Like a Hollywood actor or director who’s been in the industry for decades, Stephen King has had ups and downs, and his latest short story anthology is the perfect example of this.

Novel-length stories need a plot, and that’s always been one of King’s biggest strengths as a writer, so even though he’s had some awesome short stories in his career, his long form work has been more consistently cohesive (regardless of whether you like the story he’s telling).

Short stories can be much more about style than substance, and there are a couple of tales in You Like it Darker where it feels like King’s just being experimental, in areas that aren’t his usual wheelhouse, and which don’t really hold up creatively and aren’t very reader-focused.

Then he gives us something like ‘Rattlesnakes’, a rollicking novella that has a vintage King style, an excitement quotient because it’s a direct sequel to one of his classics (Cujo), and a subject he’s always had an assured mastery in (ghosts).

That’s not to say all the longer stories in You Like it Darker succeed, or that the shorter ones fail. ‘Red Screen’ is a neat little zinger, finishing on a soft and silent note that denotes a globe-stopping literary idea. ‘On Slide Inn Road’ is a cautionary tale to remind us not to discount the abilities of the aged.

But even with plenty of room to breathe, several of the longer stories fall over themselves. ‘The Dreamers’ sets up an interesting premise but ends without revealing anything about what was going on, adding layers of staging and setting that don’t need to be there.

Along with ‘Rattlesnakes’, the centrepiece story in the collection is ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream’, where a man has a psychic flash about the location of a murder victim and becomes a suspect. With a defined beginning, middle and end and characters you care about, it feels like King got 90 per cent of the way to a natural ending and just couldn’t figure out how to wrap it up, losing interest and writing a rote, unsatisfying conclusion.

All that said, you’ll breeze through this book in just a few sittings. That might be because his prose is as accessible as ever, or maybe because you’re hoping he’ll come through if you’re a lifelong fan (as so many of us are), but it’s far from his best anthology.

Reviewed by Drew Turney