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If it bleeds : new fiction / Stephen King.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Scribner, 2020Edition: First Scribner hardcover editionDescription: 436 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781982137977
  • 1982137975
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Mr. Harrigan's phone -- The life of Chuck -- If it bleeds -- Rat.
Summary: "The four never-before-published novellas in this collection represent horror master King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments. A teenager discovers that a dead friend's cell phone, which was buried with the body, still communicates from beyond the grave in 'Mr. Harrigan's Phone,' which reads like a Twilight Zone episode infused with an EC Comics vibe. In the profoundly moving 'The Life of Chuck,' a series of apocalyptic incidents bear out one character's claim that 'when a man or a woman dies, a whole world falls to ruin.' 'Rat' sees a frustrated writer strike a Faustian bargain to complete his novel, and in the title story, private investigator Holly Gibney, the recurring heroine of King's Bill Hodges trilogy and The Outsider, faces off against a ghoulish television newscaster who vampirically feeds off the anguish he provokes in his audience by covering horrific tragedies"--Publishers Weekly.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Vol info Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Fiction King, Stephen Available 33111009821113
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction King, Stephen HG 2 Checked out Slight water damage on corner of first few pages. 3/21/23 06/20/2024 33111009639911
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

*#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

Includes "Mr. Harrigan's Phone"-- now a Netflix original film starring Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell!

From the legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary collection of four new "exceptionally compelling novellas that reaffirm [King's] mastery of the form" ( The Washington Post ).

Readers adore Stephen King's novels, and his novellas are their own dark treat, briefer but just as impactful and enduring as his longer fiction. Many of his novellas have been made into iconic films, including "The Body" ( Stand by Me ) and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" ( Shawshank Redemption ).

The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider ) must face her fears, and possibly another outsider--this time on her own. In "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. "The Life of Chuck" explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in "Rat," a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.

If these novellas show King's range, they also prove that certain themes endure. One of King's great concerns is evil, and in If It Bleeds , there's plenty of it. There is also evil's opposite, which in King's fiction often manifests as friendship. Holly is reminded that friendship is not only life-affirming but can be life-saving. Young Craig befriends Mr. Harrigan, and the sweetness of this late-in-life connection is its own reward.

"An adroit vehicle to showcase the...nature of evil" ( The Boston Globe ), If It Bleeds is "exactly what I wanted to read right now," says Ruth Franklin in The New York Times Book Review .

"The four never-before-published novellas in this collection represent horror master King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments. A teenager discovers that a dead friend's cell phone, which was buried with the body, still communicates from beyond the grave in 'Mr. Harrigan's Phone,' which reads like a Twilight Zone episode infused with an EC Comics vibe. In the profoundly moving 'The Life of Chuck,' a series of apocalyptic incidents bear out one character's claim that 'when a man or a woman dies, a whole world falls to ruin.' 'Rat' sees a frustrated writer strike a Faustian bargain to complete his novel, and in the title story, private investigator Holly Gibney, the recurring heroine of King's Bill Hodges trilogy and The Outsider, faces off against a ghoulish television newscaster who vampirically feeds off the anguish he provokes in his audience by covering horrific tragedies"--Publishers Weekly.

Mr. Harrigan's phone -- The life of Chuck -- If it bleeds -- Rat.

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