Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
    Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
    Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
    Audiobook17 hours

    Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Stephen King, Becky Ann Baker, John Cullum and

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Includes the story “The Man in the Black Suit”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King, the iconic, spine-tingling story collection that includes winners of an O. Henry Prize and other awards, and “Riding the Bullet,” which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade, as well as stories first published in The New Yorker, “1408,” made into a movie starring John Cusack.

    “Riding the Bullet” is the story of Alan Parker, who’s hitchhiking to see his dying mother but takes the wrong ride, farther than he ever intended. In “Lunch at the Gotham Café,” a sparring couple’s contentious lunch turns very, very bloody when the maître d’ gets out of sorts. “1408,” the audio story in print for the first time, is about a successful writer whose specialty is “Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards,” or “Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Houses,” and though Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel doesn’t kill him, he won’t be writing about ghosts anymore. And in “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French,” terror is déjà vu at 16,000 feet.

    Whether writing about encounters with the dead, the near dead, or about the mundane dreads of life, from quitting smoking to yard sales, Stephen King is at the top of his form in the fourteen “brilliantly creepy” (USA TODAY) tales assembled in Everything’s Eventual. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, they announce the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time.

    Stories include:
    -Autopsy Room Four
    -The Man in the Black Suit
    -All That You Love Will Be Carried Away
    -The Death of Jack Hamilton
    -In the Deathroom
    -The Little Sisters of Eluria
    -Everything's Eventual
    -L.T.'s Theory of Pets
    -The Road Virus Heads North
    -Lunch at the Gotham Café
    -That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French
    -1408
    -Riding the Bullet
    -Luckey Quarter
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 4, 2014
    ISBN9781442370760
    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. 

    Related authors

    Related to Everything's Eventual

    Related audiobooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      8 Best Stephen King Books That Will Have You Gripped

      Mar 14, 2021

      To say that readers love Stephen King is a huge understatement. The most recent count of his total sales came to a whopping 350 million and his affable online presence, no-nonsense attitude to transphobia and right-wing politics, and extremely genero

      5 min read

    • Article

      Review: Stephen King Modeled 'The Stand' On 'Lord Of The Rings.' TV Has Done It No Favors

      Dec 17, 2020

      As a story of a world-gutting flu pandemic, Stephen King's "The Stand," whose second, superior miniseries adaptation began Thursday on CBS All Access, could not be more timely. And as a story of good and evil facing off for the usual high stakes — a

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Horror Within

      Aug 29, 2020

      Stephen King’s supreme craftsmanship lies in his ability to allow the reader to build up the horror in her/ his mind instead of explicitly describing it. Most often, this horror lurks in the most mundane situations and in the most ordinary lives, unt

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Everything's Eventual

    4/5

    2,144 ratings70 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Really great, good stories, good readings, really enjoyed it, recommended
    • 4/5
      Always enjoy Kings work, and this was a good mix of stories.
    • 4/5
      I recently re-read this collection of short stories by Stephen King, called 'Everything’s Eventual', that I got for free from bookmooch.com I am a fan of Mr King. He’s one of the easiest writers to read. He’s funny, he’s scary, has a knack for coming up with the unthinkable or at least, the improbable, and knows human nature well enough to be realistic without being too cynical and sweet without being melodramatic. His short stories are collections of fascinating odds and ends, of people who have just snapped or are facing the most bizarre situations, sometimes due to their previous choices, sometimes just because. He’s good enough to lull you and lure you in the story without insulting your intelligence or making you stir once. By the time you know what’s going on it’s too late already, you’ve found yourself in places you never meant to go to begin with, and all you can do is enjoy the ride from the safety of your reading space.I have two personal favourites. The one that gave its title to the collection, ‘Everything is eventual’, is a story of a gifted young man that is recruited to use his special gift “for the general good of all.” But what exactly could this mean when the young man’s gift is the ability to kill from a distance? Wary yet? Believe me, you should be. And what about that other poor fellow, the one his wife left without an explanation? Not something that unusual, I know. But on top of that our friend decided to quit smoking too, and now he’s about to meet his ex and her lawyer in a restaurant, fighting both his feelings for her and his nicotine addiction. Whoops. Someone in the equation is far from stable, and they are all about to find out, at the ‘Lunch at the Gotham Café’. Nice!
    • 5/5
      Excellent collection of stories! This one is my favorite! Stephen King is a writing genius!
    • 4/5
      Entertaining some good some just ok but Stephen Kings just ok is still worth a read.
    • 4/5
      Loved the small storys. Rideing the bullet was my favorite.
    • 4/5
      The writing is all good, the stories range from “ok” to excellent, And they are all worthwhile.

      I wouldn’t recommend starting here if you are new to King, or his short stories (try Night Shift And Skeleton Crew first) but it’s a fine way to spend some time if you are a fan of either (king or short stories)

      All the narrators are excellent here as well.

      Standouts include:
      “Lunch at the Gotham Cafe”
      “That feeling, you can only say what it is in French”
      “1408”
      And
      “Riding the Bullet”

      Check it out!
    • 4/5
      This book took me quite a bit longer than usual to listen to, nevertheless it’s good as other SK’s work! Some of my faves were Riding the Bullet, Everything’s Eventual and Luckey Quarter.
    • 5/5
      I love this so much. Little bit sized King books.
    • 5/5
      My all-time favorite Stephen King book.
    • 5/5
      Everything's Eventual features Dinky Earnshaw -- a 19-year-old pizza boy -- who gets hired by a mysterious stranger for a unique and totally "eventual" (awesome) job. Read by Justin Long. Autopsy Room Four The last thing Howard Cottrell remembers is entering the woods to find his golf ball. He wakes up as he is being rolled into an autopsy room. Read by Oliver Platt. In The Little Sisters of Eluria Roland is a gunslinger in a deserted town when he gets ambushed. Read by Boyd Gaines. In Luckey Quarter Darlene is a single mom struggling to raise two kids on her income as a chambermaid in Reno. When Room 322 leaves her a quarter for a tip, Darlene lets that quarter take her for a ride. Read by Judith Ivey. The Road Virus Heads North tracks an author who buys a creepy painting at a yard sale which was painted by a metal-head neighbor just before he committed suicide. Read by Jay O. Sanders. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, these five stories announce the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time.
    • 5/5
      He's not called the Master of Horror for nothing. King weaves a short story like no one else can. I loved every single word.And even better, each story was read by a different narrator and each was better than the one before. You couldn't ask for a better reason to sleep with the lights on.
    • 4/5
      This was my first book by Stephen King, and I was not disappointed. I am really not all for horror novels (or movies), but this book gave me just the right amount of creepiness. I enjoyed how the plots were just far fetched enough to make you believe that somelike like this could happen in real life. My favorite in the collection was "Autopsy Room Four," "The Man in the Black Suit", and "1408". I think the first story ("Autopsy") scares me the most, becuase that's one of my biggest fears! Very good read overall.
    • 4/5
      being a collection of five Stephen King stories, this is a hard title to tag, as the stories are not all from the same genre. The title story and "Little Sisters of Eluria" are my favorites from this collection. "Little Sisters" is a side tale from the "Dark Tower" series and tells us alittle more of Roland's years before we meet him in the first volume."Everything's Eventual" is a bird-in-a-gilded-cage story uniquely interpreted by King. Observant readers will see how this story also plays into the larger scheme of King's world. "Autopsy Room Four" has some twists that are worthy of a kinky O. Henry short story.The remaining stories, while good, are not in the same league. The narration on the discs keeps them interesting, however, so overall, this is a fine collection of Stephen King stories.
    • 4/5
      As always, King's short stories entertain me.
    • 4/5
      The stories are good but not.consistent with the flow mastery that King normally brings.
    • 3/5
      For the most part, I enjoy reading Stephen King's works. Some of his books stay with you long after you have read them. Some don't. I find that what I like best are the introductions and comments regarding the stories that he has written. I also enjoy reading his essays and musings on life. His novels tend to be a little too heavy with the descriptions for me.
      My thoughts on the stories in this collection:
      Autopsy Room Four - a good story, but felt like the subject matter had been done too many other times.
      The Man in the Black Suit - I really liked this story. Scary subject matter.
      All That You Love Will Be Carried Away - the idea of writing down restroom graffiti in a book was interesting, and I liked reading the examples. But I would have liked more of an idea of why the man thought his life was so bad.
      The Death of Jack Hamilton - boring
      In the Deathroom - This was a good story. No supernatural elements, just the evil of people. Liked it all, except the very end.
      The Little Sisters of Eluria - felt like reading a novel. I liked the story, it made me want to read the Dark Tower series.
      Everything's Eventual - liked the story, and the idea of the job Dinky has. It was an interesting existance.
      L. T.'s Theory of Pets - enjoyed the story, but not sure what happened at the very end. The Axe Man?
      The Road Virus Heads North - scary, scary story
      Lunch at the Gotham Café - liked the story, except for the very end.
      That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French - Creepy, the story was unveiled slowly
      1408 - scary, but not the scariest in the book
      Riding the Bullet - liked it, an interesting dilemma for Alan.
      Luckey Quarter - I liked the fantasy.
      So overall, I enjoyed the book. I like the short story format. Easy to just read one or two as time allows. Stephen King is good at writing short stories.
    • 4/5
      I think many (most?) King fans will admit that King is at his best in the short form. King's full-length novels can sometimes ramble and fail to end, while his short works exploit the horrifying imagination that has made him famous. This collection generally holds to that truism, with the stories ranging from thoughtful to straight-up horrifying. In my opinion, none of the stories are duds but "That Feeling You Can Only Say What It Is in French" and the title story, "Everything's Eventual" are real standouts. I will say that I was surprised by how many of these stories had no really supernatural/horror element to them and simply relied on the everyday cruelties people carry out to tell the story. It was an interesting mix for someone whose name is so synonymous with the horror genre.
    • 5/5
      Solid! These 14 stories are vintage Stephen King. Scary, violent, thought-provoking, and mixed with his own particular brand of humor and irony. These beauties are highly reminiscent of some of the best of the original Twilight Zone episodes. I loved every one of them. Highly recommended for King fans and those who like a variety of his mastery of the genre'.
    • 5/5
      I think this collection includes some of my favorite stories by King that I've read to date.First, there were two Dark Tower connected stories in this book, "The Little Sisters of Eluria," which follows a younger Roland still early in his pursuit of Walter and his quest for the Dark Tower, and "Everything's Eventual," which follows a young man named Dinky Earnshaw who is suddenly and curiously employed by the mysterious TransCorp due to his very unique ability. This second story, as I understand it, will play an important part in later Dark Tower books.Many of the other tales seem to riff on classic writing fare, especially for horror writers, but are presented with that classic Stephen King style. Stories in this ilk include "Riding the Bullet," which King originally wrote as an instructional piece for his On Writing, but liked it enough to send it out to be published. Other tales that fit some of the classic tropes are "The Road Virus Heads North," "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What it Is in French," "The Man in the Black Suit," "Autopsy Room Four," and, of course, "1408," which I've wanted to read since I first saw the trailer for the film. Of course after reading "1408," I immediately wanted to see the movie, only to find that it isn't available on either of the streaming sites I'm subscribed to.Top stories in this collection, aside from "Little Sisters" and "Everything's Eventual," are "The Death of Jack Hamilton," a nice piece of historical fiction about the final days of the Dillinger gang, "In the Deathroom," in which a reporter finds himself in the worst possible situation, "the aforementioned "Man in the Black Suit," "Autopsy Room Four," and "1408," and, my personal favorite for sheer insanity, "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," which is also the inspiration for the book's cover art.If you want to dip your toes in the waters of Stephen King, I feel like Everything's Eventual is a perfect collection to start with. He will lull you gently into his world with some familiar tropes, then tempt you into the world of the Dark Tower, and then play with your head as only King can. Definitely a pleasure reading this one.
    • 5/5
      Everything's Eventual is a collection of 14 short stories by Stephen King. It contains his story "1408", which has become quite popular when a movie starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson was made of it, and "Everything's Eventual", which gives the book its title. To my mind, the collection, however, is much more than just those two stories. There is not one story in this book that I disliked. In fact, I loved almost every single one. Taken together, they are an outstanding example of Stephen King's story-telling skills.Before I started reading the book I had thought that Stephen King writing a short story was basically impossible. Seeing how long his novels are, I had not thought him capable of using fewer words than usual to tell his stories. This book, however, has proven me wrong - big time. I read the first story "Autopsy Room Four" on the plane and I was captivated instantly. It is about a man who is still alive but paralyzed and who reports the preparations for the autopsy that is soon to be done on him only to be rescued in the last minute. This story was great to get me hooked and I was impressed that King could do short stories as well as he does novels. My personal highlight of the collection was "The Little Sisters of Eluria". Its main character is Roland Deschain, known to King's constant readers as the gunslinger from The Dark Tower novels, and it is set right before the beginning of the first Dark Tower novel. On his way to the tower, Roland encounters strange creatures in a seemingly forgotten town who beat him down. He is rescued by the sisters mentioned in the title of the story. Soon he finds out, though, that he is not completely better off in their care as they have their own motives for keeping him in their company."1408" is a really frightening story. I am not easily scared by what I read, but this story did the trick for me. I had a really strange feeling as soon as the protagonist entered the haunted hotel room 1408. I was alone in my apartment and I read the story right before going to bed. This was probably why it scared me and I could not switch my mind off and go to sleep directly after reading it. Of course, this might be totally different for other readers, and I strongly assume it will be, but King has a way of grabbing your full attention and having you get lost in the story.I will not go on to relate the contents of all the 14 stories in the book, but will just leave you with a strong recommendation to give it a try, even if you usually do not like Stephen King too much. This collection of short stories might change you opinion. 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      I don't think Stephen King was very inspired when he wrote these stories and he indeed more or less says so in the afterword of each one. They are not bad, just not very exciting. Routine exercises. The best one is the first because of the humour.
    • 5/5
      This particular anthology is actually the author's first collection of short stories to be published in almost a decade. According to the introduction, Stephen King is an extraordinarily prolific writer who understandably loves his craft. Apparently, he and his wife also own two radio stations in their hometown of Bangor, Maine - one station is entirely dedicated to sports, and the other one is dedicated to classic rock music. It was while trying to decide how best to boost ratings for the radio station that Stephen King had an epiphany about his own writing career - about just how much he enjoys 'pushing the envelope' with his own writing.While his subsequent attempt at writing a radio play didn't quite work out the way he had expected, the experience served as an education of sorts - as much as a refresher course in the different styles of writing: writing for ebooks, magazines, journals and digests. In choosing which stories would actually be included in this particular anthology, Stephen King turned to a deck of playing cards to help him decide which stories would appear in the contents. He used the entire suit of spades plus a Joker card and shuffled them; the order in which he dealt the cards turned out to be where he would place a story in the contents. The contents features fourteen short stories that range from "the literary stories to the all-out screamers."I must say that in my own opinion, this compilation of stories were all rather different from each other. The synopsis of the book claims that Stephen King takes the reader down a road less traveled - and for a very good reason - and I do have to agree with that particular claim. I found this book to be if not easy reading, certainly relatively fast reading. I would give this book an A!To be perfectly honest, while there were some stories that were middle of the road for me, I also liked quite a few of the stories as well. I suppose that the two that would stand out the most for me would be: 'The Death of Jack Hamilton', which was about a subject that I don't usually like reading about: gangsters in the 1930s. The second story that I really enjoyed - I may even call it my favorite one of the anthology - was actually the twelfth story in collection: '1408'. I also have watched the 2007 movie that stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.
    • 4/5
      These stories are already a nice balance in themselves: eerie and spare, chilling and vivid, full of strong voices and real characters getting a jolt of terror out of an ordinary day. Like the horror writer in "The Road Virus Heads North," who stops off at a yard sale on his way home. Or the divorcing couple who get the true measure of one another in a bloody encounter with a maitre d' in "Lunch at the Gotham Café." Or the woman in the acidulous marriage whose sense of déjà vu keeps getting sickeningly stronger on her second honeymoon in "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French." One of King's least favorite stories, (his choice when asked), that was first published in "The New Yorker," reveals the roots of an old man's fear in a boyhood encounter with the devil on an idyllic stretch of trout stream in rural Maine. Another "New Yorker" story, "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away," is a poignant, haunting tale of a lonely traveling salesman whose graffiti collection engenders a life or death dilemma.

      Not one of the fourteen stories disappointed me; they were varied: humorous, reflective, and scary. This book is really for King fans who've read all of his other works. If you haven't read the classics, read those first, then read this book - otherwise you'll never know how good King really is.
    • 4/5
      Really quite good. I think King's short stories are generally much much better than his novels. They're short, to-the-point, don't go off on tangents, and usually pack a punch.

      The title story, Everything's Eventual, is great too... Did anyone ever read the kid's book, "The Girl With the Silver Eyes"? It's kinda like that - but realistic!

      There's also a truly creepy story about a ghosthunter in a haunted hotel room... and many more!
    • 5/5
      King is truly a literary genius in this! As much as I liked the novels he's written that I read, I totally agree with colinmoon's review: his short stories are intense and captivating and at times, too short.

      Autopsy Room Four is the scariest thing I have ever read.. at times I felt my heart was going to beat out of my body. Everything's Eventual was one I re-read as soon as I finished it (King's writing is perfect for that because you always discover something the second time around). "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" was great too and it was weird at the same time - I had thought of a great idea for a short story the day before I read it and both have a similar plotline dealing with deja vu.. very weird! And of course, the reason why I read the book, "1408" is great and I hope the movie is just as good.
    • 4/5
      King put it all together in this book. I will admit there were a few stories that I wish he would have finished (I know they are finished but I wanted a conclusion!!). It was a great read that you don't often get from other authors -- where one is willing to show you some of the other works that just are not a novel. If he keeps writing them...I will keep reading them!
    • 3/5
      This is a vast improvement on King's previous two collections, but still the quality is highly variable. At the bottom of the deck you have The Little Sisters of Eluria. This was so bad it had me wincing in embarrassment for the author. It reads like sub-standard fan-fiction. At the other end of the scale you have things like 1408. The first half in particular has some fine writing. My favourite though is All That You Love Will Be Carried Away. The best piece of grafitti I've ever seen is in the gents' at the Free Trade Inn here in Newcastle. It reads "Whale vaginas are over rated as gloves". I like to think proper research was undertaken.
    • 5/5
      Stephen King quotes Amy Tan in his introduction to 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft' that as far as popular novelists are concerned 'No one ever asks about the language' - well, the stories in this collection are all about the language - just as much as the stories themselves.
    • 4/5
      I don't know what to say of this book. It was okay, I guess. Still, I feel that some of the tales could have easily had a whole book just for them. The fact that they were "reduced" to be short stories somewhat took the magic away from them. 1408 and The Road Virus Heads North, for an instance, were excellent stories with an excellent, well-structured background and potential to make a whole epic saga. Unfortunately, they had very bland endings. Not unfitting or stupid, just... not what they could be.
      Other than this, Everything's Eventual has great short-stories, most of them very fun to read, the best of them, in my opinion, being The Little Sisters of Eluria. This is not Stephen King's best work, but it still definitely worth reading.