The Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
by Stephen King
This is a mostly-successful short story collection, which includes the novella "The Mist," a film I really like and think was more successful than the story. The reason being mostly due to the story's ending, which is much more heart-rending and traumatic in the film.
Other than "The Mist," Skeleton Crew contains a lot of very good stories, a couple not-so-good stories, and two poems that should not have been included. Some notable inclusions were "Survivor Type" and "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands," a story that takes place in the same universe as "Breathing Method" from the Different Seasons collection. It has a gothic tone I thought didn't work for king in "Breathing Method," but has me now changing my tune. I found it to be really effective and was one example of a story within a story, which Skeleton Crew has a lot of.
Some more notable inclusions that take place in the Castle Rock universe are "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" (which mentions Joe Camber and his dog from Cujo), Nona (which uses Ace Merrill and Vern Tessio from "The Body" as brief side characters and takes place after the events in "The Body"), "Uncle Otto's Truck," and "Gramma" (another Joe Camber reference).
I want to mention "The Monkey" because I felt this story had a strong resemblance to King's own childhood: a single mother, and slightly older brother, and a father who disappeared. I find it forever fascinating when writers incorporate elements of their own lives in their fiction, whether they intend to or not.
This collection deals heavily with loss, but also with monsters in both human and non-human form. The final story, "The Reach," really struck me with its message that the dead are waiting for us when we leave this plane and that death is nothing to be afraid of. We are never alone.
All in all Skeleton Crew was a strong collection of stories with only a few exceptions. It is easily a 4-star read.
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