... contains four new, exceptionally compelling novellas that reaffirm [King's] mastery of the form ... the mid-length narrative suits his talents particularly well, permitting a degree of expansiveness while maintaining a controlled, disciplined approach to the material at hand. The results are stories that cover a surprising amount of emotional territory but can still be read in a sitting ... 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.
... showcases King’s gift for crafting personas – in one case, fleshing out someone fans already know well – and exploring themes such as mortality and friendship ... Sure, King still owns the fright business like none other, but the iconic author will keep you up late at night engrossed in four tales about our dreams and our frailties.
There’s...a notable thread of simmering anxiety woven throughout that feels very current ... In addition to the expected supernatural horror themes, the four novellas...are undergirded, to great effect, with more earthbound fears ... Unlike the other novellas in the collection, 'The Life of Chuck' defies narrative categorization. Is it horror? Is it magical realism? Is it literary fiction? Or do each of the three stories carry their own identifier? The jewel in the crown of 'If It Bleeds,' however, is the titular novella ... If the collection has any sort of an Achilles heel, it might be King’s occasional tendency to overplay his hand when writing the ethnic, racial, or age-related idiom of certain characters ... King’s work at its best is masterfully accessible, and so it is here in If It Bleeds. He has often referred to his work as the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries, and while that might indeed be the case, it perhaps more resembles the work of a sculptor who uses an axe instead of a chisel. The resulting work shouldn't be as refined or have as much depth and detail as it somehow does.
One night in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, I found myself jolted awake at 2 o’clock in the morning, shaking with adrenaline and dread. Avoiding the call of my Twitter feed, I dragged myself from bed and cast an eye over my to-be-read pile. But nothing seemed right for this moment of uncertainty verging on unreality. Even my old favorites now seemed to come from another world. They weren’t speaking to a mind-set recalibrated by the crisis ... Then my eye fell upon If It Bleeds, the new collection of novellas by Stephen King ... The straightforward cadences of King’s voice, paired with his signature sit-down-and-let-me-tell-you-a-story style, were immediately soothing. And the stories he was telling — about the seductions and corruptions of technology, the extremes of beauty and depravity in even the most ordinary life, the workings of a universe we can never entirely understand — were somehow exactly what I wanted to read right now ... 'The Life of Chuck' is one of the oddest, most affecting stories I have read in a very long time. It’s a little disappointing, then, that the two remaining pieces in the volume feel more like retreads of conventional material ... But I wouldn’t begrudge any reader refuge in familiar pleasures, least of all now ... As sirens blare outside my Brooklyn window and the headlines grow more apocalyptic by the day, I might start working my way through King’s backlist. He’s good company in the dark.
Oh, the novellas contain familiar tropes—a haunted memento, a slow-motion apocalypse, a shape-shifting mass murderer and a deal with a devil. But what’s most unsettling about If It Bleeds is something subtler than these big-ticket horrors, something that speaks to a new kind of darkness in the world ... There is many a Faustian bargain to be found in fantasy literature and folklore, but King brings sufficient inventiveness to this latest example to make it worthwhile, especially in its final, twisty pages ... But even through the horror, there’s a lot of hope and gratitude on display in the book as a whole ... King has done some of his best work at novella length, especially in his first collection, Different Seasons, from which came The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. The stories in If It Bleeds don’t quite hit those high-water marks, but they supply plenty of creepy entertainment at a time when even a horror story can provide a welcome distraction from reality.
Nobody does novellas like Stephen King ... a quartet of stories that are a little too long to be labelled short, all of which are packed with that uniquely King combination of fear and empathy ... One of the joys of King’s novella collections is the reminder that he, perhaps more than any of his bestselling peers, has a tremendous gift for giving stories exactly the amount of space they need to be properly told. Sometimes, that results in 700-plus page epics. Other times, just 70. Whatever it takes to get the story from his head to the page – that’s what King gives you. It’s remarkable really, that an author can create stories that cause a reader to shiver, to smile and to shed a tear in the space of a few pages – but really, should anything Stephen King does surprise us anymore? ... practically pulses with the humanistic empathy that marks the best of King’s work. It’s an outstanding quartet, featuring four tales that are wildly different from one another, yet undeniably bound together by the voice of our finest storyteller. There is much to fear in the worlds created by Stephen King, but even in the depth of his darkest shadows, a light of hope steadily glows. More exceptional work from the maestro ... Keep ‘em coming, Mr. King.
Each of the tales is a return to well-trodden ground for King, but for the most part, they’re written with such charm that the old-fashioned feels refreshing in its sincerity. And, indeed, sincerity is a key feature of these tales ... King never reads less like himself than when he’s writing about Holly Gibney, who’s interesting but rarely believable ... Where [most of the stories] are classic King—horrid, yes, but full of humor, humanity, and authentic local color—'If It Bleeds' is a well-honed exercise in mechanical storytelling ... King can still write a horror story that scares and delights in equal measure. Each of these stories is a pared-down, or even recycled, version of a horror the author has unearthed before, but they’re told with such verve, confidence of voice, and, yes, warmth that you find yourself creeped out and comforted at the same time.
... they’re all breezy reads with a hint of the supernatural ... If the stories have anything in common, it may be their appreciation for the little things in life ... King fans probably won’t consider this collection among his greatest works, but we’ll do anything for diversion these days and a few more hours with this master storyteller are welcome.
King excels at marrying the forensic techniques of procedural fiction to his supernatural premise; the story is at its best when Holly is in detective mode, analyzing old footage and comparing the myriad faces adopted by the creature ... If It Bleeds still reads like an alternate sketch for The Outsider, a collection of ideas that didn’t quite coalesce with that book’s creature. And King positing that this new monster could be a “cousin” of sorts to the previous one doesn’t quite hold water either. But as both a horror story and demonstration of Holly’s viability as a protagonist, it works ... The Life Of Chuck is little more than some existential musings built around a sketch of a character ... bookended by two satisfying, if unremarkable, stories that riff on some of King’s greatest hits ... King’s retained his gruesomeness in his twilight years, but the optimism he embraced in Elevation and The Institute ripples throughout these stories as well. What If It Bleeds emphasizes, though, is King’s sense of wonder; nearly every story in this collection marvels at the breadth of the human mind, the unknowability of death, and the idea that, when we all contain multitudes, we’re all, in our way, shape-shifters.
... the stories themselves are ultimately reassuring, as they all touch on the importance of finding peace with one’s self, despite the external pressures of the world. The stories still have teeth, of course—this is Stephen King we’re talking about, after all—but the feelings that linger afterward aren’t of fear, but optimism. Really, what could be more timely than that? ... While this story collection had been percolating inside of Mr. King for years prior to its release, it is striking—sometimes eerily so—how necessary these stories feel today. If It Bleeds continues the increasingly optimistic bent the author has displayed over the past decade, while still bearing those nightmarish touches at which he excels.
... four new stories, all offering vintage King themes with their own particular twist ... King marries an obvious affection for the tropes of old gumshoe movies with carefully researched forensic technology to create an odd hybrid of procedural and horror that ratchets up the suspense, even if it feels a little familiar to readers of The Outsider, or the trilogy of Bill Hodges novels in which Holly first appeared ... King, as always, is right on the money.
[The title story] is way too predictable and not nearly nasty enough to raise a goose bump, even if King’s exploration of Holly’s character, through her relationship with her difficult mother, is nicely done ... The Life of Chuck [is] clever and ends with a good sharp kick ... Such glimpses into King’s own mind are riveting and satisfyingly terrifying. Read the book for this.
... when you’re stuck at home needing fresh reading material—isn’t that all of us?—If It Bleeds will hit the mark ... the heroine of the HBO miniseries The Outsider from King’s novel...is still Holly: compulsive, private, skeptical. But King makes her likable despite all that, and you find yourself rooting for her ... the other stories have their charms as well ... Weird? Yes. But fascinating at the same time? Also yes.
Each of the four novellas within this collection feel like a return to vintage King, though each accomplishes this feat through very different means ... ghoulishly delightful ... The image of an iPhone ringing while resting in the jacket pocket of a decomposing corpse, combined with the moral question of whether or not Craig is complicit in the deaths of his mundane enemies combine to create another enjoyable visit to King’s brand of gothic realism. The novella also allows readers to return to 2004, when the smartphone was a new and exciting piece of technology. King’s question of whether or not the power the iPhone (and, by extension, the internet) is too unwieldy remains vital and worth exploring ... The Life of Chuck shocked me in its ability to be bizarre, terrifying, and heart-wrenching all at once ... If It Bleeds seamlessly mixes the supernatural and detective fiction genres to create a truly thrilling read. It was a joy to spend some time with Holly Gibney again ... Overall, If It Bleeds is a fantastic addition to King’s considerable collection of short-form fiction. I highly recommend once more visiting the Stephen King Universe; it’s alive, well, and waiting for you in If It Bleeds.
King perfectly captures the mindset and dynamics of two generations ... 'Life of Chuck' is...spooky and brilliant ... For those who haven't read King's work before and want to try it out, this book is a good start as most stories are stand alones. Keep in mind though that some of the novellas might be the length of short novels you're used to.
...original suspenseful and chilling stories ... This set of novellas is thought-provoking, terrifying, and, at times, outright charming, showcasing King’s breadth as a master storyteller ... King’s love of short fiction makes this a powerful addition to his megapopular oeuvre and fans will be on the hunt.
The four never-before-published novellas in this collection represent horror master King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments ... King clearly loves his characters, and the care with which he develops their personalities draws the reader ineluctably into their deeply unsettling experiences. This excellent collection delivers exactly the kind of bravura storytelling King’s readers expect.
There are the usual hallucinatory doings, a destiny-altering rodent, and of course a writer protagonist who makes a deal with the devil for success that he thinks will outsmart the fates. No such luck, of course. Perhaps the most troubling story is the first, which may cause iPhone owners to rethink their purchases. King has gone a far piece from the killer clowns and vampires of old, with his monsters and monstrosities taking on far more quotidian forms—which makes them all the scarier ... Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.
