 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another Stephen King review. I'm going back over all of the books that I have not reviewed on the channel and if you're sitting there thanking, hey, he already reviewed this one, I have not. I've doubled and triple checked. You're probably thinking of my Thursday Theorist for different seasons. This is Stephen King's first novella collection and everything but the final story I believe has been adapted. Everything but the breathing method, I'm pretty sure. I'm going to go through and just make sure. Yeah, everything but the breathing method and I'm not sure how you could actually, I don't know, I don't know that you could, maybe it could be added to something like the reboot of Ghost Story or something because Peter Straub, the same, this is, this might be a spoiler but if you've read the breathing method you'll know what I'm talking about. I don't want to get into spoiler territory here. So first off, this beautiful book, I'm calling it beautiful just not, not only because the cover is very, very cool. I think it's King's first really good cover but also because the stories in here are beautiful, beautifully disturbing. All of that stuff and it is broken up into the seasons. We are going to go over one by one by one. Now the first one is Hope Springs Eternal. The story for that one is Rita Hayworth and say with me now the Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne in red, all that stuff. If you haven't seen the Shawshank Redemption, it is one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever filmed period. It's very close to the book. But anyways, about the story itself, I like this one a lot. It's really, really damn good and every single, this is one of the, I think it is the only one. This is the only Stephen King novella collection that I like. I love, sorry, love every single story in here for different reasons. The reason I love this one is because the way it plays out, it's an iconic story about a man wrongfully accused of a murder, being sent to prison, meeting a friend and just all the little touches that Stephen King added like the chess pieces and Andy's abuse and rape while he's in prison, all of that stuff. It's a very poignant tale of a man fighting for his life and it's a very short retelling, I believe, of the Count of Monte Cristo. I was going to say Monte Crisco and I don't know why. It's like, no, it's not lard or whatever Crisco is. I've never actually had this stuff. Yeah, right, never mind. Anyways, so the first, that first story, I absolutely love it and you're going to hear that a lot. It's fantastic. I love it. It's just the way I talk when I don't have my thoughts written down on paper. But we're going to jump directly from that to Summer of Corruption with Apt Pupil. This one, Jonathan Renfrow, I believe, and Ian McKellen were in the adaptation. I think the adaptation was serviceable. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it for what it was. The story, of course, is much more in depth. It's much darker, I feel. The oven, stove, whatever you want to call it in your neck of the woods, that scene is very disturbing to anyone. But anyways, especially with the connotations of who, I don't want to say Ian McKellen, I forget the character's name, the old man, who the old man is and his history. He was a Nazi and the little boy, not the little boy, but the teenager that Jonathan Renfrow plays. I hope it's the right actor. Anyways, it doesn't matter. The boy in this, the teenager, finds out this man's past and they have probably one of the most disturbing relationships that isn't anything like sexual. Don't get that out of your head. But it's one of the most disturbing relationships I've ever read. So I love Apt Pupil as well. I would give every single story in here five stars, but I'm repeating myself. I don't do it all the time, don't I? Anyways, but Apt Pupil is another favorite of mine. It's one of those that you kind of read like this, with your eyes covered and peeking through your fingers, because you know terrible things are coming. And we're going to jump right from that into fall from innocence. I like the word play there with the body, which was of course made into the absolutely stunning movie Stand by Me. In fact, when people reference this story, they usually call it Stand by Me. It's so iconic. But the story is actually called The Body and it revolves for friends who go out to find a body. It's like, hey guys, would you like to see a dead body? And they go out looking for Ray Bauer? I don't think it's Bauer. I think it's Bauer. They go out looking for a boy who is hit by a train, and the adventure they go on is like none other. In fact, damn near, if they don't compare it to it, every single coming of age story ever written, no matter what is going on in it, it does not matter. People bring up Stand by Me or The Body. It is that iconic that it has changed pop culture. It has changed the references. And it has made people think that every single story about a group of kids is either ripping off or taking pieces away from what's Stand by Me or The Body. Even so much as my debut novel under this name, Bay's End, is constantly compared to The Body. Whereas I used Voice in the Night by Dean Coons and The Traveling Vampire Show. Those were my inspirations for that. I hadn't even read The Body when I'd seen the movie, but I hadn't even read The Body before I wrote Bay's End. Anyways, so going from that one, we're going into the final one, which is A Winter's Tale, and that is The Breathing Method. The breathing method I can't talk about at all, because to tell you what the story is about, other than old men sitting around telling each other stories, horror stories, or what have you, it is a very condensed version of Peter Straub's ghost story. And I think it works. It definitely works, because in this novella more than any other one in this collection has a very unique visual stamp on my memory that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. Well, there is no movie, but it has nothing to do with a movie adaptation. Of course, when I read, I see Tim Robbins in Shawshank. I see him as Andy Dufresne. I see the people who played those roles in my head, but with this one, the horror of this one, the ending of this one has been imprinted right in my gray matter. You got it. But it's one of the most disturbing things I can think of. When people ask me, you know, what's the most disturbing thing you've ever read? That comes up. The breathing method, just the name alone kind of gives me chills, because I think to that one scene. But that's all I have to say about different seasons. If you have not read it, it is an absolutely iconic, and I've said it so much, piece of literature in existence. It's one of the most iconic. It changed pop culture, where people say that anything like these stories is being ripped off, whether it be prison stories, or whether it be stories about kids, any number of things. Stephen King, this is one of the things, I think this is his first, okay, I'm gonna upset some people. I think this is his first truly fantastic work of art, where I don't have a single criticism for anything in it. And I like it even more than Firestarter, and you guys saw my review of Firestarter. But if you want to argue with me about that, or debate, or just discuss that down there in the doobly-doo, I'd love to hear from you. But if you read different seasons, tell me what you thought of the novellas themselves, or the movie adaptations, doesn't matter. Let me know all that down there in the doobly-doo. But tell me why you loved it, hated it, or felt mad about it in detail, so that we can have a discussion. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another Stephen King review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!