The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories
Written by Stephen King
Narrated by Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom and
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Includes the story “Premium Harmony”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine
The masterful #1 New York Times bestselling story collection from O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King that includes twenty-one iconic stories with accompanying autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write (or rewrite) each one.
For more than thirty-five years, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he introduces each story with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.
As Entertainment Weekly said about this collection: “Bazaar of Bad Dreams is bursting with classic King terror, but what we love most are the thoughtful introductions he gives to each tale that explain what was going on in his life as he wrote it."
There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. In “Afterlife,” a man who died of colon cancer keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Others address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.
“I made these stories especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”
Stories include:
-Mile 81
-Premium Harmony
-Batman and Robin Have an Altercation
-The Dune
-Bad Little Kid
-A Death
-The Bone Church
-Morality
-Afterlife
-Ur
-Herman Wouk Is Still Alive
-Under the Weather
-Blockade Billy
-Mister Yummy
-Tommy
-The Little Green God of Agony
-Cookie Jar
-That Bus Is Another World
-Obits
-Drunken Fireworks
-Summer Thunder
Stephen King
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, 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.
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Reviews for The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
219 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing stories plus having the great Mr King himself introduce each tale is just the icing on this deliciously dark cake.
4 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being a true fan of King, I was pleased to hear him talk about each short story. I feel now, that I know a little more about him and his ideas for the books he writes.
4 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This collection is everything I wish Stephen King's career would have been. He's storytelling is so masterful I wish he wrote less horror and drawn more from reality. Loved Morality.
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Definitely enjoyed the book, it was fun and entertaining
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Highly enjoyable short story collection with a fantastic collection of narrators.
While there are some fantastic stand outs, like “A Death” many of these stories play like Twilight Zone episodes, and for me, not in a bad way.
The introductions read by King himself are also a big treat.
While this is hardly Kings best short story collection, I found it to be a fun and brisk read full of great characters. I didn’t want to put it down.
Turn down the lights, and get your popcorn, uncle Steve is gonna tell you some stories… - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just call me a “constant reader”. As much as I also enjoy Steve’s long format work, I especially love the short story collections. It makes for such a smorgasbord of tasty themes and styles. I also very much enjoyed Steve’s prologue about short stories in general and the set up between pieces. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!