ONAT LOPERA

I picked up this book from my uncle probably last year together with other Stephen King’s books and I haven’t got time to read then.

And last night, armed with a guava leaf as my bookmark, I closed the book for good.

Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew, an old yet timeless classic from the King of horror compiling 22 of his uniquely unnerving short stories (with 2 poems) that he had written from late 60’s to the mid 80’s.

I couldn’t find an image of the same cover on the net so I scanned it. And as my second quote (first one was on this):

“It was a kiss to remember, chilling and baffling while it lasted.”
- Onat Lopera, ONATLOPERA.COM

Having said that it’s a collection of short stories, I didn’t have that “urge” to flip and read through the entire pages one after the other (like what I did on all Harry Potter books). The story not ends, but halts after a few pages. Short. And once I had reached that, I feel content and put down the book for now to be scared again tomorrow or maybe later on the day. I turned it into Twilight Zone with different episodes on each show. The excitement came from the thought of “what would the next story be?” King mentioned it on the book that reading novels are like “having long and satisfying affair” but on short stories, it was more like “a kiss in the dark from a stranger”, and it did felt like it.

From a mist of death, a toy from hell, a weird shortcut, a floating blob on the water, a thing with God-like powers, a handshake, a beautiful hitchhiker, “Fornits” and a frozen reach; they were uncanny, disturbing and downright bizarre. But there is this one story that really got me, including the fact that I read it in the dark accompanied only with a single burning candle (and whatever that is unknown) on the room upstairs because we got struck badly then. It was “Cain Rose Up”, after reading it, I remember I ducked and looked on the windows that night wondering if I am being watched. It sent shivers straight down to my spine.

Going through every page (and I mean every damn page), on the review-section, there is one comment that describes the book well:

STEPHEN KING takes the reader by the hand and leads him slowly to the haunted house, then shoves him inside and locks the door.
-Playboy

I recommend this to those who daunt on the thought of reading pages and pages of a story and not getting anything from it, for the impatient (because some of them are really short), the adventurous and to those who would like to be kissed in the dark by a stranger.