Book Review: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King | Published: 2015

As I was reading this collection, I kept thinking to myself I thought I liked Stephen King’s shorts. Is that because I read them when I was young and impressionable and didn’t realize there were such things as badly written books? It’s true I hadn’t read King in a while. Ever since I tried to read Under the Dome right after World War Z (which turned out to be my favorite book, oddly enough), any illusions I had that King’s novels were good were shattered. I did like his short stories, however. Nice little tasty bits of horror. Long enough for a good plot, but short enough to not get too invested in doomed characters. I’ve read so many of his short story collections growing up and I remember them fondly.

It was my plan to read this on my breaks at work and the first chance I got, I nestled into a comfy chair, lit up my kindle and…

Why aren’t these good? Don’t I love his short stories?

We start off with a story about a boy, but it’s really about an alien car that eats people. It goes from the boy to the car in a very meandering way. Once we get to the car, it becomes a very redundant death march. Good Samaritan pulls over to help car. Good Samaritan is eaten by car. Second Good Samaritan sees two cars (which, I mean, I would assume the situation is being taken care of at that point and not stop, but whatevs) and decides they should help too and promptly are eaten. Third Good Samaritan…(good gravy! Is this story just going to end with a long line of empty cars and an alien car full of Good Samaritans?!?) It doesn’t but the end is not very satisfying.

And that’s how we start off this book. However, a month after reading this, my brain has sorted out the Meh stories and remembers the Better stories with a rosy hue. I did like the story about the women driving with their kids, but I think I only like it because the idea was interesting, not because King executed the story well. I also liked the one about the Kindle but again, because the idea of having a Kindle with access to parallel universes is a cool idea, not exactly because the story was good.

But then there was a story about baseball. A long story about baseball. A long, uninteresting, not scary, play-by-play-of-the-game story about baseball. Unforgivable. I can’t believe King tricked me into reading a boring story about baseball with my own face eyes.

I almost gave this book three stars because it ends on a high note. I like me some end-of-the-world stories and I was digging it, but then I realized it was just On the Beach but set in New England with a dog instead of a baby (so not nearly as tragic). Also, I just can’t get over the fact that I read a novella about baseball. This gets two stars from me.