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1408 by Stephen King
3.0

This short story, from King's Everything's Eventual collection, is about a writer who goes to spend the night in a haunted hotel room. He does this - spends nights in haunted places - and it usually goes well for him as the haunted places he frequents generally aren't haunted at all, but of course this time it's different and things go badly. It's a likeable, mildly creepy short story, and the most interesting thing about it is the structure. Only the central third actually deals with time spent in the room, and the actual haunting is described in terms of a bad trip, with changing pictures on the walls, odd geometries, and strange voices. The first third is the hotel manager trying to warn the writer off, and the final third is the consequences of not listening to said warning - not being able to write again, and so forth. Perhaps it would be creepier if more time were spent in the room itself? But then again, perhaps not... it was actually the first third, that of the warning hotel manager, which I found the the most disturbing. The rest didn't quite match up.