But Even to This Day, There Are Some of His Books Standing Out for Specific Reasons
We forget about the stories, honestly. We only remember King. Stephen King. Hell, that's why his name on the cover always ends up bigger than the title! The thing, though, is his work has become so all-encompassing that we can no longer pin him down to any specific kind of horror. A lot of his stories stand out for overlapping between sub-genres in fantastic fashion --
- The Stand
- The Dark Tower
- Carrie
- Pet Sematary
Just to name a few.... And they're spectacles of horror simply based on the inner workings of the story, and not due to some high concept trending in today's literature.
But we have to accept the fact that genre books are huge and continue to be gargantuan among readers, which is why this article here is a must for those wanting a taste of a specific kind of horror book -- from Stephen King himself, starting with....
Be prepared to be blown away by a novel so unabashadly not horror that you'll forget you're reading King. Although a lot of his mystery thriller elements exist here to full effect, this serves as a massive genre slapper unlike anything you've seen when you're reading about the JFK assassination, a true sci-fi thriller about going back in time. What? Historical fiction. Mystery. Action thriller. That's King? Oh, yes it is.
You can't get past Stephen King until you try and get past 'Salem's Lot, a modern-day vampire novel with hints of the classic mentality so touched upon and heralded by one Bram Stoker. Vampires are already "f*cking" terrifying as King himself exclaimed in his foreword -- and I'm not talking about the cheesy European homoerotic kinds, nor am I touting the overblown slick and fancy techno-bloodsuckers of today's media either. And definitely no angsty teenagers here. Just creepy. Disturbing. Odd. A bit funny. And downright spine-tingling.
Need we say more about IT? IT doesn't have to spell it out for you. I-T. And the concept of the scary-ass clown. Duh. While it's probably not very hard to make a clown seem scary to some, King takes imagination, pours on some LSD, drinks a few glasses of malt liquor, smokes a few joints, and here's what we got. A freaking kids-scared-of-clowns craziness called IT that catapulted the concept of the clown horror film. Heck, Rob Zombie himself probably emulated a lot of what King brought to the table, and there's a reason why IT is being remade as an upcoming film. (Which IT looks pretty frightening even now with that still shot of the new Pennywise).
Like I Said: You Can't Peg King to Any Particular Sub-Genre of Horror
But make no mistake: he loves all of it. He's done the ghost story. He's done zombies. He's done it all. And he's done it all quite well. These are just my favorite three. There's obviously even more (like Bag of Bones, anyone?). Whatever fits your fancy.
Just leave the light on.
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