Product Description

The scary story has never been the same since. An extraordinary quartet of full-length novellas: The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policeman, and The Sun Dog.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31501 in Books
• Published on: 1991-09-03
• Released on: 2001-06-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 768 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780451170385
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Jet passengers are stuck in a time-slip, a psychopath accuses a writer of plagiarism, a man with an overdue book encounters a demonic librarian and a boy's camera snaps photos of a huge and nasty dog in these four horror novellas. According to PW , "None is wildly scary, and only "The Library Policeman" offers King's typical, colloquial, hard-driving conversational style with its compulsive readability."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-- Like some denizen of the dark, King weaves a spell evoking terror and shivers as he takes readers on a nightmarish journey in this quartet of novellas. In "Longoliers" a group of airline passengers awake to an empty plane, and an empty world. They have become stuck in time, out of sync with the present at 20,000 feet. "Secret Window, Secret Garden" finds novelist Mort Rainey confronted by an eerie character who accuses him of plagiarism, and has come to settle up. In "Sun Dog," Kevin Delevan gets exactly what he wanted for his 15th birthday, a Polaroid "Sun 660" camera, but every picture he takes shows a salivating "hell hound" getting closer and closer. In "Library Policeman," the best of the four, Sam Peebles borrows two books from the library late one night, and the librarian warns him not to be late returning them. What Sam doesn't know is that she was a child murderer who committed suicide in 1960, and when he loses the books, her library policeman pays him a visit. Four Past Midnight is one of King's best recent works. It is hard to put down, truly chilling, and sure to be enjoyed by YA horror aficionados everywhere.
- John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Four spellbinding tales of evil... Can't-tear-your-eyes-away stories."
-Playboy

Customer Reviews

The Once and Future King
I never thought I'd pick up a Stephen King book. The macabre is not an area which interests me; paper cuts produce enough blood to give me nightmares, thank you. However, after watching "Langoliers" on television one evening, I decided I would take a peek at the source material just to see how it compared.

I was honestly amazed. King may be hailed as the Master of the Macabre, but this man is first and foremost a *good writer*--all four of his novellas in this volume drew me in and gave me no choice but to keep turning pages to find out what happened next. It was a pleasant surprise to find so much wit and humor buried amidst the horror, and I can't help but be in awe of a man who can make you laugh out loud in a library one moment and make you hold the book out at arm's length with a mutter of, "Ew," the next.

Like so many others, I would call "Langoliers" my favorite--clever, engaging, and well-paced, it has a delightful coterie of characters and a Twilight Zone-esque plotline. Next would be a toss-up between "Secret Window, Secret Garden" and "Library Policeman." I'm not certain why so many people dislike SWSG; Mort Rainey was perhaps the most strongly drawn character of the lot. And while LP is certainly excellent, it had too much gore for sheer gore's sake to win an unchallenged second favorite slot. (Some say that LP is nothing but perversion. I would disagree. Its scenario is revolting, yes; disconcerting, yes... and entirely too plausible in real life.)

"Sun Dog" is probably the story that cost the book a star in my rating, for while chilling in its way and well-written by all accounts, it seemed the most shallow and downright absurd in retrospect. (Yes, I take the licorice from "Library Policeman" into account when I say that. At least the licorice had symbolism going for it.)

At any rate, I'd suggest that any fan of psychological horror give this book a go. I haven't been converted into a solid Stephen King fan myself, but I have a new respect for him and his talents after reading _Four Past Midnight_.

Past midnight, King is at his best
The shorter Stephen King keeps his stories, the better they often are. "Four Past Midnight" is very effective because he doesn't have room for unnecessary flourishes and simply sticks to the story. The first of the four stories, "The Langoliers," is one of his most imaginative and all time best. The other three stories are also quite good. Frankly, King would be an even better writer if he told all of his stories with the economy of words that he gives the tales in "Four Past Midnight."

Two Really Good, Two Really Bad
That about sums up the novel Four Past Midnight by Stephen King. The book contains four novellas, The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policemen, and The Sun Dog. The first two stores in the novel are the good. The Langoliers is a scary imaginative story that could only come from the mind of Stephen King. The plot is unique as is the theme of the story. Very well written. Secret Window, Secret Garden is a familar story from King. Boy he just loves to reak havoc on those author characters of his doesn't he? I have not read The Dark Half, so I can not comment on how similar the two stories are, but Mort Rainey is a great character and King tells this story well. The final two stories in the novel really ruin the book. The Library Policemen is dumb and really luaghable when you get right down to it. The Sun Dog is done so much better in Cujo that we don't much care for it here, and are bored becuase of how long the story needs to take off. So an overall mix of good and bad here, with a final rating falling somewhere in between there.