I know I’m super late to the party, but I just read my first Stephen King novel (Thinner) and absolutely devoured it.

I loved it, so I’m reading Pet Semetary and while it started a bit slow, it’s got its hooks in me now. I’ve already got 4 more books lined up for when I’m done.

I don’t even know why I didn’t start sooner because I love horror, I used to read Goosebumps books as a kid constantly and I love films like The Shining and The Green Mile.

I’m working my way through the more well-known ones (IT, Cujo, Green Mile, Different Seasons etc) but can anyone recommend some deeper cuts that I might also enjoy? I’ve seen on a few rankings that Thinner is usually relatively low and I loved it so I’m looking forward to exploring his back catalogue!

  • Someology@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    The man sure can spin a good yarn. I always think of him like the person you know who is absolute best at telling a tall tale around the camp fire, riveting everyone’s attention. Is it technically perfect writing all the time? Nope. Is it trying to be fancy literature? Nope. Is it telling a story that holds onto your attention, leaving you sitting in a car listening to an audiobook for half an hour after you arrive home? Yep! He’s a storyteller supreme. Some criticize him for weak endings, but he will sure drag you all the way to that ending.

    I enjoy a variety of his writing. Growing up, I only thought of him as a “horror writer”, because that’s what made it to film. Then I found The Eyes of the Dragon in the library (which is a fantasy novel), and discovered that Mr. King can write more than horror. I truly enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Tower, and his “Hard Case Crime” books The Colorado Kid, Joyland, and Later. Joyland really is a great little gem of a book.

    Then, his writing drew me into some of his horror works after all. Things like Firestarter (loved), Carrie (didn’t love), The Shining (loved), and Salem’s Lot (solid and interesting for it’s place in vampire fiction). I also enjoyed his more recent book The Institute as well.

    I’m not his biggest fan, and I see issues in the details of his writing from time to time (far too many hours spent in Literature classes), but I have tremendous respect for him as a storyteller, and as a writer who can capture the effect of a good storyteller so well so much of the time. To me this overcomes the criticisms some make of his work.

  • SpicyMonner@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Thinner is one of my favourites by him!

    The normal favourites are IT, The Stand, The Shining etc. But my absolute favourite of the ones I have read is Salem’s Lot.

  • emma@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I haven’t read Stephen King in probably two decades so this might no longer apply. Family members are BIG fans and I started every one I read expecting to love them. But it turned out how much I liked them was inversely related to the death count. The higher the percentage of characters who died, the less I cared. There’s a novella where they’re trying to get to Hartford CT (I think it was Hartford, anywhere somewhere around there which is the last place you’d think of as being salvation), I liked that one.

    Yes, I realise I am not the norm in this but you did say everyone ;)