If It Bleeds - review

If It Bleeds by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a while since I've read King's short stories or novellas, I particularly think some of his best work is in this format and I remember fondly The Mist and The Jaunt from my youth; both stories fed my fears of the unknown and poke on my curiosity. As a side note, let's not forget that the best motion picture of all times according to IMDb, The Shawshack redemption is based on Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. So we could say this guy not only knows how to write, but he'll make out a great story out of anything.

"Mr. Harrigan's Phone"
Apple fanboys will rejoyce with this short story. An old guy gets an iPhone as a gift and the gadget allows him to do some nasty stuff

"The life of Chuck"
Chuck is a jolly good fellow and we get to know about him in retrospect. It is not scary nor fantastic story, but SK gets you pretty hooked on his life.

"If it Bleeds"
I listened on Audible this book and let me tell you that Will Patton is the best audiobook reader of all times. The story is the right size for the format and I see a lot more novellas with the Holly Gibney charachter in the future; SK seems to be having a great time creating Holly's adventures and people seem to like her even more. This is the longest novella in the book and it is a detective story on the same track as "Mr Mercedes" and "The Outsider"; you won't have to read those other books, but perhaps you'll enjoy this one better if you do. Holly gets herself involved with investigating a horrible bombing attack on a boarding school. Her tenacity and intuition allow her to uncover a very particular perp, but at the same time put herself into harm's way.

"Rat"
I was liking a lot this story, but somewhere along the way I feel SK lost bearing. A no success writer aisolates himself in a remote cabin in the woods to pursue his next big project, only to find help from none other than a rat.

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