Line #35 Literature/TheBazaarOfBadDreams


1	[[quoteright:257:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_bazaar_of_bad_dreams.png]]
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3	->''"I made these stories especially for you. Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."''
4	-->-- '''Stephen King''', in the foreword
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6	''The Bazaar of Bad Dreams'' is Creator/StephenKing's sixth collection of short stories, published in 2015. Many of the stories have previously been published in magazines, but it also contains unpublished stories. Many of these are acknowledged homages to other writers, such as Creator/ElmoreLeonard, Creator/RobertBrowning, and Raymond Carver.
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8	[[AC:Stories in ''The Bazaar of Bad Dreams':]]
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10	* "Mile 81": At an abandoned rest stop, a man-eating, station wagon-shaped creature lures in [[GoodSamaritan helpful drivers]] one by one.
11	* "Premium Harmony": A bickering couple and their dog stop at a convenience store, and the wife enters to buy a birthday present. The husband thinks bitterly on his life - unaware of the tragedy going on inside. Set in King’s fictional town of [[TheVerse Castle Rock, Maine.]]
12	* "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation": Sanderson, a man with an elderly and senile father, spends a typical day with him. Just as his father's memory seems to be returning, a minor traffic accident and the ensuing fight has deadly consequences.
13	* "The Dune": A very old judge calls his lawyer over to finalize his last will and testament, and tells him a story about a sand dune that seemingly predicts death.
14	* "Bad Little Kid": A prisoner on death row relates the tale of how he came to be there, and of the titular “bad little kid” that has followed him for most of his life.
15	* “A Death”: A sheriff in 1880s [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Territory Dakota Territory]] doubts the guilt of a Manchild convicted of [[WouldHurtAChild murdering a 10-year-old girl.]]
16	* “The Bone Church”: One of the last survivors of a [[RiverOfInsanity doomed jungle expedition]] describes its horrors in exchange for drinks. A piece of lyrical poetry that King originally wrote in the 1960s.
17	* “Morality”: A previously sinless old minister asks his nurse to agree to a bargain: she commits a sin on his behalf, and he will give her $200,000.
18	* “Afterlife”: An investment banker is offered a difficult choice after he dies and proceeds to a CelestialBureaucracy.
19	* “Ur”: Sent the wrong Kindle electronic reader by mistake, an English professor discovers a wealth of literature and information from countless [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]].
20	* “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive”: Two families, friends Brenda and Jasmine (and their seven children) and [[OldFlame former lovers]] Phil and Pauline, briefly intersect at a rest area. The peace doesn’t last.
21	* “Under the Weather”: Brad’s wife Ellen comes down with a bout of bronchitis – or at least, [[UnreliableNarrator that’s what he would like to believe.]]
22	* “Blockade Billy”: The story of a talented baseball player who fell into obscurity for a very good reason.
23	* “Mister Yummy”: A gay man recounts his history, including living through the AIDS epidemic and encountering [[TheGrimReaper a herald of death]] he calls “Mister Yummy.”
24	* “Tommy”: A narrative poem about a young hippie dying of leukemia, and the lives of those he left behind.
25	* “The Little Green God of Agony”: A rich man, wracked with disabling pain after a plane crash, is drawn in by the words of a preacher claiming he is possessed by the titular god – a god that only he can exorcise.
26	* “That Bus Is Another World”: Stuck in traffic in New York, a businessman sees something terrible in a bus in the next lane.
27	* “Obits”: A webzine writer realizes that when he writes an obituary of a living person, they will die soon afterward.
28	* “Drunken Fireworks”: A yearly fireworks competition between the [[NouveauRiche new money]] [=McCauselands=] and the old money, [[TheMafia “connected”]] Massimos turns into a disastrous game of one-upmanship.
29	* “Summer Thunder”: A chronicle of the daily life of Peter Robinson, one of the last survivors of a nuclear war.
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31	----
32	!!Tropes in the short stories:
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34	* AfterTheEnd: "Summer Thunder” takes place after a nuclear war destroyed most of the United States, and the survivors are starting to feel the effects of radiation poisoning.
35	* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: The entire crux of the plot in "Drunken Fireworks," and a rare example of this trope being purely PlayedForLaughs in King's works, which typically have a much more serious commentary on alcoholism. The story asks a simple question: what would happen if one were to give high-grade explosives to two families of incredibly competitive drunks?
36	* AssholeVictim: The ex-con truck driver that attacks Sanderson in “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation,” when [[spoiler: Sanderson’s father stabs him in the neck with a steak knife.]]
37	* BigCreepyCrawlies: Leeches “the size of a hot house tomato” in “The Bone Church.”
38	* BittersweetEnding: Several.
39	** In “Mile 81,” most of the drivers that stopped are dead, but the two Lussier children are alive and the station wagon-thing has been driven away for the moment.
40	** In “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation,” [[spoiler:Sanderson’s father murders the ex-con out of defense of his son, but he’s unlikely to be prosecuted or jailed based on his age and dementia.]] Other than that, the day has been better for father and son than it has been in a long time.
41	* BlobMonster: Implied to be the station wagon’s true form in “Mile 81.”
42	* BodyHorror: Many of the characters in “Mile 81” get to see what their own bones look like after the station wagon-shaped “thing” latches onto them.
43	** One of the expeditioners loses a nose “like a rotten peach” in “The Bone Church.”
44	* BolivianArmyEnding: “The Little Green God of Agony” ends with [[spoiler:the titular god crawling onto Kat’s hand in the pitch blackness of a power outage.]]
45	* BringMyBrownPants: Several times: little boy Blakey in “Mile 81”, Jim in “A Death” [[spoiler: as he is hanged]], and Sanderson’s father in “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation.”
46	* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Reverend Rideout [[spoiler: manages to get the demon God out of Newsome, but dies of a heart attack in the process]] in “The Little Green God of Agony.” Unfortunately for everyone else, that means he’s now unable to stop it from latching on to anyone else.
47	* BystanderSyndrome: A variation in “That Bus is Another World.” Even after witnessing [[spoiler: a murder]], the narrator doesn’t even call the police.
48	* CreepyChild: The titular “Bad Little Kid.” [[HumanoidAbomination If he even really is a child.]]
49	* CruelTwistEnding: In “The Dune,” [[spoiler:Harvey Beecher’s]] name isn’t written on the death-predicting dune. It’s [[spoiler:his lawyer’s, Wayland.]]
50	** In “Bad Little Kid,” it’s revealed in the last few sentences that [[spoiler: the kid is very much alive and intends to go after the previously unconnected Bradley.]]
51	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: In “Mile 81,” it’s a mix of this and [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished an instinct to help stranded motorists]] that results in the deaths of the majority of the cast.
52	** Thoroughly averted in “That Bus Is Another World.”
53	* DealWithTheDevil: Winnie most certainly isn’t a devil, he’s an old minister. The offer he makes Nora has all the trappings of this, including [[spoiler: a hugely negative effect on her life afterwards and an implied loss of her “soul.”]]
54	* DownerEnding: Those that don’t have a BittersweetEnding– as is per usual for King.
55	** “Bad Little Kid”: Hallas, despite all of his efforts and ending up on death row for it, [[spoiler: fails to kill the bad little kid and avenge his loved ones – and the kid has already chosen a new target.]]
56	** “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive”: Brenda, Jasmine, and their seven children [[spoiler: all die in a deliberate car accident, as Brenda and Jasmine have been thoroughly DrivenToSuicide by their depressing lives.]]
57	** “The Little Green God of Agony” – [[spoiler: the god is loose in a dark room full of people and ready to possess our protagonist, and the only person who could have stopped it is dead.]]
58	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Brenda and Jasmine]] in “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive,” [[spoiler:both Timlin, by gunshot, and the narrator, by deliberate motorcycle crash]] in “Summer Thunder.”
59	** Briefly discussed in “Morality,” although Nora argues that [[spoiler:Winnie’s]] apparent suicide could have just been overdose via elderly confusion.
60	* EsotericHappyEnding: In-universe in “Premium Harmony” – sure, [[spoiler:Ray’s wife and dog are dead, but now he can smoke as much as he wants.]] And that’s ''all'' he really wants.
61	* EvilRedhead: The titular “Bad Little Kid.”
62	* FatIdiot: Thoroughly averted with the massive former mudwrestler in “Mile 81.” She’s an intelligent and kind woman whose only flaw was [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished insisting on helping what she thinks is a driver in trouble.]]
63	* ForcedToWatch: Blakey and Rachel are ForcedToWatch several people, [[spoiler: including their own parents]], eaten by the station wagon in “Mile 81.”
64	* ForTheEvulz:
65	** The minister in "Morality" wants to commit a serious sin because he has never done so, and wants to know what it is like.
66	** This also appears to be the sole motive of the “Bad Little Kid.”
67	* FromBadToWorse: “The Little Green God of Agony” [[spoiler:is driven out of Newsome and into the room, where it can seek out a new host to torment.]]
68	* HauntedTechnology: The Kindle in “Ur” may not be necessarily ‘’haunted,’’ but it’s definitely otherworldly.
69	* HumanoidAbomination: Whatever the titular “Bad Little Kid” is, he doesn’t seem to age and [[spoiler: can survive being shot half a dozen times.]]
70	* HereWeGoAgain: At the end of "Bad Little Kid”, [[spoiler:the kid leaves a message for Bradley, letting him know to expect him – and all the dead loved ones that entails.]]
71	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Brenda and Jasmine in “Herman Wouk is Still Alive” have been friends for ages, and go on a road trip together with their children after winning the lottery.
72	* {{Homage}}: Many of the stories are dedicated to certain authors from whom they borrow a style.
73	* HungryJungle: In “The Bone Church.”
74	* KillAndReplace: [[spoiler:The person calling himself “Billy”]] in “Blockade Billy” did this to the [[spoiler:real Billy.]] Good thing he’s just as good at baseball.
75	* KillItWithFire: Pete manages to [[spoiler:temporarily defeat the station-wagon-thing]] by using a magnifying glass to set it alight in “Mile 81.”
76	* LifeOrLimbDecision: Briefly discussed in “Mile 81.” [[spoiler:Too bad it’s too late.]]
77	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: More like “My God, what has [[spoiler:my father]] done” at the very end of “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation.”
78	* TheMafia: One side of the feud in “Drunken Fireworks.”
79	* MercyKill: Implied to be the function of “Mister Yummy.”
80	** Also, [[spoiler:Gandalf the dog]], already dying of radiation sickness, in "Summer Thunder".
81	* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: A variation in [[spoiler: “Under the Weather.]]
82	* NecessaryFail: Invoked as a possible consequence by the two time-enforcers in “Ur” after the protagonist alters history and prevents a horrible car accident. [[spoiler:But they aren't ''sure'', so they let him off.]]
83	* NotHyperbole: [[spoiler:Blockade Billy]] finally reveals what kind of man he is to the entire town when he takes the crowd's screams of "kill the umpire!" too literally and slices the man's throat [[spoiler:with the shaving blade he has concealed in his bandaged middle finger.]]
84	* PropellerHatOfWhimsy: The "Bad Little Kid" is a porky young redhead who wears a propeller cap and looks like a stereotypical brat. Subverted in that his actions are pure evil instead of naughty, and he turns out to be something DEFINITELY not human.
85	* PsychopathicManchild: Jim definitely seems like one in “A Death,” which is part of the reason that the sheriff doubts his guilt in the murder of a young girl.
86	** [[spoiler:‘Billy’ himself]] in “Blockade Billy” – he’s still rather young, but old enough to count as this and not EnfantTerrible or TeensAreMonsters.
87	* ShoutOut: Several meta ones in “Mile 81”:
88	** Pete Simmons has the latest issue of ''ComicBook/LockeAndKey'', which is written by Stephen King's son Creator/JoeHill, in his saddlebag.
89	** Trooper Golding watched Film/{{Christine}} when he was a kid.
90	* TheSeventies: “Tommy.”
91	* SpannerInTheWorks: In “Mile 81”, the "car's" feeding spree is disrupted because a young boy decides on a whim to explore the abandoned rest area where it has stationed itself.
92	* SinisterCar: The station wagon in “Mile 81” – although that probably isn’t its true form.
93	* TomeOfEldritchLore: 'The Kindle in “Ur” serves as one.
94	* TragicVillain: In "Blockade Billy", [[spoiler:"Billy" himself, real name Eugene Katsanis]]. He was abandoned as a baby and raised in an OrphanageOfFear, he was turned into an EnfantTerrible followed by PsychopathicManchild either through mental disability or being mercilessly bullied [[spoiler:(and taught to defend himself with the concealed razor blade he would eventually use to great infamy)]], and he was eventually adopted by a wealthy farm family who turned him into an indentured servant/trainer for their son [[spoiler:(the actual Billy Blakely)]] whom they were hoping to build up into a baseball superstar. [[spoiler:Eventually he killed the Blakely family and their cows with his blade, [[TheDogBitesBack perhaps after being yelled at too many times over farm chores]], or perhaps after the family [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections pulled strings to keep him off their local baseball team in favor of their son]], and assumed Billy's identity.]] Then, despite seeming to find his true calling in life as an excellent baseball catcher, [[spoiler:his violent impulses got the better of him after being egged on by the HotBlooded pitcher and an infuriated manager]], and his phenomenal abilities on the diamond were stricken from the record, [[spoiler:while "Billy" [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] in jail afterwards]].
95	* {{Unperson}}: In "Blockade Billy", the town as tried their absolute damnedest to remove his name from history, even demolishing their baseball stadium and denying they ever had a team. [[spoiler:Makes sense they'd like to pretend they never had a SerialKiller in town.]]

Context Literature / TheBazaarOfBadDreams