Mile 81 by Stephen King
Mile 81
by Stephen King
(Audio)
2 discs-short and sweet.
The back cover describes the title story as Stand by Me meets Christine. I, on the other hand, thought it was more like It meets Christine. The basic premise is a kid named Pete Simmons who has an adventure to an abandoned rest area at Mile 81 of the highway. While he's sleeping inside (there was Vodka involved) a muddy car pulls up and proceeds to eat every adult who stops to see what a car would be doing there. Pete saves the day, the horse, and the two little kids who watched their parents get eaten by the car. And how does he do it? By using simple kid logic that, because he's a kid in a Stephen King story, works. (That's why it reminds me so much of It). I loved this very modern story, the realistic kid reactions, and the beauty and simplicity of the solution. It felt new and classic at the same time.
On the disc is also a bonus story, "The Dune." I called the "twist" ending about halfway in, but it was still an enjoyable story about a lawyer who has been visiting an island since he was ten. On the dune of the island there are sometimes names written--the names of people who will soon die. Now he's old, working on his final will, and sees the name of someone he knows on the dune.
And then there's an excerpt from 11/22/63, a book I've been wanting to read for a few years now anyway. This actually made me want to read it less... I'm not a big fan of excerpt previews taken out of context so I should have stopped while I was ahead.