‘You like it darker? Fine, so do I’, writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life – both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel ‘the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind’, and in You Like it Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.
Dark bleatings, tribe and fellow Constant Readers! This is the most recent collection (well, book in general), from Uncle Steve. In my opinion, it’s one of his best short story collections, alongside Night Shift and Skeleton Crew.
Let’s take it (spoiler-free) story by story…
Two Talented Bastids
This feels like a 1980’s King idea but with 2020’s King’s writing style – a perfect example of his style and imagination that you could place in any era of his collected works. Mark’s dad was a famous novelist, and his friend a famous artist, but once upon a time, they didn’t seem destined for the kind of success they ended up having. One day, they were average, and then after a hunting trip, they came back exceptional. Mark is learning why and.. let’s just say that one minute, I really had no idea where this was going, and the next, it was truly out of the box, and reminded me of another of King’s stories (that I love).
The Fifth Step
One of the shorter and most brutal stories in the book. Jamieson goes on his daily walk and takes a seat on a bench in Central Park. A stranger sits beside him and tells him he’s reached the 5th step in AA, and asks to unburden his regrets – it’s needed for his recovery. Jamieson kindly obliges… and then regrets it.
It’s bloody great! Unexpected, short but somehow twisty and shocking.
Willie the Weirdo
Another favourite of mine (I’m going to say that about most of the stories in this collection, though!), and another of the shortest tales. Willie is regarded by his family as a weirdo. He’s odd. Initially, I identified with him because I really felt like people thought I was weird when I was a kid. However, as quickly as I latched on, I unlatched. Because Willie is weird, and he shares a common interest with his Grandpa that … gave me the willies. Hehehee.
PS. There are no willies in this story, don’t worry.
Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream
The longest story in this collection (it’s a novella), and a truly excellent mix of mostly real-world stuff but with just a sprinkling of the supernatural to kick things off. Danny has a nightmare about a murdered woman and, unable to shake the dream, goes to the location just to get the place out of his head…. but finds the dead body. He anonymously reports it but of course, he then becomes the primary suspect. This almost leans into the realm of being a crime thriller. We have two cops (a classic good cop/bad cop set up), some great side characters, and very human stakes outside of the obvious big one of an innocent guy not wanting to be convicted of a murder he didn’t commit.
This one felt like it was about the perils of being a good person. Danny does the right thing, and ends up maybe regretting it. And, unfortunately, that is the world we live in.
Finn
This one is a breath of fresh air and a real surprise, to me at least. Stephen King does have, and has always had, a good sense of humour. It’s evident in the way he writes characters and relationships, and in particular the way he lends it to horror when he’s reaching for bleak dark comedy. People who aren’t funny can’t come up with stories like Drunken Fireworks, for example. However, this entire story just has the strongest dark humour thread interwoven with all its other elements – more so than anything else he’s written.
Finn is just an unlucky guy. He always has been. Comically unfortunate things just happen to him. Always. Somehow, things get even worse for him one day when he’s minding his own business on the street and – mistaken for someone else – he’s snatched up into a van and kidnapped. If Finn had any other type of personality, this story couldn’t be funny. The scenario is horrific – really the stuff of nightmares. But Finn’s general outlook makes it comical despite what’s happening to him. I laughed a lot.
On Slide Inn Road
Oof – also the stuff of nightmares, is this one! A mum, dad, two kids, and grandpa are on a road trip. They turn off to look at an old building (something like that, I can’t actually remember the specifics of why they turn off now), but come across more than they wanted. I was very terrified because I honestly thought this might veer into Judith Sonnet’s No One Rides for Free territory for a minute – I sort of forgot who I was reading. It’s a great, tense, edge-of-your-seat story.
Red Screen
A guy is arrested for killing his wife. But goddamn… you can’t argue with his reasoning.
The less said about this one the better, but the ending sent a chill up my style.
The Turbulence Expert
This is a really weird story that makes you think about who really has control over which planes make their flights and which don’t. It’s the only story in the collection that I didn’t absolutely love, but I did like it a lot!
It’s weird. Like, Langoliers era weird, which I appreciate!
Laurie
This is a sweet slice-of-life story about an older gentleman who lost his wife, and his sister brings him a dog because she’s worried about him being lonely. He doesn’t really want the dog at first, but because doggos are so excellent, he does quickly bond with it. There isn’t any intense action in this (though there is one tense scene), and it’s certainly not a horror story, but it’s a lovely little window into a phase of a very likeable character’s life, and I loved it.
Rattlesnakes
This story is kind of the man of hour, and the one that I heard most people all excited about as we were all waiting for the book to come out. It’s the “sequel” to Cujo – though it’s really not so much a sequel as a tie-in. It doesn’t feature a rabid dog, but it does star Vic Trenton, Donna’s husband, who we barely saw in Cujo. We catch up with him decades after the events of the novel, when he’s dealing with life alone. He spends the summer with a friend, and meets a nice older lady who is perfectly normal, except for that she pushes around a twin stroller, talking to her twins. Who have been dead for decades. She says she knows they aren’t there, but “sometimes they are”.
This is definitely the creepiest story in the whole book and though, on the surface, it does seem light on the horror, there are scenes that conjure some very disturbing imagery. It’s great!
The Dreamers
A scientist and a guy are messing where they shouldn’t be a messin’. The scientist is feeding test subjects (volunteers) a weird drink and then hypnotising them so he can direct them to a particular house in their dreams. He wants to know about something in there. It’s a really interesting and chilling take on dreaming, what’s actually inside dreams, and what can come out of them.
The Answer Man
What a great story! Like the first story in this book, this one also feels like a vintage King idea, and it wouldn’t have been out of place in Skeleton Crew. Set a few years before the second World War, a man comes across a being called the Answer Man, who can accurately and truthfully answer any question asked – including things about the future. It opens up a whole world of questions for us, the readers, about the kind of things you should ask, what’s useful and what’s better to be in the dark about. A great, spooky, fun story that rounds off the book beautifully.
Overall, as I said at the beginning, this is for sure the strongest short story collection he’s released since Skeleton Crew. There’s not a single weak story in it, and not only that, but they’re all so great. There isn’t even a mediocre tale! It’s hit after hit, great twist after great twist, scary imagery and unique ideas just following on, one after the other. I was so impressed with it.
I’d recommend this to King fans (obviously), and if you haven’t read any King before, I think this could actually be a great place to start because it’s really a very strong example of King as a story-teller. If you’d like to check out the book or author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
Leave a comment