

In it, a bunch of passengers fall asleep on a plane and find themselves waking up in some sort of alternate universe. I think it’s one of King’s finest novellas and it certainly put the scares into me. The Langoliers was incredible, and it even made me think that the book had the potential to be a five-star read. Those stories are The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policeman and The Sun Dog, so I guess I’ll dedicate a paragraph to each of them before sharing what I thought of the book as a whole. In this case, it was Four Past Midnight, a collection of four Stephen King novellas that was published in 1990. But it is the stories themselves that will keep readers awake long after bedtime, into those dark, timeless hours past midnight.I read this book over Christmas because when I spend a bunch of time away from home, I like to take the biggest and thickest book on my TBR pile.

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. 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. If he can find it in time, he might stand a chance.įour Past Midnight: The flat surface of a Polaroid photograph becomes for fifteen-year-old Kevin Delevan an invitation to the supernatural. But for small businessman Sam Peebles, who thinks he may be losing his mind, another enemy is hiding there as well-the truth. Three Past Midnight: "The Library Policeman" is set in Junction City, Iowa, an unlikely place for evil to be hiding. Alone, that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger. 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. Only eleven passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish they hadn't. One Past Midnight: "The Langoliers" takes a red-eye flight from L.A. 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.Īfter all, past midnight is Stephen King's favorite time of day. It bends, stretches, turns back, or snaps, and sometimes reality with it.

Past midnight, something happens to time, that fragile concept we employ to order our sense of reality.
