This volume contains four novellas. "In 'Langoliers' a group of airline passengers . . . become stuck in time, out of sync with the present at 20,000 feet. 'Secret Window, Secret Garden' finds novelist Mort Rainey confrontedby an eerie character who accuses him of plagiarism, and has come to settle up. In 'Sun Dog,' Kevin Delevan gets exactly what he wanted for his 15th birthday, a Polaroid 'Sun 660' camera, but every picture he takes shows a salivating 'hell hound' getting closer and closer. In 'Library Policeman,' . . . Sam Peebles borrows two books from the library late one night, and the librarian warns him not to be late returning them. What Sam doesn't know is that she was a child murderer who committed suicide in 1960." |
Washington Post
These stories grab and will not let go.
Publisher's Weekly
The self-described ``America's literary boogeyman'' here serves up four horror novellas; none is wildly scary, and only one offers King's typical, colloquial, hard-driving conversational style with its compulsive readability. A jumbo jet flies through a time-slip in The Langoliers . Marooned a few minutes in the past, a few surviving passengers try to get home . . . while off in the distance the langoliers, creatures (``sort of like beachballs'') who eat up time after it's been used, close in. In Misery -esque Secret Window, Secret Garden , a writer accused of plagiarism by a psychopath has an awful time trying to prove his innocence. The Library Policeman , the collection's standout, pits a middle-aged businessman with some overdue books against a demonic, life-sucking monster of a librarian. The Sun Dog features a boy's Polaroid camera, which, no matter where it is focused, takes pictures of a huge, mean and ugly dog. In each successive photo, the dog, slobbering and slavering, approaches the edge of the picture plane. There is an inappropriate abundance of heartwarming sentimentality here; where King used to slaughter the innocents with gleeful impunity, he now apologizes for the deed, and love will out. 1,500,000 first printing; $750,000 joint ad/promo with NAL's publication of The Dark Half; BOMC main selection. (Sept.)
School Library Journal
YA-- Like some denizen of the dark, King weaves a spell evoking terror and shivers as he takes readers on a nightmarish journey in this quartet of novellas. In ``Longoliers'' a group of airline passengers awake to an empty plane, and an empty world. They have become stuck in time, out of sync with the present at 20,000 feet. ``Secret Window, Secret Garden'' finds novelist Mort Rainey confronted by an eerie character who accuses him of plagiarism, and has come to settle up. In ``Sun Dog,'' Kevin Delevan gets exactly what he wanted for his 15th birthday, a Polaroid ``Sun 660'' camera, but every picture he takes shows a salivating ``hell hound'' getting closer and closer. In ``Library Policeman,'' the best of the four, Sam Peebles borrows two books from the library late one night, and the librarian warns him not to be late returning them. What Sam doesn't know is that she was a child murderer who committed suicide in 1960, and when he loses the books, her library policeman pays him a visit. Four Past Midnight is one of King's best recent works. It is hard to put down, truly chilling, and sure to be enjoyed by YA horror aficionados everywhere.-- John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
The New York Times Book Review - Andy Solomon
By now, everyone knows Stephen King's flaws: tone-deaf narration, papier mache characters, cliches, gratuitous vulgarity, self-indulgent digressions. Each is amply present in these pages ringing with echoes of earlier King. . . . However, we don't read Stephen King for common sense, originality or insightinto the adult world. Many who wouldn't want the fact broadcast read this master of suspense to escape their helpless fear of the headlines and to re-experience the more innocent terrors of childhood. . . . As the poet laureate of pop, Mr. King is read by many who might otherwise never read fiction at all. He creates an immediate and familiar landscape and could form the ideal bridge from the Road Runner to Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov. There is little here Mr. King has not done before, but once again he proves difficult to lay aside. |
