"You Like It Darker" (2024), new collection

[Bev Vincent]

On the Talking Dead podcast, Steve announced his 2024 book -- a collection called You Like It Darker. Mostly new stories, mostly longer, he says.

[mae]

YAY!!!! I was hoping for this and actually thought about bring this up, since the last collection came out in 2015, and he's been putting out a new collection every seven years on average, so that should've come out last year. But there's been less uncollected short stories published in these last seven-plus years, so I hope it's a big book with new stuff but also the uncollected stuff.

Or is this a novella collection? If It Bleeds just came out in 2020, so it would seem sooner than usual.

[Bev Vincent]

YAY!!!! I was hoping for this and actually thought about bring this up, since the last collection came out in 2015, and he's been putting out a new collection every seven years on average, so that should've come out last year. But there's been less uncollected short stories published in these last seven-plus years, so I hope it's a big book with new stuff but also the uncollected stuff.

Or is this a novella collection? If It Bleeds just came out in 2020, so it would seem sooner than usual.

He said "mostly longer," and that he wanted to include a poem in it, so it seems more like a collection with some long pieces. Maybe Rattlesnake will be in it, too.

[mae]

There is at least one recent uncollected poem, Mostly Old Men from 2009.

[Niels]

On the Talking Dead podcast, Steve announced his 2024 book -- a collection called You Like It Darker. Mostly new stories, mostly longer, he says.

In what episode of The Talking Dead podcast is it? Is it already online?

[mae]

On the Talking Dead podcast, Steve announced his 2024 book -- a collection called You Like It Darker. Mostly new stories, mostly longer, he says.

In what episode of The Talking Dead podcast is it? Is it already online?

https://talkingscared.buzzsprout.com/1322413/13368610-155-stephen-king-writing-from-the-nerve-endings

[Bev Vincent]

Later in the interview, he says the collection is about 600 pages long.

[webstar1000]

The Talisman 3 was the best info from it. The worst? Another darn Holly book!!


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[St. Troy]

The Talisman 3 was the best info from it.

Wait; what?

[mae]

The Talisman 3 was the best info from it.

Wait; what?

See the T3 thread: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?8151-Talisman-3&p=1274058#post1274058

[St. Troy]

Thanks

[dnemec]

The Talisman 3 was the best info from it. The worst? Another darn Holly book!!


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Amen! I'm really getting tired of Holly!

[DoctorZaius]

Love Holly, sorry guys!

[Garrell]

I also am a big fan of Holly

[Ari_Racing]

Love Holly Gibney! :)

[MikeDuke]

3rd Tailsman sounds awesome to me, as well as the collection.

[mae]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7j4s2FURH8

[mae]

Just for information, here are all the uncollected stories King published since Bazaar in 2015:


Cookie Jar
The Music Room
Thin Scenery
Laurie
The Turbulence Expert
Squad D
The Fifth Step
On Slide Inn Road
Red Screen
Willie the Weirdo
Finn


And of course various older uncollected stories, such as:


The Glass Floor
The Blue Air Compressor
Weeds
The Night of the Tiger
Man With a Belly
The Crate
The Reploids
The Old Dude's Ticker
Throttle
In the Tall Grass
A Face in the Crowd
The Rock and Roll Dead Zone

[CyberGhostface]

I know it's not King's book but Throttle and In The Tall Grass were both in Joe Hill's last collection.

[mae]

I know it's not King's book but Throttle and In The Tall Grass were both in Joe Hill's last collection.

Right but I meant an official King book.

[The Great Buchinsky]

I wonder if the “Frannie Falls in a Well” epilogue he wrote for The Stand mini-series will get collected?

[Randall Flagg]

I wonder if the “Frannie Falls in a Well” epilogue he wrote for The Stand mini-series will get collected?
Unlikely in this book.

[Herbie_Marsten]

What is Joe Hill's Anthology named?

[CyberGhostface]

What is Joe Hill's Anthology named?

Full Throttle.

[herbertwest]

Amazon UK (https://amzn.to/47mJtfP) gives the release date (may 21st 2024), the Hodder cover and the details of a few stories :

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GnDUBLYDL.jpg

The presentation :

'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.

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

[mae]

Awesome! Seems at least the few stories mentioned are all new but hoping some of the 12 are from the uncollected bunch. There are some good ones to pick from. Very unusual for a King collection to have mostly previously unpublished stories.

[Ari_Racing]

There will be some reprints from stories previously published in magazines.

[mae]

A bit unlike King to write short stories and not publish them in magazines and such. Maybe he'll put out another collection sooner rather than later next time, to collect the rest.

[Bev Vincent]

Most of the new stories are quite long, so it's harder to find magazines etc. that would take them.

[mae]

Yeah I saw the UK edition is about 500 pages, and US editions are always more, so closer to the 600 that was originally estimated, which for 12 stories makes me really excited. That's an average of 50 pages per, which is novellette length if not novella. I think I remember King saying "Rattlesnakes" is a novella.

[Bev Vincent]

https://www.bevvincent.com/messageboard/uploads/editor/km/k7zy2bbvmqc9.jpg

[mae]

As usual the US cover rocks :rock:

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Untitled-NG-Fiction-Confirmed-Scribner/dp/1668037718/ And larger cover:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71fjILT8ZoL.jpg

[Bev Vincent]

You can read the opening of Rattlesnakes here (https://ew.com/books/stephen-king-cujo-sequel-you-like-it-darker/).

Here is the complete table of contents:

Two Talented Bastids
The Fifth Step
Willie the Weirdo
Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream
Finn
On Slide Inn Road
Red Screen
The Turbulence Expert
Laurie
Rattlesnakes
The Dreamers
The Answer Man

[mae]

I was hoping the cover would be a wraparound:

https://ew.com/thmb/D-1OHNZo8PSaW3TTTCLL00WzFgM=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/You-Like-it-Darker-by-Stephen-King-110223-1-26bd53ec5ca04140955632457a73dbb1.jpg

[mae]

You can read the opening of Rattlesnakes here (https://ew.com/books/stephen-king-cujo-sequel-you-like-it-darker/).

Here is the complete table of contents:

Two Talented Bastids
The Fifth Step
Willie the Weirdo
Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream
Finn
On Slide Inn Road
Red Screen
The Turbulence Expert
Laurie
Rattlesnakes
The Dreamers
The Answer Man


What remains uncollected since Bazaar in 2015:


Cookie Jar
The Music Room
Thin Scenery
Squad D


And of course various older uncollected stories, such as:


The Glass Floor
The Blue Air Compressor
Weeds
The Night of the Tiger
Man With a Belly
The Crate
The Reploids
The Old Dude's Ticker
Throttle
In the Tall Grass
A Face in the Crowd
The Rock and Roll Dead Zone

[mikeC]

Bummed Cookie Jar and Music Room aren't in there. I liked them both.
Besides this, which I've never heard of, was Cookie Jar an audiobook?

"An abridged radio adaptation of "Cookie Jar" was broadcast in three parts by BBC Radio 4 in October 2016 as part of its Fright Night Shorts series."

[Curly]

Cookie Jar was narrated by Santino Fontana in Bazaar of Bad Dreams. The Music Room was narrated by Maggie Sift in Gwendy's Button Box.

[RichardX]

Uncle Stevie is not wasting much thought on the title these days. "Holly" and now this one which sounds like a bad anthology on Shudder.

[CyberGhostface]

Not sure what makes Holly worse title than Christine or Carrie or Nona or...

[Herbie_Marsten]

A Face in the Crowd came out from Cemetery Dance, with The Lomgest December.

[RichardX]

Not sure what makes Holly worse title than Christine or Carrie or Nona or...

Who said that?

[CyberGhostface]

Then I guess I don't know what you meant by "these days".

[RichardX]

Then I guess I don't know what you meant by "these days".

It means the last couple of books in response to the recent announcement of the title of the upcoming book. That doesn't preclude titles from other periods during his career from being uninspired. Some were good, and some were terrible like this one and "Holly."

[CyberGhostface]

It's no better or worse than any of his other collection titles.

[St. Troy]

I haven't read Holly, but based on the blurb, which paints it as an interesting story in its own right, I thought it deserved something more than the name of a character who has appeared a number of times before.

[Bev Vincent]

Tune in to the YouTube Premiere of Stephen reading an excerpt from his upcoming collection You Like It Darker on April 18th at 2pm EST.

>>> Source (https://stephenking.com/news/stephen-reads-from-you-like-it-darker-751.html)

[Bev Vincent]

Award-winning narrator Will Patton will read the audiobook edition of YOU LIKE IT DARKER with select stories read by Stephen King

[Ben Mears]

I have it on reserve at my local library. I enjoy listening to the recorded version after reading new SK releases.

[Bev Vincent]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HEQYKWgo60&t=2s