Skip the novella but read the short story

Another Stephen King novella audiobook from the library. This one actually included two stories — the novella, Mile 81, and the short story, The Dune. I’m averaging their scores here: Mile 81 was not so great, but I really liked The Dune. So 3 stars overall.

Mile 81 starts a little shit named Pete who breaks into an abandoned rest stop to impress an older group of boys. He drinks too much vodka, then passes out. When he wakes up, he discovers a bunch of abandoned vehicles at the ramp to the rest stop. Some bad shit went down while Pete was asleep. What was decent about Mile 81: the reason that all those cars were abandoned is actually pretty freaking funny/creepy. My issues? Pete sucks. He’s TEN YEARS OLD. HE’S DRINKING VODKA IN A REST STOP. WHERE THE FUCK ARE HIS PARENTS?!? Also, he finds two abandoned little kids (like, little — 4 and 6, I think) and they’re walking up and down a highway and their parents are dead. So it stressed me out. But your mileage may vary.

The Dune, however, was great. It had a fantastic ending and I highly recommend checking it out. It’s about this ancient judge in Florida, who has an obsession with a sand dune close to his property. I don’t want to go into more detail and spoil it, but it really was a good little story.