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Summary: Skeleton Crew -- "The Mist"
Review: "The Mist", from Stephen King's Skeleton Crew, is a riveting short story about an eerie mist settling on a small town in Maine. The mist creeps over the town, and brings with it mysterious animals that feed on humans. A small group of locals are trapped in a grocery store, and to exit means certain death. They must fight for their lives in the uncertain danger of the mist.King keeps the reader suspense with eerie settings, tense situations, and foreshadowing. There seems to be no point of rest in the story, because the action never ceases. King is very descriptive, and uses similes, metaphors, and vivid imagery to describe settings and the strange creatures from the fog. Personally, I found "The Mist" to be a fun read, but it was a little too corny for my taste. I realize that thrillers have to sometimes stretch the boundaries of reality, but monsters from a fog is slightly ridiculous. Despite this flaw, I think "The Mist" could make an excellent movie.
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Summary: Summary and commentary on "The Mist"
Review: Summary Skeleton Crew by Stephen King is a collection of short stories. They range from horror to unrealistically frightening fantasies. At the end of his introduction King suggests to the reader, "Grab onto my arm now. Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way. Just don't let go of my arm."
"The Mist" is the first of these short stories and is one hundred thirty pages long. It is about a gigantic storm which brings a mysterious mist to a small town in northern New England. The mist has a life of its own. It spreads and inexplicably produces creatures that are beyond the imagination. Several people become trapped in a grocery store. One by one they are preyed upon by the creatures of the mist. Six main characters eventually plan an escape. Only three of them survive the twenty foot scramble to the car. The mist's range and area of coverage is unknown. Driving at five miles per hour they come upon an abandoned Howard Johnson's hotel. The story ends in a cliffhanger leaving the reader wondering how three ordinary, simple people will overcome all odds. Commentary "The Mist" was my favorite short story. It is a wonderfully gruesome page-turner. It is written for an adult audience. The vocabulary challenged me at times, but not too much. This story is for people who enjoy horror and extreme fiction. There are moments of acute suspense, but there are also parts that are slow and unexciting. There was clearly no way out of the grocery store except through the front door and twenty feet through the mist to the car. Some readers may not enjoy the characters because they appeared unsure and unstimulating. The creatures on the other hand were intriguing. This contrast, however, is what made the story more frightening. Finding temporary safety in an abandoned Howard Johnson hotel for three of the main characters is indicative of Stephen King's writing style. The characters escape one trap only to find themselves in another one. I found myself speculating for days about how one man and two women would overcome the creatures of the mist; whether the mist had overtaken the entire nation or world; and whether there were any other humans alive. Sometimes I still think about it.
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Summary: Another good collection of stories.
Review: My first collection of Stephen King's short stories was his 1978 release "Night Shift" and I thought it was very good for the most part, and so I bought "Skeleton Crew" right after I bought "Night Shift". The one main difference from "Skeleton Crew" compared to "Night Shift" is there are more sceens of drama than sceens of horror in "Skeleton Crew", but that's the case through the whole book. Some of my favorite stories out of here are "The Mist", "Monkey", "The Raft", "Nona" and "Paranoid: A Chant". Paranoid is probally one of the most creative short stories from The King I have ever read. "The Mist" is probally the longest storie in the book. Thier are about 20 short stories in Stephen King's "Skeleton Crew" with a new Into and Outro(there intro's a lot of the reissued edition of King's older, but the Into's new) so its a very soild work, and it should keep the reader sucked in for awhile.
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Summary: Skeleton Crew
Review: Stephan King's Skeleton Crew is the best book ever. You cannot compare this book to any other book. Skeleton Crew is the best thrilling story. This book surprises you in so many different ways. The birds in the story just pop out and scare you. David and Stephanie are the best characters in the book because they are such good actors and actresses. If you want thrill you should read this book. This book will scare you and make you want to watch the movie. I recommend this book to all students and adults.
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Summary: A good book
Review: A good book, some of the stories I found either downright no good or just plain boring (Here there be tygers for example). But the ones that were good, were GOOD, such as, the mist, an excellent story (dont read it when it's foggy out!) and, the monkey (Scared the heck out of me and I was afraid of wind-up monkeys for a week.)
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Summary: Tales that linger in the mind
Review: This tome of tales first came into my hands when it was first released, and I was 11. Last year I bought a new copy and was amazed at how well the stories had lasted in my memory. These are some of Stephen King's finest works and if I wanted to interest a non-fan or novice in his writing, this might well be the book I would give them to whet their appetite. "Word Processor of the Gods" transcends terror to make us all wonder what we would want if our computer could shape a new reality for us - and can we really all swear there is absolutely no-one we'd like to use the DELETE button on? "The Jaunt" uses a similar technological premise to Michael Crichton's "Timeline", but to a far different effect. "Gramma" is a tale loosely drawn from a frightening childhood experience of King's, as you will know if you read his "On Writing". Childhood fears, and the demonic powers scared children can fancifully assign to toys, also provide the basis for the evil toy in "The Monkey". And, in "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut", King introduces us to a woman whose passion for saving time leads her to some particularly bizarre places - quickly. Some two dozen stories, many of which scare less than they titillate, and create lasting images of the eerie.
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Summary: Not a screamer like The Shining but still dark and creepy.
Review: While this isnt as scary as The Shining or as disturbing as It this book is good because it keeps you guessing as to how each story will end.Also this book has stories in the style of Night Shift and ones in a non horrific style like Different Seasons.It can be pretty hard at first to know what to label a story as.
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Summary: A Thrilling Collection of Short Stories
Review: The novel Skeleton Crew by Stephen King was a collection of several stories. It mixes the realities of science fiction with the terror of a horror story. The novel challenged the reader to use their mind to either figure out several unanswered questions in the book and to use the imagination to create certain endings for many of the stories. Although, King in many of the stories seems to unclearly end a story, leaving many readers hanging or unsatisfied. In one particular story "The Mist" King leaves the ending unsaid. The characters in the story are at conflict with the creations of a military experiment gone terribly wrong. The characters are trapped in a super market through out most of the story. Yet as the story comes to an end King never directly reveals the fate of the surviving characters. This really leaves an enormous gap in the readers mind as to what will become of the characters. King should have ended the story on a more clear note in which a reader would be able to know and understand what happens to the characters. He really doesn't use many literary divices in this story, there are many situations in which King could have used forshadowing or the use of irony to help readers understand events in the story a little better. In another story "The Monkey" King shows the reader, a grown man who comes in contact with a childhood fear, a fur toy monkey with clanging symbols. In the story the man remebers the fear the monkey stuck in his heart and how every time somthing bad would happen the monkey was always there. King really tells this story well. There is great suspense in the story that always keeps the reader second guessing and thinking of what will happen next. He does a much better job in this story of letting the reader know the ending. He also uses forshadowing in this story to give hints as to what might happen on the next page. King also used dramtic and situaltional irony in "The Monkey." He leads readers to belive one thing will happen only to find out King had pulled a complete 180 and somthing the exact opposite happens. Over all Skeleton Crew was a good book. It made me think and have to use logic to understand many of the situations in the novel. I would recommend this novel to any reader who enjoys a collection of horror stories, mysteries and stories that flat out make you think.
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Summary: Even better than Night Shift!
Review: This is a great collection of short stories from the Master of Horror. My favorite was The Jaunt, which was sort of a sci-fi thriller. The Raft was in the movie Creepshow II. Also good were Gramma, The Myst (more like a novella at 100+ pages), Survivor Type and The Ballad of Flexible Bullet which is a story about going insane. If you enjoyed Night Shift you'll love this.
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Summary: Stephen King's Readability.
Review: I found Stephen King's Skeleton Crew very hard to read. He did gain my interest at all in his stories. I found his stories dry and boring. I was under the impression that he was a very good author. I was very disapointed in this book. I can understand why Steven King fans won't like this review but not every likes all the same books. While some people may like this book - I do not.
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