You Like It Darker by Stephen King | Book Review
A review of the recent short story collection by Stephen King. Stories focused on the horrors of life's reality.
★★★★★
You Like It Darker is a recent short story collection, published in 2024, by Stephen King containing twelve stories. As the title suggests the stories in this collection are a bit darker than usual. The themes touch on the horror of life’s reality; child loss, grief, and generational traumas and misunderstandings. Of course, the supernatural is also mixed in, otherwise it wouldn’t be a Stephen King book. However, I have to admit that even though most of the stories contain a dark twist or a depressing overarching theme, they are not so much darker in comparison to King's other works (For example, Pet Sematary or IT).
I didn’t know if I would like this collection since King’s last book, Holly, was filled to the brim with COVID-19 discussions and politics in general, and this had ruined the whole experience for me. Fortunately, King contained the amount of politics bashing in this one, and although some stories do take place in our present time and mention the pandemic it is not a major part of the story plot.
King’s talent has always been visible in his characters and this collection is no exception to this. Family dynamics, friendships, love and hate between spouses, and many generational misunderstandings are actually more important to his story-building than the horror events in his plot. There were two stories in this book, wherein three generations were living together and experiencing discomforts because of this.
“The trouble with the old bastard, Corinne thinks, is that he still gets a kick out of life, and people who got a kick out of life take a long time kicking the bucket” - On Slide Inn Road story
In both stories, the endings had a nice plot twist, but Willie the Weirdo was my favourite of the two due to the mythical atmosphere. In this story, the saying ''the older the wiser'' gets a whole new meaning!
Another aspect that I love about King’s writing is the universe that he has built, not only of his characters but also of the places (mostly in Main) and (fake) historical events. One of the stories in this collection is a sequel to his older classic Cujo. I will not spoil which one, but I think most of you would love this story. There are other references to his older work scattered in this book.
In the afterword, King mentions that the last story in this collection, The Answer Man, he had started writing in his thirties. But unfinished and forgotten it waited for the right moment to be finished and published. The right moment, turns out, was 2024 (more than 40 years later!) when his nephew found the story and saw potential in the plot.
What makes King's or other writers' horror stories so special to me, is the touch with humanity since horror is an aspect of every day's life; loss, grief, fear, resentment, and inescapable death. To understand the horror in someone's life is to understand these emotions and fears, in short; to be emphatic.
''Horror stories are best appreciated by those who are compassionate and empathic. A paradox, but a true one. I believe it is the unimaginative among us, those incapable of appreciating the dark side of make-believe, who have been responsible for most of the world's woes''. - Stephen King
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this collection! The stories are suspenseful, dark, and deep. Compared to his earlier work, these stories are more about getting older and reflecting on the shortness of life and less about the supernatural elements. However, the supernatural part keeps being important because it is responsible for making reality less horrific.
Check out my Stephen King Project to see how many books I have read by King and my short reviews of them.