July 19 - "The Man Who Loved Flowers"

Sundays with Uncle Stevie“The Man Who Loved Flowers”
by Stephen King
Night Shift (1979)

* * * (Good) Horror

A young man with a secret peacefully walks the streets of New York City before purchasing a bundle of flowers and setting off in search of his girl, Norma.

Sometimes all it takes is a single small moment, a clue hidden into the narrative so that the twist ending doesn’t come out of nowhere, to spoil a story. I’m not saying that I enjoyed the story less by recognizing this story beat, but the tale did become predictable from that point forward. But I was a bit disappointed here because the story started off so differently that any other King story I’d read. It was a story about a man in love and things were grand and I didn’t know where it was going to lead me. Once I knew there was a hammer killer on the loose, it was apparent who he was and what he was going to do and how the story would end. It was a fine story with an apt ending, but my excitement vanished long before that point.