Night Shift is another one of Stephen King's collections of short stories. It's one of his first collections, published in 1978 and includes stories like Jersalem's Lot and Children of the Corn.

I have read a lot of King short stories because I love them a lot, as you can tell. I love King's books in general whether they are long or short but his short stories always have a place in my heart.

Like I said in my previous King review, I believe I'm almost done reading all of his short stories; I believe Everything's Eventual, Just After Sunset and Nightmares and Dreamscapes are the last of his collections that I haven't read yet.

I finally decided to read Night Shift which I've put on hold for a while now because I thought I wouldn't be into this book, or enjoy it. Why? I'm not sure, I just didn't think Night Shift would be a collection I would love.

I'm glad I put those thoughts aside though because wow, did I love Night Shift.

Previous to reading this, I had a handful of short stories I really loved but not the overall books until I read Different Seasons. Night Shift definitely almost surpassed that for me. It was an incredible read.

Like I always say, it's starting to become a little repetitive when I say I love King's writing because quite frankly, that's pretty obvious. But this novel is so much more than King's amazing writing! It included so much plot thought and psychological twists that I loved.

One of the stories, which I'll get to later, left me in a huge gasp and I had to sit there, still, as I processed what I just read.

To me, Night Shift is considered "Classic King."

The only reason why it isn't a full five star rating was because I wasn't a huge fan of every short story that was included. Not because they were bad or anything but because they didn't give me that heart pulling feeling that the other stories did.

For this review, because there are many stories in this collection, I'll talk about the stories that really stood out to me - whether it was good or bad per se.

Gray Matter and Battleground were probably my least favourites of the collection that I could remember. I know a lot of people are gasping right now because Gray Matter is probably one of their favourites of the handful but it just didn't stick to me - positively - like the other ones.

I didn't feel much about Gray Matter. When I read it, it felt like my brain consumed the words but didn't bother to process it and that is probably why I'm not a huge fan of it.

As for Battlegrounds, I just found that story a little boring in my opinion.

My favourite of the stories were probably The Boogeyman, Jersalem's Lot, Graveyard Shift and Strawberry Spring.

The Boogeyman and Strawberry Spring both left me gasping by the end of the book because of their ending twist which I absolutely love about Stephen King's writing.

I Know What You Need was also quite an interesting read. That story had me on the edge of my chair for most of it, I had different theories and in the end, I was wrong for them all but I was still shocked by the time the story ended.

The last book I'll mention is Night Surf, which definitely reminded me of The Stand. Maybe it's because I read The Stand shortly before Night Surf but the whole disease element really struck me and I thought it was interesting.

Overall though, I loved Night Shift. I would probably consider it one of my favourite Stephen King collections in general.

I want to know, do you guys love short story collections? Let me know in the comments section below or on my Instagram! 

Hello, my lovely readers!

I hope you all are doing well! It's been a while since I posted on both bookstagram and on my blog - well, only a week but it seems like a while to me!

I've received a handful of direct messages asking me how have I been or where did I go, and I wanted to firstly, thank you all for noticing and perhaps even caring!

I've had quite a week and I know it's going to get busier with the upcoming Holiday season ahead, but I thought I'd give you guys a little update on what has been going on in my life and perhaps an insight on what is to come in the future.

So, to start off, I briefly announced last minute that I would be taking a break from bookstgram; just a little week-long break to even out the algorithm (that darn algorithm) and hopefully start off fresh.

While I was taking a break from bookstagram, I thought I'd take a little break from blogging as well, as they both usually correlate together through my postings.

Since last week, I've been incredibly busy and will probably be even more busy as the weeks fly by.

I recently started working at one of my local Chapters/Indigo/Coles chain (I don't want to specify which one for privacy reasons but I know a couple of you know - and if you do, please keep it private) and it has been amazing. 

I've been trying to get a job at one of these book chains since I was 16, so I bet you can imagine how I'm currently feeling.

With that being said, this holiday season, I am working two retail jobs with no days off - unless I'm not scheduled for a certain day that week. As most of you know, it's quite difficult for me to post when I work often because I don't have time to post on both medias; write out captions and blog posts and take photos - especially since my photos are based off of natural lighting.

My sister had mentioned an app in which I can pre-schedule posts so they can upload for me which I'm going to give a try and hopefully all works out and I can go back to posting more regularly, even with my busy schedule!

Starting today, though, I will be as active as I can through my social medias because I love interacting with you guys so much!

I also have made a few changes to my social media accounts! I've finally changed my profile picture on Bookstagram to something similar to the one above (I am so happy to have a King book in my photo now - I know, it has been a while!) but I've also changed all of my social medias to jessreadsalatte so it will be much easier for all of you to find me on the other socials!

On another note, one of my closest bookstagram besties Johely (ninetieslibrary) and myself created a IG book club called ninetiesreadalatte!

Each month, we read a different book and at the end of the month, we talk about it and have a little trivia where you can win prizes!

If you are willing to join, you can message either one of us!

It is also the month of November which also means NaNoWriMo! Or to some, National Novel Writing Month. For those who don't know, I am writing a novel in hopes of publishing it next year. I'll be taking advantage of this month as well for that reason, hopefully finishing the first draft very soon!

I think that might be all of the general updates that I have. If there is more, I'll have them posted on either my Twitter or my Instagram (both are jessreadsalatte, and links should be really easy to find throughout my blog).

I am so incredibly happy to be back and posting for all my lovely readers again!

It's crazy to say, but we are months away from the end of 2018.

Can you believe it? Less than three months and we will be counting down until the start of a new year.

Around this time is usually when I do my annual rounds of book blogs: my favourite authors, favourite series, etc. and one blog post I noticed I didn't post last year was the books I wanted to give a second chance.

It might have been because I didn't really think of any books I wanted to dive into again or because I didn't think of this kind of blog post last year, but this year, I have rallied books I do actually want to give a second shot and I actually want to go through with it.

I have picked six books that I really want to give a second shot either by the end of 2018 or throughout 2019.

Without further adieu, let's get into the six books I want to give a second chance.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

If you have been following me for a while, TATBILB is one of the first reviews I've posted on my blog when I first created it a year ago. It has also been one of my most popular reviews on my blog these days. I was - and still am, genuinely not a huge fan of the book because of the execution of the novel. But, I really did enjoy the Netflix movie adaptation that came out earlier this year. My sister, who is a huge fan of the books told me to just pull through with the rest of the series. Although, I have one problem: I can't remember much of what happened in the first book, I only remember what happened in the movie. Because I did genuinely like the movie and I should probably read the first book in order to finish the rest of the series, I'm saying why not.

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

I read The Tommyknockers earlier this year and found it to be one of my least favourite King books I've ever read - which surprised me because I haven't found a book by Stephen King that I have rated such a low rating until this one, and another which I'll mention later. I'm part of a Stephen King Facebook group and a lot of people admit they LOVE The Tommyknockers and although I feel a little left out, I feel like this may be the perfect opportunity to re-read and possibly love this book.

City of Ghosts follows our main character Cassidy who can see and talk to ghosts - in fact, her best friend Jacob is a ghost. When Cassidy's parents start filming their ghost hunting show in Scotland, an area in which is filled with ghosts, Cassidy learns the "truth" about her powers and how dangerous her situation may be.

I don't actually read many Middle Grade novels. The only Middle Grade I read are Rick Riordan books although, some of his newer books seem to fit the Young Adult genre a little more.

In all honesty, I generally had no interest in this book when it was first announced because I wasn't really into Middle Grade novels. I thought it was going to be incredibly cliche and basically an overall cookie cut replica of other Middle Grade novels.

A little after this book was announced, I read the first book in Schwab's adult fantasy series (where she writes as V.E Schwab instead of Victoria Schwab) and I absolutely loved her writing. I previously read her Young Adult book The Savage Song, which was also amazing, but it never made an impact or stuck to me like A Darker Shade of Magic did.

Once I read A Darker Shade of Magic and fell in love with not only the world but her writing, I decided to give City of Ghosts a shot as well and I definitely don't regret that decision.

To start off, Schwab's writing progresses every book she writes and you can tell. Some writer's spark dies down and their writing does as well; but some stay the same. Schwab's writing is completely different. I find that every new published book I read by this author, her writing continues to grow and be better.

I think that is one of the aspects that I loved about this novel was how amazing the book was written. And for those who aren't really into Middle Grade but absolutely love Young Adult novels, I find that although City of Ghosts is classified as Middle Grade, I feel like it fits the YA genre quite well.

The writing or plot doesn't necessarily have mature themes per se, but it does have the generalize writing style that can be seen in a YA novel oppose to Middle Grade in which it's not repetitive and it's not overly simplistic either.

Another aspect I really loved was the world building. I would definitely classify this novel as Paranormal but also Urban Fantasy because a lot of the plot takes place in our world - Earth. But the idea of The Veil and how it's basically like Earth but Cassidy could see the ghosts around that no one could, really sparked my interest especially with how it was portrayed in the novel.

This book very much so reminds me of the movie ParaNorman in which our child main character can see ghosts around him and he freely talks to them but the humans who share their environment with Norman and cannot see the ghosts, think he's crazy.

I'm not a huge paranormal book to be quite honest because I find that most paranormal books that I've read are quite cheesy, but because of the way it was written and the whole relation to ParaNorman really made me love this book a million times more.

My readers also know how much of a sucker I am for characters, so of course, I wanted to dive into the character sector as well.

For starters, I loved Cassidy's relationship with her ghost-friend Jacob. I absolutely loved it.

I felt a genuine relationship between them - and my relationship, I mean friendship. There are some Middle Grade novels that have that romance trait, although it isn't as in depth as YA books, they still happen.

With Cassidy and Jacob, I love that they don't put a strain on an actual relationship (I think it would also be weird if Cassidy fell in love with a ghost..) but it was a genuine friendship. Like, they looked out for each other and Jacob knew Cassidy's purpose with seeing ghosts is to send them off (pull ghosts heart string which no longer leaves them a spirit and allows them to rest peacefully.) but he never told her because he didn't want her to send him off because he wanted to protect her and not lose her as well.

And I think Cassidy felt the same for Jacob when Lara Jayne tells her to send Jacob off and she refuses.

You can tell the bond between them is a genuine bond and I'm happy Schwab didn't introduce any love aspects between the two.

I also loved their little bickering because it almost felt like a brother-sister relationship as well.

The only character I had a bit of a problem with was Lara Jayne, (who reminds me a lot of Lara Jean from To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han - but I'm not complaining) she annoyed me a lot when we were first introduced to her in the novel. Although, as her friendship with Cassidy expands and we get to know Lara a little more, she is a very interesting character. If you watch The Good Place, she reminds me a lot of Tahani.

The only reason why I gave it a 4.5 Stars and not a full five is because I'll admit it was a little too simple - not because it's a Middle Grade book, but I would've hoped we would be able to venture off into the ghostly world a little more. Hopefully, we will in the next coming books!

Overall, I loved City of Ghosts. It was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait for the next book!

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!