Just After Sunset

I don't know where Stephen King gets this stuff! Actually I do, because he has notes at the end which I like. Every story is different from each other and from other stories he has written. I enjoyed this book immensely!

I have been reading King for many years and enjoy all of his works. This collection was a great read, for it includes the various levels of horror that King loves to introduce to seemingly ordinary settings. A must read for fans and new readers alike!

Stephen King rules. I love his short stories. It's like sitting in a hot tub and getting out while it is two degrees. You know that shiver your get when your skin hits the cold air, that is the effect you get after one of King's stories.

As always Stephen King reigns supreme in the field of suspense. The short stories in this book are varied and each has it's special quality. I would suggest anyone who enjoys the strange and eerie to read this book.

I forget how much I love short stories. Stephen King consistantly transports you with his writing. They're stories that I always wonder what happened? Where are the characters now? Highly recommended.

What fun! To have quick reads of Stephen King stories on my kindle! However, the book of short stories was written a number of years ago, and I think King has matured as an author since that time. I read King's most recent book of short stories, "Full Dark, No Stars" and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories. They were what I call 'typical king', but with a message!

I can still sense King's unique development of characters in "Just After Sunset" but the stories themselves did not evolve in King's usual style. I read all of the 13 stories, and rated most of them ***. I enjoyed them but ultimately was disappointed. I was not reading the the current Stephen King I come to expect.

I recently purchased "Just After Sunset" and read it in a day's time. It was so good I couldn't put it down. I think this is his best short story collection besides "Night Shift". The stories were well written, suspenseful and held my interest. It's so hard to pick out a favorite story from this book, but I was blown away by "Graduation Afternoon" for some reason! It really packs a punch and I wasn't expecting the outcome! It took me completely by surprise. That's what I like about Stephen King's stories. He sneaks up on you and whacks you over the head with some of the things he writes about! Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend this book to any die hard King fans like myself, and to anyone who enjoys King's short story collections. You can't get any better than these! HAPPY READING! :)

SK is an expert at writing short stories. He gets you in and involved quickly and doesn't waste time with elaborate back-stories. He gets right to the tale and tells it like nobody else can. This book was a mixed bag. Some good and some not so good. My favorite story (5 stars) was The Gingerbread Girl. It was fast and intense but I think The Running Girl would have been a better title. No matter, it was great. My least favorite was the last of the stories, A Very Tight Place. It was very nasty. I got through it but it was difficult. It gave me bad dreams which I'm sure was SK's intent. So, overall, good reading. I remain a constant reader.

This is another short story collection, akin to "Everything's Eventual." On the whole, the stories in this collection are interesting. There are no surprise punches in this novel - every story is what you would expect from Stephen King.
This is a great book to bring along on a trip to pass the time.

They're not all "typical" Stephen King, which is one of the reasons I love his shorter works. He uses them to explore different things and express different ideas, and it isn't always about the monster-of-the-moment.

Just After Sunset was a fantastic book of short stories wrote in Stephen King's normal fashion. I loved it, and even more think he is the best writer ever. I have been a devoted reader of Stephen King books since the '70's, and look forward to each new story and novel.

I'm a bit surprised - disappointed even - in the rather mediocre average review score for Stephen King's anthology, "Just After Sunset." While this collection of short stories is not steeped in the sensational terror and gore of King's earlier works (most of which I thought were terrific), "Sunset" reflects a more mature King - the master of words relying less on horror and more on the subtleties of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. I always found King a keen observer of culture and society - one of the best at capturing the most mundane details of ordinary life, and in King's case, weaving them into a dark fabric of fear that lures one from the familiarity of (a pet, a car, and friendly neighbor...) into unsettled and disturbing worlds, and epic battles of good vs. malevolence. All of which are reflected in this baker's dozen of darkness - twelve new and the "bonus" of "The Cat from Hell" - an early King tale that made it to the big screen in the 1990 movie "Tales from the Darkside". To the point, the contrast in style between the graphic and simple story lines of "Hell Cat", and the cleverly drawn irony of "Mute" could not be more pronounced. Both frightening, engaging, and entertaining reads, but where "Cat" is pretty much gothic horror, "Mute" is a cleverly drawn, sophisticated tale of suspense and murder that would fit well in a collection of Hitchcock.

I didn't find a bad story in the lot, but if I were to pick my favorites, in addition to the fiendish "Mute", I'd place the diabolically gross "A Very Tight Place" near the top of the list. Or the poignant "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" - an oft-told tale in many respects, but never replayed more beautifully than here. Another from that dimension into which we may pass after death is the opener, "Willa", a story that takes a few pages to get into, and may have you scratching your head at first. But when it delivers, it delivers a punch more sorrowful than it is terrifying. But perhaps the defining effort is "N.", a frightening drama that recalls earlier King themes, but twists them around into a gripping and thoughtful thriller bridging Stonehenge and crop circles with pastoral Maine landscapes.

Events like King's near-fatal accident in 1999 and 9/11 clearly had a huge impact on the author's life, and the imprint of these seminal events are very evident in these pages. If there is a common theme between these pages, it is individual reaction to unthinkable tragedy, tempered by King's own passage from near death. While King chose "horror" as his literary path to follow, I'm certain the strength of his prose would have placed him near the top of any genre. Not unlike Poe, King's "Cold damp winds, white skies and fleeing crows" evoke disturbing but familiar images - places we'd prefer not to be but revel in reading. So while this may not be "The Stand", it is not "Cell" either, but a collection of dark little gems that will again remind us how fortunate we are to have King, the rare author as talented as he is prolific.