# Best story in Stephen King's Night Shift? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709 "2010-09-14T11:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/21 "2010-09-14T17:37:18Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The Ledge is a great story just begging for a great movie. > > Finally scene: Close up on protagonist’s face, gun in hand:You’ve never been known to welsh on a bet. \ But I have. \ > i think Jim Parsons would be good in the role. They did that in the movie, “Cat’s Eye”, along with Quitter’s Inc. and The General. Really well done, too. IMHO. > **[Cat's Eye (1985) ⭐ 6.3 | Comedy, Drama, Horror](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088889/)** > > 1h 34m | PG-13 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/22 "2010-09-14T18:24:26Z")
_Strawberry Spring_ is my all-time favorite King story. Enormously atmospheric (literally!), and very true to the feel of the time and place (small New England liberal arts college in the '60s and early '70s). Until recently, I always assumed there was some supernatural goings on, but upon re-reading it, there are no eldrich goings-on of any kind, which makes the story that much more plausible - and hence, creepier. The story takes place over many years, and towards the end the narrator begins to suspect that he may in fact be the killer. Plus, it has one of King all-time best endings [spoiler]My wife is crying in the other room. She thinks I was with another woman last night. And, oh dear God, I think so, too.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/23 "2010-09-14T22:04:17Z")
The Boogeyman was a great old-fashioned monster story. Children of the Corn was also great, too. I love the “creepy-little-town” motif. I hated Strawberry Spring…so boring! Sometimes they Come Back was great, nice and unsettling. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/24 "2010-09-14T22:36:23Z")
The Boogeyman is my favorite. There’s just something so desperately wrong with behaving the way the father in that story did that makes it so powerful. ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/25 "2010-09-14T22:41:03Z")
_The Last Rung on the Ladder_ is one of the few stories that has moved me to tears. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/26 "2010-09-14T23:23:48Z")
Been a long time since I have re-read it, but I am going to have to go with _The Mangler_. I loved the part where the detective tries ever so delicately to ask the girl about her virginity. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/27 "2010-09-15T00:17:00Z")
Jeez, there’s a lot of first-rate short stories in that book. And not all pure horror; “Quitters, Inc.” and “Battleground” show King doesn’t need ghosts and goblins. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/28 "2010-09-15T02:06:29Z")
Sorry for the editorial comment, but to me these earlier short story collections highlight the younger, lean & hungry Stephen King vs. the older, bloated & self indulgent one. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/29 "2010-09-15T02:08:19Z")
> [@5\_time\_champ](#): > > Been a long time since I have re-read it, but I am going to have to go with _The Mangler_. I loved the part where the detective tries ever so delicately to ask the girl about her virginity. My sister used to live with a guy who owned a commercial laundry, and I got a tour one day. It’s horrific enough even without the Ghost in the Machine. ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/30 "2010-09-15T02:15:17Z")
It was close between \*Children of the Corn \*and **Graveyard Shift** , but the image of those soft, plump blind rats gathering in the dark is enough to give me a full body shudder, so that’s the one I went with. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/31 "2010-09-15T03:38:35Z")
I think of “The Mangler” often, so I have to go with that one. I mean, I think how on earth could you film that without it looking ridiculous, and you can’t. But it scared the hell out of me when I read it. And you guys mention the rats one. Yep, that one touched me as well. I need to find a copy to give to my 13 yo daughter. Thank you for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/32 "2010-09-15T04:58:42Z")
My little brother was two years old when I read _The Boogeyman_ (I was fourteen) … and that shit fucked me up good. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/33 "2010-09-15T06:29:18Z")
I voted for \*The Boogeyman \*as well. That ending freaked me totally out. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/34 "2010-09-15T12:22:24Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > I need to find a copy to give to my 13 yo daughter. Thank you for this thread. I lent mine to my thirteen year old boy, and told him not to read The Boogeyman just before bed. But I knew he would. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709/35 "2010-09-16T18:26:13Z")
Strawberry Spring was just so ethereal and so horrible- our worst nightmare, being a monster within. What a good collection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-night-shift/553709.md?page=1)