NightShift

Night Shift by Stephen King

This is a written review for the great collection of short stories by Stephen King called Night Shift. This is a very special book to me because it reminds me of a great time in my life. During an English class in my freshman year my teacher used to reward us by reading to the class a given short story from the book. I distinctly remember him reading the short story Graveyard Shift from the book, and I think he read others to us as well. Ever since then I’ve made a point of reading the collection every couple of years. So of course when I decided to start reviewing the written word for the site this had to be the first.

There are so many great stories from the book. My favorites are Graveyard Shift, for obvious nostalgic reasons. But it is a solid story about a group of workers earning some overtime cleaning out a nasty old mill. I’m also fond of a short story called I am the Doorway. This one is clearly inspired by the old EC comics like Weird Fantasy and tells the story of an astronaut and the visitors he brings with him. It is unique that it has a very science fiction vibe, which isn’t often contained in Kings work. Trucks is another great story from the collection and was the inspiration for the movie Maximum Overdrive. Here a group of survivors is held up in a truck stop while the vehicles that once served them now terrorize and kill. One for the Road is cool in that is revisits and ties in with the setting from King’s earlier novel Salem’s Lot. As the characters in the story say some things are better left alone. Quitters Inc. is another great short story that takes a whole new angle at helping people to stop smoking. Don’t want to ruin it, but imagine if Tony Soprano was trying to get you to smoke! If I had to pick my favorite story form the book Battleground would have to be it. Here a hit man meets his match after eliminating the beloved son and owner of a toy company.

Reading thru the book this time around I was also shocked at how many of these stories have been filmed. I’ve already mentioned Trucks (Maximum Overdrive), but Graveyard Shift, The Mangler, The Lawnmower man (in name only really), Sometimes they Come Back, Children of the Corn, and of course the Ledge and Quitters Inc. were both included as segments in anthology movie Cat’s Eye.

Finally there are a couple of stories in the book that seem to be very personal and interestingly not really horror. The Woman in the Room is a wonderful little story about dealing with the death of a loved one and letting them go with dignity. The other is The Last Rung on the Ladder that deals with the suicide of a family member who was ignored until it was too late. I wanted to mention both of these because they show that while King’s greatest success has always been in creeping us out he is a very talented writer that is so much more than that.

Night Shift is highly recommended.

reviewed by John Shatzer