Yay, more The Barrens. I'm a bit behind on a lot of Substacks at the moment, so catching on posts but great to see this just hit my inbox. I actually remember reading this one, which is strange because I haven't read Night Shift itself, but maybe a friend had it and I just picked this one to read at random (and I definitely didn't have a copy of Penthouse 😆).
Great read and summary, thanks Shaina. Really like what King did with the shift in tense at the end. You don't see that often.
“What’s in the box? What’s in the box?!” from the movie “Seven” went through my head as you described the mysterious bag in the opening scene. I loved your commentary on the tennis ankles. I needed that factoid because it makes the situation more believable. Average American would not be able to shimmy around a building for three hours. Those arduous hours reminds me of the iron grip I had for a particular drive in a blizzard once. One small mistake could mean utter ruin and you feel completely exhausted afterwards. I too like it when the protagonist can reverse the situation, particularly when it is the exact same challenge. I want to think of other examples but none come to mind right now. Thank you for including the audio! Made my drive today a lot more fun.
I enjoy this one, for all the reasons you sighted. Not much to add in fact. It's interesting to compare this one to Dolan's Cadillac which is similar in theme (revenge taken against a wealthy crime boss) but totally different in terms of pace and layout etc. In both stories King shows his mastery of tension building.
I have not seen the film. As you and others have noted before in The Barrens, King's film adaptations are, shall we say, inconsistent? Slater is good at what he does, and I enjoy the story. In recent years I've become skeptical of movie length adaptations drawn from relevantly short source material. For some reason, I feel like I was aware(years ago) that the movie was made, then subsequently forgot. Perhaps I'll check it out...
Yay, more The Barrens. I'm a bit behind on a lot of Substacks at the moment, so catching on posts but great to see this just hit my inbox. I actually remember reading this one, which is strange because I haven't read Night Shift itself, but maybe a friend had it and I just picked this one to read at random (and I definitely didn't have a copy of Penthouse 😆).
Great read and summary, thanks Shaina. Really like what King did with the shift in tense at the end. You don't see that often.
“What’s in the box? What’s in the box?!” from the movie “Seven” went through my head as you described the mysterious bag in the opening scene. I loved your commentary on the tennis ankles. I needed that factoid because it makes the situation more believable. Average American would not be able to shimmy around a building for three hours. Those arduous hours reminds me of the iron grip I had for a particular drive in a blizzard once. One small mistake could mean utter ruin and you feel completely exhausted afterwards. I too like it when the protagonist can reverse the situation, particularly when it is the exact same challenge. I want to think of other examples but none come to mind right now. Thank you for including the audio! Made my drive today a lot more fun.
I enjoy this one, for all the reasons you sighted. Not much to add in fact. It's interesting to compare this one to Dolan's Cadillac which is similar in theme (revenge taken against a wealthy crime boss) but totally different in terms of pace and layout etc. In both stories King shows his mastery of tension building.
I have not seen the film. As you and others have noted before in The Barrens, King's film adaptations are, shall we say, inconsistent? Slater is good at what he does, and I enjoy the story. In recent years I've become skeptical of movie length adaptations drawn from relevantly short source material. For some reason, I feel like I was aware(years ago) that the movie was made, then subsequently forgot. Perhaps I'll check it out...