#BookReview ‘If It Bleeds’ by Stephen King

About the book…

If it Bleeds is a collection of four new novellas —Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, Rat, and the title story If It Bleeds— each pulling readers into intriguing and frightening places.

A collection of four uniquely wonderful long stories, including a stand-alone sequel to The Outsider.

News people have a saying: ‘If it bleeds, it leads’. And a bomb at Albert Macready Middle School is guaranteed to lead any bulletin.

Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency is working on the case of a missing dog – and on her own need to be more assertive – when she sees the footage on TV. But when she tunes in again, to the late-night report, she realizes there is something not quite right about the correspondent who was first on the scene. So begins ‘If It Bleeds’ , a stand-alone sequel to The Outsider featuring the incomparable Holly on her first solo case.

Dancing alongside are three more long stories – ‘Mr Harrigan’s Phone’, ‘The Life of Chuck’ and ‘Rat’ .

The novella is a form King has returned to over and over again in the course of his amazing career, and many have been made into iconic films, If It Bleeds is a uniquely satisfying collection of longer short fiction by an incomparably gifted writer.

First published in hardcover in 2020, ‘If It Bleeds’ joins a throng of books which contain 4 novellas, of differing lengths and subject matters, which have punctuated King’s novels and short story collections.

Having realised that actually, I haven’t read all of King’s books, and having flagellated myself accordingly ( I keep going back to the ‘old’ King, and getting stuck in a rut despite him being, for this Constant Reader, an instabuy) and am now trying to catch up before ‘Billy Summers’ drops on August 3rd.

Of all the novellas, I think ‘Life Of Chuck‘ was my favourite, a story about a man’s life told in reverse, and inspired by the Walt Whitman poem line ‘(‘I am large, I contain multitudes), from ‘Song of Myself,51)

Starting at the end and telling his life in 3 acts, this unravelling whilst simultaneously winding up the life of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz held moments of pure joy, and, explained the cover illustration because, to be frank, I didn’t get it. The way in which the entire existence of a human’s life, including all the people they know, met, loved, disintegrates as they are dying, the walls falling down as that final trumpet blows, was extremely poignant. And, it is not without it’s scarier elements – there is a ghost room but whether it is haunted by lives yet to come or is one of the thin places in the world which allows you to see the future, is left up to the reader’s mind to rationalise.

The book opener, ‘Mr Harrigan’s Phone’ finds us in familiar King territory, not only do you have the male coming of age, first person narrative from Craig, being raised by his single father parent. Intrigued by the wealthy old recluse who has moved into the posher area of town, Craig starts going to visit the elderly Mr Harrigan and reads the newspapers, and books to him, in his spare time. For this he earns money which teaches him fiscal responsibility, but he also earns life lessons on the giving, and receiving of knowledge. Craig, his father and Mr Harrigan make up a gender switched Maiden/Mother/Hag triumvirate , and when Craig decides to help out Mr Harrigan by bringing him into the 21st Century with an iPhone, the consequences are tender, unexpected, and just a little creepy.

This novella has a lot to say about the dissemination of seemingly ‘free’ knowledge and whilst the internet gives, it can also take away. There is no such thing as a free lunch, however, when you put a question out into the universe in an attempt to feel better, say a phone call to a much missed influence on your life because listening to the answerphone message makes you feel a bit lonely, let’s just say there might be consequences. Even after death…

‘If It Bleeds’ bids a welcome return to the fabulous Holly Gibney, breakout star of the Bill Hodges trilogy and who managed to wriggle inside ‘The Outsider to memorable effect. Whether or not this is a coda, a drawing of a line under a character, or simply a story will only be known by the passage of time. However, what I do know is that Holly’s voice rings from the page and it is like saying hello to an old friend. A bomb at a school which results in a terrible loss of life, brings to mind Brady Hartfield’s reign of terror to Holly and the assorted folks of the ‘Finders Keepers’ agency. They look for the lost, bring people to account on their day to day business, and, whilst fellow Keeper Jerome is working on his book, and Pete is tracking down fraudsters, Holly notices something unusual about the news reporter who came to the school explosion site just a little too quickly for her liking.It is only a tiny detail, however, it sets her on a path where she encounters something she has crossed paths with before. Satisfying, enlightening and expanding on the universe introduced in other novels (more on the King-verse below), I really really enjoyed it.

The final entry, Rat, takes us, in a way, back to the start as it is a tale of isolation, writer’s block and real (or imagined) bargains with fate. Tonally, the narrator, Drew Larson, reminds me of Louis Creed or Thad Beaumont, a struggling writer who has yet been unable to write more than short story length compositions. When he tried to write longer works, the impact on his mental health has been crushing and near fatal. So when the muse strikes, completely unexpectedly, he takes leave from his job as a teacher, and heads to his father’s old cabin. A freak snowstorm, an unanticipated illness and possible haunting (up to you, constant reader, to work out which) lead to a deal with the titular Rat. The nature of writing, a search for resolution without bringing the entire house down on top of him, and a dark fairy tale motif ( think the Frog Prince or Snow White,Rose Red) intertwine to make a fever dream of a story with a twist. As the song, ‘The Snake’ by Al Wilson says, ‘You knew damn well I was a snake before you let me in‘

Links to the wider King-verse

Mr Harrigan’s Phone-Mentions of Harlow, Maine (appears in ‘Revival’, ‘Under The Dome’ ‘The Body’‘Bag Of Bones’ and ‘Lisey’s Story’

Shawshank page 5-Appears in ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’, ‘11.22.63’ ‘IT’ ‘Dolores Claiborne’‘Apt Pupil’ ‘Blaze’ ‘The Dead Zone’ 11.22.63

Gates Falls page 6-‘Graveyard Shift’

Castle Rock page 6-there are so many stories and books related to Castle Rock, which is pretty much the epicentre of the King-verse, please see the accompanying blog posts by searching for ‘Castle Rock’ in the archives of the site

The Life Of Chuck-At a push, the mention of Nebraska (location of Hemmingford Home, none other than the birth place of Mother Abigail in ‘The Stand’)

If It Bleeds-Tom Toomey-the name Toomey pops up in the novella, ‘The Langoliers’, courtesy of Craig Toomey

Page 189-mention is made of ‘revival preachers’ could be a link to ‘Revival’

Holly Gibney appears in the Bill Hodges Trilogy  as well as ‘The Outsider’

Page 240 -Inside View, the magazine which employs the inestimable Richard Dees, who appears in ‘The Night Flier’ and ‘The Dead Zone’

Rat-Page 374-Derry, Maine which is the setting for ‘IT’ as well as appearing in various other short stories and novels

I can’t find the page, but there is a throwaway sentence ‘Everything is eventual’ which might be coincidence or a direct reference to the short story collection ‘Everything’s Eventual’

So frustrating! But if I find it again I will link the exact page and story to this page.

The overall title of this collection, ‘If It Bleeds’, referring to the adage ‘if it bleeds it leads’, really makes you think of the context of how we absorb, take in, and disseminate information. Especially in the era of ‘fake news’ and lack of trust in previously trustworthy institutions (I am thinking of the BBC here). And how the author is, for me, an instabuy.

But what do we want when we eagerly pre-order a Stephen King novel? Is it the thrill of being scared, shaken out of complacency and wanting to see the shape under the sheet? Does that make us better or worse than those who eagerly absorb the headlines which know they are guaranteed readership ( see Inside View’s spiritual twin ‘National Enquirer’)

It’s a tricky feeling, we love the deliciousness of being scared because, when you close the book, there is a sense of resolution, of safety, of putting the stories back in the jar. But when school bombings , a very real life horror, come into the equation, this has a lingering sense of devastation which is all too real. How different, are we really , from ‘The Outsider, who feeds off the distress of others (pretty similarly to Pennywise and Dandelo)

When Prince Phillip died, the money shot was always going to be the Queen, on her own, or even better, crying. Her grief was not allowed to be private.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I continue to love the way in which King holds a reflective mirror up to our common experiences and gets us thinking more deeply about why our reactions are the way that they are.

About the author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, ‘Mr Mercedes’, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both ‘Mr Mercedes’ and ‘End Of Watch’ received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel ‘Sleeping Beauties‘ with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘, ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘It‘.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine

Links-https://www.stephenking.com/

Twitter @StephenKing

@HodderBooks