Stephen King's Skeleton Crew: B

It's with great relief and satisfaction that I can put this short story collection of King's behind me. And not that it was bad. But at almost six-hundred pages in what has got to be modern day's nine-point font, Skeleton Crew was quite a feat. 

The contents within span an era of about fifteen years--the earliest having been published  by a college-age King. As such, the quality of the stories wax and wane as you peruse past The Mist. And while I will not discuss every story in this, I do want to mention the highlights. Especially after having heard and listened to some unfavorable reviews of Crew.

Mrs. Todd's Shortcut

A rich housewife with too much time on her hands discovers shortcuts around the heavy traffic of Maine, each one increasingly quicker and more fantastical than the last. The narrator, an older local man in her home doing repairs, is subject to listening to these routes by the boastful Mrs. Todd, and doesn't believe a word of them. That is, of course, until they go out for a drive.

Needless to say, this story was written before the days of Waze and Google Maps. And like so many great King stories, the material capitalizes on the lack of modern technology. The visuals we get during their joy ride through wooded Maine stands as some of the creepiest material you can find in this book.

The Raft

Four drunk college students drive out to a lake in western PA for a swim. It's mid-fall, and while the lifeguards are long gone, they neglected to retrieve a giant raft floating in   the middle of the lake. After having braved the temperatures of a Pennsylvania lake in the middle of fall, the four students climb up on the raft, where a giant oil slick floats about in its vicinity.

For no rhyme or reason the slick proceeds to stalk them one by one, consuming three of the four students in a highly disturbing, yet effective manner. If you enjoy this story, there is a decent adaptation of it in George Romero's Creepshow 2.