If It Bleeds: Mr. Harrigan's Phone, The Life of Chuck, If It Bleeds, Rat

Stephen King has released another long-awaited collection. In a tradition akin to “Four Past Midnight,” “If it Bleeds” spawns four page-turning novellas. This time, with another surprise to his die-hard horror fans, the stories focus on the coming-of-age character, the paranormal, ghosts, and of course, death. They reflect the Stephen King responsible for works such as “The Body” and “The Green Mile.” And as anticipated, the author of “Mr. Mercedes” and “The Outsider” has reunited his Constant Readers with P.I. Holly Gibney in the book’s title story.In “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” Craig is the young-coming-of-age adolescent not yet old enough to work when he’s hired by Mr. Harrigan, an elderly curmudgeon once a top-magnate in the stock-market and business world. Craig’s job is to read to him, as task he gladly performs even if some of the books he doesn’t understand like, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” Harrigan, old-world and set in his ways, denounces modern gadgets and technology, a mental block Craig breaks through when he buys Mr. Harrigan an iphone. The phone is a way of thanking Mr. Harrigan, since Craig struck lucky on a scratch-off ticket the old man gave him.As Craig teaches Mr. Harrigan everything about the phone, the gadget soon becomes a guilty pleasure, and an unlikely friendship forms between the old man and the boy. But when Mr. Harrigan dies, Craig continues to talk to him and realizes by some oddity, Mr. Harrigan may be listening. All Craig has to do is dial the phone and ask for his help.The story is both heartwarming and eerie, about an unlikely friendship so unique that it may transcend death itself. It also leaves the reader questioning reality versus imagination. At Mr. Harrigan’s casket, Craig slips the phone into his suit pocket. Then, as he stands over Harrigan’s grave and dials the phone, he swears he can hear it ringing. The coming-of-age story also sends chills down the spine, a classic King trademark.King has brilliantly documented “The Life of Chuck” in backwards fashion, with the last chapter being the first, and the first being last. The world is ending in the first chapter. The apocalypse has commenced. The internet is failing as California sinks into the ocean. Huge sinkholes are opening on the highways, making car travel a burden. Stars are inexplicably falling from the sky. Food is now a luxury quickly fading into a famine. Yet everywhere one looks, on billboards, television screens, and signs, is the face of an unfamiliar middle-aged man named Chuck. The advertisement thanks him for thirty-nine good years with his job at the bank. But those who are living through the final end want to know—who is Chuck?“The Life of Chuck” deals with not only the apocalypse, but the reality of ghosts and those who see them. It is about warnings from beyond that go unheeded and about living life to the fullest while you can. The subsequent chapters introduce us to Chuck as young boy living with his grandparents, his curiosity stoked by a haunted room in their house. As always, King’s characters are real and unforgettable, each of them marked by their own tragedy or circumstances. And after sneaking a peek into the haunted room, Chuck is no different. The story is surprising with unexpected twists and a mind blowing narrative that takes the reader through decades of Chuck’s life.“If it Bleeds” begins with a package delivery, one that eventually blows up a western Pennsylvania middle-school, killing many in its wake. Affected by the tragedy is King fan- favorite, Holly Gibney. Something about the round-the-clock newscaster who just happened to be on the scene has triggered Holly’s attention and curiosity. But what is it about Chet Ondowsky? Something is different about him, something that Holly’s keen insight doesn’t miss. There’s something about his face. Could Holly be dealing with another Outsider?With help from an unlikely source, Holly begins to put the pieces together, and while doing so, makes an audio recording of everything she knows and forwards it on a flash drive to Det. Ralph Anderson, her cohort in “The Outsider.” Not as lengthy as its predecessor, the story can definitely be considered a sequel to “The Outsider.” The same fast-paced thrill ride that existed in that book and the “Mr. Mercedes” trilogy is present in “If it Bleeds.” Soon, Holly confronts Chet Ondowsky and the heart-pounding action begins, making the reader turn page after page in hopes of Holly’s survival. “If it Bleeds” is a perfect addition into Holly’s storyline. Also, it’s hard not to miss King’s observation of the Media’s often ghoulish drive when it comes to newsworthy tragedies.Drew Larson is a wannabe author in “Rat.” He’s had three prior failed attempts, the last one scaring everyone from his wife and children, to his mentor. Drew suddenly sees a vision, a story set in the old west that plays out in his mind. To the dismay of his wife, Lucy, he sets out to write what he claims is a sure thing. This time, he will drive miles to his late father’s cabin and work on the first draft. But Drew faces the onset of not only a storm, but a virus he picked up from another. In the midst of these obstacles, he sees a rat, one who talks to him. The rat makes a Drew a deal, a shady one, but one that bears out.“Rat” is another exploration of reality versus imagination. The character questions it, and so does the reader. Was the rat real, or was the rat conjured by Drew’s own imagination in an effort to combat his low-confidence level? “Rat” is a unique story with authentic and true-to-life characters and a setting that remains etched in the mind. “If it Bleeds” contains well-crafted imaginative stories and will sit well alongside King’s other collections.

If It Bleeds, it leads...It has been quite some time since I've read King. Every time I do so I realize that I was long overdue. He is a master of the craft with so many years under his belt that when he grabs you he really grabs you. This was my first foray into one his collections of short fiction, and it earned the 'full five'. Three of the four stories within were five-star caliber, and one was a four-star. I'll say a bit about each of them below.MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE: 4 starsThis was the first story of the bunch. And while it was a solid opener, it was also the least remarkable. When you have as many years under your belt as Stephen King your characterization tends to be pretty top-notch; such is the case here. King sucked me in with the characters, and this one was also a neat look at the beginning of the Information Era. When cell phones were still a novelty.THE LIFE OF CHUCK: 5 starsTelling a story backward has the tendency to be a slippery slope, I think. One can imagine they're writing the next 'Memento' and ultimately end up with a dud that would have served the reader better in linear fashion. That being said, I think King did it well here. This story ended up being a very interesting exploration into the multitudes each and every one of us contain; the worlds within us.IF IT BLEEDS: 5 starsThis story was about twice as long as the others, and was the standout of the book. Folks familiar with the Bill Hodges trilogy or with The Outsider will recognize the main character, Holly Gibney. If It Bleeds is a direct continuation of her story after the events in The Outsider. Now, I myself am not familiar with those works, and thus found myself in an interesting relationship with this story. I've not read either the trilogy or The Outsider, nor have I watched HBO's recent adaptation of the latter. As such, I figured that I would still be able to enjoy the story but that it would dissuade me from wanting to go back and read those other books that Holly had appeared in. On the contrary I feel that I am now more interested in reading the other works in which Holly appears than I otherwise would have been. Journey before destination after all. It's just that this time I read the destination before the journey. This was an excellent story.RAT: 5 starsThis story was neck and neck with If It Bleeds for my favorite of the bunch, losing out only by a small margin. That being said though, I found this one to be the most 'classic King' disturbing. In fact I read the brunt of this one late last night, and there were a few times I thought I'd better put the thing down. I even had to turn the light back on. You see (and I'll try to explain without giving too much away) there is a portion of the story where the main character undergoes a descent into physical sickness, and couples this with stubbornness and a few bad decisions. There was something deeply visceral about this section of the story that made me uneasy in much the same way that watching a character's descent into madness would. I found myself totally immersed, and rather than stop for the night I felt I had to push on. It's a funny feeling, really. I found myself at once disturbed and fascinated. A part of me wanted things to get better for this character, for things to be alright. But another part of me--perhaps a larger part of me--wanted the descent to continue, to spiral down into the darkness and take me with it. King is just good like that.So there it is. My first Stephen King book in a long time and what does it make me want to do? , of course.'Reality was deep, and it was far. It held many secrets and went on forever.' Read more

I couldn't stop reading this one. I really love the way he made one of the stories a trilogy. Outstanding!

The rat story was creepy yet almost funny, maybe because I have rats as pets. I absolutely loved Mr Harrigan’s phone. This was a great short story collection.

Disclaimer- Stephen King is, and has been for 30 plus years remained one of my top three writers, I pre-ordered this as soon as it became available, devoured it in a day and would read the man's shopping list if he published it. So some biais may be in play and no spoilers.If It Bleeds is a collection of four novellas. I'll put it up front, for me, it isn't up there with Different Seasons, but I enjoyed it more than Four Past Midnight - both previous quartets.First and foremost King's writing seems as effortless as always and the comfort from settling down with any new King book is one of life's pleasures for me.Going through the stories briefly - Mr Harrigan's Phone is one of those King tales about a young boy on the cusp of growing up and is as much about him as it is about the hook of the tale. Here that hook is a mobile phone given to an elderly, wealthy and somewhat eccentric man the boy reads to. It's a cross between a Twilight Zone episode and that old song Hello, This is Joanie. It's fun, creepy and, one of those King stories where no explanation or resolution is given for what occurs.The Life of Chuck - the most 'experimental' of the four stories: a life told in reverse. King explains he wrote the three acts as separate vignettes originally and then put them together. It is for the most part a slice of life. A 'straight' fictional narrative about an every man, with a sprinkling of 'strange' over it. I didn't quite get the 'strange', I'll have to admit, and in his afterword King seems to say that he doesn't really expect everyone to. The character descriptions are vintage King - small sketches of multiple players that are fascinating to read. As a bizarre reference the background coda reminded me of an '80s movie The Coca Cola Kid - you're reading/ seeing a straight forward story, then there's something much bigger at play. No spoilers though.If It Bleeds- a sequel to The Outsider and featuring Holly Gibney, a character who featured in both that, and the Bill Hodges story. This is definitely sequel material to the former more than the latter and is the right length: I'm glad it appeared in this format and not a full length novel: it's strong here, as a novel it would have been a bit too similar to its' predecessor. For those who read the Hodges series the cast will be familiar, and it's nice to see the Holly character developed some more: she definitely deserves a novel, and hopefully this is a precursor to it.Lastly, The Rat - and we're in more familiar King territory: a writer retreats to his dead father's cabin to try and write a book. Isolated, with a storm coming in and a cold or something worse coming on.There are similarities between the first and last stories - both a touch of Monkey's Paw/ pact about them. It's probably the case that both could have been written as much shorter stories in terms of the ideas behind them, whereas the middle two really had to be the length they were. It's not a criticism- as I said up top I am happy to read as many words as King wants to write, it's simply that both are ideas that are familiar to King readers (in the first, King's interest in writing about tech as a mcguffin- he's done it with word processessors, e-book readers, tvs, and here a retro view of mobiles, in the second a 'writer' story which is old stomping ground after Misery, Bag of Bones, Secret Window...etc - but hey, if I want anyone to tell me about writing, it's someone who's as masterful at it as King).I didn't think there was any one story that was as stand out as some of King's best novellas such as The Body, Rita Hayworth, The Mist, Apt Pupil or even a Dolan's Cadillac but in times of uncertainty as we have today, it's good to know the quality of King's writing is as dependable as ever.

On paper this collection sounded great. Unfortunely this was not the case. Maybe SK sees something we can't but Holly Gibney has run her course - my fear been we haven't seen the last of her. If It Bleeds is at best a short story but SK stretched it and in my opinion weakened it. The life of Chuck was poor. Period. It made no sense. Mr H's phone, again was poor. Side note: SK needs to work on his endings. Rat was the best of a bad lot, however, in saying that, the idea was there but the execution was poor. Would a publisher publish this if SK didnt write this? I doubt it.On a seperate note, I think we ( the constant readers) can all agree we're sick of SK's snarky political commentary and personal views seeping into his stories. We get it - you hate Trump. But guess what, voting Trump or anyone else for that matter doesnt entitle you to berate them at every turn. Its been almost four years - get over it. In fact, close your twitter account and put a little effort into your writing!

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a King of horror, who wove frightful and fresh stories around interesting characters. Over time, this King became so rich and powerful that no-one in his entourage dared criticise or edit his work. As a result, he regurgitated characters, plots and settings from his previous works and let the stories chug along aimlessly until they ran out of steam. As a result, his rambling and inability to deliver a strong ending became something of a trademark and the King eventually lost his crown.His latest short story/novella collection reaches the apex of this tragic arc, and King has even sprinkled in some additional and thoroughly extraneous ingredients. He is of course entitled to his political opinions and they are shared by many. However, regardless of the merits of his views, the wokery on display in If It Bleeds is truly cringeworthy and the anti-Trump digs come across as crabby interjections by the author himself rather than having anything to do with the stories. They break the fourth wall and time-stamp the collection horribly.OK, general gripes over. What about the four stories?The opener, Mr Harrigan’s Phone, is a classic old-school eerie tale. Creepy rather than horrific, it isn’t exactly revolutionary in concept but it would have made an enjoyable installment of Tales From The Crypt back in the day. On the downside, it takes far too long for King to reveal its simplistic hook and once it’s there, the story trundles to a stuttering and unsatisfying conclusion. In other words, classic King.Life of Chuck is somewhat overblown and lacking in plot. However, it explores new concepts and is experimental in delivery. For those reasons, I think many might struggle with it but for me it was the most worthwhile entry of the lot – if not the most entertaining.If It Bleeds is a new episode of the Outsider saga starring the hugely irritating Holly Gibney – who outstays her welcome by a country mile. It only really makes sense if you’ve read the previous linked novels.The final entry, Rat, might have been more enjoyable forty-odd years ago before King had written so many other stories centred on tormented writers. The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet in particular springs to mind. There is also a whiff of Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch House about it. In Rat, King takes an age to get to the point; so long in fact that the story seems oddly unbalanced. When we finally get there, it turns out we have the well-worn idea of a Faustian pact. Nothing wrong with that in itself. Trouble is, from then on the denouement is predictable and the story peters out to a typically Kingian unimaginative ending.If you’re not familiar with Stephen King’s work and you fancy dipping into his short stories, I recommend starting with his much earlier - and stronger - collections such as Night Shift, Skeleton Crew and Nightmares and Dreamscapes. This latest assortment is not his best work by a long chalk and is for diehard fans and completists (ie King’s Constant Reader) only.

Four new short stories. All really good stories, my favourites from the collection is If It Bleeds and Life Of Chuck.Without giving too much away Holly Gibney is the star of one of the stories. I'm so glad that Holly was revisited and hope to revisit her again in other stories one day.Not a very long book of stories, about 5 hours give or take but loved every minute it. Another great instalment from Stephen King 😊.

I am a “constant reader” but oh this was soooo disappointing. You knew it was Stephen King writing simply because of the style of writing. To me it felt lazy and sloppy and none of the stories had a satisfying ending either. Still my favourite author though :)