NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 HORROR BOOK OF 2024
WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR HORROR
“Stephen King knows You Like It Darker and obliges with sensational new tales” (USA TODAY):
From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King, an
extraordinary collection of stories that are “a master class in tension
and full of King’s dark humor” (The New York Times Book Review).
“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,”
writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection
of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life―both
metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of
the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds
in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his
novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes
to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,”
and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.
“Two
Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous
gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and
unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most
catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo,
a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives
an unexpected inheritance―with major strings attached. In “The
Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there
are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man”
asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life
marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.
“King’s skills as a storyteller remain undimmed” (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
and his ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace
is unsurpassed. “The titular darkness promised is as riveting and
all-consuming as ever” (New York magazine). You like it darker? You got it.
