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The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories

Unabridged Audio Book

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Audio Book Summary

Winner of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award

Includes the story “Premium Harmony”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

The masterful #1 New York Times bestselling story collection from O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King that includes twenty-one iconic stories with accompanying autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write (or rewrite) each one.

For more than thirty-five years, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he introduces each story with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

As Entertainment Weekly said about this collection: “Bazaar of Bad Dreams is bursting with classic King terror, but what we love most are the thoughtful introductions he gives to each tale that explain what was going on in his life as he wrote it.'

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. In “Afterlife,” a man who died of colon cancer 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. Others address what happens when someone discovers that 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 names written in the sand, 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.

“I made these stories especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”

Stories include:
-Mile 81
-Premium Harmony
-Batman and Robin Have an Altercation
-The Dune
-Bad Little Kid
-A Death
-The Bone Church
-Morality
-Afterlife
-Ur
-Herman Wouk Is Still Alive
-Under the Weather
-Blockade Billy
-Mister Yummy
-Tommy
-The Little Green God of Agony
-Cookie Jar
-That Bus Is Another World
-Obits
-Drunken Fireworks
-Summer Thunder

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Reviews

  • Mike M.

    I'm a big SK fan and even bigger short story fan. Nothing can compare to Skeleton crew or Let it Bleed. This just didnt do anything for me. Giving it 3 stars is a gift. Only one stand out story, maybe two.....

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  • Chris G.

    I enjoyed some of the stories, however the majority were not that good.

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  • Tina G.

    It seemed like there was a lot of just filler items. When the finished I felt like it never got to a good part, just a random story about nothing. There were one or two stories that were worth listening to at all. Definitely not worth the money to listen to. Very disappointed.

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  • Christopher K.

    Awesome collection of stories. Loved it!

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  • Nicholas I

    Excellent stories, great mix of stories

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  • Anne R

    Love his discussion of the authors who influenced the stories. As a writer this is enlightening . A lot of the authors are faves of mine as well!

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  • Juha R

    Great King quality. I love Kings short stories, some are even better than hes novels:). Master of suspence and horror. Narration is good, many different narrators, including King himself!

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  • Sajan Parikh

    This is a pretty great collection of King's shorts. It's not the best, but does have a lot and they are all decent. There was some new stuff too. If anything, grab this collection for The Dune alone! The narrators vary from decent to great, none of them were terrible. Overall, this is a great value and includes a lot.

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  • gina guice

    Love Stephen King, his books always would keep me in suspense. I love many of his stories in this volume. However, there's a few stories that didnt have that wow factor for me.

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  • Lisa Verdugo

    Love Stephen King's short stories. This collection was pretty good, and a handful I really enjoyed, but I didn't think it was his best. Some of the narrators were very difficult to listen to. I understand what he was trying to do with Drunken Fireworks, but I couldn't get past the annoying narration long enough to enjoy the story. I would still recommend the book overall, especially if you are a "constant reader".

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