StephenKing.com - Raft, The

Community Thoughts:

Posted By: SK Fan ;) - July 10th, 2011 8:35:39 pm EDT

An amazing and compelling story by SK! So good and unique, with twists and turns everywhere. Quite horrific! I don't like the (sorta) unfinished storyline, but I suppose it is quite obvious. Overall amazing story.

Posted By: WADE82270 - May 13th, 2010 1:22:19 pm EDT
The raft is another enduring tale on Skeleton Crew, at first seemingly an innocuous story of youthful exuberance. One of my favorite things about Stephen's supernatural stories is the mere knowledge aforehand that we are in for a bumpy ride. This story is no different, and bieng limited in scope serves the plot and outcome well. The sheer foreboding of his description of the creature, this story is believable because of the descriptive narrative. It captures a great visual effect to me, I felt as if I was right there with Randy and Deke to the very end. I also love how the end is not spelled out in black and white, leaving the reader to contemplate what they might do in the same situation. I later watched the film version found in Creepshow 2, and was somewhat disappointed mostly because of the fact that budget limitations seemed to keep the experience from being as visceral as the read. This is one tale that needs the touch of a bigger budget or perhaps just modern CG technology for a film version to shine. It is a great short story and makes us wonder about those things out there that are still unknown to man. No matter how many times I read it, it always gives me chills. Exactly the desired effect I suppose that was intended.

Posted By: Anonymous - May 8th, 2009 12:58:55 pm EDT
I have to say I really hated this story, though the description was well done. I found the violence to be gratuitous rather than serving to advance any kind of story. The plot seems to be built around the horrific scene of the jock getting sucked through the hole in the raft. (Perhaps this lesser quality is demonstrated by the fact that it was originally published in a porn magazine?) The one positive thing I can say is that the vision of the boy's death was so disgusting that I felt dirty after reading it. Usually I will defend Mr. King's writing, but in the case of this story all I can say is that it might have worth as a creative exercise rather than a short story.