Genre Fiction
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If It Bleeds
The "gripping…phenomenal…gorgeous" (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestselling novella collection from master storyteller Stephen King!
Readers adore Stephen King's novels, and his novellas are their own dark treat, briefer but just as impactful and enduring as his longer fiction. Many of his novellas have been made into iconic films, including "The Body" (Stand by Me) and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" (Shawshank Redemption).
The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider) must face her fears, and possibly another outsider-this time on her own. In "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. "The Life of Chuck" explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in "Rat," a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.
If these novellas show King's range, they also prove that certain themes endure. One of King's great concerns is evil, and in If It Bleeds, there's plenty of it. There is also evil's opposite, which in King's fiction often manifests as friendship. Holly is reminded that friendship is not only life-affirming but can be life-saving. Young Craig befriends Mr. Harrigan, and the sweetness of this late-in-life connection is its own reward.
"An adroit vehicle to showcase the…nature of evil" (The Boston Globe), If It Bleeds is "exactly what I wanted to read right now," says Ruth Franklin in The New York Times Book Review.
Readers adore Stephen King's novels, and his novellas are their own dark treat, briefer but just as impactful and enduring as his longer fiction. Many of his novellas have been made into iconic films, including "The Body" (Stand by Me) and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" (Shawshank Redemption).
The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider) must face her fears, and possibly another outsider-this time on her own. In "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. "The Life of Chuck" explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in "Rat," a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.
If these novellas show King's range, they also prove that certain themes endure. One of King's great concerns is evil, and in If It Bleeds, there's plenty of it. There is also evil's opposite, which in King's fiction often manifests as friendship. Holly is reminded that friendship is not only life-affirming but can be life-saving. Young Craig befriends Mr. Harrigan, and the sweetness of this late-in-life connection is its own reward.
"An adroit vehicle to showcase the…nature of evil" (The Boston Globe), If It Bleeds is "exactly what I wanted to read right now," says Ruth Franklin in The New York Times Book Review.
Editorial Reviews
"As classic as [King's] novels are, his shorter fiction has been just as gripping over the years...The true highlight of the collection is the phenomenal ‘The Life of Chuck'...Just when you think things are getting really weird, it all snaps together like an epiphany and you get to the gorgeous meat of the matter...Sure, King still owns the fright business like none other, but the iconic author will keep you up late at night engrossed in four tales about our dreams and our frailties."
-Brian Truitt, USA Today
"IF IT BLEEDS contains four new, exceptionally compelling novellas that reaffirm [King's] mastery of the form...the mid-length narrative suits his talents particularly well, permitting a degree of expansiveness while maintaining a controlled, disciplined approach to the material at hand. The results are stories that cover a surprising amount of emotional territory but can still be read in a sitting...a collection filled with startling, sometimes unsettling pleasures. In IF IT BLEEDS, King continues to draw from a rich and varied reservoir of stories. At its best, his work remains deeply empathetic and compulsively readable. May the reservoir never run dry."
-William Sheehan, The Washington Post
"[These stories] - about the seductions and corruptions of technology, the extremes of beauty and depravity in even the most ordinary life, the workings of a universe we can never entirely understand - were somehow exactly what I wanted to read right now... ‘The Life of Chuck' is one of the oddest, most affecting stories I have read in a very long time...As sirens blare outside my Brooklyn window and the headlines grow more apocalyptic by the day, I might start working my way through King's backlist. He's good company in the dark."
-Ruth Franklin, The New York Times Book Review
"While this story collection had been percolating inside of Mr. King for years prior to its release, it is striking - sometimes eerily so - how necessary these stories feel today. 'If It Bleeds' continues the increasingly optimistic bent the author has displayed ...
-Brian Truitt, USA Today
"IF IT BLEEDS contains four new, exceptionally compelling novellas that reaffirm [King's] mastery of the form...the mid-length narrative suits his talents particularly well, permitting a degree of expansiveness while maintaining a controlled, disciplined approach to the material at hand. The results are stories that cover a surprising amount of emotional territory but can still be read in a sitting...a collection filled with startling, sometimes unsettling pleasures. In IF IT BLEEDS, King continues to draw from a rich and varied reservoir of stories. At its best, his work remains deeply empathetic and compulsively readable. May the reservoir never run dry."
-William Sheehan, The Washington Post
"[These stories] - about the seductions and corruptions of technology, the extremes of beauty and depravity in even the most ordinary life, the workings of a universe we can never entirely understand - were somehow exactly what I wanted to read right now... ‘The Life of Chuck' is one of the oddest, most affecting stories I have read in a very long time...As sirens blare outside my Brooklyn window and the headlines grow more apocalyptic by the day, I might start working my way through King's backlist. He's good company in the dark."
-Ruth Franklin, The New York Times Book Review
"While this story collection had been percolating inside of Mr. King for years prior to its release, it is striking - sometimes eerily so - how necessary these stories feel today. 'If It Bleeds' continues the increasingly optimistic bent the author has displayed ...
Readers Top Reviews
MichaelKindle br
On paper this collection sounded great. Unfortunely this was not the case. Maybe SK sees something we can't but Holly Gibney has run her course - my fear been we haven't seen the last of her. If It Bleeds is at best a short story but SK stretched it and in my opinion weakened it. The life of Chuck was poor. Period. It made no sense. Mr H's phone, again was poor. Side note: SK needs to work on his endings. Rat was the best of a bad lot, however, in saying that, the idea was there but the execution was poor. Would a publisher publish this if SK didnt write this? I doubt it. On a seperate note, I think we ( the constant readers) can all agree we're sick of SK's snarky political commentary and personal views seeping into his stories. We get it - you hate Trump. But guess what, voting Trump or anyone else for that matter doesnt entitle you to berate them at every turn. Its been almost four years - get over it. In fact, close your twitter account and put a little effort into your writing!
BewBobMichaelKind
Disclaimer- Stephen King is, and has been for 30 plus years remained one of my top three writers, I pre-ordered this as soon as it became available, devoured it in a day and would read the man's shopping list if he published it. So some biais may be in play and no spoilers. If It Bleeds is a collection of four novellas. I'll put it up front, for me, it isn't up there with Different Seasons, but I enjoyed it more than Four Past Midnight - both previous quartets. First and foremost King's writing seems as effortless as always and the comfort from settling down with any new King book is one of life's pleasures for me. Going through the stories briefly - Mr Harrigan's Phone is one of those King tales about a young boy on the cusp of growing up and is as much about him as it is about the hook of the tale. Here that hook is a mobile phone given to an elderly, wealthy and somewhat eccentric man the boy reads to. It's a cross between a Twilight Zone episode and that old song Hello, This is Joanie. It's fun, creepy and, one of those King stories where no explanation or resolution is given for what occurs. The Life of Chuck - the most 'experimental' of the four stories: a life told in reverse. King explains he wrote the three acts as separate vignettes originally and then put them together. It is for the most part a slice of life. A 'straight' fictional narrative about an every man, with a sprinkling of 'strange' over it. I didn't quite get the 'strange', I'll have to admit, and in his afterword King seems to say that he doesn't really expect everyone to. The character descriptions are vintage King - small sketches of multiple players that are fascinating to read. As a bizarre reference the background coda reminded me of an '80s movie The Coca Cola Kid - you're reading/ seeing a straight forward story, then there's something much bigger at play. No spoilers though. If It Bleeds- a sequel to The Outsider and featuring Holly Gibney, a character who featured in both that, and the Bill Hodges story. This is definitely sequel material to the former more than the latter and is the right length: I'm glad it appeared in this format and not a full length novel: it's strong here, as a novel it would have been a bit too similar to its' predecessor. For those who read the Hodges series the cast will be familiar, and it's nice to see the Holly character developed some more: she definitely deserves a novel, and hopefully this is a precursor to it. Lastly, The Rat - and we're in more familiar King territory: a writer retreats to his dead father's cabin to try and write a book. Isolated, with a storm coming in and a cold or something worse coming on. There are similarities between the first and last stories - both a touch of Monkey's Paw/ pact about them. It's probably the case that both could have been written as much shorter stories in terms of the id...
Kindle BigOrange
King sits high atop his ivory tower, surveys things from his diversity-lacking state of Maine and tells us all, once again, how awful in general white people are, and in particular, our President. King has allowed politics to ruin every single effort of his since 2012 or so. This one is no different. If discrimination is indeed the father of crime, as Jerome wants to say, I’m going to have to turn to the crime of stealing Mr. King’s work, assuming I just have to read it.
Averie Kindle Bi
Of course the latest from Stephen King is a home run. If you have come to the review section to see whether some rationally written reviews will affirm your suspicion that this is yet another gripping tale of darkness that you won't be able to put down until your morning alarm goes off, then let this be your affirmation. Buy it. You'll love it. I sure did.
prisrobAverie Kin
Stephen King has done it again. This is a great book for our times. During this Covid19 pandemic we need something to take us away, to re-learn to laugh, to have a good time, and to face our demons. Detective Holly Gibney is my favorite Stephen King characters. She is that rare breed, a totally likable person, who gets into horrific messes. As a King fan, I am not into the sci-fi up yonder dudes. In Stephen Kings new book, If It Bleeds, we have 4 novellas. A novella is a very short book, or a very long short story. Mr Harrigan’s Phone is a fun theme about the technological field. It tells the story of a boy Craig and Mr John Harrington. Craig did odd jobs for Mr Harrington, and Mr Harrington liked having him around. Craig received lottery cards from Mr Harrington, and won Some cash. In return he gave Mr Harrington an iPhone, and we see the results. The Life of Chuck is written in 3 acts, and tells the story of Chuck in reverse. It is funny at times, and will keep us entertained. Rat is the dark side of the novellas. It centers on a writer, Drew Larson who can’t seem to finish a novel, and then the troubles really begin.The fourth novella Is If It Bleeds. This is my favorite novella, featuring Detective Holly Gibney, and she is tracking down a monster that few believe she can tackle. Stephen King rarely disappoints, and this book hits the spot for me. It is silly to say he is a great writer because we all agree. His way with words, the characters he conjures in his imagination, the use of novellas to fulfill his needs as a writer gives us the penultimate read. Recommended. prisrob 04-22-2020
