Best Stephen King Novel of the 70s & 80s?

[Voros]

Pretty sure a number of us grew up in the 80s when every kid was reading Stephen King. I stopped reading him around rhe time of his cocaine-fuelled anti-masterpiece The Tommyknockers and the spectacularly uninspired Four Past Midnight.

But I have gone back and revisted and re-read his novels from that period over the past few years (listening to the audiobook of The Shining right now). Have picked up some of his more recent short story collections too.

What do you figure is his best novel of the 70s/80s? The complete list is here.

Novels only, so that excludes the novellas Cycle of the Werewolf, Apt Pupil, The Body and The Mist.

 

[Voros]

 

[noman]

It, Firestarter, and Carrie, in that order. Everything else, no.

Despite going completely off the deep end at the end, It is actually a good horror story with an actually interesting and frightening antagonist.

Firestarter and Carrie get a because King, more than any other author I've read, gets what happens to a human if that human is able to access meta-mind capabilities. He captures this beautifully.

I'm very critical of King, which I won't rant about here. I do want to say (not a criticism) that no other author I'm familiar with understands and portrays human evil, with a small 'e' like King does. To me, the real horror isn't his laughable antagonists (Christine, Cujo, Flagg), but the petty, human ugliness he describes in his prose. In this, he's a master. Apt Pupil is terrifying.

 

[Dumarest]

Dunno, what year was that non-horror collection of four novellas, one for each season? That's the only book of his I've ever read.

 

[Voros]

Dunno, what year was that non-horror collection of four novellas, one for rash season? That's the only book of his I've ever read.

That is Four Seasons from 1982. I excluded it because they are novellas but of course everyone is welcome to discuss what they like!

 

[Dumarest]

... everyone is welcome to discuss what they like!

Sirrah, that goes against the very premise of the Internet in general and discussion fora in particular.

 

[Voros]

It, Firestarter, and Carrie, in that order. Everything else, no.

Despite going completely off the deep end at the end, It is actually a good horror story with an actually interesting and frightening antagonist.

Firestarter and Carrie get a because King, more than any other author I've read, gets what happens to a human if that human is able to access meta-mind capabilities. He captures this beautifully.

I'm very critical of King, which I won't rant about here...

Have you read The Dead Zone? I think it is his best novel on the theme of meta-mind capabilities although I remain fond of the flawed Firestarter.

I don't think there anything wrong with being critical of King, he admit his own limitations as a writer in On Writing in a way I found refreshing, although many of his fans will respond with absurd anger over any criticism.

For one, I think he overwrites tremendously. I don't mind long novels or even dense and convoluted styles but there are many King books that would be twice as good at half the length. His prose is sturdy but his dialogue can often slip into a terribly contrived folkiness that is painful to read. I think his strongest suit as a writer as you say is in real life characterization. His supernatural evils are often less effective ironically.

And I agree that It is one of his best even if the ending is very weak (although the actual last few pages are strong).

I think the sleeper here is The Talisman which I think gets overlooked because it isn't really a horror novel and is co-written with Straub. I think it is his best long novel, which probably does comes from Straub.

 

[Baulderstone]

Pretty sure a number of us grew up in the 80s when every kid was reading Stephen King. I stopped reading him around rhe time of his cocaine-fuelled anti-masterpiece The Tommyknockers and the spectacularly uninspired Four Past Midnight.

I stopped with The Tommyknockers as well. I actually kind of enjoyed its ridiculousness, but I knew, as I was reading it, that it was time to move on. As author breakups went, it was amicable on my end. I'd had a lot of fun with King. However, I was reading Barker now, and that was speaking to me more.

I got Four Past Midnight as a gift in hardback, and it sat unread on my shelf for years until I eventually sold it.

You have included all his '70s work on this list as well. Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone are all '70s novels. The movie of Carrie was even out in '76. That only knocks out one of Noman's choices though.

Firestarter was actually my first King novel, and I agree that it handled psychic powers brilliantly. It's a kind of a lumpy novel with an unsatisfying ending, but I really needed to see more of Stephen King's world after that.

I need to add that King's writing on weird powers is hugely influenced by science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. If you mainly read King for the misfits with weird powers, then More Than Human is waiting for you. Alfred Bester is another clear influence as well. Bester's book The Stars My Destination is where King got the term "jaunt" from.

Anyway, back to King. Christine spoke to me as a teenager. That brings up the point that I only read King as a teenager, so all the opinions I give here are through that filter. Christine seemed to capture something meaningful about the thin line between becoming cool as a teenager and becoming a monster.

IT was pretty powerful. Between the time jumps with the characters and the expansive history of the town, that book stayed with me. I moved around a lot as a kid as well, so it perfectly captured the feeling when you finding a group of weirdos that you can relate to.

My mother picked up Misery for me to read while I was home from school with an achy case of the flu. Not the greatest combination. That's another one that stayed with me. Later in life I developed a painful chronic illness, and when I am wracked with pain, some of the imagery from that book comes back to me.

I'm with you on The Talisman, Voros. I'm a big Peter Straub fan though, so it almost feels like cheating to call it my favorite King novel of the '80s.

I don't think there anything wrong with being critical of King, he admit his own limitations as a writer in On Writing in a way I found refreshing, although many of his fans will respond with absurd anger over any criticism.

I too think that you should feel free to criticize King in the thread, Noman. You were pretty insightful in picking out things he does well. I expect your criticisms will be interesting too.

 

[Voros]

...
You have included all his '70s work on this list as well. Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone are all '70s novels. The movie of Carrie was even out in '76. That only knocks out one of Noman's choices though.

Whoops! Not sure how I missed that! I kept adjusting the list so it wouldn't be too long and didn't fix the title.

 

[Baulderstone]

Whoops! Not sure how I missed that! I kept adjusting the list so it wouldn't be too long and didn't fix the title.

Maybe we can amend it to "Stephen King books that were around in the '80s".

 

[Voros]

Maybe we can amend it to "Stephen King books that were around in the '80s".

Ah just figured out where you go to edit the title, fixed!

 

[Baulderstone]

Ah just figured out where you go to edit the title, fixed!

Of course, now I am going to look like an idiot.

Eh. I'm used to it.

 

[Grelan]

For that time period, I'd have to go with The Shining. That book really stuck with me. It was still early enough in his career that an editor could tell him to cut out all this pointlessness and he had to listen. As a result, it's pretty tightly focused.

I love his short fiction. I think that's truly the area where he gets into the pantheon with the greats. Stories like The Reach (aka Do the dead sing?), Word Processor of the Gods, Jerusalem's Lot, The Jaunt, et al are amazing.

 

[Voros]

I really like his short story The Raft, it is gruesome and even exploitive (like a lot of his short fiction which was published orginally in 'men's magazines') but also melancholy and even modernist in style.

The problem with The Shining for me is the ending, it is one of the few examples where I think the film has a much stronger ending.

King often gets sentimental in his endings. But then so did Dickens and Dostoyevsky so he is in good company. His most effective horror novels to me are Pet Semetary and Thinner, comparatively punchy and with really horrific (and emotionally effective) endings.

 

[noman]

Have you read The Dead Zone?

I have not. People keep telling me to read it, and I keep not getting around to it. Thank you for the suggestion. I think I'll stop dicking around and actually read it this time.

I need to add that King's writing on weird powers is hugely influenced by science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. If you mainly read King for the misfits with weird powers, then More Than Human is waiting for you. Alfred Bester is another clear influence as well. Bester's book The Stars My Destination is where King got the term "jaunt" from.

Again, thanks for the suggestion. Added to the Noman Reading Queue

I too think that you should feel free to criticize King in the thread, Noman. You were pretty insightful in picking out things he does well. I expect your criticisms will be interesting too.

I suspect I won't live up to those expectations.

The problem I have when I criticize King is I feel like an arrogant ass when I do it. Who the hell do I think I am to talk trash about one of the most iconic authors of our lifetime?

And let me clarify this a little. I think King is a superior writer. No question in my mind. Outside of his technical mastery, he does three things for me: (a) he does a good job of answering questions regarding the psychological and sociological effects caused by an individual with high-level psychic powers, (b) he captures petty human evil in a way no other author I've read has ever done, and (c) he encapsulates that evil within his portrayal of the darker side of small communities. I grew up in a small, rural, community, and King speaks to me on this level.

But most of his stuff isn't scary.

It wasn't too bad, sure. But the others?

This is a guy who wrote an entire book, that made millions, about a rabid dog. Do you know what you call a rabid dog in the rural South? Target practice, and very possibly supper.

You know what you call a malevolent, self-repairing car in certain parts of Los Angeles? A business opportunity. Also, just get off the road. It's not a ATV for Christ's sake.

I've read allegedly true case studies of human-UFO encounters that were far more frightening than Tommyknockers.

Mark E. Rogers did a parody of Salem's Lot that went something like this:

Master Vamp: "We will drink the blood of all of the humans in Salem's Lot and turn them into vampires!"
Lesser Vamps: "YAY!"
Master Vamp: "And then we'll drink the blood of all of the humans in all of New England!"
Lesser Vamps: "Yay!"
Master Vamp: "And then we'll drink the blood of all of the humans in the world!"
Lesser Vamps: "Yay?"
Lesser Vamp, raising hand: "But sir, if we do that, there won't be any more human blood to drink!"
Master Vamp: "We'll drink tomato juice and call it blood! Because we're vampires and nothing we do makes any sense anyway!"
Lesser Vamps: "YAY!"

Salem's lot is best read as a dark sitcom.

And while I'm on this rant, just in case anyone is reading this and still holding on to their restraint, let me say this: Randal Flagg is the most over-hyped villain in modern literature.

There. I said it. Everyone can hate me now.

King's stories work because he keeps things set in a small town full of Jack and Jill Nobody's (Roland being the only exception I know of, and even then he had to handicap the guy early on). His protagonists have to be kids, or highschoolers from the 50s, or struggling writers with issues, or some other generally incompetent human being, in order to give his absurd antagonists a fighting chance of victory, in order to make them look scary by comparison.



The genius of King is he can write convincing and excellent stories around such terrible monsters (not snark).

Related to this gripe is my compliant that King is rarely able to end a story well. I've gotten the feeling, in most of the books I've read, that he burns out by the end, and just writes up some crap to get it over and done with. This is true of his villains as well. They start with a bang, in most cases, and end in a whimper. Again, I point to Flagg.

To summarize, King's got two problems for me: (a) his endings are usually weak, and (b) he does petty evil very well, but can't do True Evil to save his life.

I'll add that The Mist, both the short and the movie, is an exception. Its ending is excellent (the movie's ending was preferred by King) and does both petty and true evil wonderfully.

It's like he can hit that flow, every now and then, and put out a true masterpiece of horror, while the rest is the sort of thing that scares gradeschoolers. *Throws up hands*

I have very high standards for horror. I don't want to be entertained. I want to be traumatized. I want to walk away from a horror book or movie on unsteady legs. I want to be disturbed, right down to my core. The Mist did that. Nothing else of his I've read has.

 

[Baulderstone]

For that time period, I'd have to go with The Shining. That book really stuck with me. It was still early enough in his career that an editor could tell him to cut out all this pointlessness and he had to listen. As a result, it's pretty tightly focused.

I love his short fiction. I think that's truly the area where he gets into the pantheon with the greats. Stories like The Reach (aka Do the dead sing?), Word Processor of the Gods, Jerusalem's Lot, The Jaunt, et al are amazing.

When I posted last night, the thread was mistakenly labeled as just '80s stuff. Now the '70s are on the table, The Shining is way up there. I said I only read Stephen King as a teen in my previous answer, and that isn't entirely true. I never got around to reading The Shining as a teen, and I am glad I read it as an adult. I would have liked it at 15, but I don't think I would have got it.

As you say, it is early enough in his career that he still had to listen to an editor, but it is also early enough that King still isn't an established bestseller yet. It really taps into the desperation and fear of needing to support a family and not being sure you can, and how that can fester into a horrible anger. There is something really personal and dark there.

Voros is right that the ending is kind of a let-down, but that ultimately doesn't matter to me. At least it is a let down in the sense of being abrupt and arbitrary. It isn't entirely satisfying, but it also doesn't betray anything that came before.

 

[Voros]

I think that I saw The Shining the film several times as a kid and teen definitely shaped my reaction to the ending of the book. Revisiting it now I do appreciate how well King reflects the desperation and pain of a failing marriage. That is clearly missing from the film.

I loved The Mist and thought the ambigious ending of the novella was superior to the film, I think it is a properly literary ending.

The Long Walk has a similarly memorable and ambigious ending, I wonder if King was afraid that if he ended any of his larger, commercial works that way he'd get a reader backlash? But then look at how he ended The Dark Tower, I think he definitely has the confidence now.

 

[Spinachcat]

I prefer his short stories...for all the reasons already discussed.

Oddly, I do remember enjoying Tommyknockers for some reason.

 

[Baulderstone]

Again, thanks for the suggestion. Added to the Noman Reading Queue

Let me know what you think.

The problem I have when I criticize King is I feel like an arrogant ass when I do it. Who the hell do I think I am to talk trash about one of the most iconic authors of our lifetime?

He is an easy target. I went through a phase in my early 20s where I was utterly dismissive of him.

But most of his stuff isn't scary.

I agree on a lot of the novels. Many of them are really dark contemporary fantasy. He does better at horror in his short stories. Of course, horror, as an entire genre, works better in short stories.

I think the entire field of horror, fantasy and sci-fi suffered when short story markets dried up and were replaced by doorstop novels.

You know what you call a malevolent, self-repairing car in certain parts of Los Angeles? A business opportunity. Also, just get off the road. It's not a ATV for Christ's sake.

Well, as I said earlier, the thing that stuck with me in that one was the transformation the character went through. The car wasn't actually the most interesting part for me.

Mark E. Rogers did a parody of Salem's Lot that went something like this:

Master Vamp: "We will drink the blood of all of the humans in Salem's Lot and turn them into vampires!"
Lesser Vamps: "YAY!"
Master Vamp: "And then we'll drink the blood of all of the humans in all of New England!"
Lesser Vamps: "Yay!"
Master Vamp: "And then we'll drink the blood of all of the humans in the world!"
Lesser Vamps: "Yay?"
Lesser Vamp, raising hand: "But sir, if we do that, there won't be any more human blood to drink!"
Master Vamp: "We'll drink tomato juice and call it blood! Because we're vampires and nothing we do makes any sense anyway!"
Lesser Vamps: "YAY!"

Salem's lot is best read as a dark sitcom.

This a pretty common horror issue. I never actually read Salem's Lot though.

I'll add that The Mist, both the short and the movie, is an exception. Its ending is excellent (the movie's ending was preferred by King) and does both petty and true evil wonderfully.

I loved the short story, but I found the movie too pat. if the climax was going to center on them travelling out of the store and losing hope, then their journey shouldn't have been a montage. It should have been a notable part of the movie. If someone is going to shoot their kid, you need to build to that in a way that movie didn't.

 

[noman]

Well, as I said earlier, the thing that stuck with me in that one was the transformation the character went through. The car wasn't actually the most interesting part for me.

That's a fair and excellent point.

 

[Dumarest]

I think the entire field of horror, fantasy and sci-fi suffered when short story markets dried up and were replaced by doorstop novels.

I'll see that and raise you to all literature , at least in the U.S. The Great Gatsby, The Old Man and the Sea, Tortilla Flat, and countless other classics would be laughed at by the modern literary establishment for their lack of verbosity.

 

[Simlasa]

Most of the Stephen King stuff I've read was when I was in High School. I remember staying up till all hours trying to get through The Stand.
I got most of the way through The Shining before it was stolen... and I never cared enough to replace it and finish.
Really, I prefer his short stories... like The Mist (and I liked the movie quite a lot).
The last one I read of his was Revival, which kept me going... up until the ending where it seemed like he was trying to be shocking/weird, not his thing, and it felt forced.
Then I listened to an audiobook of IT (when the remake was coming out) and that might be my favorite of his big books. Despite being long, it seemed like all the parts served a purpose... created a subtle atmosphere that the TV/Movie version failed to address.

I always think of King's stories as 'comfortable horror'. He tells a good story but can be self-indulgent with the nostalgia and sentimentality. He's like a literary Stephen Spielberg... good clear storytelling that often puts me off with its 'niceness'.

 

[Voros]

Pet Semetary, Thinner and 'Apt Pupil' all reflect King at his least 'nice' and are a good tonic to his frequent sentimentality.

 

[Charlie D]

The Shining. Freaks. Me. Out.

"He ran full-tilt into the outside door of 217, which was now closed. He began hammering on it, far beyond realizing that it was unlocked, and he had only to turn the knob to let himself out. His mouth pealed forth deafening screams that were beyond human auditory range. He could only hammer on the door and hear the dead woman coming for him, bloated belly, dry hair, outstretched hands-something that had lain slain in that tub for perhaps years, embalmed there in magic.

The door would not open, would not, would not, would not.

And then the voice of Dick Hallorann came to him, so sudden and unexpected, so calm, that his locked vocal cords opened and he began to cry weakly-not with fear but with blessed relief.

(I don't think they can hurt you... they're like pictures in a book... close your eyes and they'll he gone.)

His eyelids snapped down. His hands curled into balls. His shoulders hunched with the effort of his concentration:

(Nothing there nothing there not there at all NOTHING THERE THERE IS NOTHING!)

Time passed. And he was just beginning to relax, just beginning to realize that the door must be unlocked and he could go, when the years-damp, bloated, fish-smelling hands closed softly around his throat and he was turned implacably around to stare into that dead and purple face."

AND

"But it had happened, his frenzied mind told him, it had happened, he was in the dark, he was closed in, and it was as cold as a refrigerator. And-

(something is in here with me.)

His breath stopped in a gasp. An almost drowsy terror stole through his veins. Yes. Yes. There was something in here with him, some awful thing the Overlook had saved for just such a chance as this. Maybe a huge spider that had burrowed down under the dead leaves, or a rat... or maybe the corpse of some little kid that had died here on the playground. Had that ever happened? Yes, he thought maybe it had. He thought of the woman in the tub. The blood and brains on the wall of the Presidential Sweet. Of some little kid, its head split open from a fall from the monkey bars or a swing, crawling after him in the dark, grinning, looking for one final playmate in its endless playground. Forever. In a moment he would hear it coming.

At the far end of the concrete ring, Danny heard the stealthy crackle of dead leaves as something came for him on its hands and knees. At any moment he would feel its cold hand close over his ankle-"

 

[Voros]

Too Much Horror Fiction blog with a ‘controversial’ take on The Stand. Although I actually agree with a lot of it (although I liked the grotesque nature of The Kid sequence) and find it the most commonly disparaged of the ‘big’ or ‘classic’ King novels.

 

[dokel]

I read Salem's Lot when I was about 11 or 12 and it scared the crap out of me. I read it late at night in bed. I remember lying in the dark after putting the light out listening for scratching at the window. The only other King novel I've read since was Cujo, which I read a few years later and actually found a little dull.

I first encountered The Mist while reading the horror anthology Dark Forces, which is a great collection of short fiction.

Edit: I actually often get bored with horror novels and I think there's a good case for arguing that the genre works best in short form.

 

[Dumarest]

That is Four Seasons from 1982. I excluded it because they are novellas but of course everyone is welcome to discuss what they like!

Just realized the title is actually Different Seasons. Voros led me astray!

​

 

[OHT]

It is easily my favourite novel of his from any time-period. I've avoided the films because I don't want the book ruined (even if it turns out to be a good adaptation). Salem's Lot is again in my mind as David Soul and the blue chipmonk vampire.

Not from that time period I also really like Insomnia, but maybe that's for another time.

 

[Toric]

I'm a native New Englander. I grew up there in the 70's so King's work has always spoken to me for the portrait it paints of life in small New England towns during that period. Maine specifically, but easily applied to anywhere in New England. He does such a fantastic job of dropping you into his settings and making you feel as if you are back in whatever year or decade the story is set in.

Are his works generally scary? I dunno. Horror is subjective. What scares one person might not scare another.

From the 70's and 80's, I particularly like 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, IT and Pet Sematary.

'Salem's Lot comes off almost as satire. The main character is without much depth. The supporting cast of characters around town are more interesting though. And it could be argued that the town itself is as much a character as Ben Mears. I particularly enjoy the Town Interludes after each chunk of the book. In these, you see what is happening around town to the minor supporting characters as the vampire infection spreads. Very effective interludes. I've read this one several times.

The Shining is a great haunted house story, with plenty of twists in that genre. Jack's spiral into madness is much more effective in the novel than the clearly already crazy Jack portrayed by Nicholson in Kubrick's movie. I've read this one a few times as well.

Pet Sematary is a pretty brutal story. King is on record as saying this is the novel of his that scared him the most and initially didn't want to publish it. As the story progresses, a growing sense of dread builds. Anyone with kids reading this book will likely cringe at many portions of the story. This might be one of King's more in-your-face novels. I've only read this once.

IT might be my favorite King novel and I've read it maybe half a dozen times. Yes, the ending is pretty weak. But the meaty middle of the book is just soooo good! Derry is possibly the pinnacle of town settings that King has created, and the way he continues to layer on detail as this novel progresses is excellent. All the main characters have great depth and jumping back and forth from them as adults to kids is effective. King's nostalgia for the 50's when he himself grew up is clear and easily comes across in this book. There are some genuinely unsettling or scary scenes in the middle portions of this book (at least scary to me). Absolutely love this one.

There are of course others that I enjoyed that have been mentioned here like The Dead Zone, Christine and Carrie, but the four above are my favorites from the two decades mentioned in the thread title. I'm an unabashed King fanboy though so feel free to take my opinions with a grain of salt. I do try to recognize his shortcomings as an author and have read some novels of his that I haven't cared for but all in all I'm a fan. I say this fully aware that others might dislike his work and that is okay!

 

[Séadna]

Just reading the thread it seems from people's comments he portrays small town New England and its ugliness well. A college friend from Vermont often emphasised this point to me. Has he ever written a non-fantstical novel/novella that's just that, not overlaid with psychics, ghosts, etc?

 

[Dumarest]

Has he ever written a non-fantstical novel/novella that's just that, not overlaid with psychics, ghosts, etc?

Yes:

Dunno, what year was that non-horror collection of four novellas, one for each season? That's the only book of his I've ever read.

Just realized the title is actually Different Seasons. Voros led me astray!

View attachment 14938​

 

[Voros]

Just reading the thread it seems from people's comments he portrays small town New England and its ugliness well. A college friend from Vermont often emphasised this point to me. Has he ever written a non-fantstical novel/novella that's just that, not overlaid with psychics, ghosts, etc?

Roadwork is probably the closest to a 'mainsteam' novel by him that I read. No fantastic or sf elements at all.

 

[Séadna]

Yes:

Ah cool! I'd be interested to see him dig into small town New England as it is. Seems like that "The Body" story in Different Seasons is the way to go.

Roadwork is probably the closest to a 'mainsteam' novel by him that I read. No fantastic or sf elements at all.

I think Dad has that. I'll give it a go as well.

 

[Baulderstone]

IT might be my favorite King novel and I've read it maybe half a dozen times. Yes, the ending is pretty weak. But the meaty middle of the book is just soooo good! Derry is possibly the pinnacle of town settings that King has created, and the way he continues to layer on detail as this novel progresses is excellent. All the main characters have great depth and jumping back and forth from them as adults to kids is effective. King's nostalgia for the 50's when he himself grew up is clear and easily comes across in this book.

I read this when it first came out, and last year I started reading it for the first time since then. I was startled by how well I remembered the layout of the town.

 

[Gabriel]

I've only read two King novels: Firestarter and Eyes of the Dragon.

My roommate owned a copy of Firestarter. I had just got home from work at 2AM. I was still wired, so I decided to read, and I picked up that book. I kept reading until I was done. I could not put it down. I recall my roommate getting in from his shift in the morning and realizing it was light outside. I didn't care. I had to keep reading.

Another friend handed me a copy of Eyes of the Dragon and told me I should read it. It floated around the apartment for a while. Then, one night after work, I was wired and decided to read. I picked up the book and could not put it down. I read it all the way through in that sitting.

So, I can't give any comparison to his other books, but I definitely liked those two.

 

[carpocratian]

I read a lot of horror in general, but I don't care for Stephen King's books, for the most part.

I read The Dead Zone, Christine, and Firestarter when they first came out. I enjoyed them at the time, but not enough to re-read them or to pick up his other stuff. I have tried over the years to read some of his other books, but I just don't like his style, particularly the way he writes his characters.

That tends to be true of movies based on his books, too. I love Kubrick's The Shining, probably because it is nothing like the book. The only other movies based on his books that I really like are The Dead Zone and Salem's Lot. I have watched all three of those numerous times over the years.

 

[CRKrueger]

I’m a big Stephen King fan, and I’ll be the first one to admit, when it comes to supernatural evil, most of the time he totally fucks the ending.

There’s a few things King really does better than almost anybody.

• Portraying small-e evil, as Norman said. He can turn human banality into something terrifying.
• Portraying small-town life.
• Portraying the alternate world of children as opposed to the world of grown-ups.
• Characterization and the dialogue of normal people, as well as their everyday trials and horrors.
• The power of the unknown - part of what makes IT so great, and you see in Sun Dog. The slow, creeping coming of something you can’t see in it’s entirety - like the ending of Christine.
• Portraying the curse of being “blessed” with special abilities. He practically has his own sub-genre here.

Carrie - “Hey, I’ll write a debut novel in epistolary form” -said no one ever. But, wow. Carrie single-handedly wipes a town off the map and the real monsters are the kids at her high school and her mother. King’s in a psychic-phase here, and this novel plus Deadzone and Firestarter are all good reads. Firestarter’s probably the weakest of the three, but I really liked his characterization of Charlie’s father and how his abilities affected him.

I like Salem’s Lot, because Barlow is not a Byronic vampire. He’s pure Evil, in the Christian sense. Salem’s Lot is also some of King’s best ”small town” work. We’re not seeing the slow corruption and transformation of a man, as in Christine, but in the town itself. The satiric metaphor of an antique dealer ruining a New England town, of Outside destroying the small community of Inside, of an infection rotting away society is an aspect of King’s psychology he’s working over, the idea that “things aren’t right, there’s something wrong happening”. I think he finally finds his voice to this idea in his Magnum Opus, Hearts in Atlantis, but that’s a whole ‘nother thread.

Cujo is simple as hell, “dog gets rabies”, yet he does so much with it. Too bad he has little memory of writing it, since he was on a coke bender.

The Shining - Incredible homage to Shirley Jackson, scary as fuck both mundane and supernatural. One of the greatest literary depictions of stark sheer terror - that sucks you right in with it.

Christine scared me a lot. Mainly because you never know what it is. There’s evidence it was evil, even from the assembly line, but it was built to spec by Roland LeBay (a frenchname that brings to mind Louisiana, hoodoo and all the rest), there’s evidence LeBay possessed it - or could just have consumed by it. Then the ending...

Out of all of King’s books listed, Pet Sematary scared me the most. It’s a depressing novel and unflinchingly brutal, I can see why King, his wife, and Peter Straub all thought he shouldn’t publish it.

IT was also scary. It’s got the same “kid’s life” power that The Body/Stand by Me does, combined with a slowly unfolding terror and one of the greatest villains in Horror. It also is powerful the way he shows how childhood traumas and scars, for better or worse, make who we are. Unfortunately, he built up such a horrifying nemesis, that he just couldn’t come up with a ending that such an incredible buildup demanded. Still, easily one of his best.

The Stand perfectly captures the essence of post-apocalyptic literature: no matter what happens to create the apocalypse, humanity is always far, far, worse; yet at the same time, critical times allow the best people to truly rise to the occasion. The ending I just try to ignore.

Misery. Damn near perfect book and perfect movie adaptation.

Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, Needful Things...Jesus Wept. I just about gave up on him. After Misery, I think he was done with the supernatural for a while, he just didn’t know it yet, and these three prove it. He follows these stinkers with a return to more grounded stories like Misery - Gerald’s Game and Dolores Clairborne, but they’re outside the timeline.

 

[Baulderstone]

Carrie - “Hey, I’ll write a debut novel in epistolary form” -said no one ever. But, wow. Carrie single-handedly wipes a town off the map and the real monsters are the kids at her high school and her mother. King’s in a psychic-phase here, and this novel plus Deadzone and Firestarter are all good reads. Firestarter’s probably the weakest of the three, but I really liked his characterization of Charlie’s father and how his abilities affected him.

Firestarter was the first King book I read. It was enough to make me a fan but certainly belong the "underwhelming ending" pile. I agree with the you about Charlie's father. That's that thread of the story that sticks in my mind when I recall the book.

When I got around to reading Theodore Sturgeon, I realized just how much King was influenced by him when it came to the feel of of his psychic powers. That isn't a knock on King. He's always been generous about promoting the people that inspired him, and he melds his influences into something distinctively his own.

Christine scared me a lot. Mainly because you never know what it is. There’s evidence it was evil, even from the assembly line, but it was built to spec by Roland LeBay (a frenchname that brings to mind Louisiana, hoodoo and all the rest), there’s evidence LeBay possessed it - or could just have consumed by it. Then the ending...

This was the second King book I read, and yes, he sticks the landing on this one. In like the way it works on a supernatural level, but also evokes the situation where a loser finds themselves suddenly popular and it turns them into an asshole.

Out of all of King’s books listed, Pet Sematary scared me the most. It’s a depressing novel and unflinchingly brutal, I can see why King, his wife, and Peter Straub all thought he shouldn’t publish it.

That was hard enough to read as a teenager. I imagine it is even tougher book to read as an adult.[/QUOTE]

 

[CRKrueger]

That was hard enough to read as a teenager. I imagine it is even tougher book to read as an adult.

King’s at his best when he’s exorcising (or at least relieving for a while) his own demons and fears. He lived on that road with the speeding trucks. There really was a Pet Sematary because so many pets got killed. The family cat got run over. His 2 year old son almost ran into that road while flying a kite but King grabbed him just in time. Take the horror of “what if“ and let it grow in King’s imagination, and you get a story both great and terrible.