1. Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream 2. Two Talented Bastids 3. The Answer Man
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
All stellar picks! We had the same number one until the last second.
@tomasacademico23173 ай бұрын
Long live to the master
@yernarshambayev52462 ай бұрын
1. Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream 2. The Rattlesnakes 3. The Answer Man 4. Two Talented Bastids 5. The Dreamers
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
Those are all excellent choices!!
@HeathersBookReview3 ай бұрын
You’ve made me want to read this! I was eyeing it but now I feel like it’s a must!
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
It’s a great one!!
@oklahomaread44773 ай бұрын
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.
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
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.
@jasong5462 ай бұрын
I really enjoyed your video and the way you talk about the stories thanks.
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
Thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words. 😊
@allisonkappadahl12602 ай бұрын
I love fairytale Billy summers & 11/22/63 Holly was good to but you had to read Mr. Mercedes trilogy & the outsider to understand.
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
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!
@FineReads3 ай бұрын
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!
@DogEaredPage3 ай бұрын
I can’t decide but I’d say our lists are pretty aligned! His afterword made me cry, too 🙈
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
It was a great afterword! Glad you enjoyed this one!
@yoshi317133 ай бұрын
Nice review! By the way, it's The Turbulence EXPERT! 😅
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
Oh my, you’re right!! Wish it wasn’t too late to change it. 😂
@fabes633 ай бұрын
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)
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
Excellent picks!! I agree, I would have loved Danny Coughlin being a full novel.
@BookishDrummer3 ай бұрын
least favorite was definitely Red Screen, super short, starts off great, but wish it would have went a bit further
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
I respect that!
@HakimALIGHT3 ай бұрын
Interesting take. Thanks for the review.
@morgar883 ай бұрын
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%)
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
We had some similar favorites! I’m curious, what about Laurie really connected with you?
@BookishDrummer3 ай бұрын
I would ALMOST agree with you, except I love Revival and If It Bleeds a bit more
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
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.
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
Also, just checked, Revival came out 11 years ago. :P
@brandonhannick8520Ай бұрын
My Mercedes bro that was 10 years old. That’s a good trilogy
@ianthereaderАй бұрын
That one is a banger! I put it slightly behind this, but it’s close!
@morgar883 ай бұрын
I agree with most of your opinions about this book… but I loved Cujo!
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
I think I will enjoy it more on a reread!
@kirak15612 ай бұрын
My top 3 1. Danny Coughlins bad dream 2. The Dreamers 3. The answer man
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
All excellent stories! Danny Coughlin and The Dreamers could both have been full novels and I would have been happy.
@kirak15612 ай бұрын
@@ianthereader would have been so great of Danny Coughlins Bad Dream had been a full novel
@ericnelson84222 ай бұрын
Excellent review! I concur! I loved The Answer Man!
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
Yes The Answer Man was stunning!! Glad you loved it!
@hordolur3 ай бұрын
I just ordered this book 2 days ago
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
It’s a good one! I hope you enjoy it!
@violetfemme4113 ай бұрын
I heard some teasers and bought it today on Amazon so should get in 1 or 2 days.
@PaulLeach1232 ай бұрын
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?’
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
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!
@CHRISGITSERMCCARTHY012 ай бұрын
It's very good great story's the first one,
@jasonw58613 күн бұрын
Stephen King is the GOAT!
@ianthereader11 күн бұрын
Indeed!! 🐐
@BookishDrummer3 ай бұрын
lol that intro i was like, Ian, what have you been smoking? and where can I get it? lol
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
😂😂😂 gotta hook my audience lol
@sallyhamilton720219 күн бұрын
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
@ianthereader18 күн бұрын
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!
@jamesgriffin679724 күн бұрын
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.
@ianthereader23 күн бұрын
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!
@tommymarx391Ай бұрын
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.
@ianthereaderАй бұрын
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!
@bradleymcdonald62733 ай бұрын
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
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
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!
@eduardoanayatfschannel849822 күн бұрын
Wow! The best of the last ten years???
@ianthereader22 күн бұрын
Aside from maybe one of the novellas in If It Bleeds, I think so!
@eduardoanayatfschannel849822 күн бұрын
@@ianthereader did you like it more than If It Bleeds?
@ianthereader22 күн бұрын
@@eduardoanayatfschannel8498 the only novella I liked more from If It Bleeds was “Life of Chuck”. Otherwise, I enjoyed You Like It Darker more!
@elidavis95383 ай бұрын
and hes got short stories too??? geez man too much reading to do
@ianthereader3 ай бұрын
So many stories. Much reading.
@hiramnoone2 ай бұрын
Best over the last ten years isn't saying a lot.
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
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-wb8rr3 ай бұрын
So you didn't like the ending?
@RyanHampton-wb8rr3 ай бұрын
Lol you got the joke.
@douglasheinl2502 ай бұрын
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?
@ianthereader2 ай бұрын
Simple slips of the tongue I assure you. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.