Night Shift

Author: Stephen King

Rating: ⭐ 4/5

Date Read: 2025/02/19

Pages: 344

This collection is hit or miss, but when it hits it hits hard.

Bangers include:

- Gray Matter
- The Ledge
- I Know What You Need
- Sometimes They Come Back
- I Am the Doorway
- Trucks
- Quitters, Inc.

I’ve been a fan of King for a long time, and I’ve always considered him to be a character-and-concept author who lets plot come along for the ride. That’s not a knock at King—I read him for the characters and concepts. The character moments do shine here, particularly in I Know What You Need and Gray Matter (my highlight of the collection). And the concepts are, as always, top notch.

What impressed me most about this collection of short stories is that King is a master at creating tension and amplifying the stakes. The absurdly campy story Trucks had no right to be as tense as it was. And I have to admit that I kept putting down my book during The Ledge, because my entire body started tensing up.

I am now vaguely afraid of truck stops and pigeons. Thanks, Steve.