You Like It Darker: Stories

Stephen King

Hardcover

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2024 The New York Times Best Seller

From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

"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 ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.

Book Details

Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Publish Date: May 21st, 2024
Pages: 512
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 9.60in - 6.70in - 2.50in - 1.52lb
EAN: 9781668037713
Categories: • Thrillers - Supernatural• Horror - General• Thrillers - Suspense

About the Author

King, Stephen: - Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch (May 2025), the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Praise for Stephen King's Short Fiction

"As classic as King's novels are, his shorter fiction has been just as gripping over the years." --USA Today

"For a writer whose books need a big stage, Stephen King also can turn out shorter stories just as gripping as his epic novels." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Praise for IF IT BLEEDS

"Gripping... phenomenal... gorgeous... King owns the fright business like none other." --USA Today

"A collection filled with startling, sometimes unsettling pleasures. King continues to draw from a rich and varied reservoir of stories. At its best, his work remains deeply empathetic and compulsively readable. May the reservoir never run dry." --The Washington Post

"Exactly what I wanted to read right now... King is good company in the dark." --The New York Times Book Review

"It is striking -- sometimes eerily so -- how necessary these stories feel today." --The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"When you're stuck at home needing fresh reading material... If It Bleeds will hit the mark." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"King's genius is to temper his forays into the dark side of life with a sense of wonder about the world." --AARP Magazine

"Holly demonstrates that one of the last true rock stars of fiction can continue to grow as a writer, and doesn't define success solely as a continuation of what's worked for him before." --The Washington Post

"Stephen King does something amazing in his new novel, HOLLY... King's storytelling skills are not dimming one bit." --Tampa Bay Times

"Hugely successful... Holly surely deserves further episodes in the spotlight." -- Portland Press Herald

"Holly has a thrilling finish, in which our heroine looks horror in the face. The outcome is most satisfying." --St Louis Post-Dispatch

"What makes King's work so much more frightening than that of most other suspense writers, what elevates it to night-terror levels, isn't his cruelty to his characters: It's his kindness." --Flynn Berry, New York Times Book Review

"Both intimate and sprawling in its ambitions... Holly is the imperfect but determined angel among all those demons..." --Brian Truitt, USA Today

"Holly is the heart of the narrative. Her growth from a shy, muttering mess in Mr. Mercedes to the smart, strong, smoking, slightly better, and much richer woman we see in Holly is tremendous. Please, Mr. King, give us more Holly soon." --Gabino Iglesias, NPR.org

"In half a century of writing horror novels, Stephen King has created some remarkable villains. Who can forget the sing-song voice of Pennywise the clown, the devil incarnate Randall Flagg, or the drooling jaws of Cujo? The big bads in King's latest novel, Holly, aren't quite so memorable, but that's part of what makes them terrifying." --Rob Merrill, Associated Press

"A deadly folie a deux... Holly pursues this case to the gates of hell, figuratively--there's no supernatural element in this powerful exploration of grief and delusion, just pure, undistilled evil." --New York Magazine