Oldies But Goodies
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: If It
Bleeds Collection
by Stephen King
by Karen S. Wiesner
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I grew up reading a Stephen King book every few days, sometimes within a single day if I got the enviable time to actually read that much. He was unquestionably my favorite writer when I was a teenager. He was without peer in my mind at conjuring supernatural creatures that I loved to be terrorized by, in large part because they weren't real. He also introduced me to a lot of things I was young and hungry to know, naughty, nasty things, and things that, in truth, I almost wish I'd never found out. As I got older, I got less and less able to handle realistic horror stories--the ones King wasn't intending to tell me. He wrote almost casually about horrible things like secret child molestation, deviations (sometimes sexual) that harmed a person as well as others, and the true crimes of this world, namely, the real ones where people are ritualistically cruel and judgmental, prejudice, and life was so routinely unfair to the underdogs. There's so much suffering that goes on inside battered souls that want nothing more than to hide and escape the attention of the world. He detailed vividly the kind of torment that no one else sees until it comes out and manifests itself almost like a demon out of control.
I guess the books I was reading as I moved into adulthood made me want to escape, not to have bad situations finitely dissected and served up as a kind of punishment. I found it easier to throw the baby out with the bathwater. More aptly, I threw out the author that forced me to live such painful scenarios. That's undoubtedly a good testimony of King's skill as a writer, but I still find it hard to watch what can only be described sometimes as gruesome train wrecks.
When I've ventured back into King territory here and there in the long years since then at the urging of a lifelong fan, I found his writing decidedly more mature, at least slightly more sensitive to realistic injustices, and less about supernatural horrors running amok. I miss the dark fantasy aspects, but I appreciate that I'm less traumatized reading his work these days.
If It Bleeds is a collection of four previously unpublished novellas by Stephen King published in 2020. I actually watched a wonderful adaptation of "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" on Netflix without having a clue it was based on the Stephen King story of the same name. I looked it up mid-watch and learned of the fact. Not more than a week later, I was at a book sale and saw a hardcover copy of the collection. I bought it and started reading.
In "Mr. Harrigan's Phone", Craig is initially a refreshingly sweet nine-year-old boy who gets a job reading books to a retired, rich gentleman who lives in a choice spot in a town that's not so nice as to invite flurries of visitors at any given time. Rumor has it that in his younger years Harrigan was "tenacious" in exacting fitting judgment on those who wronged him or those close to him. But that's a side young Craig never actually saw in his kindly mentor of sorts--well, he never saw that side of Harrigan in life, at least. In death, now that's a whole different matter.
With the movie version of this story, I was pretty surprised to find it dubbed a horror. From start to finish, it didn't frighten me one bit. I imagine it wouldn't have scared even a skittish four-year-old. It's just not what I consider horror. I wondered if they just called it that because of King's crown--he's known as the King of Horror after all. Later, as I thought about the story it told, I realized that the underlying horror of this piece was in adult Craig letting himself believe for even one second that justice can be rectified or gained through injustice and revenge. I loved this story and enjoyed watching Craig grow up. I was moved as he discovered for himself the limits of wrong and right. (The actors in the movie version were fantastic.) "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" was far and away my favorite in this collection. I heartily recommend both the story and the movie version of it.
The second story in the
collection, "The Life of Chuck" details the end of the world and what
that looks like for various people but mainly for someone named Chuck. This tale
is told backwards, with the end revealed first, working backwards. The three
acts didn't make any sense in the order they were presented. Would they have
been clearer if they'd been placed in linear order? I'll never know. I enjoyed
the first (which was actually the last) of the three disjointed parts. From
that point on, I was lost and never found my way back. Afterward, I read about
the story online, trying to figure out the point. Not much explained it either.
That they made a movie of this story is utterly unfathomable to me. King
actually cited a billboard that he'd seen that read, "39 Great Years!
Thanks, Chuck" as his inspiration and decided to try to figure out what
that meant by writing about it. My opinion is that the outcome feels unfinished
and fragmented the way it's presented.
"If It Bleeds" is a Holly Gibney story. Originally she appeared as an important secondary character in King's Bill Hodges trilogy (including Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch published from 2014-2016), which I've never read. Suffering from OCD and a form of autism, Holly took the role of main character in the novel The Outsider, released in 2018, as a private investigator. I read this book long ago, also watched the 10-part miniseries version in 2020, intrigued by the idea of a man supposedly committing a murder when he was nowhere near the scene of the crime at the time, though the DNA found there and eyewitness accounts on both sides claim he was in each area simultaneously. His alibi is absolutely solid, as is his guilt in murdering and raping a young boy. So which is right? Or has something much more sinister taken place?
I have to confess, I remember little of Holly Gibney in the book or the miniseries. What I recall most is that both the novel and the serial were long, so very, very long. Way too long and boring to hold my attention. Hundreds of pages and many hours filmed could easily have been cut to get to the gist of the story--the beginning and the ends were the two parts worth saving. The middle stuff was far too much to carry my interest, though I tried with both the book and the movie. By the time I got to the end of each, where it was actually exciting again, I didn't care. I just wanted it to be over.
I had a similar experience with "If It Bleeds", which continues with a similar theme as The Outsider. I'm sorry to admit I found Holly excruciatingly dull, and I had a lot of trouble making it to the finish line with this story, though the overall idea was of interest to me, as was The Outsider. If anyone else is interested, Holly is also in a 2023 released, self-titled novel.
The final story in If It Bleeds is "Rat". A writer with only short story success has never been able to finish a full-length novel. Inspired with an idea that has him excited, he rushes to his isolated cabin to write it. Bad weather and sickness set in while he's there. Unsure he'll finish his novel and feverish, he makes a shocking bargain with a sinister rat, but the author is just so desperate to make his career aspirations come true. Gee, what could go wrong? How could this man have not seen the end coming from the off? I can't say I loved this story, though it started out well enough. I couldn't get past the "what kind of a creep would agree to this pact?" aspect. Sigh. Incidentally, Ben Stiller optioned "Rat", intending to produce, star in, and direct the film adaptation at one point, but it's unclear whether that'll ever happen.
While it's true I only found one offering in this collection really worth reading, I do think that single story is strong enough to warrant putting time and money into procuring it. Whether or not you're a fan of Stephen King, "Mr. Harrigan's Phone"--the novella and the movie--are the very best of the author. I expect you may see more reviews of Stephen King's work here in my Friday column in the future, as I ease back into the works of a favorite writer from my youth.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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