The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. In “Afterlife,” a man who died of colon cancer keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Others address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.

I absolutely loved this book and all of the engaging characters within each story. King no doubt has the ability to bring his characters to life in just a couple of sentences, to make you care for them before their inevitable fate takes its toll. What sets this collection apart is the fact that each story is accompanied by commentary sharing the inspiration behind the story.

The collection opens with Mile 81, a classic “haunted object” story. A little boy, caught in that awkward cleft between childhood and adolescence, sneaks away to sample the forbidden adult pleasures of alcohol and woods porn in an abandoned highway rest stop. Nearby a mud-covered station wagon lies in wait to ambush potential Good Samaritans; passersby with an inquisitive or charitable bent are sucked in and digested by the thing, which is apparently some kind of alien predator. Eventually, the boy sleeps off his experiment in alcohol and wakes up in time to drive the thing off. I won’t go into more details, you’ll just have to trust me on this one and pick this book up ASAP!

“I made these stories especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”

About the book Author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (co-written with his son Owen King), the Bill Hodges trilogy End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and an AT&T Audience Network original television series). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower and It is the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Stephen King lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Title: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
Author: Stephen King
Published Date: November 3, 2015
Series: No
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Pages: 705 pages
Reviewed by: Mike Davidson
Our Rating: 4.0 /5

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