Four Past Midnight

This is a re-read for me, as almost all Uncle Stevie is now.

The Langoliers holds up better than I recalled from my earlier reading. Perhaps the written version has suffered from the somewhat lackluster film version that appeared as a mini-series on television about 5 years after the publication. Like much of the King's work, there's some difficulty translating to the screen. I'd say that's especially true here as the story is what I'd call more of an existential terror. Many of us have had dreams of waking up to an abandoned world, the only person left alive to wander among the detritus of the waking world. Here, a handful of folks awaken on an abandoned airplane, in flight. Luckily, there's a pilot deadheading on the flight so they show more don't crash, but there are bigger worries than that, as it appears that the group is lost in a space or time where the rest of the world has left them behind with the articles of the world but none of the people. It's less horror and more sci-fi or spec-fi, but there are monsters nonetheless - both the supernatural kind and the everyday human kind, the latter more frightening than the former.

The basic story recalls an earlier one from Uncle Stevie, The Mist, which has a darker tone and ending. This one ends somewhat more hopefully than The Mist. But it's similar in its notion of people as the real monsters.

Interesting side note: in listening to one of my favorite podcasts recently, The KingCast, Willem Dafoe says that reading the text for the audio book on this one was one of the most challenging tasks he ever faced because of the wide cast of characters. That audio version is still available.

On balance, a gripping story even if it could have used a little more fleshing out in the character's arcs.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is an almost altogether internal horror. A writer is confronted by an odd, insistent man claiming that the writer plagiarized a story. The accuser torments the writer in a Jobian narrative, until the writer worries he's losing his mind - or has he already lost it. The ending is creepily ambiguous about the origins of the accuser; really, the whole thing is quite creepy, in a very quiet horror sort of way. There's no monsters here - except the human ones.

The Library Policeman is the one that I was most looking forward to reading, as I remembered it as one of the most frightening stories of Uncle Stevie's that I ever read. And it held up well to a re-read - while maybe not the most frightening of all his work, there's a section in it that is the most frighteningly real of anything he's ever written. Trigger warning here for anyone who is set off by reading narratives about sexual violence against children, as that is the substance of the section to which I am referring as the most frighteningly real. And it's told from the child's perspective, which ain't easy to pull off. Anyway, the story focuses on an entity/monster who feeds on children's fear - a theme familiar to Uncle Stevie's readers. There are some similarities to [It] and [The Outsider]. But the story is focused around a small town library and an AA group in the town. Very realistic in character and tone of a small town and its inhabitants, as typical - not many get it so right beyond Uncle Stevie - maybe Bradbury and Sherwood Anderson. The key is for the hero of our story to remember what changed him, what in his childhood made him the person he is, and to turn his childhood response to the event into something different in defeating the thing that continues preying on his fear.

The Sun Dog - this one had escaped my memory altogether from my previous reading. It is a Castle Rock story, set just before [Needful Things]. A young man receives a Polaroid camera for his birthday, but it only produces photos of a gnarly looking mutt. He goes to a local, Pop Merrill, who is the town's junkyard king, fix-it man, and shylock - all around ne'er do well. Turns out the mutt is bent on clawing his way into this world for blood.

You can't get a sense of these stories and their small-town settings or characters from a blurb about the plot - so much more is going on besides the monster or ghost, and that's where the good stuff is. I could read a whole series of books about Pop Merrill and his exploits, whether from his perspective or the townspeople's perspective. It's just darn good writing about people and the human condition. Scott Turow once wrote that mysteries were the perfect vehicle to examine that stuff, but I've grown to think horror is equally good at it in the right person's hands.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly Recommended!!!!! show less

Four Past Midnight is a wonderful collection of four ‘short’ novels Stephen King wrote in the late ’80s. They include the Langoliers, a light-hearted adventure romp that revels in its own ridiculousness; Secret Window, Secret Garden, the closing of a thematic trilogy King wrote about the power of storytelling; the Library Policeman, in which a man is haunted by his childhood fears, traumas, and a monster feeding on the emotional turmoil of children; and the Sun Dog, a lead-in to Castle Rock’s final moments in Needful Things, and in which a demonic monster works its way across dimensions through a Polaroid camera.

[N.B. This review features images and formatting specific to my book site, dendrobibliography: Check it out here.]

Most show more of the four novels are wonderful, among my favorite work from Stephen King even under the weight of their own cheesiness and fluff, particularly…

The Langoliers

Despite having never read this before, every beat of the Langoliers was familiar and comfortable. I grew up with the ’90s TV miniseries — awful largely from hammy acting and corny special effects — and loved it despite its faults. It’s also, despite those faults, remarkably close to the novella. Most of the dialogue and the pacing seemed unaffected by the translation between mediums.

Mr. Toomey, one of King’s strongest, most developed villains, still gives the same screaming rants, pulls the same delusional stunts; Bob Jenkins, a mystery writer, still lectures the the logic of the plot to both other characters and the readers, forcing banal exposition; the Dinah, a young blind girl, is still the same prescient and wise pre-teen (whose disability gives her magic powers) as seen in many other Stephen King stories.

The Langoliers, about a plane that flies through a thinny (a la the Dark Tower) into a frozen fragment of the past, is corny, unbelievable, and amazingly fun. Even knowing the answers to the mystery of the empty Bangor International Airport our passengers find themselves in, I wasn’t any less fascinated by the decaying world or the approaching balls of razor-teeth and hair, or in watching our passengers try to escape with their lives both from the langoliers and Mr. Toomey’s collapsing mental state.

If I have one complaint, it’s that most characters don’t speak like real people. Much of the dialogue is exposition, boring explanations and logical debates over what is going on around them. The magic of this story is in the monsters, not the people.

Secret Window, Secret Garden

Secret Window, Secret Garden is Stephen King’s final attempt at the trials and tribulations of being a writer, of the horrors that the writing process itself invokes. The Dark Half tackled the same concept just a year earlier (but in a more on-the-nose fashion, with lots of blood and guts and murder). Misery came first, and remains the most successful of the ‘trilogy.’

Author Mort Rainey (i.e., Stephen King) is struggling with his writing amidst an ugly divorce. He’s still stuck on the spite that divorce inspired in him: He lashes out at everyone, blames others for his problems, an spends a lot of his time depressed, napping, and otherwise hiding from the world. He’s not pleasant.

A stranger shows up on his doorstep with a damning accusation: Mort Rainey plagiarized a story from him years earlier. This stranger, John Shooter, never published this story, making how Mort Rainey could have plagiarized it suspect. (This is based on a real incident from Stephen King’s life.) Regardless of the proof Rainey offers for his ownership of the story, Shooter’s actions quickly escalate and he starts removing evidence and threatening the lives of Rainey’s family.

This is the closest King feels he came to telling the story right — the story of the writing process — but it’s not perfect, and still feels fairly slim. (Misery’s still the best attempt.) The ending, differing wildly from the movie, is sudden and unsatisfying, not quite living up to the atmosphere of the prior 150 pages. Still, that atmosphere was foreboding and addictive, and a step above the Dark Half, which told the same story with three times as many pages and cliches.

The Library Policeman

King states in the introduction that he started the Library Policeman as a black comedy, and it devolved into horror naturally. I wouldn’t say the transition is necessarily natural — it seems like a jarring and confusing genre switch — but it provides a unique charm to the story. Library Policeman‘s silly, at points, and moves from being a light-hearted love story wrapped in a ridiculous concept of childhood spooks (the library police of the title, coming after Sam Peebles for not returning his books on time) into some of King’s darkest and most demented horror he’s ever written.

The transition is so disturbing, this story is often regarded with loathing by Stephen King fans. Without spoilers, I thought the mystery of the library policeman unraveled exceptionally.

It was disturbing, though, particularly ‘the scene’ that makes this story so maligned. Far more-so than Pet Sematary, often regarded as one of King’s scariest and most violent.

The meat of the story follows Sam Peebles, who offers to give a speech to a drunken community gathering at the last minute. Without any experience in public speaking, he visits the local library for the first time to check out some helpful books from an eerie librarian. He loses the books, misses the return deadline, and suddenly finds himself followed the librarian and her policeman. It sounds ridiculous, but: Wow. A disturbing town history of hidden murders and monsters (and a lot of ties to King’s greater mythology around It and the Dark Tower) quickly unravels.

The Sun Dog

The Sun Dog is a wonderful idea that devolves into predictable gore and guts. The story of a cursed Polaroid camera, printing only photos in slow motion of a demonic, mangy dog (a la Cujo, also set in Castle Rock) lunging towards the photographer is deeply unsettling and mysterious — but the end result is disappointing given the setup.

Like the Library Policeman, the narrative feels uncertain of itself, and it switches perspectives and directions halfway through. We stop following the hero, Kevin, who received the camera for his 14th birthday, and instead focus on the camera’s next owner, the anti-hero Pop Merrill — a selfish but quick-witted miser and wannabe mafioso. Like many of King’s more shallow villains, he’s a misogynistic piece of dirt who, when he’s not bullying people into servitude, spends his free time thinking about sexually punishing every woman in sight or watching porn on a dirty couch in a dirty apartment.

Pop Merrill’s interesting when he’s painted as both good and bad, looking out for the people of Castle Rock by getting them to punish themselves for their own vices; but when we start peeling away his layers, when we see he’s as shallow and evil as can be, I didn’t want to read about him or his attempts to unlock the camera’s secrets. He was boring, evil, and his ultimate fate could be seen a mile away: Unlike with the Library Policeman, once the style and tone of the Sun Dog shifts focus to Pop Merrill, the story loses its mystery.

The first half was as wonderful as the prior novellas; the concluding half as disappointing as any stereotypical King ending. The events of the Sun Dog lead into Needful Things, ‘the last Castle Rock story’ published in 1991 — not the camera itself (which is alluded to), but the characters and the disasters of this book are discussed at length by surviving family.

I was sad to see this as the closing novella in an otherwise strong collection. The Sun Dog wasn’t bad, mind you, just a few steps back from the magic of the Library Policeman or the Langoliers. show less

I officially shocked myself with the dislike I experienced with these four stories. I remember really liking The Langoliers, and not minding Secret Garden, Secret Window. I had no memory of Library Policeman, and dimly remember thinking The Sun Dog was only okay.

This time around, quite frankly, I didn't like any of them. Maybe it was the mood I was in, I don't know, but I found all the dream sequences--a plot device that I absolutely despise--particularly frustrating, as every one of the four stories had at least one, and usually multiple sequences. I also found most of the characters, with the exception of Dirty Dave from Policemen and Kevin's father from Sun Dog.

I will say that each of the four stories had fantastic concepts, but, show more unfortunately, each one was buried under unsympathetic or stock King characters, interminable sidetracks, plot devices seemingly designed only to extend an already bloated story, and endings where the protagonist seems to pull the solution out of his ass. Solutions come from dreams, from dying girls, from gut feelings.

Each one of these stories are fantastic short stories of twenty-fifty pages or so, not the 200-page behemoths each one ended up being.

I'm so disappointed. I had been looking forward to this one. show less

Four past midnight is EASILY my favorite collection of novellas by Stephen King. I am just starting to review all of the books i've read, so I chose this one because I have so much to say.

The Langoliers:

“That was when Brian felt something—something like a bolt—starting to give way deep inside his mind. That was when he felt his entire structure of organized thought begin to slide slowly toward some dark abyss.”

This collection starts off with a bang! Or a rip I should say. A rip in the time space continuum. This novella is one of Stephens longest novellas, page count wise. It sort of drags in the middle but it sets up the characters very well. Would have really enjoyed this as a full fledged novel. This is very weird Stephen show more King, but for me, the weirder the better. The movie adaption is very cheesy, as are the majority of his movies of the time. The special effects are shockingly terrible but it was nice to see this novella brought to life. Heavy Dark Tower connections due to my opinion that the rips in time are thinnies (in my opinion).

Secret window, secret garden:

“Pissing and thinking have a lot in common, he thought. You can put them both off.. But not forever.”

One of Stephen's best twist endings. King is known for questionable endings but this is one of my favorites. He loves to write about writers. Mort Rainey was a very relatable character if you've ever gone through a rough separation. Being in the mind or Mort was a fun ride. Is he an unreliable narrator? I'll let you find that out on your own. The adaption had Johnny Depp. Enough said.

The Library policeman:

This novella is messed up. One of Stephen's most horrifying stories. When it comes to content.. there is a scene in this book..that is literally horrifying. I will say nothing further because that scene must not be spoiled. It is a trigger warning for some. I have no triggers and read extreme horror so it didn't bother me. I will never return a library book late, EVER again. Such a great novella. You will not forget this story. It will stay with you. My most recent re-read was in 2021 and the imagery is burnt into my brain, unfortunately. He intended to horrify and he succeeded.

The Sun dog:

“You never ever asked Lady Luck for a date; she had a way of standing men up just when they needed her the most. But if she showed up on her own . . . well, it was wise to drop whatever it was you were doing and take her out and wine her and dine her just as lavishly as you could. That was one bitch who always put out if you treated her right.”

Stephen might have saved the best for last in this collection. We get another appearance from Pop Merrill!!!!! I love my castle rock characters. That alone should give you the urge to pick up this collection. Love the references and it was nice to see what Pop was up to. Same old tricks. The Sun dog involves Kevin who, every time he takes a picture, there is a dog who is not present when the photo is taken...and it keeps getting closer...and closer....and closer. Another scary novella compared to most he's written and a great way to end this book. Reminded me a lot of the concept of needful things and we get another dog. This one is not as scary as cujo if you ask me. But this journey left quite a lot of disturbing imagery. Not even close to the library policeman's.

In summation this collection is perfect to me. 2 of the 4 have adaptions, and they will never make the library policeman into a movie..if they do..they will have to cut the best scene in the whole book. By best I'm referring to most horrifying. I will never get over that scene. Would love to see a Sun dog adaption. For me the weakest entry was secret window, secret garden, and I give that novella 5 stars. You cant go wrong with this book and this is Stephen King at his best. A little bit of everything. Science fiction horror from the midnight hour. show less

This is a collection of four short novels (although they are short only by King standards, each runs around 200 pages). Overall, it's quite entertaining.

The first, The Langoliers is the best of the bunch. The story of a group of passengers on an LA to Boston fight that manages to travel through time, it's suspenseful, exciting, and driven (as many of King's tales are) by fear of both supernatural and more human evils. It's 250 pages that readers like me will plow through in a single sitting.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is the basis for the recent Johnny Depp movie "Secret Window." And tells the tale of a writer accused by a stranger of stealing a story that he knows he wrote himself. While I suspected the twist ending well before it show more happened, I expect that at the time this was published (well before a more recent and absurdly popular tale with a similar twist) the thought would have occurred to few readers. Overall, it's good but not great.

The Library Policeman is a gripping read, and enough to make someone currently pretty deep into library fines (like yours truly) more than a little bit nervous. The characters are what makes the story work here, and they are all elegantly flawed. I have trouble when King gets too into the descriptions of his monsters, but perhaps this is because I am not much of a visual reader, but overall, I enjoyed this one very much.

The Sun Dog, the last in the collection is by far the weakest. Centered around a paranormal camera, the events of the story seem a little too random and confusing. While some of the moments and secondary characters have a wonderful textured existence, the story fell flat for me overall, and I found myself not nearly as wrapped up in the action as I was with the other three.

Overall, it's a satisfying bunch of stories, although I see no real reason why it has to be read or considered as a collection at all. All of the novellas stand independent of the others, and there is no real theme particularly connecting them. (Aside from their tendency to keep you up past midnight, by which standard we could combine a large percentage of King's work into a single monstrous volume.)

Unless you are a die hard fan, you can skip The Sun Dog. I would recommend reading The Langoliers and The Library Policeman, and Secret Window, Secret Garden is certainly worth the 150 pages for quick readers, but if plowing through it is going to take you more than an evening, your time could probably be better spent somewhere else. show less

A re-read after more than twenty years. Will it stand up?

Short answer: Absolutely. :)

The Langoliers fits snugly in the New Weird category, pretty much entirely esoteric SF with gremlin-types, alternate dimenions and/or time travel on a plane... There are no snakes here! :) The characters are a blast and we've got a firm horror vibe going on here where we are kept guessing as to who among all these random sleepers will make it to the end. Thoroughly enjoyable novella, but not my favorite. It's probably best that it was relegated to a TV movie. :)

My favorite is a toss up between Secret Window, Secret Garden, and The Library Police.

First, though, Secret Window, Secret Garden, which only slightly resembles the movie with Johnny Depp, or at show more least more or less. :)

This one was pretty fantastic for the writing insights, the plagiarism scare, the descent into paranoia, and the general ultimate break from reality. What's better than a writer being driven completely crazy by a story and/or a man with a definite grudge over a story? No spoilers, but so many wonderful twists happen, couldn't help but fall in love all over again.

And then there's The Library Police, which is a wonderful twist on early childhood nightmares, a diatribe on fear, Red Licorice, and a cool twist on vampirism. It was definitely probably the most effective and convoluted of all the novellas in this book, I think, and also the most scarily fantastic, diving into some of the most weird and eerie escapades, even outdoing Secret Window, Secret Garden on several levels, but maybe not as much for the MC.

The last novella, The Sun Dog, is classic SK not only for setting dropping and character dropping, but also in the twist he's known for... turning everyday objects into a nightmare of continuing and evolving proportions, driving all those involved into a deeper and deeper despair and fear. :)

Does SK have a think about mad dogs? Even Cujo was referenced here. But the dog in the photograph has got to be even better in this novella. It's absolutely more elusive and menacing, giving up on immediate danger and far-off menace for a much more paranormal and evil menace that gave me, at least, a more pervasive and ongoing fear.

It also happened to be my least favorite of the bunch, but it was still effective. :)

The middle two were plainly amazing, though. :) show less

Langoliers was a 'what if' type of horror and it was interesting and paced well. Secret Window, Secret Garden felt a lot like The Dark Half which I just read not that long ago. It was good, it just didn't hold my attention. The Library Policeman was my favorite. It was tense and well thought out. The Sun Dog shouldn't have been sandwiched in the middle. It was slower and not as entertaining as the other three stories