I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack. Be afraid. Be very afraid....
I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack. Be afraid. Be very afraid....
Member since:22.02.2001
Reviews:166
Members who trust:29
A natty title that ties in to the contents. The four (different) seasons each have a (different and infinitely spooky) story written, therefore this has four separate stories. See if you can spot which of the tales became a hollywood film...
"Hope Springs Eternal - Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption."
This is a tale about the lives of prison inmates inside Shawshank Prison, and focuses on one in particular. He is Andy Dufresne. Andy's time inside the pen is described by "Red", who acts as narrator, telling us about Andy, the type of guy he was, the crime he'd been found guilty of despite his consistent denials of involvement, and his love of Rita Hayworth. He loves Rita so much that he asks Red to smuggle a poster in for him, which Red duly obliges him with. But just how does the poster figure so importantly in the book? Guess what? You're gonna have to read it to find out!
"Summer of Corruption - Apt Pupil."
My particular favourite, this involves the all-american-mom's-apple-pie type kid called Todd Bowden. Todd is helpful, kind, considerate of the elderly. He's also mentally twisted. He discovers that an old man living nearby is actually an ex-Nazi, and gradually begins to work out his teenage control mechanisms on the old guy. Remorseless, sick, and really scary, you watch Todd's decent into madness alongside the equally mad Mr. Denker. Excellently written, this is horror and the bizarre knitted tightly in with Todd's very normal upbringing, and the two jar beautifully against each other. All very credible and very scary, especially the ending, which really caught me off guard. Didn't see it coming, but then, that's the beauty of reading SK, some stuff you can spot a mile off and other things just creep up and twat you one round the head.
"Fall from Innocence - The Body."
A group of young boys who have grown up together decide to act on a piece of gossip that one of them heard their older brother discussing. It involves the body of a young child near a railway line. Armed with this information, the young crew set out, without their parent's knowledge, to see if they can find the body. Their naivety is written so well that you really do travel this journey with them and their immature emotions. More than once they are in danger, more than once they have to confront their own personal issues. I'm sure that you've guessed that this film turned out to be "Stand By Me", an excellent version that featured River Pheonix, and even if you have seen the film, read the actual story. It's well, well, worth it.
"A Winter's Tale - The Breathing Method."
A final and extremely surreal story. This tells of a group of men who meet to discuss and swap stories. One man tells of something called "The Breathing Method" and begins to tell his story of how it came to be something miraculous. It involves a pregnant woman who is involved in a terrible, terrible accident and is actually decapitated...
This is extemely good value for money. Four excellent novellas. Each one is genuinely unsettling in one way or another. Stephen King is extremely skillful in bringing out the more subtle fears and nightmares that lurk in all of us, and lays them open for the world to read and shudder over. These tales are rarely supernatural, although there is some. They are rarely downright nasty, although again there is some. They are rarely over the top with the gore, although, and you know I'm going to say it, there is some.
All in all a little bit of everything that makes you sleep with the light on. And the door bolted. With a crucifix and holy water just in reach. Okay the last bit's an exaggeration - unless you're reading Salem's Lot that is.
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Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and ... more
subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, non-horrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme t...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Different Seasonsis a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, ... more
each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, non-horrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and ... more
subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, non-horrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme t...
Postage & Packaging: Check Site. Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Different Seasonsis a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, ... more
each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, non-horrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: 4 novellas of excellent quality - all the different aspects of King's writing in one volume. Disadvantages: Some predictability; the blurb on the back of the book is incorrect and contains plot-spoilers.
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