Skeleton Crew (1985)

The Mist: 4 stars
Here There Be Tygers: 3 stars
The Monkey: 3 stars
Cain Rose Up: 2.5 stars
Mrs Todd's Shortcut: 3 stars
The Jaunt: 3.2 stars
The Wedding Gig: 2 stars
Paranoid: A Chant: 3.5 stars
The Raft: 4 stars
Word Processor of the Gods: 3 stars
The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands: 3 stars
Beachworld: 3 stars
The Reaper's Image: 3 stars
Nona: 3 stars
For Owen: 2.5 stars
Survivor Type: 3.5 stars
Uncle Otto's Truck: 3 stars
Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1): 1.5 stars
Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2): 1 star
Gramma: 3.5 stars
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet: 4 stars
The Reach: 4 stars ( )

3.5 ⭐️ ( )

Most of the stories in this collection were great. 'The Mist' is the obvious standout, but other stories of equal measure include 'The jaunt', 'The Raft', and 'The Raft', among others.

Highly recommended if you're looking for a good dose of horror, science fiction, and just regular human drama. ( )

"There are plenty of people who won't walk under ladders or open an umbrella in the house... I think it's the rational mind playing a bad stereo accompaniment with the irrational subconscious. Forced to define 'irrational subconscious,' I would say it is a small padded room inside all of us where the only furnishing is a small card table and the only thing on the card table is a revolver loaded with flexible bullets.

"When you change course on the sidewalk to avoid the ladder or step out of your apartment in the rain with your furled umbrella, part of your integrated self peels off and steps into that room and picks the gun up off the table. You may be aware of two conflicting thoughts: Walking under a ladder is harmless, and Not walking under a ladder is also harmless. But as soon as the ladder is behind you--or as soon as the umbrella is open--you're back together again."

The writer said, "When does the irrational part stop fooling with the gun and put it up to its temple?"

"When the person in question starts writing letters to the op-ed page of the paper demanding that all the ladders be taken down because walking under them is dangerous.

"The irrational self has actually fired the flexible bullet into the brain when the person begins tearing around town, knocking ladders over and maybe injuring the people working on them. It is not certifiable behaviour to walk around ladders rather than under them. It is not certifiable behaviour to write letters to the paper saying that NYC went broke because of all the people callously walking under workmen's ladders. But it is certifiable to start knocking over ladders."

"Because it's overt," the writer muttered.

This book is a series of stories about the various flavours of madness, of firing that flexible bullet into your brain, and knocking down the ladders. Maybe you knock them down in the name of religion, or in the desire to save your child. Maybe you do it for your own lost youth. Maybe it's because you think there's a tiger in a toilet stall or a demon in your toy. Or maybe you want to find a shorter path, or just take a look around while you're on that short path.

And while this collection doesn't always hit the mark as well as the [b:Night Shift|10628|Night Shift|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1342215309s/10628.jpg|2454497] collection did, there's still some winners here.

This time around, I found stories that left me cold before, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut and Uncle Otto's Truck for example, completely grabbed me this time around. Others that snagged me the first time, like The Jaunt and Beachworld and Word Processor of the Gods, lost me this time.

And the story that the quote comes from at the start of this review, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, didn't do a lot for me, until I read that section.

That piece about running around knocking down ladders because they're dangerous? Yeah, to me, that shows me how many people have that revolver sitting on that card table, and how many have access to flexible bullet ammo. That short section explains, at least to me, how racism, homophobia, bigotry, misogyny, and everything else that's tied to hate and fear came about. It explains how many voters shot themselves in the head, then headed to the polls to elect Trump. It explains why we have so many easily-triggered, easily-offended university students.

It explains a lot.

And, with a simple analogy, it also shows me why I keep coming back to King. The man is entertaining, but he also has a hell of a lot of intelligent things to say. ( )

Skeleton Crew (Signet) by Stephen King (1986)