Skeleton Crew

Some stories were mediocre, others were excellent. My favorite was "Gramma." It was the first genuinely scary horror story I have read/listened to for a long time. "Survivor Type" is also quite unforgettable, to say the least.

Stories are rated 1-4:

1 I would recommend avoid reading this
2 Not great
3 I enjoyed it. I would casually recommend a king or horror fan read this.
4 I would recommend everyone read this.

The Mist [4]

Mist rolls over a small town bring an array of unsettling creatures. Outstanding. It reads like the novelisation of Doom. It also feels like a zombie movie. Man is as great a danger as the monsters.

Here There Be Tygers [2]

A boy meets a tiger in the bathroom.

The Monkey [4]

A possessed monkey toy has the power to kill. Showing again that King is pretty good with the possessed object stories.

Cain rose up [1]

A college kid goes shooting. I could barely remember this a day after I read it and had to check Wikipedia to remind myself of the plot.

Mrs Tod’s Shortcut [3]

Mrs Tod finds a shortcut. And another. And another. Sort of sad.

The Jaunt [4]

A father explains teleportation to his family. Sci-Fi

The Wedding Gig [3]

A gangster gets mown down. No supernatural events.

Paranoid: a chant [1]

Unreadable.

Word Processor of the Gods [4]

A writer re-evaluates his family.

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands [3]

In a gentlemen's club, a man enters who has the opposite of the Midas touch.

Beachworld [2]

Crash landing on an out of the way planet the survivors had to deal with the sand. It gets ever where. I think this would be a but I hate the final paragraph.

The Reaper's Image [2]

So forgettable I forgot it. An antiquities dealer goes mirror shopping.

Nona [3]

Bonnie and Clyde, on Bonnie is a Psychic rat creature.

For Owen [1]

A poem.

Survivor Type [2]

A surgeon takes extreme measures when lost on a deserted island.

Uncle Otto's Truck [3]

Stephen King returns to the world of possessed cars yet another time.

Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1) [1]

A murderous milkman makes deliveries.

Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2) [3]

A vehicle inspection is required.

Gramma [4]

A boy is left alone with is grandmother. Hijinks Ensue. My favourite in the book easily, though I actually was considering skipping it in the first few pages.

The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet [4]

Fornit Some Fornus. An editor feeds of a writers insanity.

The Reach [2]

An old lady finally leaves the island she has never left before.

Apparently, short stories are where Stephen King's real talent lies. These stories are fresh and original for the most part, not tedious at all, and there seems to be no need for crazy people who chase the protagonists with knives or crocket mallets.

Survivor Type is still one of the best – and most disturbing – short stories of all time, but there are many other great stories in here: Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Word Processor of the Gods or The Mist, to name but a few of the most striking.

Do you love?

Not his best anthology of short-stories/novellas (Different Seasons), but I like this nevertheless. A few highlights:

The Mist
The Monkey
The Raft
Word Processor of the Gods
Gramma
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet

These stories were good and creepy. The others...not so good.