My wife and I are huge Stephen King fans. Over the years we’ve collected every single thing he’s written in hardback... minus one elusive, out‑of‑print title that I refuse to pay a small fortune for. We even have the original out‑of‑print edition of The Bachman Books. At one point I even built and hosted a website for a group of friends where we read King’s works in order and shared our thoughts and opinions about each book. So yes… we’re definitely on the nerdy end of the SK fandom spectrum.

I just finished reading the new anthology The End of the World As We Know It.



For anyone who hasn't heard about this one yet, it’s a collection of short stories written by various authors who are fans of The Stand. It was fully approved and created with SK's permission. Each story takes place somewhere within the world and timeline of King’s superflu pandemic. Characters, events happening elsewhere in the country (and even abroad), glimpses of what the wider world looked like while the main novel’s events were unfolding. It’s a very clever concept and adds a surprising amount of depth and texture to the original story. At least, that's how I felt about it. Mrs. Wotcher read it first and found it “meh.” She’s not usually a fan of short stories and tends to prefer full novels, whereas I grew up devouring short‑story collections (Asimov, etc.) and still love the format. We also approached the book differently: she read it straight through, while I tried something else.

I read each story in tandem with the corresponding part of The Stand... like so:




I don’t know if this approach would work for everyone, but for me it made a massive difference. I ended up loving the anthology. Sure, with 30+ stories from different authors, a few are going to suck... but most were solid, and I thought several of them were outstanding. Reading each story alongside the matching section of The Stand made the whole experience feel fuller and more connected.

If you’re a Stephen King fan, I’d absolutely recommend this anthology... even though it’s not technically a King book... as long as you read it the way I did, paired with The Stand. It turns the whole thing into a much more immersive experience. Two enthusiastic👍👍 up.