Different Seasons by Stephen King

[gilda_elise]

Four spine-chilling stories by the grand master of the supernatural, stories with an interlacing of horror that capture the ever-growing dark corners of our century.

"Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" - a compulsive and bizarre story of unjust imprisonment and escape.

"Apt Pupil" - a golden schoolboy and an old man with a hideous past join in a dreadful union.

"The Body" - four young boys venture into the woods and find life, death... and the end of innocence.

"The Breathing Method" - a macabre story told in a strange club of a woman determined to give birth - no matter what.

Though only the last story is truly a “horror” story, the stories tell of different horrors: the horror of being imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit, the horror of the concentration camps, the horror in facing ones mortality, and, lastly, the horror of the supernatural.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is very close to the movie, so it wasn’t hard to “see” what was going on. And even having seen the movie several times, I still enjoyed the story.

Apt Pupil is probably my favorite of the four. And also the longest, which may be part of the reason. The reader gets to know the characters more thoroughly, their descent, past and present, fully realized.

The Body was interesting, though probably the least horrifying.

With The Breathing Method I wasn’t sure which was more horrifying, the woman’s fate, or what it is the teller of the tale has gotten himself into.

Altogether, four strong stories that are well worth reading.





Mount TBR 2023 Book Links



Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.


1. Alexander's Tomb: The Two-Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conquerer by Nicholas J. Saunders
2. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
3. Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1) by Chuck Wendig
4. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
5. After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory P. Downs
6. The Wolf's Hour (Michael Gallatin #1) by Robert R. McCammon
7. Bag of Bones by Stephen King
8. Substitute by Susi Holliday
9. Fairy Tale by Stephen King
10. Huxley: From Devil's Disciple To Evolution's High Priest
11. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
12. The History of Bees (Climate Quartet #1) by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (Translator)
13. The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
14. The Hunter from the Woods (Michael Gallatin #2) by Robert McCammon
15. The Far Arena by Richard Ben Sapir
16. The Humans by Matt Haig
17. Craven Manor by Darcy Coates
18. The Alpha Female Wolf: The Fierce Legacy of Yellowstone's 06 by Rick McIntyre
19. The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch
20. Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
21. The Magpie Lord (Charm of Magpies 1) by K.J. Charles
22. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated by Eric H. Cline
23. Wanderers (Wanderers #1) by Chuck Wendig
24. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
25. A Dog's History of the World: Canines and the Domestication of Humans by Laura Hobgood-Oster
26. Bethany's Sin by Robert McCammon
27. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
28. The Tea Party by Charles L. Grant
29. Seeker (Alex Benedict #3) by Jack McDevitt
30. Jizzle by John Wyndham
31. The Taking by Dean Koontz
32. Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
33. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
34. Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O'Farrell
35. Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
36. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
37. A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species by Rob Dunn
38. Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation by Philip Matyszak
39. Wayward (Wanderers #2) by Chuck Wendig
40. The Summoning God (Anasazi Mysteries #2) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear



41. The Power by Naomi Alderman
42. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
43. Day Zero (Sea of Rust #0) by C. Robert Cargill
44. Dog Days by Ericka Waller
45. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
46. The Passage (The Passage #1) by Justin Cronin
47. Kallocain by Karin Boye, Gustaf Lannestock (Translator), Richard B. Vowles (Introduction)
48. The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) by M.R. Carey
49. Different Seasons by Stephen King







Set in the past

1. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
2. Different Seasons by Stephen King (three of the four stories are set in the narrator's past)

Comments

[justjo2u]

I remember reading this back in the 80s as a teenager. I read a LOT of Stephen King back then. Shawshank remains a favourite to this day. The film was fantastic.

[gilda_elise]

I took a break from King for awhile, but I’m back to it, with both his old and new books 📚.

The Shawshank film was truly great. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched it.

[justjo2u]

I took a break and just never went back. I would like to perhaps try some of his more recent stuff.

[gilda_elise]

He’s written some exceptional books recently. The Institute comes immediately to mind.