The reasons why you’re not interested in Stephen King: I’m not into horror/I can’t stomach gore/I’ve already seen the movies/I prefer my reading a little more highbrow. Are you recognizing yourself in this list? Then read on!
(note: I know it probably seems like I post about Stephen King a lot, but hear me out, k?)
For being the most famous “horror” writer in the world, Stephen King sure has a broad spectrum of work to choose from. It’s easy to think of him as a pulpy, gory airport-purchase kinda author, but you’d be surprised when you take a look at what he’s done.
I thought of King as this guy for years (and liked him fine for it, just didn’t think of him often,) until when I was probably 19 or 20– reading The Green Mile was a total game-changer. It’s a pretty good sign when a book makes you break down sobbing after you’ve already seen the movie.
The Classic:
The Shining. You’ve seen the movie, and it’s great… but now read the damn book. It’s daaark (if you’ve read much about King’s life, you’ll know that the idea of a depressive alcoholic writer dad isn’t exactly pulled straight from the ether) and focuses at least as much on the fucked up psychology of this family as it does on spooky hotel stuff. It’s creepy as hell (there’s no doubt that it is a horror novel, after all,) and so, so compelling.
“Wendy? Darling? Light of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in.”
The Non-Horror:
The Green Mile. Guys…. read this one, you guys. Throw together a Depression-era penitentiary setting, a guard with brutal Urinary Tract Infections, a few serial killers, and some good ol’ magical realism. This one has some disturbing content, of course, but is mostly beautiful and suspenseful and emotional and interesting.
“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.”
Different Seasons. This is a quartet of short stories (more novellas) but I’m only really recommending two (BUT they’re REALLY worth the recommendation, I swear!) The first is Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption (upon which the movie Shawshank Redemption is based)– Stephen King writes prison so damn well. It has the funny kind of perspective where your two main characters are: the narrator, who is essentially an open book, and then his subject, about whom we know just about zilch. A significant portion of the novella is just Red (the narrator) observing and speculating about a guy he’s in prison with. This is a goddamn heartbreaker, and super character-driven. The second is Apt Pupil, which I’m not recommending– it’s about a former nazi and a psychopathic kid, and I actually found it really disturbing. I’m sure other people liked it, but I didn’t have the stomach. The third is The Body (upon which the movie Stand By Me is based.) The Body is about a group of tween boys who set out to find a corpse that is rumoured to be in the Maine woods. It’s about childhood and the loss of childhood and friendship and loneliness and all kinds of beautiful, poignant shit. It’s equally as special as the movie, and that movie is something SPECIAL. Sigh. And the fourth? I have to admit I actually don’t remember the fourth story… sorry!
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 – Jesus, did you?”
“Time continued to pass – the oldest trick in the world, and maybe the only one that really is magic.”
The Non-Fiction:
On Writing. Part instructional, part memoir. THIS IS BY FAR MY FAVOURITE STEPHEN KING BOOK, AND MAYBE MY FAVOURITE BOOK ABOUT WRITING. He’s not a hard-and-fast rules kinda guy, but he offers the important basics in building a story and developing your writing style. He talks a lot about his childhood and adolescence and what really got him started writing, and he also thoroughly explores the darkest times in his life– his alcoholism and drug abuse, the 1999 minivan collision that left him with shattered legs, more drug abuse… It’s a super fast read, so please PLEASE just go ahead and read it and you can thank me later. If you don’t like it, I don’t want to hear about it, you monster.
“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
“Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
Danse Macabre. This one is about horror as a genre, and it’s so insightful and fun and well put-together– and that’s speaking as someone who is actually not a huge horror fan. I have a hardcore soft spot for monsters in film and novels, but I am really not one for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes kind of stuff, and it straight-up doesn’t matter– this book is great. Get the version with the 2010 introduction, though, because it’s a surprisingly thorough update to the original 1981 text.
“we need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts.”
“The most classic horror tale of this latter type is the Old Testament story of Job, who becomes human Astro-Turf in a kind of spiritual Superbowl between God and Satan.”
Any additions, mes bébés?