Riding the Bullet

Inhoud

A Stephen King ghost story in the grand tradition, Riding the Bullet is the ultimate warning about the dangers of hitchhicking.
A college student's mother is dying in a Maine hostpital. When he hitches a ride to see her, the driver is not who he appears to be. Soon the journey veers off into a dark landscape that could only be drawn by Stephen King.
Running time: approx. 2 hours.

Bespreking

Nice little story that can give some nasty bites

Alan Parker, a junior at the University of Maine, gets a call from Mrs. McCurdy, the neighbor of his mother. "Twas a stroke," she told him, so no reason to hurry. But Alan gets an awful premonition that his mother is in real danger. So he decides to go visit his mother in the hospital that same night. One small problem: his car is broken. The cheapest solution: hitchhiking. Ignoring all good advice he sets on a trip that will change his life in more than one way.

The biggest problem with short stories is that they are... short. So as a writer you are forced the put forward strong characters in but a few lines of prose. One would not say at first sight that Stephen King would be good at this, looking at the enormous size of his recent works. But the contrary is true! Riding the Bullet is only one example. The story grabs you by the throat from the first lines, because it has such a true feel to it. Stephen succeeds in giving Alan Parker such a believable background, that when the hammer hits the pain is extremely powerful. At the end the story struggles a bit, but since it gives you something nasty to think about it still stays bearable.