Four novellas. The innocent man in prison. The precocious boy with a dark interest in an old man’s past. The pre-teen boys on the trail of a dead body. The pregnant woman determined to bring her child into the world at any cost. 

 

Out of four stories in this book sprang two of the best-loved adaptations of Stephen King’s work. The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me. Both fantastic stories and ones where the essence of what’s great about them survived the transition to the big screen. 

 

Apt Pupil is probably one of the most hardest to read stories King has ever written. Largely because the characters are all thoroughly unlikeable. It’s still a gripping story. 

 

The Breathing Method remains my favourite in this collection though. The story within a story that it’s named after would be a brilliant short story in it’s own right. It stands on its own literary feet and it intrigues me that the author didn’t choose to present it in that way. I assume it’s because it was in his mind too intrinsically linked to the setting in which it’s told. The mysterious gentleman’s club with untold rooms and strange slithery sounds, which appears the be powered by stories. An idea I find endlessly fascinating, perhaps more so because of the confines of the tale and the unasked and unanswered questions of the protagonist.