Four Past Midnight

6 months later and this short story collection is finished 🎉 Four Past Midnight is a short story/novella collection that includes 4 stories - “The Langoliers,” “Secret Window, Secret Garden,” “The Library Policeman,” and The “Sun Dog.” Secret Window, Secret Garden was my favorite story in this collection while The Library Policeman was the most chilling. I found The Sun Dog to be a bit of a slog even for it being so short, but the story was quite good, especially if you like the Castle Rock stories. The Langoliers is wacky, weird, creepy, and may make you rethink boarding a flight. King always surprises me in some way with everything of his that I've read. It feels very fitting that I finished this last nights after coming home from Bangor. 

I've only read The Langoliers from this book. And it was amazing. It gave me such a feeling of unease and restlessness. The writing was flawless, and the characters were terrifyingly and painfully real. I hope to read the rest of the stories in this book someday! When I do, I'll be sure to update this review ha.

Muito bom! Tem muitas das características que Stephen King já gosta de usar nos seus livros, tipo crianças que têm ligação com o sobrenatural, escritores e livros inacabados dentro das histórias, finais que não são totalmente fechados - inclusive senti um pouquinho de “acho que vem mais coisas ligadas a essa história por aí”.

Gosto de como o narrador fala diretamente com o leitor e o senso de humor está sempre presente, apesar das várias cenas gore e com descrições meio asquerosas de pessoas mortas que se relacionam com o menino. Apesar de ser curto tem um monte de elemento de gêneros como romance de formação, suspense, thriller e terror (normal), apesar de frisar demais que é uma história de terror e ele de fato só aparecer lá pro final.

A construção é bem longa pra poder rolar os finalmentes. Pra quem já lê Stephen King e gosta do autor, acredito que esse livro não vá trazer muitas coisas novas, mas é mais uma dose de King que a gente já conhece no meio da bibliografia dele. Muito legal, dá pra ler rápido e se divertir.

This was my first introduction to Stephen King which I read sometime in high school. Secret Window, Secret Garden was okay (and I enjoyed the ending), but it ultimately put me off of the “lost time” trope forever. I distinctly remember actively hating The Sun Dog and having to drag my way through it. I still don't understand why that kid kept taking pictures. Maybe one day I'll try it again to see if I missed something that explained that part.