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    Just After Sunset: Stories
    Just After Sunset: Stories
    Just After Sunset: Stories
    Audiobook14 hours

    Just After Sunset: Stories

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Stephen King, Jill Eikenberry, Holter Graham and

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    2010 Audie Award Finalist for Short Stories/Collections

    Thirteen “dazzling” (Associated Press) and “wonderfully wicked” (USA TODAY) stories from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King.

    A book salesman with a grievance picks up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. An exercise routine on a stationary bicycle takes its rider on a captivating—and then terrifying—journey. A blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. A psychiatric patient’s irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside…or keep the world from falling victim to it.

    These are just some of the tales to be found in the #1 bestselling collection Just After Sunset. Call it dusk or call it twilight, it’s a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It’s the perfect time for master storyteller Stephen King.

    Stories include:
    -Willa
    -The Gingerbread Girl
    -Harvey's Dream
    -Rest Stop
    -Stationary Bike
    -The Things They Left Behind
    -Graduation Afternoon
    -N.
    -The Cat from Hell
    -The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates
    -Mute
    -Ayana
    -A Very Tight Place
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 11, 2008
    ISBN9780743575324
    Author

    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 Just After Sunset

    4.5/5

    217 ratings66 reviews

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    • 4/5
      No table of contents?
      No list of stories? Not even in the description?
      Not a huge Steven King fan, but his short stories in audio format are engaging and I enjoyed listening to these. I just wish I knew the titles so I can recommend to my F&F.
      Seriously... no table of contents?
      Yikes.
      Be better.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      You know, Stephen King writes one hell of a good short story. No matter what you think of his novels, his short stories are excellent - well-crafted, full of suspense, and rich with wonderful, descriptive language. They are the thing he does best, in my opinion, and even if I never read another one of his novels, I would always gobble up his stories.
    • 5/5
      WILLA In the movie, The Sixth Sense (one of the few movies I wasn't able to second guess) the little boy discovers with the help of a psychologist that he can talk to dead people--and that's okay--because nine times out of ten the dead are just like the living-- trying to figure things out. The neat little twist to this story is the psychologist is dead but he just doesn't know it. These dead people the little boy sees "don't know they are dead." "They see only what they want to see." Stephen King takes this idea of the oblivious dead and explores it in his short story, WILLA, the first tale in the Just After Midnight collection. What King does so well here is not describe flesh-eating zombies, or demon-possessed trains but regular people's reactions to unusal events--like realizing you're dead. The story opens with a group of folks waiting for a train except David soon realizes that his fiance, Willa is missing. Against the advice of every well-drawn character in the station, David ventures out in the dark, among the wolves, to find Willa. So at this point the story I'm thinking this is a tale is about demon-possessed wolves or that maybe Willa will turn into a She-Wolfe and eat David. But none of that happens. David discovers Willa at a bar with a loud band whose singer reminds him of Buck Owens. The terror here is understated but still very real. WILLA is an exploration of fear of the unknown, denial of reality and acceptance of what can't be changed. This is everyday experiance set in an afterlife backdrop. There are those who wait for something to happen and those who make something happen. Maybe Hell's waiting for a train that will never come and just maybe Heaven's dancing for eternity to band with a Buck Owens twang. I'm kinda hoping for the latter, truth be told, I've had a crush on ole Buck since I was twelve.
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining as always. Loved it. Listen as I work, on audiobook.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book full of spine-tingling stories. King never fails to surprise me.
    • 4/5
      A great collection of Stephen King's shorter stories. Heaps of interesting twists, and even when you feel you can see what direction the story is taking, you usually don't know the end destination. A good, varied selection of topics too.
    • 2/5
      was very enjoyable and entertaining.
      especially liked the various short stories.
      would give this a 95+ rating.
    • 3/5
      I have found that I tend to prefer Stephen King?s short fiction to his novels. For my taste, the novels often lack the tense, taut, highly strained level of tension King is able to sustain in his shorter works, and if I am going to be reading a horror story, I want to be on the edge of my seat at least 80 to 90% of the time, if possible! So I was pretty happy when I saw that ?Just After Sunset,? King?s first collection of short fiction since 2002, was coming out. In the introduction to the collection, King credits his editing of the 2007 edition of ?The Best American Short Stories? with re-inspiring his desire to work with the shorter form?which was, he tells us, his bread-and-butter in the days before he made it big as a novelist. Most of the stories in this collection were written after his 2007 editorial stint, with only one dating to an earlier period of King?s career.The collection is hit-and-miss, but when it hits, it hits hard! Some of the shorter works, such as ?Rest Stop? and ?Graduation Afternoon,? work best as slightly disturbing character studies. Others, such as ?Willa? and ?The Stationary Bike,? provide old-school Stephen King thrills, leavened with a bit of heart. The real stand-out in the collection, however, is the unutterably creepy ?N.? Inspired by Arthur Machen?s ?The Great God Pan? and borrowing equally from the style and themes of H.P. Lovecraft?s Mythos stories, ?N.? morphs slowly from an absorbing profile of obsessive-compulsive behavior into a tale of the darkness that lurks behind the known world, waiting to break free.All in all, not a bad return to the form by King! Here?s hoping he keeps it up rather than churning out more of the doorstop novels that only become interesting a few chapters from the end.
    • 4/5
      After reading the fist few stories in this one I was thinking to myself "King has lost his touch". The first few stories were so predictable. But then it started getting really good. There were only a handful of the stories in this one that I didn't love. It wasn't that they were bad, they were just predictable.I think my favorite stories were Stationary Bike, The Things They Left Behind, and N. I really think that they could have been turned into full-length novels. But they were still really good as short stories. N kind of had a IT feel to it. The Things They Left Behind was just weird, but in a good way. Stationary Bike was also weird. I thought it would be kind of like Thinner when I started reading it. I usually don't like to read short stories, as I don't get enough time to connect with the characters and it's hard for me to get a real feel for things. With a few exceptions in this collected that was not the case. King's ability to write a short story that doesn't seem abrupt was great. And the characters were all fairly well-rounded. This one did take me a while to read. Although at 539 pages it didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would. The short stories were fairly fast paced and so they lent themselves to be read very fast. Overall it was pretty good. The preview of Under The Dome in the back has me chomping at the bit to get my hands on that one. A review copy of this title was provided by Book Cove Reviews.
    • 4/5
      Some truly disturbing and *depressing* stories in this compilation. The stories were great, but not so enjoyable because of the sadness and death.
    • 2/5
      I really hate saying it, but I hate even more that King keeps proving it: he hasn't had "it" since finishing the Dark Tower series. Yes, his writing has gone down hill since he "stopped writing." Anyway, nothing really stands out here. The stories aren't necessarily bad, but at this point in his career, I guess I expect more than that.
    • 4/5
      This wasn't my favorite collection of short stories, but it still gave me goosebumps a few times. The stories themselves seemed to be filled with deeper meaning at times and less designed for the simple fear factor. I love the Gingerbread Girl, Willa, and The Things They Left Behind, each for different reasons. The Cat From Hell was fun too.
    • 5/5
      With just 13 stories, this latest collection of King?s shorter tales might seem disappointingly empty to his fans, but each tale is worthy of its place in the book and a couple are long enough that the purchaser won?t feel bitter. While there have been stronger collections from Mr. King, there are several very sleek stories (and, of course, some simply shiver-inducing ones) in Just After Sunset that leave me in awe of the man?s skill.In one story, ?N?, King explores that gothic horror feel that we found in ?Crouch End? in the Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection, and this time does it with what can only be described as lovecraftsmanship. The tale is absolutely, convincingly horrifying and built out of tension and madness. An example of King?s genius as a storyteller, and one of my favourite of his short stories now (and there have been some contenders!).Another that is worth mentioning is ?The Things they Left Behind?; a poignant haunting of a 9/11 escapee by small objects belonging to his lost co-workers. Sympathetic, thoughtful and honourable, it?s one of the first pieces of 9/11 fiction that I?ve read and it does not jar or feel cheap and I think perhaps Stephen King should be one of the writers to address - not the facts - but the fictions and legends and feelings that the day spawned. He does it here so simply and kindly that the story touched me in a way that the documentaries and movies have not.Also interesting, is King?s short introduction in which he tells us about the gift of short story-telling and how easy it is to lose. King?s latest novel, Duma Key, was in my opinion, one of the strongest of his career, but his short stories have always delivered the elements that I enjoy the most in his writing, and Just After Sunset is no exception.
    • 4/5
      Stephen has been on my shitlist recently. Finally though, a book of short stories, exactly what I was craving from him. Luckily, this didn't disappoint.King has a distinct knack for short stories, drawing you in and scaring the bejeebus out of you that he just didn't do in his later novels. In short stories, you have such a limited space to tell your story so you have to be a bit more adept with words. My favorite stories are the ones that plop you right in the middle of a situation and then pulls you right back out again. Haruki Murakami is excellent at this.King manages to creep the reader (ME!) out by merely suggesting a situation. For example, the story N. gave me creepies that disturbed my sleep simply by telling a story of a guy going to a shrink. The story was told by the shrink's notes and depicted a patient who had severe OCD and firmly believed that a field he had went to was possessed. That's the story, big deal, right? No, the suggestion of what the character believed was happening was enough to put the thought into the readers head. If you look at the story, it's just what a patient tells his shrink - with some dire outcomes. But still, NOTHING really happens. But I was still creeped out.I really liked Willa although King admitted in his notes it wasn't the best (it wasn't) and The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates was on par with Willa. What happens after death is a special playground for writers with vivid imaginations.The Cat From Hell reinforced my sincere dislike of the feline variety.The Things They Left Behind would have pushed me over the edge, had it actually happened to me.And lastly, of my favorites, The Gingerbread Girl actually made me hold my breath.Good show, old man. This was a really good collection of what you do best.
    • 4/5
      Finished last night. October 3 2009.
      Some stories were brilliant like The Gingerbread Girl, N and A Very Tight Place among others. Some i did not really care for like Graduation Afternoon and Harvey's Dream but I enjoyed reading this book. I've always loved short stories, used to collect short horror stories so I was very pleased to see King do one again.
    • 4/5
      I listened to Gingerbread Girl and Stationary Bike as stand-alone books, so I was disappointed that they were included in the collection. A few of the stories were bland. However, N. made up for all of that! If you only want to read one excellent short story, N. is it.
    • 2/5
      I got this book signed by Stephen King when it first came out, which is why I'm so disappointed that I didn't enjoy it near as much as I was hoping. My first and only signed King book and I thought it was boring.I liked the Gingerbread Girl and N. pretty well, which seem to be the two favorites of this collection. I also enjoyed Harvey's Dream and Willa quite a bit, but I seem to be in the minority on that one. All of the stories were just bleh. I couldn't even finish the last story. I usually have a strong stomache but that one grossed me out way too much and I couldn't see any value in the story at all.
    • 4/5
      I'm not a big fan of King's novels, but as people kept encouraging me to try his short stories, I picked this up. The stories are well-written, entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. They run the gamut from serial killers to ghost stories to a Lovecraft tribute and made for a great read.
    • 3/5
      A book of short stories by Stephen King. There were some good ones - other more forgettable but none up to the standard of his early short stories like The Body.
    • 3/5
      I generally don't read King, as I find most of his books don't live up to the complexity of The Stand (and, for my taste, resort too often to the gross-out), but the collection here was more exploratory and fantasy oriented than gross, and I found it a pleasant surprise (except for the last story, which shouldn't be read while eating, even those tiny airplane peanuts). A collection of short stories with no real theme, it's best read in pieces, rather than one after the other. The stories vary in quality, but overall present interesting takes on common themes and are well executed with the right amount of detail for a short story. Worth a read as light entertainment.
    • 5/5
      Although he is better known for his novels, Stephen King got his start writing short stories. ?Just after Sunset?, his first short story collection since ?Everything?s Eventual?, brings him back to his short story roots and what a glorious return it is.?Willa? is a haunting love story. Readers (probably intentionally) will realize what is going on long before David does, but King takes his time revealing the truth. ?Willa? gives new meaning to living happily ever after.?The Gingerbread Girl?: to me this was the best story in the collection. King is known for his horror novels, but the horror in this story is all too real as Emily faces not once, but twice a living nightmare. ?Harvey?s Dream?: This story reminded me a lot of the short story ?The Monkey?s Paw.? It is one of the shortest stories in the book but one that will linger in your mind long after you?ve finished reading it.?Rest Stop?: This is an ironic short story in which the good guy finds himself in a bad situation and discovers he may not be so nice after all.?Stationary Bike?: this story reminded me a lot of King?s novel ?Rose Madder?. It?s nothing new, but mildly amusing as only King could turn the simple act of riding a stationary bike into a trip into another world.?The Things They Left Behind? is King?s poignant tribute to 9/11. There is a touch of supernatural in the story, but the real horror comes from the events of that day.?Graduation Afternoon?: this very short story felt like filler to me (perhaps to bring the total number of stories in the book to thirteen). There?s nothing new here and the story is forgettable.?N.?: I know this story is a favorite of many King fans but this was my least favorite story in the book. It was a little too long and too much like Lovecraft for my taste.?The Cat from Hell?: in his notes at the book of the book King equates this story to a hidden track on a CD. It?s definitely early King with an emphasis on horror and gross out moments. I think the story would have worked better with less horror and more subtleness.?The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates?: another haunting love story that will stick with you long after you?ve finished reading it.?Mute?: a quiet story (pun intended) that has a nice twist towards the end.?Ayana? is a good, but ultimately forgettable short story.?A Very Tight Place? is not for the squeamish and not a story to read while you?re eating. King isn?t afraid to go for the gross out and does so several times in this story. This story will have you looking at portapotties in an entirely different way.?Just after Sunset? is a good short story collection that shows just how diverse a writer Stephen King is.
    • 3/5
      A tremendously average collection of stories. I think old Steve has lost his edge. Readable but missing the the odd darkness that used to be there. Compare earlier collections to these tales and note the difference. There were no surprises. There were a couple of good stories but overall a C.
    • 2/5
      Not my favorite King compilation. The first story (Willa) was my favorite, and the last one (A Very Tight Place) was mainly just gross. Several of the stories dealt with post-9/11 themes, which is always hard.
    • 3/5
      While I did enjoy this collection overall and it does contain a couple of gems (N,The Things They Left Behind, The Gingerbread Girl) this wasn't King's strongest collection of tales. The one thing that it does have going for it over some of his better collections is that there weren't any that I would consider stinkers. For the most part, the stories contained here were all average to above-average short stories but nothing that REALLY wowed me. It's definitely a worthwhile read though and as I said before several of the tales do manage to stand out.Of course, any downside that I have from this collection is purely from previous experience with King's short stories (along with reading some spectacular short story offerings from Richard Matheson, Joe Hill and H.P. Lovecraft.) I am of the opinion that the short story form is a perfect medium for horror because in a short format the author is better able to sustain the tension throughout the tale. That may be the one weakness that I found in this collection as a whole, in that King doesn't really take advantage of the format and doesn't really include a tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat terrified of what is happening and what may be coming next.
    • 4/5
      Somewhat uneven collection of horror and suspense stories.
    • 3/5
      This is a pretty average collection for King of short stories... few if any could be made into (made for tv) movies, but overall it was an interesting collection.

      The part that shines about these short stories is that it is clear how much he really enjoys cranking out these shorter tales, and that the stories are all so very interesting for their length but would be a terrible fit for a novel, or even novella.

      Definitely worth picking up for an avid King fan, but not one to start with for a newcomer to his works.

      One thing that really stood out in this collection is that in at least most of the stories a character would say "As the man would say..." and then drop a quote.
    • 3/5
      One of the biggest problems of getting to know a certain author starting with his best books is that after you read them, you create an expectation whenever you see his name and, when you notice that the book is not all that you thought it would be, you feel double disappointed and end up thinking that the book is not good at all because it wasn't withing your expectations. This is pretty much what happened to me when I read this book: I read it right after reading the whole Dark Tower series and felt sort of disappointed. Well, VERY disappointed actually.

      Just After Sunset is a book of short stories from the master "suspense" genre (...no, not Alfred Hitchcock), Stephen King. All of them, obviously, have a beginning and a satisfying determined ending, meaning that you'll find no breach on them that might leave the reader in doubt of what might or might not happen. The influence of the Dark Tower series in the stories is pretty evident in the characters and even the street names. The tales are not that bad, but I felt that THE Stephen King essence was missing. Ok, they're short stories, but some of them are so short you can barely think of liking the characters.

      A book like any other. Definitely nothing OH MY GOD PERFECT. Good enough to make the time go by slightly faster. Nothing more than that.
    • 4/5
      I've always found King's shortstories to be worthwhile, and for me this was a fascinating mix of literary suspense and traditional King-style horror. About half of the stories, while of dark content, just aren't horror--they are good, though. Reading them, though, I could understand how some of King's long-standing readers might be disappointed. About half of the stories have nothing of the super-natural, though they're fast and spellbinding reads. Because of this, the book is a really fascinating look into an author who literary critics consistently disagree about as to his lasting literary value versus just mainstream entertainment. I have to admit that while I don't think much of a few of King's works (Cell stands out as a low point for me), much of his work is literary--smart, well-written, and ready to stand up to time in both material and writing style. As a collection, Just After Sunset is a roller-coaster ride of suspense and horror stories, some of which may well keep you up at night. With the caveat to steadfast horror lovers that not everything here is of a supernatural nature, I recommend the collection to King lovers and short story lovers alike, as well as to those folks who just like a good story of suspense. I may not come back to this collection like I come back to some of his others, but it's a good read.
    • 4/5
      Excellent collection of King's short stories, definitely worth the read.
    • 4/5
      I've heard that some of these stories were previously published, I myself haven't read any before. I do remember The Cat from Hell being part of Tales from the Darkside the movie. Among my favorites was The Gingerbread Girl. I could not put the book down while reading this one. It's classic King, suspenseful, creepy, with a touch of sarcastic humor when you least expect it. I love that about him. When you're heart is pounding, just at that scary moment, King will add humor that will make you burst out with nervous laughter. Maybe some who have read his books will know what I mean. I can see this short story being made into a tv movie. For the most part, I did enjoy most of the stories in this collection. However, there were a few I didn't like. Rest Stop for example is one I didn't enjoy. It wasn't boring, but I wanted creepy and scary; this wasn't. I don't know what it is about Kings work lately, I didn't enjoy his past two books, Lisey's Story and Duma Key. For me, his older stuff is better. And his short stories are usually great. My favorite short story collection of his is Everything's Eventual.