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Featuring the novella âThe Life of Chuck,â now a feature film adapted for the screen and directed by Mike Flanagan (The Fall of the House of Usher, Doctor Sleep) and starring Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Karen Gillanâa Toronto International Film Festival Peopleâs Choice Award winner!
From the legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary collection of four new âexceptionally compelling novellas that reaffirm [Kingâs] mastery of the formâ (The Washington Post).
Readers adore Stephen Kingâs novels, and his novellas are their own dark treat, briefer but just as impactful and enduring as his longer fiction. Many of his novellas have been made into iconic films, including âThe Bodyâ (Stand by Me) and âRita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemptionâ (Shawshank Redemption).
The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider) must face her fears, and possibly another outsiderâthis time on her own. In âMr. Harriganâs Phoneâ an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. âThe Life of Chuckâ explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in âRat,â a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.
If these novellas show Kingâs range, they also prove that certain themes endure. One of Kingâs great concerns is evil, and in If It Bleeds, thereâs plenty of it. There is also evilâs opposite, which in Kingâs fiction often manifests as friendship. Holly is reminded that friendship is not only life-affirming but can be life-saving. Young Craig befriends Mr. Harrigan, and the sweetness of this late-in-life connection is its own reward.
âAn adroit vehicle to showcase theâŠnature of evilâ (The Boston Globe), If It Bleeds is âexactly what I wanted to read right now,â says Ruth Franklin in The New York Times Book Review.