Different Seasons, Stephen King
Different Seasons, Stephen King
48 Rating(s)
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Different Seasons

Author: Stephen King

Narrator: Frank Muller

Unabridged: 19 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2016


Synopsis

A “hypnotic” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.

This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.

Next is “Apt Pupil,” the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town.

In “The Body,” four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me.

Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in “The Breathing Method.”

“The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,” hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.

About Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King was born in 1947 in the city of Portland, Maine. He attended the University of Maine, where he received a B.A. degree in English in 1970. He married his present wife, Tabitha, in 1971, and they have three children. King is an American author of contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His novels have sold more than 350 million copies. Many have been made into films, television movies, and comics. He has published 54 novels using a pen name (Richard Bachman) for a few of them. Many of his stories take place in his home state of Maine.

He has won about every possible literary award beginning with his 1980 novella, The Way Station. His most notable literary award was in 2007 for the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.King has had the common human weaknesses including alcoholism and drug addiction. His health during that period was so bad that he barely remembered writing the novel, Cujo. The first novel written after he quit all dependent drugs and alcohol was Needful Things.Stephen King's wife, Tabitha, has published nine of her own novels along with both sons being published writers. His daughter is a Unitarian Universalism Church minister with her same sex partner.

A life altering happening beset King in June of 1999. King was walking on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine, when a driver, who was distracted by an unrestrained dog, struck him from behind. His severe injuries kept him in the hospital until July 9. His lawyer purchased the van that hit him to prevent it from being sold on eBay. It was crushed at a junkyard. King thought that he would not write again, but did resume writing with this caveat, "I'm writing, but I'm writing at a slower pace".

His most notable novels are: Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, Misery, It, The Dark Tower, Under the Dome, and The Shawshank Redemption.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Matthew on January 26, 2020

January 2020 Re-Read update - original review still below I have finished the next book in my chronological re-read of King's novels. I knew I was in for a treat because I have always fondly remembered this book as one of his best. It did not fail to disappoint the second time around. In the afterward......more

Goodreads review by Johann (jobis89) on December 05, 2020

"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." Considered by many to be King's best collection of stories/novellas, Different Seasons contains two stories that were ultimately developed into two of the greatest movies of all-time: The Body, which became Stand by Me, of course, and Rita Hayworth......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on January 05, 2023

It's definitive, Stephen King is not just a writer of horror and fantasy. In truth, up to a few years ago I was convinced he was a horrormeister pure and simple. At this point a friend suggested I try out his time travel epic 11/22/63. I was cured. I loved it and subsequent forays into King’s extens......more

Goodreads review by Baba on May 13, 2022

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption gets an 8 out of 12. A strong story turned to possibly an even better movie? The chilling Apt Pupil, also gets an 8 out of 12. When petulance and cunning faces off against true darkness and more cunning! A chilling read in which a young man thinks he's uncovered......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on April 24, 2020

This one is closer to the MOST EXCELLENT side of the King spectrum (THE GREEN MILE, CARRIE and THE STAND come to mind) than the MEDIOCRE side (INSOMNIA, BAG OF BONES). Yeah, these tales are familiar: three of the four seasons have become immortalized on celluloid. Not until the last Author's Note do......more