• Gray Matter and Other Stories From Night Shift

  • And Other Stories from Night Shift
  • By: Stephen King
  • Narrated by: John Glover
  • Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (803 ratings)

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Gray Matter and Other Stories From Night Shift  By  cover art

Gray Matter and Other Stories From Night Shift

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: John Glover
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Publisher's summary

Consummate master of his craft, Stephen King has kept millions awake past midnight shivering at tales that probe the shadows and reveal the dark side. Now listeners can chill to this dramatic unabridged production of 6 short stories from his best-selling book, Night Shift. It brings Stephen King's demonic stories fully to life - and the terror even closer to home.

Lying on the couch in Dr. Harper's office, keeping a close watch on the closet door, Lester Billings relates the bizarre tale of "The Boogeyman" who has taken his children's lives. In "I Know What You Need," a pretty college co-ed finds the perfect lover while on a campus in Maine. A young man thrills to the eerie mists of a murderous "Strawberry Spring." A winter storm hits and a group of old codgers who regularly gather around the Reliable at Henry's Nite-Owl discover the gruesome fate of an old crony in the title story, "Gray Matter." A son, horrified by the grim indignity of death, struggles with his love for "The Woman in the Room," while a hit man, back from a successful assignment, finds himself besieged by a toy army that turns his New York penthouse into a deadly "Battleground."

©1976 Stephen King (P)1995 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

What listeners say about Gray Matter and Other Stories From Night Shift

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

We need a complete and unabridged version

My advice to long time King fans and newcomers alike is to skip these three Nightshift samplings, and to wait for a complete anthology. This collection, along with two others available from audible, were released in the mid 90s. They sound as if they were ripped directly from the old cassettes in some places, and this distracted me at times. Yes, Audible has the three volumes making up the old Bantom Doubleday Dell audio Nightshift collection, but be warned. A few stories from the anthology have never been published on audio before. Even if an audible customer were to purchase Gray Matter and other stories, Lawnmower Man and other stories, and Graveyard Shift and other stories, they'd be missing a few.The unincluded tales are I am the Doorway, One for the Road, Children of The Corn, and Trucks. Hopefully, Simon and Schuster will choose to give audiobook readers Nightshift in its entirety soon, including the prefatory matterial. They've recently released the complete Skeleton Crew anthology three or so days before this review was written, so I prefer to be optimistic.

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115 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Missing audio

There are 3 to 4 second bursts of audio missing in chapters 4 through 6. In some places it sounds like its missing an entire paragraph. You might want to have a paper copy of the book to fill in the blanks.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Poor Sound Quality

Stories are fun, John Glover is great, but fuzzy sound quality detracts from the experience.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Lame

Narrator and audio quality is fine.

Stories are not Stephen Kings best work. Boring, silly, and unimaginative at best.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Why do I bother?

I'm not even sure why I bothered to use a credit. King is a masterful storyteller. His prose is engaging and vividly descriptive, his characters strongly developed. But somehow, even though time after I time I keep wishing his next short story will get better, sadly, they do not. His anthologies are full of boring tales in which do not hold my interest, but still, I read them all, in hopes of finding that one diamond in the rough. I know it's there somewhere. His full length novels are amazing. It's almost as if he's two different people. Or maybe its just that his strength lies in stories that are long and drawn out. I will say that even though the plots were severely lacking in substance and "I know what you need" was the only story I even remotely enjoyed, the narration was superb. A definite A+ performance. But, in my personal opinion, this was definitely not worth a credit.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Great! Enjoyed from start to finish! Definitely recommend it! Good for relaxing at home or being on the go. Will listen again.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

creepy stuff

John Glover is great, just wish all stories were in one book. King is best

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

matter of perspective

i read this in an effort to read all of king’s work in order of publication. that said, it’s an old recording so the quality isn’t fantastic but it’s more nostalgic than distracting.

biggest bummer is that to read the whole book you have to spend 3 credits - recommend just buying these if you want them, not credit worthy imho

as for the stories, they’re okay. but in context of king’s work he was a young pup

the stories included in this part:
- the boogeyman
- i know what you need
- strawberry springs
- the woman in the room
- battle ground

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

overall good

the audio quality is a little sub par but not enough to ruin it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Vintage Stephen King

More stories from Night Shift, King's first collection. Winners all that will stick with you for years to come... I know that they stuck with me since I first read them in the 70's.

My only issue with the collection is that it sub-divides the book into three audiobooks. So rather than buying one audiobook, you need to get three to get the entire physical book. I suspect that will not be remedied anytime soon, considering the age of the publication. I still find it annoying.

Quality wise, this is an excellent value and easy to recommend to anyone who a good scary story.

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