★★★★☆
March 5th
Elevation is a pairing of two short stories released by Stephen King in 2018. The first story, Elevation follows Scott Carey, a man who is seemingly losing weight at a rate of a pound or two a day, however he doesn’t seem to be physically changing, still looking like an overweight man.
This story is about appearances on the outside not being like what they are on the inside. As Scott Carey’s mass reaches zero, he helps a local couple with their restaurant, changes the mind of his small town, and comes to terms with his situation. This story, though classified as horror, was heartwarming and I gave this individual story three stars. Many of the complaints I saw of this story were of the “white knight” main character helping lesbian characters, and while I can see where those were coming from, I think the overall message of changing perspectives was larger than just that aspect.
The second story in the book was also extremely heartwarming. Following the loss of his wife, Laurie tells the story of a man’s grief as he begins caring for a new puppy, as insisted on by his sister. This story was originally written and published on Stephen King’s website, and it appears that it was only read in the audiobook of Elevation, not the physical printing (though I could be wrong about this. I listened to the audiobook of this one.) I liked this story more than the first story, and thought it was cute and uplifting.
Both stories are quick and heartwarming. This book was absolutely mismarketed and misrepresented as horror. Nowhere in either story are horror, and I don’t think they should have been marketed that way.
I admittedly haven’t read much of Stephen King, but I’m really interested in checking out more of his short story collections, specifically the horror ones in the future.
-Siobhan
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