My Long Walk Through Stephen King's Lot

Over the last couple of years, as I’ve looked at various lists and rankings of Stephen King’s top books, I kept seeing a certain, somewhat surprising title popping up: Hearts in Atlantis .   I call it surprising because many such lists placed this one in the top ten, and at least one reviewer I saw on YouTube selected it as the very best King book of them all.   Increasingly, it became obvious that I needed to read this one. As I say, for a long time, this book was never on my radar.   I remember the film version being released and seeming generally well received, but nothing about it grabbed my attention.   Maybe it was the film’s poster, or even the book’s cover design, both of which struck me as mildly bland and hard to interpret.   The title seemed odd and somewhat unappealing, and I just wasn’t hearing enough about it from other people to be intrigued.   Lots of people talk about The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, IT, Carrie, Pet Sematary ...

  The latest story I finished was another first-time read: "The Langoliers," one of four novellas contained in Four Past Midnight .  This is one I didn’t have much expectation about going in, since it doesn’t seem to be one of King’s most talked-about stories.  I had been aware of the horrendous 90s TV miniseries of course.  I haven't seen the thing in full; only parts, thank God.  But would a bad adaptation ever put me off to reading a King story?  Certainly not.  Some of King’s absolute best novels have been given deplorable treatment when adapted for TV, so as far as I’m concerned, that is hardly a deal-breaker.     Having read the novella, I think it's a shame about the miniseries, because the story itself is definitely an intriguing and exciting one.  King is working with a great premise here.  It’s a story with such an audacious set-up that you get both thrilled and worried about what’s to co...

Prior to beginning the next Stephen King novel I plan to dive into (which is one I am very excited about), I got the idea to pause and do a quick re-read of 1922 .  I wanted to finally watch the recent Netflix adaptation, which I heard was quite good, and figured it would be fun to get a refresher on the story and then see how the movie version measures up. The novella, one of four excellent stories that comprise Full Dark, No Stars , is one I hold in high regard.  Reading it again definitely affirmed my appreciation for it. 1922 is one of King’s absolute darkest stories.  It is an interesting work; uncompromisingly bleak and disturbing, yet deeply moralistic at its core.  Because it is so stark and grounded in its realism, it serves as an effective cautionary tale. (At least three of the four stories in Full Dark, No Stars are more or less realistic, devoid of much in the way of supernatural elements.  The “haunted” as...

The Mist is a Stephen King story I've wanted to read for a long time.  I have always been aware of its positive reputation, but when I began hearing it referred to as maybe the best of his novellas, I figured it was high time I gave it a look.  The image above is from the paperback copy of Skeleton Crew I recently purchased.  It’s far from my favorite cover image, but the therapist in me does like the Rorschach-ian quality of it.  The novella is not necessarily what I expected, and that is in no way a bad thing. This is not a “scary” story; at least it isn’t for me.  But it is, in certain ways, intense and unnerving.  There are some nice short sequences of suspense, but mostly the story works because King so effectively draws us into what is a very disconcerting, hopeless-feeling scenario.  King generates a good amount of empathy for the plight of those trapped in the supermarket, especially by focusing on the distress that comes from knowing...