Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, have read better
Review: Although this is his first collection of short stories, I have to say that it's not the best. Some of the stories just didn't keep my attention.
The top five best are "Battleground", "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", "I am the Doorway", and "Graveyard Shift."
Rating: 
Summary: SUCKED.
Review: READ ONLY FOR THE PREQUAL TO NEEDFUL THINGS
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful short stories
Review: This book would have been worth it if the only good story was "The Last Rung On The Ladder." As it is you get that wonderful story, with no touch of the supernatural and bunch of other good reads."Graveyard Shift" and "Children of the Corn" fare far better as short story than as movie. "Gray Matter" resonates with that creepy, organically horrific vibe that King has at his best. "Quitters, Inc." and "I Know What You Need" both provide a nice dose of psychological horror, and then there's "I Am The Doorway," a Lovecraftian, invasion-from-space story that, while unsurprising, is very well-crafted. This is probably my favourite Stephen King book. With 20 stories, at one story before bed every week night, this is a solid month of good writing.
Rating:
Summary: What a ride!
Review: Over the years I have watched several movies based on Stephen King stories. Some I have liked very much while there were some I didn't care for at all. I finally decided that I wanted to read one of his books and this was the one I picked because I figured it would be best to start with a collection of short stories rather than a novel. I am impressed! If this is a true taste of King's other books I think I may have become and avid fan. As with any collection of short stories I found that I liked some more than others, but even the stories that did the least for me were quite good. King's style of writing draws the reader into the story and makes one really feel as if he were right there with the characters that make up the story. Needless to say, chills will run up and down the reader's spine on several occasions. I couldn't put this book down and devoured every page and I think most everyone who gives it a try will find the same to be true. Several of the stories in this book have been made into films but as is usual, the written story is much better. Even though I liked "The Mangler" in it's film form I wasn't all that impressed by it but the story in this book is not bad at all. As for "The Children of the Corn", I didn't like the movie at all but the story in this book is excellent. The reader will also find two stories of the place known as Jerusalem's (Salem's) Lot in this book. One is set before the time frame of the novel while the other comes in after the novel ends. Some of the other stories that really drew me in were, "Trucks", Sometimes They Come Back", and "I Am the Doorway". All of the stories were good but those caught my extra attention. I may never go to another truck stop in my life! If you have never read any of Mr. King's works I suggest you give him a try, and I suggest you start with this book. I'm hooked and I think you will be also.
Rating:
Summary: King's classic short story collection is still the best
Review: Night shift is a classic collection of horror tales. There's something for everyone here, as the stories range from chilling ("Sometimes They Come Back," "I Am the Doorway") to gory ("The Mangler," "Gray Matter") to a mix of laughter and horror ("The Lawnmower Man," "Battleground"). My favorites are the longer stories in which King takes the time to develop the characters, making their usually tragic endings all the more horrible. For example, "Strawberry Spring" is the story of terrible, seemingly random killings that plague a college campus as told from the perspective of a young male who is watching the events unfold around him with increasing horror, and in "I Know What You Need," King focuses on the destructive nature of obsessive love. Stories such as "Quitters Inc." and "The Ledge" are gripping--albeit unrealistic--page-turners. All-in-all, you're sure to find a favorite amongst these stories from master storyteller King.
Rating:
Summary: King's first collection of masterful short stories
Review: One thing that has always distinguished Stephen King among his peers is his commitment to the short story. You don't find many novelists writing short stories these days, but King has always excelled in the area of short fiction, and I daresay the discipline involved in telling a story in a relatively small number of pages has helped make him such a successful writer of long fiction. Night Shift, which was first published in 1976, is the first of King's short story collections, bringing together twenty stories originally published in such disparate magazines as Cavalier, Penthouse, and Cosmopolitan (yes, Cosmopolitan) in the early to mid 1970s. These stories have given birth to a surprising number of film adaptations, but I would urge you not to judge these stories in advance by the quality of films such as Children of the Corn, The Mangler, Sometimes They Come Back, and The Lawnmower Man (especially The Lawnmower Man, as the film has nothing whatsoever to do with King's story).
There is a lot of variety to be found in this collection, as King delivers much more than a sequence of horror stories. The horror is there in droves, of course, but so are stories of a general bent that show just how effective a writer King is when he wanders away from the dark forces usually driving his imagination. The Woman in the Room, for example, is a rather tender story of a son struggling with his mother's impending death, while I Know What You Need and The Man Who Loved Flowers display romantic sensibilities of a truly engaging nature.
The book opens with Jerusalem's Lot, a thoroughly Lovecraftian exploration of the early history of this infamous little hamlet; told in the form of letters and steeped in Mythos lore, it is the type of tale that could have been written by a member of the original Lovecraft Circle. One For the Road also centers on Jerusalem's Lot; it's unusual to set a vampire story against the backdrop of a severe New England blizzard, but this proves to be one of the most effective stories in this collection. Rats, traditional horror favorites, play a part in a couple of stories, particularly Graveyard Shift with its rat-infested subterranean levels containing monstrosities that can no longer be considered mere rats.
The Ledge is, to me, the most uncomfortably effective story in the collection, mainly because it ruthlessly exploits my own fear of heights. Quitters, Inc., though, stands head and shoulders above the other nineteen stories; brilliant in its conception and development, it details a brutally surefire way to quit smoking. Children of the Corn is also a masterful tale; the film adaptation elaborately expounds upon the idea, but the core of the story and the mysterious horror of He Who Walks Behind the Rows is given a glorious birth in these pages. Sometimes They Come Back gave birth to two less than exhilarating films, but the original story is vintage Stephen King, with three dead youths returning to high school to finish the deadly job they started years ago. Then there is The Boogeyman which builds upon the palpitating fear that has touched every child scared of the dark; I can picture King grinning wickedly as he was writing the twisted final lines of this tale.
Battleground holds special meaning for me as this was the first Stephen King story I ever read - believe it or not, we actually read this in my advanced English class in seventh grade. Some regard it as a weak contribution to Night Shift, but the story is a lot of fun despite its rather unbelievable nature. The Lawnmower Man is more than weird enough to be memorable. Some people also don't care for The Last Rung on the Ladder, but I think it is a wonderful little story; the human element takes precedence over any overt horror, and some people prefer their monsters to be external to themselves. The Man Who Loved Flowers is masterfully done, an idyllic look at a young man in love that takes a deliciously insidious turn at the end. I Know What You Need is similarly executed; this account of a young lady who finds true love (or so she thinks) in the most unlikely of potential mates calls to mind the psychological mastery of Shirley Jackson.
There are no bad stories in this collection, but a few don't live up to the standards of the rest. Strawberry Spring is a little disappointing, as this story of a serial killer who comes in with the fog of unusual New England weather is quite predictable. I Am the Doorway, with its touch of alien horror, isn't as good as I think it might have been, Gray Matter is the equivalent of Creepshow's The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, The Mangler offers nothing special, Night Surf is a pale shadow of its cousin The Stand, and Trucks runs out of gas rather quickly.
All in all, Night Shift delivers a shockingly good collection of short stories from the hand of a masterful story teller plumbing the depths of his horror-laden imagination while at the same time tapping into his immense knowledge of human nature and popular culture to produce tales of fiction that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Rating: 
Summary: The Book That Made Me Like Stephen King
Review: I decided I liked King after I read this. Night Shift's strength lies in its diversity. For each story King effectivly places us in a different setting. He describes a 19th century New England town, a modern day snow storm, the ledge along a sky scraper, a run down warehouse, and a variety of other places with ease. King's agility is rooted in his ability to maintain the humanity of his characters. He doesn't give us too many details. He just let's us know enough about his characters to make them believeable. Horror is the genre of the senses. King knows how to place us on set early. This allows him to be a little more free wheeling with the happenings and emotions of his stories. You never get lost in King's world because it's our world. This is what good modern fiction has done since E. A. Poe.
These are not all horror stories. Some of it's just plain drama. This was a let down for me but you may like it. King achieves because he knows how to do King. He's found a formula and it works. Night Shift isn't his best, but it's pritty darn good.
Rating:
Summary: A manual for Halloween...
Review: Halloween- that dark holiday of freaky festivals and macabre gatherings of costumed personages prancing about in the cold nightscape, reflecting the shared recollections of the monsters that have haunted the vistas of our subconscious through the ages- always puts me in a mood for tales that can be read in a single sitting by flickering candlelight, or by the crackling aura of a fervent campfire.
One of the best sources for brief flashes of horror is the first short story collection issued by Stephen King: Night Shift. Just about all of the stories come with a hearty recommendation; taken as a whole, the anthology provides a useful survey of all the subcomponents which together comprise the genre. There are vampires, ghosts, and all species of demons; lusty practitioners of black arts and seething sadistic children; machinery possessed by otherworldly forces and on the attack against their creators; gelatinous blobs hungry for living sustenance and extraterrestrial eyes which infect the flesh; serial killers surrounded by poetic prose and a suffering woman on a bed of death whose circumstances extract a deadly decision from someone close to her...
The table of contents found in Night Shift is resplendent with titles that are reminiscent of old E.C. Comics properties like "Tales From The Crypt". King's deft penchant for storytelling shines through admirably with such memorable contributions to the horror lexicon such as "Graveyard Shift"- those fearful of rats should be wary here- and "The Boogeyman"- those frightened of closet-dwelling ghouls should keep this door firmly shut.
In a sense, Night Shift is comparable to a Monkees album; some might aptly term the stories as quick, fleeting sticks of bubblegum terror. That's not to negate the powerful impact of King's talent on hand here, for even bubblegum can be analyzed and reverse engineered to reveal the secrets behind its complex chemistry. Allegories abound, whether it be man's struggle to understand his role in the context of modern technological society ("Trucks") or the nature of religion's effect on the most impressionable members of our society ("Children Of The Corn"). But any reader is justified in ditching the critical lens and enjoying on a more superficial level the visceral concepts and plot schemes that are ubiquitously in evidence. Fair warning though: if you've never read Mr. King before, you may find yourself in the same boat as one of the hapless victims in a George A. Romero zombiefest- you may get bit and come down with a bug which will cause you to walk the earth forever in a numbed slumber, on an eternal search for everything he's ever written, a search you will make again and again and again. I for one remember becoming hooked on King partially because of this collection, read so many years ago; for me, these tales represent a golden age in the writer's career where each successive novel/story was more astonishing than its predecessor.
When you're done watching the various marathons featuring Freddy, Jason, Ash, Frankenstein's Monster, and the plethora contemporary interpretations of Vlad the Impaler via Stoker's seminal tome showing on all the various cable channels, when you're ready to curl up with a creepy tome to celebrate the night of the witches and the day of the souls, then pull the shades up high so that the icy moonlight may scream its way into your bedroom and provide its lunatic illumination...open up Night Shift, and prepare for a dose of disconcerting discourse...
Rating: 
Summary: This is the One!!
Review: This is it. This is the book that made me give up Stephen King once and for all. This creepy, disgusting collection was just the last straw for me. Oh yes, he's good, but in the wrong way. His books give me nightmares for YEARS, not just days. They color the way I look at the world. This world is horrifying enough. Bye, Stevie.
Rating:
Summary: The Birth of an Obsession
Review: Some twenty years ago I received my introduction to Stephen King through this collection of short stories, Night Shift. King brought a variety of topics to bear, ranging from objects with minds and agendas of their own (Trucks, The Mangler and Battleground) to a twisted program for smoking cessation (Quitters, Inc.). Stephen King gets it. There is horror in the mundane, the usual, the everyday and King knows how to draw it out. Night Shift is both a terrific entry work for those who have never experienced King's writing as well as a continually solid read for those who have enjoyed his full offering. This is a fabulous book that set me on a path of pleasure; twenty years of King's storytelling later and I can still smile and remember the first time he made me shiver. Years from now he may finally get the credit he deserves as one of this generation's most engaging novelists. Until then he'll have to be content with rabid, loyal fans and huge commercial success.
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