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Just After Sunset: Stories | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
Buy New: $9.00
You Save: $19.00 (68%)
New (69) Used (20) Collectible (4) from $9.00
Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 216
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.5
ISBN: 1416584080
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416584087
ASIN: 1416584080
Publication Date: November 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Stephen King-who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times bestsellers, and many unforgettable movies-delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything's Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007, King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, Esquire and other publications. Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-a-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating-and then terrifying-journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, "The Gingerbread Girl" is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable-and resourceful-as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark. In "Ayana," a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In one of the longer stories here, "N.," which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside . . . or keep the world from falling victim to it. Just After Sunset-call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It's the perfect time for Stephen King.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Just After Sunset is right for Just About Anytime January 2, 2009
Hurt (Chattanooga, TN.)
Simply Outstanding! I would say that is my opinion of Mr. Kings newest collection of stories. I could not put this collection down. If you have enjoyed his other short story collections this effort will not let you down AT ALL. Some of my favs were:
Willa (A look at what might happen after we die)
Stationary Bike (A definate thrill ride for acid takers and non acid takers alike)
Graduation Afternoon (My favorite of all is a small glimpse at the moment a nuclear bomb is dropped on N.Y. -Go Sox- just don't look right into the blast)
N. (Just plain spooky)
While I enjoyed them all, these particular stories stood out among the rest. I feel with Just After Sunset, Mr. King has brought the entertainment value of his work back to the reading chair for us. Please don't forget to read his introduction and the Sunset Notes at the end of the collection for more tasty bits of King. Very Very well done Mr. King!
Keep the lights on all night with this one... December 31, 2008
Gina K (PA, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I haven't read any Stephen King short stories in a decade, just couldn't wait to get this book, and was not disappointed. As in his other recent work, King has shifted away from the flashy, ghoul-filled stuff to the inner horrors of personality, mental state and an unstable society. Sure, there are the elements of fantasy, but a lot of this stuff is scary because it could be true and could happen to you. There are 13 stories, ranging from the abduction of an obsessed runner (The Gingerbread Girl), to the nuclear annihilation of New York (Graduation Afternoon). Some are more original than others. My favorite was the last, "A Very Tight Place," where 2 guys escalate their revenge to the ridiculous. Haven't we all met some crazies like this?
Overall, this is a great set of stories and reflects King's further journey into the psychological horror of everyday modern society.
 These are more "ideas" than stories and few are compelling December 28, 2008
Derek Jager (NYC)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Although the stories get better as you progress through the collection, overall these are basically just "ideas" that are put down with no real sense of a "story."
What would happen if people were dead but didn't know it....?
...if a bomb blew up New York City....?
...if a cat was really evil?...
The first story "Willa" is the easily the weakest of the batch, an idea that goes on too long. "The Things They Left Behind," "Mute" and "N" are probably the best because they are real stories that actually take you somewhere.
I think his best collection of short stories is his first, NIGHT SHIFT. And there are some gems in SKELETON CREW, but this set and the previous collection--EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL--see King revisiting old themes without which success.
And this is not a "scary" collection of stories, so don't expect any shivers.
His best collection of novella's is DIFFERENT SEASONS--I think that is the best way he writes, "long short stories/short novels."
 An engaging, thoughtful collection December 28, 2008
DanD
Stephen King has always been able to scare the willies out of people. With "Just After Sunset," he manages to do it again: This time by remdinging us of our own mortality.
Some of the stories in this collection are not particularly easy to read. They deal with decay and entropy, as encountered in normal life; this is best exemplified in "A Very Tight Place," the final entry here, but it crops up again throughout. In fact, all but one of the stories follows this theme; that one exception (his "hidden track," as King refers to it) is "The Cat From Hell," a story he wrote decades ago. "Cat" is a return to the "gentlemen's magazine" stories he used to write--all those short and quick horror stories that are little more than pure entertainment.
You can find stories like that in his earlier collections. "Just After Sunset" is a collection about growing older. Florida is featured a lot (King apparently loves his new winter home), and I suppose you could use that as a retirement metaphor; King certainly does, here and there. Basically, however, these stories will get you thinking about your own mortality, about your own personal limits. The stories themselves cover a broad range of territory: what happens to us when we die; nuclear explosions; sadistic serial killers; insanity; there's even an homage to Lovecraft, and a stirring (and very disturbing) story about 9/11. "Just After Sunset" is more of a literary horror collection; these stories, even the more heart-warming ones, are all disturbing on some level, but they are of a caliber that is rarely seen in horror fiction (except in King's other works, of course). Stephen King has proved again and again that he is, above all else, a masterful writer and storyteller. "Just After Sunset" is the work of a writer finally examining his own mortality head-on...and finding something very, very interesting there to write about.
A Classic Page Turner December 28, 2008
Med Knight (Wake County, NC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a compilation of short stories as only Stephen King can write. Each story is written in a slightly different style, but each one will leave you wanting more.
A few are just strange and others will leave you with a nagging bad feeling to shake, akin to waking up from a bad dream. Others will leave you turning the page with anticipation of what's going to happen next.
So if you're looking for a light read, especially at bedtime, that will leave you with goosebumps and a shiver, look no further.
Oh.. and sleep with the lights on and the door locked.
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