Mile 81 (Kindle Single)
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ASIN:B005COO1X6
Product Description
With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs...
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.
Product Description
With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs...
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.
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Mile 81 (Kindle Single) Reviews
Mile 81 (Kindle Single) Reviews
| 372 of 385 people found the following review helpful  King at His Horrific Best, By Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Mile 81 (Kindle Single) (Kindle Edition) You'll probably hear this a lot in the coming days and throughout what's bound to be a long list of reviews, but I'm going to say it anyway because it's the truest thing I can think to say: MILE 81 is classic Stephen King.With only a few exceptions, most of King's more recent work (everything since NEEDFUL THINGS really) has been more mysterious, paranormal, or suspenseful than horrific. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, and I've enjoyed most of what King's written from CARRIE all the way through FULL DARK, NO STARS, but MILE 81 is a welcome return to a purer kind of horror for those readers who fell in love with King back in the CUJO, CHRISTINE, and IT days. I'll save the plot rehashing for other reviewers, but I will say that I think this novelette is what King might have written if he'd gotten the idea for FROM A BUICK 8 25 years earlier. It's a fantastic story. One of my favorite King stories of all time. And maybe that's all I really needed to... Read more 109 of 115 people found the following review helpful Classic King -- a real treat for long-time readers, By Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Mile 81 (Kindle Single) (Kindle Edition) Stephen King's story, MILE 81, is a delight for any of his readers with memories of the classic stuff - CHRISTINE and PET SEMETARY and CUJO and great stories like "The Mist" and "The Body." This is King at his best, with characters so real they remind you of people you've known for years. I've always felt King did his best work with his shorter fiction - here his prose is tight and perfect, giving the story itself a chance to both terrify and delight the reader.MILE 81 is about a long-abandoned rest stop on Rt. 95 in Maine. Ten-year-old Pete Simmons, who has been left behind when his older brother runs off to play daredevil bike stunts, decides to explore the old rest stop to see if he can scare up an adventure of his own. What happens is something he never could have imagined. A succession of other travelers also pull into the rest stop, each investigating a strangely muddied station wagon inexplicably parked there. King's story is divided into sections, each one... Read more 75 of 81 people found the following review helpful  Road Trip, By Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Mile 81 (Kindle Single) (Kindle Edition) You know an author is deeply embedded into popular culture when he references one of his own books in a subsequent effort (and gets away with it). In Mile 81, King returns to the road and car covering ground similar to Christine and From a Buick 8 (the latter which is standout for me). This short story moves with speed and entertains but is not iconic King. There is no deep thinking or message here with the exception that good samaritans are often not well rewarded. Still worth it though - it is the perfect length for a quick road trip ... as long as the reader is not behind the wheel. |
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