Different Seasons

by Stephen King

Different Seasons contains four stories with an interlacing of horror that capture the dark corners of our times. In Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, a man convicted of a bloody murder lives in prison brutally ruled by a sadistic warden and secretly run by a con who knows all the ropes and pulls all the strings. He has more brains than anyone else in this sinister slammer, and a diabolically cunning plan of revenge that no one can guess until it's too late. And brace yourself for icy shock in three more stunning novellas of suspense. Four young boys come face to face with life, death and hints of their own mortality...A teenager becomes both the puppet and the puppet master of evil...A disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death. The greatest horror master of our time turns the screws of suspense to lock you into terrifying tension and nerve-tingling twists.

• ISBN10: 035608678X
• ISBN13: 9780356086781
• Publish Date: 11 November 1982
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 March 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Little, Brown
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 468
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

I've resisted reading a lot of King stories but these four were very interesting.

The first was Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption I've seen a few times and I know several people for whom it's a favourite, and the novella is also an interesting read. The story of a prison escape is good.

Apt Pupil, the second story has also been filmed, it's one I haven't seen but it's an interesting story of a older man, a man who was in charge of a concentration camp during the Nazi era and a young man who finds him and mines him for information, the pair of them feed of each other, and not in a good way.

The Body was the source for the film Stand By Me and is also an interesting story of four friend during a summer where they discover the whereabouts of a body. During this journey they find out more about themselves. The asides from the older author are also interesting.

The last story, The Breathing Method, had potential for further stories in the style of the Black Widower series by Isaac Asimov. A man is introduced to a storytelling group of men and finds himself interested in the group and gives some snippets of stories before recounting a maternity story that finishes with a gruesome twist.

All in all an interesting series of stories and I might try a few more, I'll have to pick the brains of a Stephen King fan or two.