gilda_elise

Past midnight, something happens to time, that fragile concept we employ to order our sense of reality. It bends, stretches, turns back, or snaps, and sometimes reality with it. And what happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality shatters, and the glass begins to fly? These four chilling novellas, a feast fit for King fans old and new, provide some shocking answers.

After all, past midnight is Stephen King's favorite time of day....

One Past Midnight: "The Langoliers" takes a red-eye flight from L.A. to Boston into a most unfriendly sky. Only eleven passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish they hadn't. Something's waiting for them, you see….

The story keeps you on the edge of your seat, mainly because you can’t stop wanting to yell at the characters, “stop yammering and get on the damn plane!” I guess that only happened because I couldn’t help but be drawn into their stories and come to care about what happened to them. And the Langoliers are crazily frightening as they draw inexorably closer.

More science fiction than horror, but it certainly has some horrifying scenes.

Two Past Midnight: "Secret Window, Secret Garden" enters the suddenly strange life of writer Mort Rainey, recently divorced, depressed, and alone on the shore of Tashmore Lake. Alone, that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger.

I couldn’t help but see this as more of a tragedy, as we slowly understand that what Rainey is experiencing isn’t what we think. But what is it, exactly? And what is real? A terrifying, yet heartbreaking story.

Three Past Midnight: "The Library Policeman" is set in Junction City, Iowa, an unlikely place for evil to be hiding. But for small businessman Sam Peebles, who thinks he may be losing his mind, another enemy is hiding there as well--the truth. If he can find it in time, he might stand a chance.

Unlike the first two stories, this one is definitely in the horror genre. Peebles must face the horrifying experience of his past while facing the real horror of the present. But with the help of his friends, he may just come out okay.

Four Past Midnight: The flat surface of a Polaroid photograph becomes for fifteen-year-old Kevin Delevan an invitation to the supernatural. Old Pop Merrill, Castle Rock's sharpest trader, wants to crash the party for profit, but "The Sun Dog," a creature that shouldn't exist at all, is a very dangerous investment.

A creepy take, though most of the creepiness was because to Old Pop Merrill. Really liked the story until the very end.

With an introduction and prefatory notes to each of the tales, Stephen King discusses how these stories arose in what is the world's most fearsome imagination. But it is the stories themselves that will keep readers awake long after bedtime, into those dark, timeless hours past midnight.

I enjoyed all four stories very much (though, as I said, I could do without the ending of the fourth one.) As always, King creates characters that I come to care for. The passengers on the red-eye from LA, Sam and his friends, Dave and Naomi, Kevin and his father. Even the writer, Mort.

It’s a wonderful collection of short stories/novellas that are well worth reading.

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

Mount TBR 2026 Book Links

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

1. The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2. Four Past Midnight by Stephen King