Book Review -- Just After Sunset by Stephen King

A Short Story Collection by Horror's Literary Icon

Mar 31, 2009 Derek Clendening

Has Stephen King lost his touch? Check out his new short fiction collection Just After Sunset and decide for yourself.

Popular writers like Dean Koontz, John Grisham and Anne Rice have been known to shift interests, and even style late in their career, which can be subtle but can other times be egregious. King also experienced this shift, around the same time as Dean Koontz, but this change has become more prominent in his new collection Just After Sunset.

Summary of Just After Sunset

Known for setting stories in Maine, King shifts locales in much of this collection, which includes stories set in Florida (“The Gingerbread Girl”), Wyoming (“Willa”), and a handful of tales set in New York City.

In “The Things They Left Behind”, King tackles the topic of enduring trauma in a post 9/11 world. This topic can be a slippery slope for writers and artists, but King seems to handle the topic in good taste, and with respect to those who lost their lives. His character, who called in sick to his World Trade Center job on the morning of September 11, 2001, begs the question: What if?

In the late 90s, King’s novel Bag of Bones showed the signs of an author ready to switch direction. His short story collection Everything’s Eventual has been released since then, but it did not demonstrate the same theme shift. King takes a much more literary and subtle approach in this collection than he ever has before. His exclusive story "N", about a psychiatrist treating an obsessive compulsive accountant, proves this.

Everything’s Eventual, boasted much more of the style that made King famous, including "1408", which was released as a major motion picture in 2007.

Stephen King Evolves as a Writer

The collection doesn’t come without shades of the old King. “The Cat from Hell” offers a break later in the collection, which will return a long-time reader to the tropes that drew them to King in the first place.

King has evolved as a writer, and has tackled a bevy of new themes, but much of King’s unique flavor remains constant. For example, high highly believable and quirky characters, his streams of consciousness prose, and his ability to glue a reader before his figurative campfire remain unchanged.

In some spots, one might need to pay close attention, as several stories seem to have abrupt endings. So abrupt that one might wonder what has been left out. This might be part and parcel of a subtlety that King could be aiming for, but there is a chance that one might miss the significance in the ending.

Final Thought on Just After Sunset by Stephen King

Just After Sunset is at least at par with his other works, and one might find themselves as lost in these stories as they were with his classics.

For more information on Stephen King and his future releases you can visit Simon and Schuster or Stephen King's website.

The copyright of the article Book Review -- Just After Sunset by Stephen King in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction is owned by Derek Clendening. Permission to republish Book Review -- Just After Sunset by Stephen King in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Just After Sunset