The most recent novel by Stephen King, horror-thriller The Institute, was just published in September, but the insanely prolific author, already has another title on the way, in the form of, If It Bleeds, which has had its release date pushed forward a week, to April.

If It Bleeds is not a full novel, but rather a collection of four novellas, the same format as the likes of Full Dark, No Stars, Four Past Midnight, and the highly popular, Different Seasons. The stories are titled Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, Rat, and If It Bleeds. 

Not much knowledge has been given, about what we can anticipate from their actual content, although an excerpt released last year, from presumably the titular tale, reveals it to feature detectives Holly Gibney, and Ralph Anderson, from The Outsider, the novel on which the miniseries of the same name was based, which began in January, and ended last month.

The title refers to “If it bleeds, it leads,” an old news maxim, that states lurid stories of violence, death, and human suffering, tend to draw in higher ratings, and not, sadly, an invocation of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic line from Predator, since with that movie being released, it might be too contemporary a reference for King to include.

Most of us are going to be quarantined for the foreseeable future, and the length of time it takes to read a book is a great way of alleviating boredom, when you just can’t face yet another Netflix series.

Horror might seem a counter-intuitive way of handling the chaos into which the planet is descending, but the compelling worlds that Stephen King creates, have a certain consistency to them.

And knowing that the fear spreading within, has rules that will ultimately lead to a resolution, in which things are returned to some semblance of normality, may prove an effective counter to the uncertainty in which we’re all currently being forced to live.