By: Stephen King
Plot:
Willa - A tragic train accident leaves souls confused about what to do with themselves in the afterlife.
The Gingerbread Girl - Tragedies cause a woman to reinvent herself. She takes up running and she moves to Florida. While taking a long run through a rich neighborhood, she stumbles across something terrifying.
Harvey's Dream - Premonitions abound in this short tale where dreams can become a tragic reality.
Rest Stop - You will ask yourself the classic question: "What would you do?" in this tale where a writer, John Dykstra, stops at a rest stop on his way home, and finds himself eavesdropping on a classic case of domestic abuse.
Stationary Bike - Richard Sifkitz, a commercial artist, gets staggering results from his physical that causes him to change his habits. The only problem is that there are others that relied on his old eating ways.
The Things They Left Behind - After 9/11, Survivor Scott Staley has a hard time getting over the fact that an inner voice told him to stay home and not go to work at The World Trade Center on that fateful day. When items from the victims start appearing in his apartment, things go from bad to worse.
Graduation Afternoon - A girl tries to enjoy her graduation at her boyfriend's wealth Connecticut suburban home. All that changes when she witnesses an atomic bomb drop on Manhattan.
N - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder takes a front seat in the story narrative as a man called only N tells his story of how he uses his compulsion to keep a monster from another reality called Cthun from entering our realm. The only problem is that N's delusion is highly contagious.
The Cat From Hell - "The Cat came back, the very next day..." sums up this tale of a professional hitman getting paid 12,000 dollars to take out a cat.
The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates - A wife receives a phone call from her husband 2 days after his death from the afterlife. He has some chilling information about the future because time works funny in his realm of existence.
Mute - In a confession booth, Monette tells the story of how he picked up a hitchhiker that he thought couldn't hear or talk. He tells the priest that he confesses his wife's crazy lifestyle (cheating, embezzlement, etc.) to the hitchhiker. The hitchhiker eventually thanks Monette for the ride in the most drastic way.
Ayanna - A narrator recounts his father's battle with Pancreatic cancer, and how a 7 year old blind girl named Ayanna performs a miracle he will never forget. This opens up a world of "pay it forward" miracles for the narrator.
A Very Tight Place - Curtis Johnson is very distraught over the loss of his dog, who died by being fried on his neighbor's intentional electric fence. This causes a legal battle that breeds even more hate between Curtis and his neighbor, Tim Grunwald. Tim decides to lure Curtis to an old construction site, where he will lock Curtis in a Port-A-Potty to die.
Review: The best of these stories in this compilation live up to the name Just After Sunset because the deal with the after sunset of people's lives. Willa really invokes the reader to question their thoughts on post-death logistics. Graduation Afternoon is frightfully scary with all the apocalyptic trimmings. The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates really warms the heart, and is sad all at the same time. This complexity makes the story compelling. A Very Tight Place deserves an honorable mention because the tale is absolutely disgusting, but also packed with the nail-biting suspense that traps the reader as well. The review ends up at 3 stars because the other stories are a little played out and don't offer new ideas to keep the reader intrigued.
Discussion: The book really discusses the idea of existence after death. Do you believe you will exist after death?
Willa - A tragic train accident leaves souls confused about what to do with themselves in the afterlife.
The Gingerbread Girl - Tragedies cause a woman to reinvent herself. She takes up running and she moves to Florida. While taking a long run through a rich neighborhood, she stumbles across something terrifying.
Harvey's Dream - Premonitions abound in this short tale where dreams can become a tragic reality.
Rest Stop - You will ask yourself the classic question: "What would you do?" in this tale where a writer, John Dykstra, stops at a rest stop on his way home, and finds himself eavesdropping on a classic case of domestic abuse.
Stationary Bike - Richard Sifkitz, a commercial artist, gets staggering results from his physical that causes him to change his habits. The only problem is that there are others that relied on his old eating ways.
The Things They Left Behind - After 9/11, Survivor Scott Staley has a hard time getting over the fact that an inner voice told him to stay home and not go to work at The World Trade Center on that fateful day. When items from the victims start appearing in his apartment, things go from bad to worse.
Graduation Afternoon - A girl tries to enjoy her graduation at her boyfriend's wealth Connecticut suburban home. All that changes when she witnesses an atomic bomb drop on Manhattan.
N - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder takes a front seat in the story narrative as a man called only N tells his story of how he uses his compulsion to keep a monster from another reality called Cthun from entering our realm. The only problem is that N's delusion is highly contagious.
The Cat From Hell - "The Cat came back, the very next day..." sums up this tale of a professional hitman getting paid 12,000 dollars to take out a cat.
The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates - A wife receives a phone call from her husband 2 days after his death from the afterlife. He has some chilling information about the future because time works funny in his realm of existence.
Mute - In a confession booth, Monette tells the story of how he picked up a hitchhiker that he thought couldn't hear or talk. He tells the priest that he confesses his wife's crazy lifestyle (cheating, embezzlement, etc.) to the hitchhiker. The hitchhiker eventually thanks Monette for the ride in the most drastic way.
Ayanna - A narrator recounts his father's battle with Pancreatic cancer, and how a 7 year old blind girl named Ayanna performs a miracle he will never forget. This opens up a world of "pay it forward" miracles for the narrator.
A Very Tight Place - Curtis Johnson is very distraught over the loss of his dog, who died by being fried on his neighbor's intentional electric fence. This causes a legal battle that breeds even more hate between Curtis and his neighbor, Tim Grunwald. Tim decides to lure Curtis to an old construction site, where he will lock Curtis in a Port-A-Potty to die.
Review: The best of these stories in this compilation live up to the name Just After Sunset because the deal with the after sunset of people's lives. Willa really invokes the reader to question their thoughts on post-death logistics. Graduation Afternoon is frightfully scary with all the apocalyptic trimmings. The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates really warms the heart, and is sad all at the same time. This complexity makes the story compelling. A Very Tight Place deserves an honorable mention because the tale is absolutely disgusting, but also packed with the nail-biting suspense that traps the reader as well. The review ends up at 3 stars because the other stories are a little played out and don't offer new ideas to keep the reader intrigued.
Discussion: The book really discusses the idea of existence after death. Do you believe you will exist after death?
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