The Man Who Loved Flowers

by Stephen King

Published in 'Night Shift'

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, American, Crime

Unknown Binding

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young is buying a bouquet of flowers for his girlfriend. So far nothing unusual. But why is he addressing a young woman as Norma even though she has a bewildered facial expression? Why does he hide an unusual device in the pocket of his coat? Extremely well written street scene with an utmost nasty twist. This little story will run shivers down your spine. It is included in the story anthology Nightshift. Highly recommended!

[Eloy Cryptkeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

"La atmósfera era apacible y hermosa, y el sol se oscurecía gradualmente pasando del azul al sereno y bello violeta del crepúsculo. Hay personas que aman la ciudad, y ésa era una de las noches que hacían amarla(...)La primavera es la única estación en la que la nostalgia nunca parece agriarse..."

Al comienzo del relato todo parece superfluamente mágico... Al amor y a la primavera nada lo opaca. Pero siempre hay matices y las apariencias podrían ser engañosas, nadie sabe con quien o que realmente te podrías cruzar a la vuelta de la esquina.
La vida es tan vertiginosa y pasan tantas cosas a la vez, que aveces no hay tiempo para detenerse a pensar en lo bueno o lo malo, o admirar las pequeñas cosas...pero algo es seguro, pase lo que pase el mundo sigue girando, sigue sin tomarse respiro.

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story 3.5 stars**
Audio 4 stars**
Narrator John Glover

Sometimes Stephen king doesn’t need a lot of words......
Short but good. ♥️

[Afaf Ammar · Rating 3 out of 5]

مساء ربيعي جميل، يتخلله الهواء الرقيق المنعش، وزاده جمالًا الغسق الهادئ بألوانه الجميلة، الذي بدا وكأنه طبع بهجة ألوانه كابتسامات على وجوه الناس ...
وشاب وسيم وأنيق، يمر في الشارع، ويجمع كل مَن يراه على أنه يبدو عاشقًا.
ورجل عجوز يبيع الزهور التي أغلبها صفراء على عربة يد قديمة خضراء،
يشتري منه الشاب باقة زهور، ويقول له بائع الزهور:
"لا أحد يشتري الزهور لنفسه في مايو. هذا يكاد يكون قانونًا...!"

كانت النجوم تلمع في السماء، وكل شيء مازال هادئًا في ذاك المساء الربيعي، حتى لحظة دخول الشاب العاشق في الزقاق المظلم!...

قصة جريمة قصيرة جدًا، ورغم أنني خمنت كل شيء من البداية، لكن استمتعت جدًا بالتداخل والمزج الجميل فيها.

قراءة لطيفة جدًا خاصة في المساءات الربيعية الهادئة...🌼

19.04.2020

[Medhat The Fanatic Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short, but still enjoyable.

[Mo Majid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romantic start till the terror kicks in, very unexpectedly.

[Jason Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the departure from the usual fare in Night Shift with the last story, we're right back to business as usual with this one. Since it was only six pages, I'll suggest you just read the thing instead of giving a synopsis. It had a surprise ending I didn't see coming, but I'm not the quickest study with literary foreshadowing, so I could've missed more than the average bear. I did see one thing early on that came into play later, but didn't make any connection until it was too late to matter. I'm glad it worked out that way since I like surprises.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 3 out of 5]

A happy young man enjoys buying beautiful flowers for the girl he loves. The only problem is that his beloved is nowhere to be found and he gets very angry, confused and unstable whenever he can't find her. Becoming so delirious with confusion and heartbreak can cause a guy to mistake any random girl for the girl he loves and the end result can be disastrous for everyone involved.

A bit predictable but fun horror story. Love drives people crazy sometimes.

[Samantha Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a beautiful spring evening in New York City. Love is in the air. A young man buys flowers for his love, Norma. It seems like nothing can go wrong; until it does.

I really liked that Stephen King was so detailed in his writing. It really made the story so imaginative. The story is very well written and has an amazing twist, but it was a little slow. Overall, I really enjoyed it!

[Eduardo Gameiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was searching for a short story that wouldn't take more than 15 minutes to read and this was the first story I found.
For the length of the story, this one is actually pretty good, especially the ending, which completely took me by surprise.

[Asheley T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Incredibly short story, started out well and ended in a way I never would have predicted. Fantastic imagery, played out in my head perfectly like a very short movie. Oh how I wish some of Stephen King's short stories were longer and more detailed.

Included in the Night Shift collection.

[Ricardo Matta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that went from sweet story to insane fast! Flowers and killing with a hammer, reminds me off Mario Bros.

[Marc-Antoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Playlist

Sherry - Four Seasons

[Kaitlyn (ktxx22) Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gruesome! And also quite humorous.

[Allison Faught · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I thought was a ‘not-so-king’ story about live turned out to be something out of a person’s biggest fear sad nightmares! Awesome twist and gripping end. Highly recommend!

[Stephanie]

Review coming soon

[Nienke Tangelder · Rating 3 out of 5]

american psycho meets psycho i guess

[Es the Book Hoarder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eight pages. Roughly. Eight pages! It's a mini masterpiece. The whole atmosphere built in this is superb. It's light and airy, uplifting and cheerful, and you don't even really pay attention to the bad news that's on the radio when the young man, so in love, passes the flower stand.

Is there a hammer killer? I didn't even realise. I was that oblivious that until it was mentioned as a question, I had to go back and check. That one little mention, on the radio, that the young man in love hears, just before smiling and buying flowers.

So wonderfully oblivious.

It's funny what passes us by when we aren't paying attention. When we're distracted by the seemingly sublime, by the innocence we think we see, by emotions, and feelings as fleeting as a beautiful spring, until the blood seeps out of the dark alleys onto our streets and we hear the echoes of screams.

What an absolutely superb story.

Where the evil is hidden in plain sight, horror disguised as love - or worse, obsession over an imagined love? A previous love? A first kill? A first step towards insanity? Poor Norma, whoever she was, whoever she will be.

I didn't see it coming. Not at all

4.5 of 5

[skylar lokota · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.25 stars

I guessed the end of the story early on. I don't know if it's because I've been reading a lot of King lately or if I just picked up on the foreshadowing early on. Yellow flowers in some cultures symbolizes death, a fact that I have know from my early childhood but have no idea how I learned it. Also, I think the radio or TV revealing a larger part of the story is a trope I've seen before; so, when an author describes the things happening on the radio/tv I listen lol

"The Man Who Loved Flowers" is an inventive story and enjoyable. It's greatest weakness comes from the fact that its predecessor in the Night Shift collection is "The Last Rung on the Ladder," a 5-star read for me.

[Olivia Fink (NatureGraceReader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

It gave it a 2 stars because I think that the story could have been better at building up suspense. The action happened very quickly but I did like the sense of surprise that accrued because of that.
I like how Stephen King started the story off by having it be no different then any other story. To the average reader there was nothing suspicious of buying flowers or going to see the person you love. I like how you didn’t realize something wasn’t right until nothing could be done about it. I dislike that it wasn’t explained farther. I think that there was a lot of needless details that could have been put into farther developing the murder and the insanity in the man’s mind.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit cheeky putting this as one book as it is only 6 pages long but I did technically read it as a separate book.

Enjoyed it though not really that shocking as it is Stephen King but a nice enough story about a mentally derange physcopath

[Chris Parilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

if I haven't known the Author of the story i may have conclude that this would be a love story... but ofcourse I already known it that is why i keep on anticipating what will be the catch in this one.. then a psychopat emerge

[Lance Lasalle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice prose with a twist more amusing than horrifying: I'm not sure if the story achieves its aim, but it's so short that it is pleasant enough. Well. Maybe "pleasant" is not the right word. Enjoyable, at any rate.

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going in I thought this was one of those more tender Stephen King pieces. It was so sweet, and I loved the dialogue between the man and the flower vendor. Then holy crap...It was a great little twist.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Gallery, Aug 1977
Collected in Night Shift
re-collected in

[Rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did not expect this ending. I thought the story was going down a completely different path. Well done, Mr King.

[Anuja · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Sounds like a straightforward story but then suddenly the twist at the end is as surprising as a hammer whacked onto your head. 😂😂😂

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hell of a turn in this one - I didn't entirely like it, I guess.

[Sara 🦷 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"if there is anything more beautiful than springtime, it's young love".

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love so much of Stephen King’s work, this one just didn’t work for me.