Stephen King 2025 read-along discussion

Happy June (and Happy Pride month for anyone who celebrates) fellow Constant Readers!! Once again we're half way through the year and I'm completely floored that this year has gone by so fast. This month, using the prompt from BooksandLala's Buzzwordathon which is "repeating words", we will be reading the short story "The End of the Whole Mess" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

"The End of the Whole Mess" is a short science fiction story first published in Omni Magazine in 1986. It was collected in King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 1993 and in Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse in 2008. The story is written in the form of a personal journal, and tells the story of the narrator Howard Fornoy's genius younger brother's (Bobby) attempt to cure humanity's aggressive tendencies.

"The End of the Whole Mess" was included as the fourth installment of TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, starring Ron Livingston as Howard and Henry Thomas as Bobby. It originally aired on July 19, 2006. It was favored as one of the more popular episodes of the mini-series.

The audiobook version of this story was narrated by actor Matthew Broderick.

As always you're more than welcome to read the entirety of Nightmares and Dreamscapes (one of my personal favorites of his short story collections) or Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse but it's not necessary. We hope everyone has a great start to the summer and a great month of reading!

I’m excited for this one! Happy June :)