You Like It Darker - Stephen King BOOK REVIEW/Ranking

[@BookishDrummer]

1. Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream 2. Two Talented Bastids 3. The Answer Man

[@ianthereader]

All stellar picks! We had the same number one until the last second.

[@tomasacademico2317]

Long live to the master

[@yernarshambayev5246]

1. Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream 2. The Rattlesnakes 3. The Answer Man 4. Two Talented Bastids 5. The Dreamers

[@ianthereader]

Those are all excellent choices!!

[@HeathersBookReview]

You’ve made me want to read this! I was eyeing it but now I feel like it’s a must!

[@ianthereader]

It’s a great one!!

[@oklahomaread4477]

The Answer Man was my favorite, although the beginning was a little rough until he first met the answer man. Maybe that owes to how long ago he first wrote that first part. I got bored with Rattlesnakes towards the end. I’ve read too much of the haunted object trope from King over the years. I enjoyed Laurie but the nothing much of an ending disappointed me. I think he ran out of steam and just put a cap on it. I read Red Screen back when it was first published and totally forgot what it was about. For me, that was the best of the really short ones.

[@ianthereader]

Yeah, I agree with you on Laurie. I loved The Answer Man all the way through, though! Red Screen was good- but The Fifth Step was my favorite short one.

[@jasong546]

I really enjoyed your video and the way you talk about the stories thanks.

[@ianthereader]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words. 😊

[@allisonkappadahl1260]

I love fairytale Billy summers & 11/22/63 Holly was good to but you had to read Mr. Mercedes trilogy & the outsider to understand.

[@ianthereader]

I’ve read all of those but Fairytale! Tried to read that one and DNFd it halfway. I’ll have to give it another try!

[@FineReads]

Good to know that SK got his mojo back. I’ll wait a bit till I get it, but definitely going to be sooner than planned 😝 thanks for the great overview!

[@DogEaredPage]

I can’t decide but I’d say our lists are pretty aligned! His afterword made me cry, too 🙈

[@ianthereader]

It was a great afterword! Glad you enjoyed this one!

[@yoshi31713]

Nice review! By the way, it's The Turbulence EXPERT! 😅

[@ianthereader]

Oh my, you’re right!! Wish it wasn’t too late to change it. 😂

[@fabes63]

My faves were 1. Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream (This could have been sold as it own short novel like Later.) 2. Rattlesnakes (As odd as it was, it stuck with me.) 3. On Slide Inn Road (This is realistic and scary in its own rights) Honorable mention: The Answer Man (it really hit me as a father...that is all I will say)

[@ianthereader]

Excellent picks!! I agree, I would have loved Danny Coughlin being a full novel.

[@BookishDrummer]

least favorite was definitely Red Screen, super short, starts off great, but wish it would have went a bit further

[@ianthereader]

I respect that!

[@HakimALIGHT]

Interesting take. Thanks for the review.

[@morgar88]

My ratings were fairly similar: Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream (99%) Rattlesnakes (98%) Laurie (98%) The Answer Man (96%) On Slide Inn Road (90%) Wille the Weirdo (90%) The Fifth Step (89%) Two Talented Bastids (86%) The Turbulence Expert (84%) The Dreamers (78%) Red Screen (78%) Finn (68%)

[@ianthereader]

We had some similar favorites! I’m curious, what about Laurie really connected with you?

[@BookishDrummer]

I would ALMOST agree with you, except I love Revival and If It Bleeds a bit more

[@ianthereader]

I still need to read Revival, but I overall liked this more than If It Bleeds. Life of Chuck is the only one better than my top 3 here.

[@ianthereader]

Also, just checked, Revival came out 11 years ago. :P

[@brandonhannick8520]

My Mercedes bro that was 10 years old. That’s a good trilogy

[@ianthereader]

That one is a banger! I put it slightly behind this, but it’s close!

[@morgar88]

I agree with most of your opinions about this book… but I loved Cujo!

[@ianthereader]

I think I will enjoy it more on a reread!

[@kirak1561]

My top 3 1. Danny Coughlins bad dream 2. The Dreamers 3. The answer man

[@ianthereader]

All excellent stories! Danny Coughlin and The Dreamers could both have been full novels and I would have been happy.

[@kirak1561]

@@ianthereader would have been so great of Danny Coughlins Bad Dream had been a full novel

[@ericnelson8422]

Excellent review! I concur! I loved The Answer Man!

[@ianthereader]

Yes The Answer Man was stunning!! Glad you loved it!

[@hordolur]

I just ordered this book 2 days ago

[@ianthereader]

It’s a good one! I hope you enjoy it!

[@violetfemme411]

I heard some teasers and bought it today on Amazon so should get in 1 or 2 days.

[@PaulLeach123]

As a new Stephen King reader who has started with the newer stuff. Didn’t like holly, Fairytale or Billy Summers. So not going to bother with anything else, dude must have really fallen off. Also read his book about writing and he says never use metaphor or simile and yet his writing is filled with metaphor and simile. Additionally, he’s heavy handed on his political activism - so much so that his characters will shoehorn Trump hate into non sequitur conversations, suddenly blurting out their disdain out of nowhere and in Holly, it was constant and distracting and was like “I get it already Stephen, you hate Trump, can we get back to the story please?’

[@ianthereader]

Yeah, his newer works are often frustrating. I will say, this one is much better than Holly, Fairytale, and Billy Summers. Also, his older works are full of good stuff!

[@CHRISGITSERMCCARTHY01]

It's very good great story's the first one,

[@jasonw586]

Stephen King is the GOAT!

[@ianthereader]

Indeed!! 🐐

[@BookishDrummer]

lol that intro i was like, Ian, what have you been smoking? and where can I get it? lol

[@ianthereader]

😂😂😂 gotta hook my audience lol

[@sallyhamilton7202]

Well I guess we're going to disagree and that's ok. I thought Holly was GREAT! I LOVED Fairy Tale. Billy Summers was excellent! I don't think King writes duds, I think they are all excellent reads and I enjoy them all. BTW #12 is called The Turbulence Expert, not Experiment

[@ianthereader]

I’m so glad you enjoyed his other recent works! I love that about King’s books- that everyone has varied opinions/experiences with them. Hope we both enjoy his next one! Also, yes, I realized I said the wrong title after posting. Whoops!

[@jamesgriffin6797]

How can you talk about Rattlesnakes and not mention Duma Key. It was more a sequel to this than Cujo. There is only a tenuous link to cujo in that he was the dad, full stop. I was thinking about Duma before it was mentioned. It dripped of it.

[@ianthereader]

Definitely big Duma Key vibes! It’s honestly been a long time since I read that one and so the connections weren’t as substantial to me as Cujo, but I definitely agree!

[@tommymarx391]

We have very different tastes, even though I agree that "Holly" was a major disappointment, as was "Fairy Tale". I did like "Billy Summers" more than you - it wasn't one of my favorites, and he screwed the ending, but I was really enjoying it until then. I started this collection, and after the first three stories, I don't know if I'll ever bother to finish it. And I have most of Stephen King's books in hardcover (or trade paperback or mass paperback if those were the original formats the books were released in). "Two Talented Bastids" was boring; there was no suspense, no intrigue, and I couldn't care less how two "extremely talented" brothers found their talents. It was just all pointless. The fact that it was very well written made it that much more disappointing. King has written "The Fifth Step" three or four times now. It wasn't as well written as some of his previous versions of the story were, and while I'll be very charitable and say you wouldn't have guessed the ending at the very start, you sure as shit guessed it long before the end. And then there's "Willie the Weirdo". That could've actually been really good, although I don't agree with you that it just needed more pages and more depth. I think it would have been a lot more effective if the "weirdo" part was completely left out, and instead, the family felt uncomfortable around Willie - and the grandfather, for that matter - without really knowing why. If King had built up the unease more without being so damn obvious that Willie is weird, the ending would have been a gut punch. Instead, it wasn't even a mild surprise, let alone a creepy one. And that's the point when I gave up. I thought "If It Bleeds" was just about as perfect as a collection gets. I was so disappointed that the first three stories in "You Like It Darker" were so disappointing that I don't realistically see me ever finishing the collection.

[@ianthereader]

Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy the stories that you read in the collection! Guess it just shows that people really can have completely different experiences reading the same book. Happy reading!

[@bradleymcdonald6273]

His best book in ten years? Far from it! I thought it was DULL If it wasnt king... Nobody would rate it as high as they do, lets be honest

[@ianthereader]

I’d have to disagree with you there, friend! I am no stranger to rating King books (recent or otherwise) low. This one really worked well for my taste! I found each story to be at least moderately entertaining and absolutely loved a good handful. Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you, though!

[@eduardoanayatfschannel8498]

Wow! The best of the last ten years???

[@ianthereader]

Aside from maybe one of the novellas in If It Bleeds, I think so!

[@eduardoanayatfschannel8498]

@@ianthereader did you like it more than If It Bleeds?

[@ianthereader]

@@eduardoanayatfschannel8498 the only novella I liked more from If It Bleeds was “Life of Chuck”. Otherwise, I enjoyed You Like It Darker more!

[@elidavis9538]

and hes got short stories too??? geez man too much reading to do

[@ianthereader]

So many stories. Much reading.

[@hiramnoone]

Best over the last ten years isn't saying a lot.

[@ianthereader]

This is true. 😂 If It Bleeds is the only one in competition with this one in my opinion, but it has one novella that I wasn’t crazy about.

[@RyanHampton-wb8rr]

So you didn't like the ending?

[@RyanHampton-wb8rr]

Lol you got the joke.

[@douglasheinl250]

The book is You Like it Darker, not 'If' You Like it Darker. The story is called The Turbulence Expert, not The Turbulence Experiment...did you even read the book?

[@ianthereader]

Simple slips of the tongue I assure you. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.