Night Shift (by Stephen King)
Last month, I joined The Constant Reader book club for the first time. It’s a monthly meetup at a local library where they only read Stephen King’s books. I had a great time with the friendly and welcoming group of King fans, and I’m excited to join regularly. November’s meet-up is to discuss Night Shift, so I decided to re-read the book to be able to intelligently participate in the discussion.
I first read Night Shift back in 2018, and re-reading it six years later felt like discovering it all over again. It’s a collection of short stories that King published in 1978, and it’s his very first. I didn’t remember many of the stories from my first read, so I was thrilled to experience them again. I usually don’t care for short stories, but King’s writing is just perfect. Some stories are better than others, but his style is always a hit with me.
On Halloween, we watched the new Salem’s Lot movie, so it was a nice start to this collection with reading Jerusalem’s Lot. I noticed a mechanical theme in some of these stories, which reminded me of Christine. For instance, there’s a possessed laundry press machine in The Mangler, and evil trucks trying to kill people at a truck stop in Trucks. Several of these stories have been made into movies: Graveyard Shift, The Lawnmower Man, and Children of the Corn. As a testament to King’s skillful storytelling, many of the stories left me wanting more - in a good way! The story ends, and there could be more told, but King intentionally leaves the reader hanging.
I’m grateful The Constant Reader book club chose Night Shift for our November meet-up. It was an awesome re-read, and I’m excited to discuss it with everyone!
Feel free to dive into my reviews of other Stephen King books below!
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