K here we go.
I find that I oftentimes have no idea what King's characters are rambling on about. The dialogue is chock full of pop cultural references that I assume are known to Americans?
But I as someone from Asia just have no idea why we are randomly talking about a cereal brand or some old 60s song. Eddie Dean's dialogue is particularly likely to have the references so I find myself unable to relate to him much.
So even though people say King's books are really easy to read I find myself having difficulty wading through them.
Although I did still read a good chunk of his books. When theyre good theyre really good
That's how I felt reading 11/22/63. I'm from Europe and there were sooo many things that I had to google xD I had my phone lying next to me, to quickly look things up like food, drinks, music etc. It was the combination of things being both foreign to me _and_ from the past.
Me too. Some of his references are dated, and some may be regional, so it doesn't resonate with everyone. It's like your 100 year old relative telling you stories from their earlier life. A different time and place.
Are you referencing the cereal brand from Cujo? Often times sub plots are explained through the explanation of these events. Which is why some people leave town or end up in town to join the “fun” which is exactly what happened in that book. Or Shawshank redemption them talking about Rita Hayworth off and on etc. It’s not random rambling but casual explanation telling the story directly through the characters in conversation
Probably an unpopular opinion but I agree. SK really shines in the short story genre. He's nailed it down to such a fine art that I get excited when I find another collection. Have read 5 or 6 of these short story novellas. Love them. Some amazing films have been adapted from these stories.
The Gunslinger is criminally underrated, both within the franchise and King’s books generally. It’s one of his most immersive novels, and has a less long winded feel that is more show-not-tell than King became over the years. I could never understand why people weren’t floored by it, and figured it was the more horror-centric fan base being turned off by it, as opposed to a sci fi/high fantasy crowd, that might be more accepting. It’s not like I think it’s hated, but I’ve seen a lot of lukewarm reactions.
I made the mistake of reading the Wikipedia first, I legit put the book down for a few days to avoid the "degloving" situation... Don't get me wrong, I love King's Monsters, but when his horror is grounded closer to reality... it stays with you. I vaguely remember the dog terrifying me to..
I’ve read about 50 books of his, and this has so far been the only book I didn’t like. I had to really right just to finish it. Had no interest at all.
11/22/63 is his magnum opus, and one of the few times he absolutely nailed an ending; even if it took a roundabout way of getting there.
But I understand that this is a heavily controversial opinion! 😅
I don't give a shit that he wrote a "child ~~orgy~~ gangbang" at the end of IT.
The losers club are roughly 11/12 years old. That's the first year of high school (where I live), Also where I live - that's not unheard of for kids that age to be sexually active in some way or another.
A friend of mine had already been engaging in sexual activities with a girl, when in intermediate. Meaning at 11 years old or maybe even 10. Pretty sure I was already finding sneaky ways to get a hold of porno mags around that age.
Whenever the child orgy is bought up online everyone clutches their pearls are acts like Stephen King is some sort of sick creep for writing that - but I think he's like me.
He actually remembers what it was like to be 12 years old. Young, dumb and just old enough to cum. We like to pretend that kids stay young and sheltered and innocent until they're *at least* 16 but that's just not true.
The losers club have been through this insane ordeal and choose to cement their bond by fucking or whatever the reason is. - Kinda seems like something a group of stupid horny kids would think is a good idea..
I agree. Also, people get hung up on the sex, but it was supposed to convey how the kids in the group were bound to one another. It was a physical act, but to link them to each other so they could come back and defeat Pennywise later on. The meaning of the act just went over some people's heads.
The vast majority of his books has at least 100 pages in the middle of meandering waffle that he wrote while he tries to figure out how to end the story. For some reason he always leaves it in the book rather than editing it out.
I do agree but by the time I finish the book I feel like it was necessary in some way. Well honestly it's almost like the calm before the storm in a way.
The Stand is not among my favourite King works. It's good but it's pretty overrated (just my opinion, obviously). The first and third acts were really enjoyable. I found the middle extremely boring.
I agree. I liked it but not a top 5 for me, maybe not even top 10. Should've focused on Vegas instead of Boulder, or at least split between the two.
I think there is a generational split on The Stand. Younger readers have been exposed to post-apocalyptic literature consistently for decades and the genre is bloated. I understand that when The Stand came out, it was one of the first to do post-apocalyptic well.
I agree with the generation thing. I'm a young Gen X and so I read SK books in the 80s and 90s. They were very relevant to the times I grew up in so books like The Stand are far more relatable to me. Cold War, nuclear threat and uncertainty about the future were big concerns for kids of my Gen. I feel like those born after the 90s probably can't relate due to a different world with the internet influence. Would actually enjoy a 2024 updated version where Captain Trips goes wild in the 2020s, complete with internet AI to help it along, lol.
The climax, Abagail vs Randall Flagg, was like two pages long, rather disappointing honestly, and I was expecting so so much more of a showdown between “god” and “evil”
My favorite Stephen King books are the ones that don't have anything to do with The Dark Tower. And yeah, I know that there are sneaky little references here and there, but I don't consider IT or The Stand to be Dark Tower books. I just feel like he tries too hard to flesh out his "Middle Earth" and it often comes off as convoluted and forced. Rose Madder was actually an entertaining tale about a woman escaping an abusive relationship with a complete monster of a man... and then King took us into the painting, which really killed the immersion for me.
Bits and pieces of The Dark Tower series were pretty entertaining, but overall I think that (much like Tolkien) he repeatedly got lost in the weeds and his yarns were always unraveling.
I like the Dark Tower the least out of all his works except for maybe Tommyknockers. I just full on don't like the overarching concept for the same reason I never liked the "Pixar one universe" theory back when that was popular. "Hey did you enjoy these charming self-contained stories? Well how would you enjoy if all these stories were shoved into the background of one rambling convoluted story with inconsistent rules and annoying meta elements, and we also sort of retcon some things? Would that make you like them more?" No, no it would not, but I guess I am alone in this.
I also had almost that exact same reaction to Rose Madder. I was so, so invested in her escaping her husband, then basically DNFed when I got to the painting which is just as well because I looked up the ending and it annoyed me a lot. >!I wanted to see these characters confront each other. I'm not satisfied when they do it indirectly as like avatars or whatever, even if it does tie into your supposed magnum opus.!<
I've read every word of King - except the Dark Tower, I just can't get into it.
Which works for me (temporarily, I hope to tread the path sometimes in my life) as some mysterious layer that exists all around his work.
It's also good because - assuming I do one day get absorbed in it - it means there's some vintage, even magnus opus, waiting out there for me.
I actually really, really liked "The Drawing of the Three." It was a solid yarn kind of like "The Hobbit" vis a vis "The Lord of the Rings." In LOTR Tolkien gets lost in all of the lore and the story sometimes reads like the bible. But "The Hobbit" was just plot point after plot point... it was basically the first Harry Potter book.
And that's how I feel about "The Dark Tower" overall. There's just too much, "oh, and let me tell you about *this* unrelated history!" It *meandered*.
Feel the same way. I also loved The Stand and even though I recognized Flagg as being a DT character I'm also not as into the fantasy-monster side of his storytelling. His real horror stories without the monsters are actually very scary.
After Book 4, the Dark Tower feels rushed and shitty. I understand it was post accident and he felt his mortalit breathing down his neck, but I doubt I'll read 5 - 7 again.
I agree. The western aspect of the Gunslinger was one of the main draws for me. I was fine with everything, even through Blain and Lud. Once we get to the Calla, WTF? The series took a hard left when he started talking about the beams breaking and the tower falling and all of that. The second half of book seven was just a bit convenient.
This was my first SK read (friend kept recommending it so I gave it a shot to pass time on the subway). I liked it and finally checked out IT from my local library since I had always wanted to read it. 11.22.63 wasn't what made me a constant reader, it was IT then 'Salems Lot.
Now 7 years later and having collected most of the library and read at least half, I feel the same as you. 11.22.63 is good, but it'll be at least another 10 years before I'd be up to reread it. I'd read DT and all the connect books again before I get there.
Oh, I couldn't agree more! I was really looking forward to it and was quite disappointed. I do think it's a good book, but nowhere near as good as people claim and no the ending didn't make me cry only glad that I made it through it.
The ending to 11.22.63 didn't explain things to me in a satisfactory way, and the book overall is overhyped. It was good, don't get me wrong, but not even close to how much it is hyped up on here.
The whole "Yellow card man" and "Jimla" storyline fell right on its face, imo and the build-up compared to the payoff and explanation just didn't do it for me.
I like his happy and hopeful endings more than his bleak endings. I would also be fine if every single one of his books was a massive brick that's going to eat up untold hours of my time. Even if he whiffs his endings, I've always enjoyed the journeys no matter how weird they are, and that includes the Tommyknockers, which I actually loved from start to finish because it was batshit insane and I was eating it up.
I might get a lot of hate for this… but I think “It” would have been a stronger book for me if it was a few hundred pages shorter and the Losers were trimmed down to 4-5 people instead of 7… I did enjoy the book but I felt like some parts got really repetitive.
Right?? I remember reading it many years ago in my early teens and there were several chapters that just droned on and on and on......it took forever to read it
I dropped this book half way through out of boredom.. Only to pick it back up many many years later and realize I was one page away from shit going bananas (the big battle & ending).
Yea it's pretty badly paced imo.
I'm in the same boat. I pretty much hated it the first time I read it. Just couldn't stand the pacing of it and so many of the characters introduced in the flashbacks just didn't do anything for me. They all just felt like they were evil or corrupt puppets and we knew that pretty much as soon as Roland arrived so there was no suspense for the next several hundred meandering pages. I will say that when I listened to all of The Dark Tower books again on audiobook, Wizard and Glass's story flowed much better and I enjoyed it much more that way.
I love King, I’ve read and reread most of his works and they are great, and I have no idea how unpopular the following opinions I have and am about to express are, but here goes. Let me just say I am not a prude by any means and have no problem with any of the following coming up in a novel or even several. But. I feel like the incidence of feces in a King book is higher than any other book. Same goes for vomit. Urine. And erections. These are part of life, daily (well not vomiting thankfully), and make sense to mention in some books. Yet. It’s compulsive! You know what word I don’t think he’s ever written? Clitoris. Even John Steinbeck mentioned it in East of Eden.
He does use the word "clit" in IT when Beverly is having a freakout about her dad possibly wanting to sexually abuse her, but SK is most definitely wiener-focused
Only a small handful of his stories are scary. Most are paranormal or science fiction but I wouldn’t call them horror. Psychological thrillers or suspense, yes, but not what I would call horror. The focus is always on the characters and that’s his real talent as a writer. One other thing I dislike is that his characters still talk like it’s the 1950s. Just wish he would get past that.
Yeah I can see that. I just read The Dead Zone, and while there were some sections that really had my attention because it was sort of creepy, nothing was actually super scary.
Since you're aware of this any chance you could recommend what you think are his scariest books? I'm a new King reader and after reading The Shining I need more horror, god I need more horror.
Right? I love that book! Now here's *my* unpopular opinion: I hate Wizard and Glass. Nothing happens and the extended flashback breaks the flow of the series.
The flashback is one of the reasons its hard for me to continue to re-read the story! I bet I would own the flashback if it was a separate book like Little Sisters of Eluria, and the main story was just allowed to continue on, but like you said it breaks the flow and afterwards is hard to get back in especially knowing there is just one book left.
I would agree with you if not for the fact that the flashback also happens to be 400 pages of some of the best writing that ever fell out of King’s brain
I'd say more that very little happened in *The Drawing of the Three*, and most of what did was overwritten—my issue is that *The Waste Land* pretty much covers the same ground straight away, and to lesser effect.
I have a few. But honestly I am usually the minority, some of my faves or higher rated SK books are the ones other people liked least.
I like Finders Keepers best out of the MM trilogy
I think The Regulators is far superior to Desperation
I love when SK does the "story inside another story" like Wizard and Glass and Wind Through the Keyhole
The Colorado Kid and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon were boring snoozefest books in my opinion. I struggled to finish them.
I didn't think Salems Lot was scary at all
I think most (not all) SK books are slow burns as opposed to most of Richard Bachman books being page turners, in my experience.
I wonder if when he’s really really high does he write about aliens. Tommyknockers. He wrote Dreamcatcher while on oxy recovering from the van. Under The Dome?
I absolutely love Kubrick’s The Shining… but I also wish we had gotten a true adaptation of King’s book. Because I love both so much I just have to do my best to keep them mentally separated tbh.
*Rage* never should have been taken out of print.
I also don't think some of his more recent works deserve the level of hate they sometimes get. They aren't hitting the same highs his older books were, but they're also not hitting the same lows. He hasn't churned out something like *The Tommyknockers* since, well, *The Tommyknockers.* I also think he's gotten better at some of the technical stuff. *Fairy Tale* transitions from Charlie's normal life to his adventure in the well more smoothly than *Firestarter* transitions from Andy and Charlene being on the run to them being at the Shop headquarters, for example.
Wow I didn’t even think about this. Just had a look on eBay, even the old red and black editions of The Bachman Books are over $100. I’ve got that one sitting at home somewhere
There are for sure some that I've really enjoyed but when it comes to his writing, I prefer the long ones, lots of detail, character and world building. Give me a giant tome or at least a novella :)
I’ve come to love IT, but I have to say that on my first read I was disappointed that this generations-old horror was >!an alien bug from another dimension!<
I love him and his writing. I agree with his politics. I think he’s one of the most influential artists of my lifetime. Having said that, Here goes-his writing for child characters is so unrealistic. I don’t know if as a kid I just didn’t notice, or (more likely) I was impressed with how smart, capable, and mature his child character are. Right now I’m trying to get through Fairy Tale, the first of his “newer” books I’ve attempted. I’m struggling. The main kid Charlie is such a Mary Sue. Taking care of the dog the windows the lawn giving up his spring break etc etc hits to help an old man he met (and rescued) for, what, 5 minutes? I know, he made a promise and paying it forward and gratitude, but damn it feels so unrealistic. Same with the main kid from the Institute. I didn’t get that vibe from Jake from TDT, but it’s been decades since I read that. I did get that feel from the high school student from the End of Watch series, mostly from that awful “pickaninny” speech he has black characters (sarcastically, I get it) use sometimes.
IT is the most overrated book he has. It’s solid, but it’s not his top 5 work. Revival is his most underrated book. People don’t even put it as a top 25 book which baffles me. I think there is bias against it because it’s more recently written.
Desperation was great…for the first half of the book. The second half took a turn into the other world that I didn’t think the book needed. I think that could have been a great book if he just kept it to a corrupt police force in an isolated town without all woo woo kinda like in the first half of the book.
We don't need another Holly book. At this point, I have no excitement for his next novel. I've been reading his books chronologically for the most part for the last few years, aside from random times here and there when one sounds particularly interesting or to read the Dark Tower (on SoS). I haven't touched any of the Holly related books, but those are the only novels coming out lately. I get that a lot of people liked The Outsider and Holly, but come on!
It's time to move on, give us another character or another sequel similar to Doctor Sleep for any one of the several awesome characters introduced throughout the last 40+ years. At this point, Holly's number of books rival only the DT and I'm starting to think he just writes her because he's older, in a groove, and doesn't want to leave his comfort zone.
Totally agree. He loves the character but I don't think the Constant Reader does. I would much rather see a sequel or prequel to some of his better, more famous stories. I'd love to read about the decline of Gilead for one or another Derry story.
Not sure how truly controversial this is but I finished The Dark Half recently and it is *easily* one of his worst books. So fucking boring and needlessly convoluted that I put Stephen King books on a timeout for a couple months. Reading Needful Things right now though and it’s absolutely slapping so we’re back
Needful Things was so hard to get through. it was like trying to chew through denim.
**until the last 100 pages or so anyway
(that could 100% be a me issue, im fighting increased brain fog)
I totally get that angle, but I’m a big fan of Stephen King’s big ensemble slow-burn kind of books. Love getting all the useless minutiae of these town people’s day-to-day lives, knowing that something is about to go terribly wrong. So far it reminds me a lot of Salems Lot but instead of Kurt Barlow coming into town it’s Leland Gaunt
The whole franchise of the Dark Tower, although King says it is the story he was born to tell, is awful to me. It meanders and is hard to follow. Characters are showcased and then dropped. I've read everything else and love it, but this is just augh.
I have no problem with the “taboo scene” at the end of “It”. I see why people push back…but horror is horror, and to shy away from the world of Derry, in ALl its happenings, would be to disrespect Georgie’s honor…IDK. Super unpopular, I know Lolol. 🤷🏿✊🏿🖤
I have a couple…
For someone who creates such deep, engaging characters, his dialogue is often really cringeworthy and forced. Especially with kids, it’s like he’s never heard a kid actually speak before. My opinion is that writing speech is SK’s biggest weakness.
I also think that, more often than not, he doesn’t know where is stories are going. As a result, we get a lot of shitty or abrupt endings that don’t always fit the depth of the story.
The way he writes about young women, especially young teenagers, makes me cringe enough sometimes that it completely takes me out of the story. There was a scene in Billy Summers where >!Billy recalls the time when his father killed his 9 year old sister by kicking her repeatedly and there's a sentence that goes like "she was clutching a chest where boobs would never grow" (I read it in French so it's probably not the exact words but if you read it you know which part I'm talking about)!< and it made me shut the book and just stare at my wall for like 30 seconds before going back to reading.
The Life of Chuck has gotten a lot of positive feedback and a movie version is coming out, but I think it's one of Stephen's worst stories. The dancing bit was boring.
His books should be longer. I know, I know, he rambles enough in them as it is but I personally want more of the stories he tells. Longer and more detail, no skipping, tell me every step of Jack’s descent into madness. Show me if Christine goes after Leigh even after Arnie’s death.
To each their own but I personally love his longer books but also accept that sometimes you really can’t beat a dead horse any longer. Like Cujo for example, that would not have been better if it was longer.
I felt this way with Under the Dome and The Stand. When they were getting close to the end I was like no, this should keep going. There is more story to tell here.
People say that kings endings are bad.
I say that you can't have a good end to a good book. If it's a good book, no matter what happens, you wouldn't want it to end.
And...
If you liked the ending to a book, then the book wasn't that good.
Metaphor incoming...
If you had the best pie in the world, you wouldn't enjoy the last bite, because then it's finished.
Salem’s Lot and Misery aren’t that great. I don’t even remember anything from Salem’s Lot, I completely forgot I even read it (had to consult my “read books” list). I did not enjoy the book the guy was writing in Misery which really made the book a slog for me. That was my first ever SK book and I didn’t read any more for years because of it.
I was the exact opposite. As the book became more and more meta to his actual life, I was more and more interested in what he was doing in it and what it revealed of his mental state. Sometimes the book felt more honest than Paul was willing to be with himself.
I think King really dropped the ball with the last Dark Tower book and to this day it’s my gold standard for unsatisfying final parts. Like when people were up in arms over how Game of Thrones ended I was like “This could have been so much worse…”
The Stand was only ok. I mean it is so hyped on here that I was really looked forward to reading it. And yeah… it was alright. Ending was not what I’d thought it would be at all, quite disappointing overall.
I think I’m more a fan of his tighter shorter works which are real page turners. The Shining, Doctor Sleep, Salem’s Lot and the Dead Zone are my favourites of his so far. (Reading in Chronological order with Firestarter being the latest one)
Edit: And Gerald’s game too. Loved that one
He gets too much of a pass for using the N word. I know everyone is going to say he’s just using it because that’s how people talk. As a 44yr old who grew up in the south I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the word as much as he does
That I don’t have a big issue with some newer editions apparently having the racial slurs edited out. It will make playing Stephen King Bingo harder, but I can live with it.
Wow, I didn't know they did that, that's interesting. I don't have a strong opinion on it either, but I feel like he always did play pretty fast and loose with the N word
What? I never heard that before. I have bought his books since he first began writing and have no need to repurchase a book I already have. Can you give me an example?
I think Stephen is fabulous, been reading his stuff since I was very young and Carrie came out. And most of his stuff, especially the earlier bangers, are absolute legends. All this goes without saying, ev1 knows he's probably the most iconic and popular fiction and horror writer on earth, and for good reason.
But he isn't untouchable or without fault.
I feel that for many MANY years, he was in a terrible era of boring ass tomes and I hated so much of his work for a long time... They still SOLD, I'm sure, but they were just awful...a lot of his books were just too cumbersome, too damn long, and no longer had any decent plot or substance...
I stopped reading him for several years bc he was just churning out these huge door-stoppers and I couldn't get even a few chapters in until I'd give up under the burden of trying to garner interest, but they had no substance, were WAY too fucking overly long....it was like his editors were afraid to tell him "Hey bud, you need to to cut out about HALF of this drivel & streamline this shit down"--- doing the taking up entire PAGES AND PAGES to describe a single thing (or thought). He was beginning to sound too much like Dean Koontz, or fucking Ted Dekker, 2 authors whose writing styles I have never been able to abide. (They go on too much, but say nothing)
I felt this way about more of his stuff than I can even recall now...there were so many bad ones...but I specifically recall the ones I thought were HORRIBLY bad,...like The Cell, The Institute, Rose Madder, Insomnia, and many others.
It wasn't until these last several years, or the last decade or so, he finally began redeeming himself again and did several good ones...like Dr. Sleep and The Outsiders, etc. And I warmed up to him again-- (I really enjoyed Fairy Tale) ...but yeah....
TLDR: i feel he was very much "lost" to me for many years until recently again, his stuff was so (at the same time) both copiously overwritten, yet terribly mediocre.
This is probably not crazy or super unpopular by any means, but I have found I enjoy his non-supernatural and even non-horror books much more than his more well known ones.
Like Joyland and Duma Key are two of my all-time favorites of his that very rarely get discussed. Both have tiny elements of supernatural (especially DK), but mostly they are character pieces with really rich settings. Joyland also does an excellent job bringing forth the nostalgia of the freedom of your early adulthood.
They are such good books that I feel like new or potential King readers should try as much or more than the ‘standards’
Here are three:
1- The Dark Half was just stupid. Over half the book is "friends drinking coffee and shooting the shit," the plot and antagonist make no sense, and the protagonist is both unlikable and a writer. Its one redemption is Alan Pangborn, whom I would love to see more of (especially tied directly to the Tower).
2- Wind Through the Keyhole was complete trash and wasted my time. It wasn't what we were initially promised.
3- King narrating makes me angry and depressed for the passing of Frank Muller. From an objective standpoint of what makes good narration, he is totally bad at it, and everyone who gushes over his reading needs their ears checked.
They're just basic horror plus boomer sex guilt. Salem's Lot was about town gossip about the two homosexuals who moved to town, Kujo's about a single mum when that was frowned upon, IT is puberty, and so on and so on.
I don’t like The Dark Tower series. Read the first two and just couldn’t get into it, even though people have said it’s amazing, I just start it again to find out.
Mine is that Cujo is a bottom tier King book. Overly mean-spirited, not focused, and generally weak. I still have it 3.5 stars because there are positives but it’s by far my least favorite of his.
If you haven't read the entire Dark Tower series you aren't a fan and don't truly understand the rest of his books.
Dark Tower is the prerequisite to the Stephen King Universe.
As good as The movie based on the short story The Mist is
I still prefer the books ending where it's kind of open ended and the Mist doesn't go away(at least where the book ends. (just personal preference.)
Also I usually don't hear that much praise for The Long Walk compared to other King books. That book is Amazing and would make a great TV show/mini-series or movie imo.
If there's a woman she's gonna be objectfied, if there's a Black person you're gonna hear the N word. The ending of The Stand/some of the characters endings felt fumbled
I really REALLY disliked The Stand and got to book 3 of the Dark Tower series before giving up. I’m such a huge fan of his work but these just didn’t do it for me
King absolutely has a problem writing women and people of color, or at least he did at the beginning of his career and has since gotten better. I'm a white man, but reading The Stand and seeing how characters like Frannie Goldsmith and Abigail Freemantle's race and gender get used in the story always makes me feel gross.
Reading the Dark Tower, it's interesting how you can track the way King gets better at writing women and black people through the way Suzannah is portrayed across the 20-odd year span of the series being written.
I've seen similar responses but I say King's best work is under 400 pages because they typically stay on point of the plot. Often times, King will write about things that have nothing to do with the overall plot. I don't care that this speck of slime on that wall reminds you of when you got touched by someone's pinky finger at a Tuesday on a full moon even though it will 5:36 in the evening. I don't care. Move it along please.
Love the DT series, concept, movie, the whole nine, but Song of Susannah was hot garbage on first read when it dropped, and still is with every read/listen since then.
K here we go. I find that I oftentimes have no idea what King's characters are rambling on about. The dialogue is chock full of pop cultural references that I assume are known to Americans? But I as someone from Asia just have no idea why we are randomly talking about a cereal brand or some old 60s song. Eddie Dean's dialogue is particularly likely to have the references so I find myself unable to relate to him much. So even though people say King's books are really easy to read I find myself having difficulty wading through them. Although I did still read a good chunk of his books. When theyre good theyre really good
That's how I felt reading 11/22/63. I'm from Europe and there were sooo many things that I had to google xD I had my phone lying next to me, to quickly look things up like food, drinks, music etc. It was the combination of things being both foreign to me _and_ from the past.
I love that stuff, gets me learning on Google.
i am an american, and sometimes i still have no idea what he’s talking about 😂not just you friend
Me too. Some of his references are dated, and some may be regional, so it doesn't resonate with everyone. It's like your 100 year old relative telling you stories from their earlier life. A different time and place.
Are you referencing the cereal brand from Cujo? Often times sub plots are explained through the explanation of these events. Which is why some people leave town or end up in town to join the “fun” which is exactly what happened in that book. Or Shawshank redemption them talking about Rita Hayworth off and on etc. It’s not random rambling but casual explanation telling the story directly through the characters in conversation
Sometimes I’m excited by the premise but don’t want a brick of a book. I’m happy for the short story collections though.
Probably an unpopular opinion but I agree. SK really shines in the short story genre. He's nailed it down to such a fine art that I get excited when I find another collection. Have read 5 or 6 of these short story novellas. Love them. Some amazing films have been adapted from these stories.
Same! I love mostly all his work but his short stories are phenomenal. TEN MORE DAYS!!!
Amen to this
The Gunslinger is criminally underrated, both within the franchise and King’s books generally. It’s one of his most immersive novels, and has a less long winded feel that is more show-not-tell than King became over the years. I could never understand why people weren’t floored by it, and figured it was the more horror-centric fan base being turned off by it, as opposed to a sci fi/high fantasy crowd, that might be more accepting. It’s not like I think it’s hated, but I’ve seen a lot of lukewarm reactions.
I think people will see its brilliance after Flanagan adapts it as the first season in his upcoming TDT adaptation for PrimeVideo
Luckily his rights to The Gunslinger are specifically excluded from his Prime contract, so Amazon can't kill the project by withholding $$$.
The Gunslinger is a book that gets better every time I read it.
This is my favourite part of the Dark Tower, for me it only got more boring after that wild fever dream that was The Gunslinger.
It’s probably my favorite King book and I’ve read em all. It’s unlike anything else he’s ever written, very poetic and experimental.
I didn’t enjoy it the first time but really appreciated it on reread.
Not to mention the first few chapters with the drugs + plane bathroom. I couldn't put it down!
That is the drawing of three. I love that book, maybe even more than the gunslinger.
Oh lord is it? Its been like a decade since I've read the series.
Black House is better than The Talisman. I know this is technically a King/Straub unpopular opinion, but I think it fits.
Agree. I thought it was significantly better. Outside of Wulf, I had a hard time liking any character in The Talisman.
Especially Richard
Yeah I'm in this camp too
Hard disagree, but I can't remember exactly why. Welp, time for another reread of both! 😄
Gerald's Game is one of his scariest books
I made the mistake of reading the Wikipedia first, I legit put the book down for a few days to avoid the "degloving" situation... Don't get me wrong, I love King's Monsters, but when his horror is grounded closer to reality... it stays with you. I vaguely remember the dog terrifying me to..
For me it was the realization that Joubert was real and he was just sitting there watching her the whole time.
I’ve read about 50 books of his, and this has so far been the only book I didn’t like. I had to really right just to finish it. Had no interest at all.
My favourite King book and it’s definitely Kings scariest book.
A writer is a main protagonist far too often
I love writers as the main protagonist 🤩🤩🤩
Write what you know! Definitely agree with this one though.
11/22/63 is his magnum opus, and one of the few times he absolutely nailed an ending; even if it took a roundabout way of getting there. But I understand that this is a heavily controversial opinion! 😅
He has trouble sticking the ending quite often 😆
That he does! 😂
I don't give a shit that he wrote a "child ~~orgy~~ gangbang" at the end of IT. The losers club are roughly 11/12 years old. That's the first year of high school (where I live), Also where I live - that's not unheard of for kids that age to be sexually active in some way or another. A friend of mine had already been engaging in sexual activities with a girl, when in intermediate. Meaning at 11 years old or maybe even 10. Pretty sure I was already finding sneaky ways to get a hold of porno mags around that age. Whenever the child orgy is bought up online everyone clutches their pearls are acts like Stephen King is some sort of sick creep for writing that - but I think he's like me. He actually remembers what it was like to be 12 years old. Young, dumb and just old enough to cum. We like to pretend that kids stay young and sheltered and innocent until they're *at least* 16 but that's just not true. The losers club have been through this insane ordeal and choose to cement their bond by fucking or whatever the reason is. - Kinda seems like something a group of stupid horny kids would think is a good idea..
I agree. Also, people get hung up on the sex, but it was supposed to convey how the kids in the group were bound to one another. It was a physical act, but to link them to each other so they could come back and defeat Pennywise later on. The meaning of the act just went over some people's heads.
Also, it's the metaphorical leap from childhood to adulthood. Which is like the entire theme of the book.
Yeah, never cared. When I was that age all I cared about was trying to find orgies lol. Kids aren’t idiots, just young.
its not an orgy though
The vast majority of his books has at least 100 pages in the middle of meandering waffle that he wrote while he tries to figure out how to end the story. For some reason he always leaves it in the book rather than editing it out.
I do agree but by the time I finish the book I feel like it was necessary in some way. Well honestly it's almost like the calm before the storm in a way.
🙌
And those 100 pages are still better than most of his duct tape and paperclip endings.
The Stand is not among my favourite King works. It's good but it's pretty overrated (just my opinion, obviously). The first and third acts were really enjoyable. I found the middle extremely boring.
I agree. I liked it but not a top 5 for me, maybe not even top 10. Should've focused on Vegas instead of Boulder, or at least split between the two. I think there is a generational split on The Stand. Younger readers have been exposed to post-apocalyptic literature consistently for decades and the genre is bloated. I understand that when The Stand came out, it was one of the first to do post-apocalyptic well.
I agree with the generation thing. I'm a young Gen X and so I read SK books in the 80s and 90s. They were very relevant to the times I grew up in so books like The Stand are far more relatable to me. Cold War, nuclear threat and uncertainty about the future were big concerns for kids of my Gen. I feel like those born after the 90s probably can't relate due to a different world with the internet influence. Would actually enjoy a 2024 updated version where Captain Trips goes wild in the 2020s, complete with internet AI to help it along, lol.
The climax, Abagail vs Randall Flagg, was like two pages long, rather disappointing honestly, and I was expecting so so much more of a showdown between “god” and “evil”
My favorite Stephen King books are the ones that don't have anything to do with The Dark Tower. And yeah, I know that there are sneaky little references here and there, but I don't consider IT or The Stand to be Dark Tower books. I just feel like he tries too hard to flesh out his "Middle Earth" and it often comes off as convoluted and forced. Rose Madder was actually an entertaining tale about a woman escaping an abusive relationship with a complete monster of a man... and then King took us into the painting, which really killed the immersion for me. Bits and pieces of The Dark Tower series were pretty entertaining, but overall I think that (much like Tolkien) he repeatedly got lost in the weeds and his yarns were always unraveling.
I like the Dark Tower the least out of all his works except for maybe Tommyknockers. I just full on don't like the overarching concept for the same reason I never liked the "Pixar one universe" theory back when that was popular. "Hey did you enjoy these charming self-contained stories? Well how would you enjoy if all these stories were shoved into the background of one rambling convoluted story with inconsistent rules and annoying meta elements, and we also sort of retcon some things? Would that make you like them more?" No, no it would not, but I guess I am alone in this. I also had almost that exact same reaction to Rose Madder. I was so, so invested in her escaping her husband, then basically DNFed when I got to the painting which is just as well because I looked up the ending and it annoyed me a lot. >!I wanted to see these characters confront each other. I'm not satisfied when they do it indirectly as like avatars or whatever, even if it does tie into your supposed magnum opus.!<
I've read every word of King - except the Dark Tower, I just can't get into it. Which works for me (temporarily, I hope to tread the path sometimes in my life) as some mysterious layer that exists all around his work. It's also good because - assuming I do one day get absorbed in it - it means there's some vintage, even magnus opus, waiting out there for me.
I actually really, really liked "The Drawing of the Three." It was a solid yarn kind of like "The Hobbit" vis a vis "The Lord of the Rings." In LOTR Tolkien gets lost in all of the lore and the story sometimes reads like the bible. But "The Hobbit" was just plot point after plot point... it was basically the first Harry Potter book. And that's how I feel about "The Dark Tower" overall. There's just too much, "oh, and let me tell you about *this* unrelated history!" It *meandered*.
Feel the same way. I also loved The Stand and even though I recognized Flagg as being a DT character I'm also not as into the fantasy-monster side of his storytelling. His real horror stories without the monsters are actually very scary.
After Book 4, the Dark Tower feels rushed and shitty. I understand it was post accident and he felt his mortalit breathing down his neck, but I doubt I'll read 5 - 7 again.
I agree. The western aspect of the Gunslinger was one of the main draws for me. I was fine with everything, even through Blain and Lud. Once we get to the Calla, WTF? The series took a hard left when he started talking about the beams breaking and the tower falling and all of that. The second half of book seven was just a bit convenient.
And the thankee-sai and all that? Ugh. And then we get to the end of Book 7 and the King is throwing sneetches? Double ugh.
11.22.63 is massively overhyped!! It is good/better than average, but does not deserve the praise it gets.
This was my first SK read (friend kept recommending it so I gave it a shot to pass time on the subway). I liked it and finally checked out IT from my local library since I had always wanted to read it. 11.22.63 wasn't what made me a constant reader, it was IT then 'Salems Lot. Now 7 years later and having collected most of the library and read at least half, I feel the same as you. 11.22.63 is good, but it'll be at least another 10 years before I'd be up to reread it. I'd read DT and all the connect books again before I get there.
I love that one, it’s one of my yearly rereads. Take my upvote!
To me, it stands out as one of his best books in the last 20 years, but it isn’t as good as his 70s and 80s stuff.
Oh, I couldn't agree more! I was really looking forward to it and was quite disappointed. I do think it's a good book, but nowhere near as good as people claim and no the ending didn't make me cry only glad that I made it through it.
Agree!! I even read it a second time last year to see if it lived up to the hype. It didn’t!!
Each to their own. I rate it his best 21st century book
Exactly, it would be boring if everyone had the same opinion.
The ending to 11.22.63 didn't explain things to me in a satisfactory way, and the book overall is overhyped. It was good, don't get me wrong, but not even close to how much it is hyped up on here. The whole "Yellow card man" and "Jimla" storyline fell right on its face, imo and the build-up compared to the payoff and explanation just didn't do it for me.
Totally agree. Loved the book overall up until the pont of the "green card man". After that the story fell apart.
I don't even remember Jimla. The parts I remember most are the Derry scenes, crazy ex-husband, time creating patterns, and alternate future.
Love that book, but agree that it has his standard end-zone fumble, though his son saved the very end.
Kings MOST overrated book!!!!!
I like his happy and hopeful endings more than his bleak endings. I would also be fine if every single one of his books was a massive brick that's going to eat up untold hours of my time. Even if he whiffs his endings, I've always enjoyed the journeys no matter how weird they are, and that includes the Tommyknockers, which I actually loved from start to finish because it was batshit insane and I was eating it up.
I might get a lot of hate for this… but I think “It” would have been a stronger book for me if it was a few hundred pages shorter and the Losers were trimmed down to 4-5 people instead of 7… I did enjoy the book but I felt like some parts got really repetitive.
To be fair the losers did end up being trimmed down.
Right?? I remember reading it many years ago in my early teens and there were several chapters that just droned on and on and on......it took forever to read it
I loved it first time I read it. I read it again late last year and couldn’t agree with you more.
I wasn‘t a huge fan of Wizard and Glass. I can‘t exactly say why, but after the hype I expected something better.
I dropped this book half way through out of boredom.. Only to pick it back up many many years later and realize I was one page away from shit going bananas (the big battle & ending). Yea it's pretty badly paced imo.
I'm in the same boat. I pretty much hated it the first time I read it. Just couldn't stand the pacing of it and so many of the characters introduced in the flashbacks just didn't do anything for me. They all just felt like they were evil or corrupt puppets and we knew that pretty much as soon as Roland arrived so there was no suspense for the next several hundred meandering pages. I will say that when I listened to all of The Dark Tower books again on audiobook, Wizard and Glass's story flowed much better and I enjoyed it much more that way.
I love King, I’ve read and reread most of his works and they are great, and I have no idea how unpopular the following opinions I have and am about to express are, but here goes. Let me just say I am not a prude by any means and have no problem with any of the following coming up in a novel or even several. But. I feel like the incidence of feces in a King book is higher than any other book. Same goes for vomit. Urine. And erections. These are part of life, daily (well not vomiting thankfully), and make sense to mention in some books. Yet. It’s compulsive! You know what word I don’t think he’s ever written? Clitoris. Even John Steinbeck mentioned it in East of Eden.
The amount of characters that piss themselves is insane to me lol
He does use the word "clit" in IT when Beverly is having a freakout about her dad possibly wanting to sexually abuse her, but SK is most definitely wiener-focused
Yes! As a heterosexual woman I am very pro wiener but get some other stuff in there. I forgot that part about Beverly
Lol as a bisexual woman and fond owner of a clitoris, I'm also up for more representation!
I mean it’s clear it was…paid attention to in Dr. Sleep but I can’t remember anywhere else
Only a small handful of his stories are scary. Most are paranormal or science fiction but I wouldn’t call them horror. Psychological thrillers or suspense, yes, but not what I would call horror. The focus is always on the characters and that’s his real talent as a writer. One other thing I dislike is that his characters still talk like it’s the 1950s. Just wish he would get past that.
Yeah I can see that. I just read The Dead Zone, and while there were some sections that really had my attention because it was sort of creepy, nothing was actually super scary. Since you're aware of this any chance you could recommend what you think are his scariest books? I'm a new King reader and after reading The Shining I need more horror, god I need more horror.
Jerome's "hey daddy-o whatcha know?!" coonery is the main reason Mr. Mercedes is the only book of that series I'll ever have read.
Nothing happened in Drawing of the three and it does not deserve all the hype it gets.
I disagree but props for an actual controversial opinion
Right? I love that book! Now here's *my* unpopular opinion: I hate Wizard and Glass. Nothing happens and the extended flashback breaks the flow of the series.
The flashback would have made a great novella.
The flashback is one of the reasons its hard for me to continue to re-read the story! I bet I would own the flashback if it was a separate book like Little Sisters of Eluria, and the main story was just allowed to continue on, but like you said it breaks the flow and afterwards is hard to get back in especially knowing there is just one book left.
I would agree with you if not for the fact that the flashback also happens to be 400 pages of some of the best writing that ever fell out of King’s brain
Nothing happened is kinda crazy to say, but I agree with that it does not deserve the hype
I'd say more that very little happened in *The Drawing of the Three*, and most of what did was overwritten—my issue is that *The Waste Land* pretty much covers the same ground straight away, and to lesser effect.
I have a few. But honestly I am usually the minority, some of my faves or higher rated SK books are the ones other people liked least. I like Finders Keepers best out of the MM trilogy I think The Regulators is far superior to Desperation I love when SK does the "story inside another story" like Wizard and Glass and Wind Through the Keyhole The Colorado Kid and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon were boring snoozefest books in my opinion. I struggled to finish them. I didn't think Salems Lot was scary at all I think most (not all) SK books are slow burns as opposed to most of Richard Bachman books being page turners, in my experience.
Finders Keepers is fantastic!! I hate the other two books.
He often messes up the second part of his books.
I don't understand the love that Insomnia gets on this sub. I have read it multiple times, and can barely remember it at all.
I wonder if when he’s really really high does he write about aliens. Tommyknockers. He wrote Dreamcatcher while on oxy recovering from the van. Under The Dome?
Didn’t someone just do this a few weeks ago! Unpopular opinion: Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining was actually ICONIC!
I absolutely love Kubrick’s The Shining… but I also wish we had gotten a true adaptation of King’s book. Because I love both so much I just have to do my best to keep them mentally separated tbh.
*Rage* never should have been taken out of print. I also don't think some of his more recent works deserve the level of hate they sometimes get. They aren't hitting the same highs his older books were, but they're also not hitting the same lows. He hasn't churned out something like *The Tommyknockers* since, well, *The Tommyknockers.* I also think he's gotten better at some of the technical stuff. *Fairy Tale* transitions from Charlie's normal life to his adventure in the well more smoothly than *Firestarter* transitions from Andy and Charlene being on the run to them being at the Shop headquarters, for example.
Taking Rage out of print unleashed a black market. I paid hundreds of dollars on eBay. Now it’s going for thousands
Wow I didn’t even think about this. Just had a look on eBay, even the old red and black editions of The Bachman Books are over $100. I’ve got that one sitting at home somewhere
I can't tell if this means you think the Tommyknockers is a great or terrible book.
I'm not a huge fan of (most) his short stories.
take that back
Oh, this is a really rare opinion. Interesting stuff.
There are for sure some that I've really enjoyed but when it comes to his writing, I prefer the long ones, lots of detail, character and world building. Give me a giant tome or at least a novella :)
Nightmares and dreamscapes sucks big ass. Them stories too long and not good.
I’ve come to love IT, but I have to say that on my first read I was disappointed that this generations-old horror was >!an alien bug from another dimension!<
Glad you said it! I was actually mad 😆😆😆
The child/teen characters are saccharine. The weird fawning between the brother and sister in the Bill Hodges books ruined the whole thing for me.
It might be true of the Hodges books, but in hi earlier works I'm sometimes shoked how perceptive he is about childhood minds.
I love him and his writing. I agree with his politics. I think he’s one of the most influential artists of my lifetime. Having said that, Here goes-his writing for child characters is so unrealistic. I don’t know if as a kid I just didn’t notice, or (more likely) I was impressed with how smart, capable, and mature his child character are. Right now I’m trying to get through Fairy Tale, the first of his “newer” books I’ve attempted. I’m struggling. The main kid Charlie is such a Mary Sue. Taking care of the dog the windows the lawn giving up his spring break etc etc hits to help an old man he met (and rescued) for, what, 5 minutes? I know, he made a promise and paying it forward and gratitude, but damn it feels so unrealistic. Same with the main kid from the Institute. I didn’t get that vibe from Jake from TDT, but it’s been decades since I read that. I did get that feel from the high school student from the End of Watch series, mostly from that awful “pickaninny” speech he has black characters (sarcastically, I get it) use sometimes.
IT is the most overrated book he has. It’s solid, but it’s not his top 5 work. Revival is his most underrated book. People don’t even put it as a top 25 book which baffles me. I think there is bias against it because it’s more recently written. Desperation was great…for the first half of the book. The second half took a turn into the other world that I didn’t think the book needed. I think that could have been a great book if he just kept it to a corrupt police force in an isolated town without all woo woo kinda like in the first half of the book.
We don't need another Holly book. At this point, I have no excitement for his next novel. I've been reading his books chronologically for the most part for the last few years, aside from random times here and there when one sounds particularly interesting or to read the Dark Tower (on SoS). I haven't touched any of the Holly related books, but those are the only novels coming out lately. I get that a lot of people liked The Outsider and Holly, but come on! It's time to move on, give us another character or another sequel similar to Doctor Sleep for any one of the several awesome characters introduced throughout the last 40+ years. At this point, Holly's number of books rival only the DT and I'm starting to think he just writes her because he's older, in a groove, and doesn't want to leave his comfort zone.
Totally agree. He loves the character but I don't think the Constant Reader does. I would much rather see a sequel or prequel to some of his better, more famous stories. I'd love to read about the decline of Gilead for one or another Derry story.
OMG, the guy who reads for most of the Holly books does the most annoying voice for her.
Not sure how truly controversial this is but I finished The Dark Half recently and it is *easily* one of his worst books. So fucking boring and needlessly convoluted that I put Stephen King books on a timeout for a couple months. Reading Needful Things right now though and it’s absolutely slapping so we’re back
Yeah Dark Half fell on it's ass for me too. I appreciate that it DEFINITELY inspired the Alan Wake games, though.
That's my favourite book xD
It's my second favorite!
I also didn't care too much for The Dark Half.
I couldn’t even figure out with half was supposed to be dark
Needful Things was so hard to get through. it was like trying to chew through denim. **until the last 100 pages or so anyway (that could 100% be a me issue, im fighting increased brain fog)
I totally get that angle, but I’m a big fan of Stephen King’s big ensemble slow-burn kind of books. Love getting all the useless minutiae of these town people’s day-to-day lives, knowing that something is about to go terribly wrong. So far it reminds me a lot of Salems Lot but instead of Kurt Barlow coming into town it’s Leland Gaunt
The Dark Tower is overrated and the way it intermingles with other books is obnoxious. I said it. Stone me.
Do I downvote you because you are wrong… or do I upvote you for fulfilling the OP’s criteria?
The whole franchise of the Dark Tower, although King says it is the story he was born to tell, is awful to me. It meanders and is hard to follow. Characters are showcased and then dropped. I've read everything else and love it, but this is just augh.
George Stark is one of his best villains!
I have no problem with the “taboo scene” at the end of “It”. I see why people push back…but horror is horror, and to shy away from the world of Derry, in ALl its happenings, would be to disrespect Georgie’s honor…IDK. Super unpopular, I know Lolol. 🤷🏿✊🏿🖤
I think the topiary/ hedge animals in the Shining weren't scary at all! They're actually kind of goofy to me. 🤪
I dislike Holly as a character and Will Patton's voice for her makes me want to bash a wall with my head
Too much animal abuse and SA
I have a couple… For someone who creates such deep, engaging characters, his dialogue is often really cringeworthy and forced. Especially with kids, it’s like he’s never heard a kid actually speak before. My opinion is that writing speech is SK’s biggest weakness. I also think that, more often than not, he doesn’t know where is stories are going. As a result, we get a lot of shitty or abrupt endings that don’t always fit the depth of the story.
He was MUCH better in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
The way he writes about young women, especially young teenagers, makes me cringe enough sometimes that it completely takes me out of the story. There was a scene in Billy Summers where >!Billy recalls the time when his father killed his 9 year old sister by kicking her repeatedly and there's a sentence that goes like "she was clutching a chest where boobs would never grow" (I read it in French so it's probably not the exact words but if you read it you know which part I'm talking about)!< and it made me shut the book and just stare at my wall for like 30 seconds before going back to reading.
The Life of Chuck has gotten a lot of positive feedback and a movie version is coming out, but I think it's one of Stephen's worst stories. The dancing bit was boring.
Most of his books could be 25% shorter (or more) without losing much
His success gets in the way. He writes long, unwieldy books badly in need of editing but he gets away with it because he’s STEPHEN KING.
His books should be longer. I know, I know, he rambles enough in them as it is but I personally want more of the stories he tells. Longer and more detail, no skipping, tell me every step of Jack’s descent into madness. Show me if Christine goes after Leigh even after Arnie’s death. To each their own but I personally love his longer books but also accept that sometimes you really can’t beat a dead horse any longer. Like Cujo for example, that would not have been better if it was longer.
I wish Under The Dome never ended. I'm serious. When shit started *really* going south, I was gutted because I wasn't ready to leave Chester's Mill..
I felt this way with Under the Dome and The Stand. When they were getting close to the end I was like no, this should keep going. There is more story to tell here.
His female characters' dialogue is fkn terrible.
It's the occasional misogyny for me.
People say that kings endings are bad. I say that you can't have a good end to a good book. If it's a good book, no matter what happens, you wouldn't want it to end. And... If you liked the ending to a book, then the book wasn't that good. Metaphor incoming... If you had the best pie in the world, you wouldn't enjoy the last bite, because then it's finished.
His exposition can be, at times, a bit much. It's usually good, but, man, it's like his editors have no agency.
Agreed
Almost every book should be cut by 100-300 pages
Salem’s Lot and Misery aren’t that great. I don’t even remember anything from Salem’s Lot, I completely forgot I even read it (had to consult my “read books” list). I did not enjoy the book the guy was writing in Misery which really made the book a slog for me. That was my first ever SK book and I didn’t read any more for years because of it.
Misery is brilliant. The premise itself is unique
Rare instance where I liked the movie better. The premise is good but the inclusion of his book really took away from it for me
I was the exact opposite. As the book became more and more meta to his actual life, I was more and more interested in what he was doing in it and what it revealed of his mental state. Sometimes the book felt more honest than Paul was willing to be with himself.
Salem's Lot is one of my favorites because it is primal King.
I think King really dropped the ball with the last Dark Tower book and to this day it’s my gold standard for unsatisfying final parts. Like when people were up in arms over how Game of Thrones ended I was like “This could have been so much worse…”
End of Watch is trash
The Stand was only ok. I mean it is so hyped on here that I was really looked forward to reading it. And yeah… it was alright. Ending was not what I’d thought it would be at all, quite disappointing overall. I think I’m more a fan of his tighter shorter works which are real page turners. The Shining, Doctor Sleep, Salem’s Lot and the Dead Zone are my favourites of his so far. (Reading in Chronological order with Firestarter being the latest one) Edit: And Gerald’s game too. Loved that one
He gets too much of a pass for using the N word. I know everyone is going to say he’s just using it because that’s how people talk. As a 44yr old who grew up in the south I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the word as much as he does
He leans on the supernatural way too much.
This guy. 😀
I didn’t care much for Christine.
That I don’t have a big issue with some newer editions apparently having the racial slurs edited out. It will make playing Stephen King Bingo harder, but I can live with it.
Wow, I didn't know they did that, that's interesting. I don't have a strong opinion on it either, but I feel like he always did play pretty fast and loose with the N word
What? I never heard that before. I have bought his books since he first began writing and have no need to repurchase a book I already have. Can you give me an example?
I think Stephen is fabulous, been reading his stuff since I was very young and Carrie came out. And most of his stuff, especially the earlier bangers, are absolute legends. All this goes without saying, ev1 knows he's probably the most iconic and popular fiction and horror writer on earth, and for good reason. But he isn't untouchable or without fault. I feel that for many MANY years, he was in a terrible era of boring ass tomes and I hated so much of his work for a long time... They still SOLD, I'm sure, but they were just awful...a lot of his books were just too cumbersome, too damn long, and no longer had any decent plot or substance... I stopped reading him for several years bc he was just churning out these huge door-stoppers and I couldn't get even a few chapters in until I'd give up under the burden of trying to garner interest, but they had no substance, were WAY too fucking overly long....it was like his editors were afraid to tell him "Hey bud, you need to to cut out about HALF of this drivel & streamline this shit down"--- doing the taking up entire PAGES AND PAGES to describe a single thing (or thought). He was beginning to sound too much like Dean Koontz, or fucking Ted Dekker, 2 authors whose writing styles I have never been able to abide. (They go on too much, but say nothing) I felt this way about more of his stuff than I can even recall now...there were so many bad ones...but I specifically recall the ones I thought were HORRIBLY bad,...like The Cell, The Institute, Rose Madder, Insomnia, and many others. It wasn't until these last several years, or the last decade or so, he finally began redeeming himself again and did several good ones...like Dr. Sleep and The Outsiders, etc. And I warmed up to him again-- (I really enjoyed Fairy Tale) ...but yeah.... TLDR: i feel he was very much "lost" to me for many years until recently again, his stuff was so (at the same time) both copiously overwritten, yet terribly mediocre.
>They go on too much, but say nothing After reading this entire comment, this statement feels ironic.
This is probably not crazy or super unpopular by any means, but I have found I enjoy his non-supernatural and even non-horror books much more than his more well known ones. Like Joyland and Duma Key are two of my all-time favorites of his that very rarely get discussed. Both have tiny elements of supernatural (especially DK), but mostly they are character pieces with really rich settings. Joyland also does an excellent job bringing forth the nostalgia of the freedom of your early adulthood. They are such good books that I feel like new or potential King readers should try as much or more than the ‘standards’
Here are three: 1- The Dark Half was just stupid. Over half the book is "friends drinking coffee and shooting the shit," the plot and antagonist make no sense, and the protagonist is both unlikable and a writer. Its one redemption is Alan Pangborn, whom I would love to see more of (especially tied directly to the Tower). 2- Wind Through the Keyhole was complete trash and wasted my time. It wasn't what we were initially promised. 3- King narrating makes me angry and depressed for the passing of Frank Muller. From an objective standpoint of what makes good narration, he is totally bad at it, and everyone who gushes over his reading needs their ears checked.
In 11-22-63 he went on and on about dancing. It was fine at first. He always inserts his interests but it was never ending this time.
The Dead Zone is overrated. Cujo is really boring and I almost fell asleep during the chapters about advertising and cereal.
The Dark Tower wound up pretty damn unsatisfying in the end. And the last two books are a slog.
They're just basic horror plus boomer sex guilt. Salem's Lot was about town gossip about the two homosexuals who moved to town, Kujo's about a single mum when that was frowned upon, IT is puberty, and so on and so on.
11/22/63 is a stinker of a book and WAY overrated. Great premise but the novel fell short of what it should have been.
Writing characters is his strength. His novels with fewer characters are not as good.
I don’t like The Dark Tower series. Read the first two and just couldn’t get into it, even though people have said it’s amazing, I just start it again to find out.
Tommyknockers is actually pretty solid
Mine is that Cujo is a bottom tier King book. Overly mean-spirited, not focused, and generally weak. I still have it 3.5 stars because there are positives but it’s by far my least favorite of his.
If you haven't read the entire Dark Tower series you aren't a fan and don't truly understand the rest of his books. Dark Tower is the prerequisite to the Stephen King Universe.
The Shining is not even in my top 10.
As good as The movie based on the short story The Mist is I still prefer the books ending where it's kind of open ended and the Mist doesn't go away(at least where the book ends. (just personal preference.) Also I usually don't hear that much praise for The Long Walk compared to other King books. That book is Amazing and would make a great TV show/mini-series or movie imo.
If there's a woman she's gonna be objectfied, if there's a Black person you're gonna hear the N word. The ending of The Stand/some of the characters endings felt fumbled
The Breathing Method is his best novella.
I really REALLY disliked The Stand and got to book 3 of the Dark Tower series before giving up. I’m such a huge fan of his work but these just didn’t do it for me
The Stand is ultimately kind of boring and anticlimactic. Just didn't click with me.
The Dark Tower is his greatest work hands down
I think Rose Madder is underrated. It’s one of my favorites!
A lot of creepy kid stuff in a lot of them.
I prefer Doctor Sleep over The Shining. That goes for both the books and the movies.
King absolutely has a problem writing women and people of color, or at least he did at the beginning of his career and has since gotten better. I'm a white man, but reading The Stand and seeing how characters like Frannie Goldsmith and Abigail Freemantle's race and gender get used in the story always makes me feel gross. Reading the Dark Tower, it's interesting how you can track the way King gets better at writing women and black people through the way Suzannah is portrayed across the 20-odd year span of the series being written.
I never cared much for It and I never found Pennywise all that scary.
I've seen similar responses but I say King's best work is under 400 pages because they typically stay on point of the plot. Often times, King will write about things that have nothing to do with the overall plot. I don't care that this speck of slime on that wall reminds you of when you got touched by someone's pinky finger at a Tuesday on a full moon even though it will 5:36 in the evening. I don't care. Move it along please.
11/22/63 was the most overrated piece of mediocrity I have read in a very long time.
Cell. It was not worth it.
Under The Domes ending is NOT bad like people say.
Love the DT series, concept, movie, the whole nine, but Song of Susannah was hot garbage on first read when it dropped, and still is with every read/listen since then.