The Langoliers: 6.5 + 0.5

ehh, I’ve never been super into King's magical-ish. It’s gimmicky and fun, but not immersive, so it doesn’t quite work for scare factor. But that’s not what makes these/those types of stories good, that’s just the mechanism that brings the characters together and by God Craig is such a good character. The blowfish analogy alone earns this story a +0.5:

Secret Window, Secret Garden: 7.75

King at at his best is writing about writing I think. Writers block, insanity, insobriety, disloyalty, torment, and violence. It's very authentic and can be terrifying. Whether it's rats, apparitions, ex wives, or whatever, he has like 7 iterations of "the same story" and they're all so friggin good.

Library Policeman: 6.75

Similar vibes/monster as IT, but they're adults. I enjoy the nods to alcoholism + the drunk's redemption arc. Spooky, not super violent, but graphic child molestation. Kind of saw it coming, but King goes there which shouldn't really come as a surprise. Nice small town vibes otherwise tho. Like most of his books, it starts so frickin well, has a juicy and satisfying middle, and then the ending is just like a "yeah I guess you should finish the story now, huh" as he ties up loose ends as fast as possible. I don't think the good guys should have won? And for that reason I give it a 6.75

Sundog: 6.25

Captures a nice little piece of fantastical fear from a polaroid camera, but then blows it's load too quickly with the empo guy just turning into a blood fountain and then the father and sun being like "damn that's crazy." Weak attempt at a cliffhanger at the end. I think this is the laziest of the four stories.

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