Different Seasons by Stephen King

Different Seasons is one of King's novella collections that include some of his most popular novellas: Apt Pupil, The Body, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Breathing Method.

You guys know how much I love Stephen King. You guys might also know how much I love short story collections, especially by Stephen King.

Well here we are with another Stephen King short story collection.

I've read a lot of these books in the past year - I believe I only have to read Everything's Eventual which will round up all the short stories King has written so far. So I know the dynamic of how these books work and I can pick apart my favourite stories from each book.

But I'll admit, Different Seasons is a collection in which I loved basically all the stories.

You guys have recommended Different Seasons for so long; so many people have asked "Have you read Different Seasons yet?!" and I am so happy I finally have.

I don't want to constantly say that Stephen King's writing is phenomenal because you all know how much I love King's writing and I'll always think it's amazing, but in this book specifically, I loved every second of reading this.

It's a bind up of a couple of King's infamous works, I mean how could you not love it?

I think my favourites were probably the infamous Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redeption (which by the way, I cannot stop thinking about the singer Rita Ora.. I feel like it fits best here..) and of course, Stephen King's popular coming-of-age story The Body, although all four stories were amazing.

I know a couple of these stories have movie adaptations, although I haven't actually watched any of them. I've seen a few parts of Shawshank because it is on Netflix, but I feel like at the time, I couldn't really pay attention to much of it. With that being said, I can't really compare the two together, but I'm very happy I read the story instead.

One of the things I love about King's collections is that it's not always all on the same theme. Full Dark, No Stars is the only book I can think of where all of his stories were all part of a dark manner.

This collection follows various topics: Hope from Shawshank Redemption, Friendship and Innocence from The Body, Darkness from Apt Pupil, and Misery and Horror from The Breathing Method. And I feel like generally, each of these stories compliment each other in a way where the book never felt like it was going downhill, if that makes sense.

Most of the time with collections like this, all the "good" stories are at the beginning and all the "bad" stories are at the end, or vice versa making the book not as enjoyable but Different Seasons does great with making the books more even.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Jessica, you just mentioned bad stories. I thought you said all are good."

And they are.

But you can tell the weaker stories from the rest.

The weakest story, in my opinion is the Breathing Method. Personally, I felt the story to be quite slow until about the mid to end of the story in which it was a slap in the face with a change of plot, almost.

I know a lot of people feel the same way, but I definitely feel like that ending is what made my rating five stars. If anything different, my rating would've been a four or a 4.5.

Regardless, this book is amazing and I highly recommend you lovelies read this book!

It's so much more than what most outside readers think Stephen King is capable of.

If you do end up reading this novel, let me know in the comments section below or on Instagram! I'd be happy to hear you guys' thoughts!