The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

Stories

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, Hope Davis, Kathleen Chalfant, Santino Fontana, Peter Friedman

Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Named to the American Library Association’s Reference & User Services (RUSA) Listen List!

Other narrators include: Cotter Smith, Will Patton, Edward Herrmann, Holter Graham, Frederick Weller, Mare Winningham, Craig Wasson, Thomas Sadoski, and Tim Sample.

A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.

Since his first collection, Nightshift, published 35 years ago, Stephen King has dazzled listeners with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

There are thrilling connections between stories, including themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, and what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. "Afterlife" is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers he has supernatural powers: the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in "Obits"; the old judge in "The Dune", who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw written in the sand the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In "Morality", King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil's pact they can win.

Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."

Please note: The audio edition of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams now includes an additional story: "Cookie Jar", narrated by Santino Fontana. Listeners who purchased this title prior to October 2016 can re-download the audio to get the new story.

©2015 Stephen King. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Each narrator is a perfect fit for the stories he or she reads - it's rare to find such a collection with no misses, but it's not unusual for King. Narrating the stories' introductions himself, King makes the listener feel like his confidant every time. Cotter Smith steals the show, masterfully performing several pieces, including the poem 'The Bone Church,' the best performance of the collection." ( AudioFile)

a good look to the past.

Stephen King absolutely killed it in this collection of short stories. it felt like his older stories but with a newer theme. King focused on death and old age a lot when he wrote these, but his overall talent is completely apparent and the whole book feels like night shift, even, or better maybe, you decide.

Best Stephen King Work I've Read

Any additional comments?

Why won't more authors do this? I loved the narration by Steve, I loved hearing what or who inspired him to write, and even if you're not a King fan this is worth every single credit in your account!
All of the narrators nailed it, the stories had me engaged, ALL OF THEM, and there are so many it will have you listening for a while. You see much of the literary King, but also the dark side shows it's teeth from time to time. Poetry has a spot, and there were a lot of older stories that had new life breathed into them. Use your credit or buy it, you won't regret it.
Best book of 2015!

Interesting Mix

This was an interesting collection. I enjoyed the intros to the stories Mr King provided.

Several of the stories really made an impression, most were interesting, only a couple did I not care for--more a personal taste thing than because they were not good.

Some of the ones I liked were the one about the Bad Little Kid, the baseball one about Blockade Billy, The Dune, and the one about Herman Wouk. That last was a sad one.

All the narrators, including Mr King himself, were topnotch. Well worth the credit.

Suggesting Something Else

As a fan, I was pretty impress with "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams" by Stephen King. I'm not going to list all 20 stories and write a synopsis about them, but overall, they were all pretty well done. There are a few that had been retold in the past, but Stephen King put some thought into this collection. In someways, he has become a better storyteller by getting to the point in his short paragraphs instead of a long drawn out novel.

For those of you who are seeking horror from SK, You should try to pickup his early set of novellas.

"Skeleton Crew" is 22 sets of stories from the earlier years from the Master of Horror that are more bazaar than this one. I'm not sure if Audible has the full version, but it's worth searching elsewhere and getting the complete audiobook. Most of those stories are much more horrifying than "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams".

I wouldn't be a true Constant Reader if I could suggest something else.

Great Collection

Each and every story is a wonderful trip into the unexpected, twisted, bazaar, shocking, or in some cases, really sad.

None of the stories I would classify as "horror" - but in there own way, they do terrify. I'm not a big sports fan, but loved the story about Lucky Billy. Also, I kept skipping over the story that started with "something under the bed" because that is one of the things that gives me the most chills. However, this story turned out to be completely different that what I was expecting.- - and don't worry - the under the bed reference is not a spoiler--you find that out in the first 60 seconds.

A lot of the stories deal with the subject of death - what happens when we die, and if there is an "afterlife" at all. Interesting views on the subject.

Adding to the stories, the narration was just excellent. King narrates a few himself. He also gives a little insight into how he came up with the idea for each one, and those little interjections between each story were gems in themselves.

For a short story collection --highly recommended.

Not King's best

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen King again?

Yes, I love Stephen King's stories normally.

Any additional comments?

I love listening to and reading Stephen King's stories. Unfortunately, this was not a collection of his best works. I kept listening, hoping that the next story would be the amazing one. Sadly, that one good, memorable story never came.

King will always be King!

I love Mr. Kings short stories. This book reminded me of the old Alfred Hitchcock show where Mr. Hitchcock did all of the set ups for each story told. It's so much fun to hear the author explain either how the story came to him or what he was doing or experiencing while he wrote it. Humorous, creepy, and thought provoking stories each a gem of it's own. I particularly love "Drunken Fireworks" which is a laugh out loud story where the title is the set up, but the story is phenomenal!

Awesome collection

I've read/listened to damn near everything Mr. King has written but I don't think anything has elicited and emotional response quite like the last story in this collection "Summer Thunder." It's a great short story but it was a bitch on the emotions.

S. King's shorts

Love these short stories. Pure Stephen King.It had his great story telling and scary horror that invaded my dream

great collection

you're sure to find something you like in here. to me this is a great king sampler.