites. Every story in this book was interesting and hard to move away from. And, of course, they all had that classic SK grit.
Anyway, I’m happy to report that nothing weird or creepy happened upon bringing this book home and I’d like to immensely thank my friend, Yasmin for throwing me on the Stephen King wagon. I had a wonderful time reading this.
Side note: Yes it took me a month to get through this book. This book was something I read between the other books I’ve been reading in this time frame. I would read a story or two from the Bazaar every now and then. It was one HELL of a leisure read!
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