Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Fiction > King in Brief

King in Brief

Everything's Eventual by Stephen King

February 27, 2020 by jeverett15 Leave a Comment

Everything’s Eventual is a collection of fourteen stories, all of which were published in the ’90s or very early 2000s. Occasionally that comes through with halting references to email or other tech stuff of that era, but for the most part the stories are somewhat timeless. Quality-wise they are a mixed bag, as I suppose all short story collections are. I’ve been reading this collection inbetween other books for a few months new, so in writing this review I struggled to remember what the lesser stories were even about. On the whole, this is not as strong as Night Shift, the only other King collection I have read, but there are a few stone-cold classics that make Everything’s Eventual worth a read.

In full disclosure, I did skip one story in this collection, “The Little Sisters of Elluria”, because it ties in to the Dark Tower series and I have not yet read any of them.

The title story is a highlight, featuring a first-person narrator slowly revealing the nature of his mysterious employment and the supernatural talent that enables it. The title itself is a humorous mantra the narrator has taken from a dim-witted co-worker, and King’s deployment of it is a clever touch.

“All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” is the kind of story that keeps me coming back to King’s work. It’s a strange idea you can’t imagine anyone else doing something with, and while it could have been ridiculous, King makes something devastating out of a traveling salesman who’s only hobby is collecting the absurd writings he finds on truck-stop bathroom stall walls.

King ordered the stories at random by dealing out playing cards 2-A, so it’s just a coincidence that most of my favorite stories are clustered near the end. I really enjoyed five of the last six stories, with the disappointing “1408” being the only exception. That story’s premise of a uniquely haunted hotel room has a lot of potential but King’s deployment of it felt lacking. As for the other five, they include my ultimate favorite of the collection, “Riding the Bullet”, which is utterly captivating and inimitably creepy.

As you’d expect, some of the stories are extremely odd. “Lunch at the Gotham Cafe” never bothers to explain the insanity at its center, but is all the eerier for it. “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French” is a well-executed piece of horror. The collection closes on a grace note in “Luckey Quarter”, in which a chambermaid’s unusual tip has surprising consequences.

While not essential King, Everything’s Eventual will satisfy any Constant Reader.

Filed Under: Fiction, Horror Tagged With: Stephen King

jeverett15's CBR12 Review No:7 · Genres: Fiction, Horror · Tags: Stephen King ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

About jeverett15

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR  9CBR 8

35 years old. Lifelong New Jersey resident. Fan of mystery novels, classic literature, and non-fiction about movies, television, sports, and American history. View jeverett15's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • ingres77 on Diving into a complicated re-readI'm lucky, in that I was a huge fan of Mel Gibson as a kid/teenager. Braveheart was the first movie that I really fell in...
  • Zinka on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodWait! Oh my gosh did anyone else read sideways stories from wayside school!? I just remembered that series. I will be hunting those down now...
  • Zinka on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodI did not! I stopped much sooner with sweet valley than boxcar because although I loved that they started twins (I’m a twin) I found...
  • Emmalita on Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: dsbs42I was looking at the website for Pizza Piccomilano and they are either charmingly earnest or hilariously dry. "Potato dishes are potatoes that are baked...
  • Emmalita on A beautiful portrait of a white outsider in 1930s Great Depression KentuckyMy landlady read and loved this book a few months ago. She loved it and talked about it for a good two weeks.
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in