Here is a review of Stephen King's short e-story "Mile 81" from Fangoria contributor Trevor Parker. He gives the story three out of four deadly skulls. Not bad.
Parker gives us a helpful list of King's ebook works, including: The Plant, Riding the Bullet, UR and the chapters from The Cannibals. I really enjoyed what I read of the Cannibals. A lot.
So, Mr. Parker, does Mile 81 belong with the Full dark, No Stars, body of work? Is it dark, terrible, depressing and just generally nasty? No sir! This darling belongs in the likes of Skeleton Crew:
"MILE 81 reads like a ricochet from King’s early short-fiction period, a time when he sold his terse supernatural thrillers to whichever magazine editor valued lurid shock over good taste. If not for the inclusion of modern touchstones like iPads and Justin Bieber, MILE 81 could easily tuck inside King’s 1985 collection SKELETON CREW and not disrupt the tenor of that classic book one smidgen."Okay, go read the review!
I did enjoy MILE 81, but I disagree with one thing in the review...I don't think Stephen King knows how to write dialogue for young children. He's great with adult dialogue, and older kid dialogue but when very young kids in his stories speak, they often sound WAY to old for their age. I think Kyra in Bag of Bones is a good example, as well--you never know if she'll sound three or like a philosopher. I work at a daycare, and six and four year olds do NOT talk like Rachel and Blake in Mile 81. I noticed in Lilja's review he had a similar view on this subject.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this made the story bad; I just found it a bit distracting at times. Maybe King should go hang out at a daycare and listen for awhile. :-)
That's long been a flaw in King's work. It's a problem in both "The Shining" and "Firestarter" as well, although it didn't bother me too much in those stories -- since the characters are supernaturally precocious and all -- whereas it really grated in "Mile 81."
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say I liked "Mile 81," but I really didn't. I lump it in with "Blockade Billy" and "Stationary Bike" and "The Things They Left Behind" and "Riding the Bullet"; none of those worked for me much.
To each his own, though; I'm sure "Mile 81" has made plenty of people happy.