Summer of Stephen
Title: “The Reach”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 21 pages Start Date: November 19, 2018 End Date: November 19, 2018 “The Reach” is one of those stories where I like the concept more than the execution. It follows the oldest resident of an island as she realizes that she has never crossed the reach, which is a body of water between the island and the mainland. She has lived her entire life on this one small island and now, as she is nearing death, she decides to make the trek across the now-frozen reach to see what she’ll find on the other side. This next paragraph is going to spoil the ending of the story, so if you plan to read it, skip to the paragraph after that! Throughout the story, it is revealed that she has been seeing the ghosts of the island’s residents who died before her. This is what leads her to the realization that she’s the next to die and inspires her to finally leave the island. As she walks across the frozen reach, she is blinded by a snowstorm and loses her way. Suddenly, the ghost of her deceased best friend joins her, guiding her through the storm. She then sees her late husband waiting for her, offering to let her wear his hat to keep warm. The next morning, the woman’s son finds his dead mother on the mainland, wearing his dead father’s hat. Okay, if you skipped the plot spoiling, you can start reading again here! As I said before, I really liked the idea of this story. But, it runs into a common problem among Stephen King’s short stories: it’s too long. There isn’t actually that much happening to justify it being 21 pages, and the ending would have had the same emotional punch with less insight into the characters’ lives. Overall, this story was pretty middle-of-the-pack. It was a decent story, but not one I’m likely to re-read.
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July 2019
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