Originally published as part of the acclaimed story collection If It Bleeds, Stephen King‘s The Life of Chuck is getting spotlight treatment by getting its own novella surrounding the feature film release this June.
Stephen King takes a unique approach with The Life of Chuck telling the story in three acts given in reverse chronological order with Act 3 coming first. This way of storytelling gives the novella a twist that sets itself apart from the others in the collection. We see the crumbling world plagued by natural disasters, collapsing infrastructure, and mass panic, bizarre billboards and advertisements appear throughout town: “Charles Krantz. Thirty-nine great years. Thanks, Chuck!” prior to knowing how we got to this place.
We then see him in middle age on a business trip in Boston as he is seduced by a busker into spinning a gorgeous sidewalk dance. And we see him as a child, in a house haunted by a terrible secret, learning to dance with his grandmother. In these pages King reminds us that life’s quotidian pleasures are even more glorious because they are fleeting: the outrageous good fortune of a beautiful blue day after a string of gray ones; the delight of dancing when every move feels perfect; a serendipitous meeting.
While the unique storytelling structure made for a fun experience, it didn’t make up for the overall tale. I found the third act, which came first in the novella, to be the strongest of the three it hooked from the start. However, as the story progressed we go from a pretty horrific and apocalyptic first act to more trips down memory lane than adding to the story.
After finishing this quick read, I found myself wondering if the tale would’ve been more impactful and landed more if told in straight forward chronological order to see the progression of Chuck’s life to the climactic ending. Knowing the end before the beginning really made finishing the story a bit anticlimactic.
My hope is that this story is redeemed a bit with the release of the feature film as certain scenes, especially the dancing in the middle act, will be better when seeing it with our eyes and not trying to picture this outrageous moment in our minds.
While originally available in the If It Bleeds collection, The Life of Chuck will be available in standalone hardcover on June 17 from Scribner. This also goes for the audiobook, the If It Bleeds collection is available at Libro.fm and the standalone audiobook of The Life of Chuck is available for pre-order.
The Life of Chuck has been adapted into a feature film by Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep) and stars Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill which releases in theaters on June 6, 2025.
