Four Past Midnight
Stephen King

Past midnight, something happens to time, that fragile concept we employ to order our sense of reality. It bends, stretches, turns back, or snaps, and sometimes reality snaps with it. And what happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality shatters, and the glass begins to fly? These four chilling novellas, a feast fit for King fans old and new, provide some shocking answers.
After all, past midnight is Stephen King's favorite time of the day.
One Past Midnight: "The Langoliers" takes a red-eye flight from L.A. to Boston into a most unfriendly sky. Only eleven passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish they hadn't. Something's waiting for them, you see...
Two Past Midnight: "Secret Window, Secret Garden" enters the suddenly strange life of writer Mort Rainey, recently divorced, depressed, and alone on the shore of Tashmore Lake. Alone, that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger.
Three Past Midnight: "The Library Policeman" is set in Junction City, Iowa, an unlikely place for evil to be hiding. But for small businessman Sam Peebles, who thinks he may be losing his mind, another enemy is hiding there as well - the truth. If he can find it in time, he might stand a chance.
Four Past Midnight: The flat surface of a Polaroid photograph becomes, for fifteen year old Kevin Delevan, an invitation to the supernatural. Old Pop Merrill, Castle Rock's sharpest trader, wants to crash the party for profit, but "The Sun Dog", a creature that shouldn't exist at all, is a very dangerous investment.

This is an absolutely fantastic compilation of four novellas by Stephen King. I had both read The Langoliers before and seen the film, but I had not read the others before. Normally I'd pick a favorite and a least favorite in a book that contains more than one story, but I simply cannot do that here. All of the stories are must reads.

The Langoliers takes place when eleven airline passengers wake up to realize that they are the only ones left on a plane that had been full at take off. They must find out what happened and correct it before they are all destroyed. While the movie was very good, this novella is even better. I wanted to try and read it all in one sitting and was disappointed when I had to put it down to get some sleep.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is about a writer who comes face to face with a man who is accusing him of stealing his work. But, as with most works of King, there is more to the accuser than meets the eye. This reminded me strongly of The Dark Half, in a good way.

The Library Policeman is probably the creepiest read in this book. It twists reality for both the characters and the reader and shows that it's not only the supernatural which can be chilling and that some memories are so bad, you must forget them.

The Sun Dog is almost as creepy as The Library Policeman. A Polaroid camera takes pictures of one thing and one thing only, no matter what its pointed at - a dog. But the more pictured that are taken the more the dog changes and moves, until it starts running at the camera and the real world.

As with all of King's novels, each of these novellas have edge of your seat suspense. I wanted to read each one in one sitting even though I needed to sleep at some point. The characters are well rounded and even though all of these deal with some aspects of the supernatural, they all also seem to be real enough to give the reader a good scare.

I would highly recommend this book. If you're a King fan, you need to read this. If you have never read King before, this is a perfect starting place to get a feel for his works.

My rating: Five out of five snails.