10 Stephen King books everyone should read

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The best books of the master of horror, from which it is impossible to tear yourself away.

1. N

Pale and unsmiling, N. looks into my eyes. And in front of me are invisible birds tearing it to pieces.

The magnificent story keeps you in suspense to the last. An ordinary accountant unexpectedly encounters an ancient evil that is trying to break into our world. The safety of all mankind depends on his actions. The fight with the monster is exhausting, leads the main character to the psychoanalyst's office and eventually leads to suicide.

It is difficult to be a god, but even more difficult to be an ordinary person, on whose shoulders the task of saving the world lies. The test of strength passes from one hero to another. Several people have fallen in the battle for balance. Who will be next in this chain?

2. Duma-Key

A person cannot close the door to the past, he can only make some amendments and live on.

Edgar Fremantle, a successful businessman, loving husband and father, after a ridiculous and terrible accident, lost part of himself, left without his right hand. The wife could not stand the outbursts of rage, the children and old friends moved away. In return, the main character acquired an amazing opportunity to depict on the canvas what is not, and what will be in the future.

Edgar chooses the picturesque island of Duma Key as a place of solitude and recovery after an accident. Behind the external beauty of a quiet place, terrible secrets and monsters are hidden, which cannot wait to get their hands on the main character. Evil spirits communicate with Edgar through his paintings, beautiful and terrible in their doom.

The main character will have to deal not only with the creepy secrets of the island and its inhabitants, but also with himself, in order to eventually come to terms with the fact that cannot be changed.

3. Hopelessness

God exists, but who told you that he is kind.

The abandoned town of Hopeless became the battlefield of good and evil. If you drive past a quiet American backwater, rush away without looking back. The heroes of the novel did not do this. Therefore, we got into a terrible story with the participation of several local residents who went off the rails and one ancient and evil spirit who had been waiting for a thousand years deep underground in the Nevada desert.

In the novel, King raises questions about God, his participation in the fate of people and the responsibility of humanity for their actions. The main characters confront evil and simultaneously study themselves in order to find out what misdeeds brought them to the city and who is to blame for the death of innocent souls.

4. Pet cemetery

There is probably no limit to the horror that a person can experience.

The young Creed family - Luis, Rachel and a couple of kids - move into a new home. Everything would be perfect if the highway did not pass very close to the house, along which huge trucks rush every now and then. A big surprise for the Creed family was the abandoned Indian cemetery, where the locals used to bury their pets.

The burial ground has its own secrets. They are discovered by Louis Creed after he buries a pet that died under the wheels of a truck. From this moment on, a series of misfortunes begins.

Soon, the Creed's little son also dies. It is almost impossible to come to terms with the loss of a loved one. And if there is a chance to bring the child back to life, why not take the risk and try to deceive the laws of nature. A terrible denouement awaits everyone involved in this story.

5. Revival

“God has ceased to be important to people,” my mother once remarked after the service, when there were very few parishioners. “But the day will come when they will regret it.

Where Dreams May Come? Of course, to hell. The main characters of the novel, a desperate musician and a priest obsessed with electricity, are convinced of this. The heartache and loss of his wife and young son turn the believing priest Charles Jacobs into an apostate, a fairground charlatan and a mad experimenter.

Jacobs uses "secret electricity" to cure rock addict Jamie Morton of addiction. But the treatment gives many side effects, although it allows us to open the veil of secrecy and find out what awaits us at the end of the tunnel. The results are terrible: there is neither heaven nor hell. Only emptiness and chaos.

6. It

How sometimes children hate adults for their power. How they hate!

One of King's most creepy fiction is about a group of teenagers forced to challenge an ancient evil. The guys bravely fight a vile monster that kidnaps innocent souls.

The entire history of the town of Derry is based on blood. And the monster longs for new victims, not accustomed to meet resistance. Overcoming fears and doubts, the main characters send evil in the guise of a clown into oblivion. But for how long? Children's fears do not remain behind a closed door in the parental home, but continue to haunt the company of daredevils in adulthood. Until the moment comes when they have to look evil in the eye again.

7. Kujo

The world is full of monsters, and they can always, at any moment, attack the innocent and helpless.

A cute dog is not about St. Bernard Cujo, who recently does not look like himself at all. Cujo's walk in the surrounding area leads to tragic consequences from which the entire city suffered. The former affectionate demure now resembles an angry death machine, ready to rush at anyone who is near.

The owners of the sick dog are busy with their problems and do not come to the aid of the pet. A chain of accidents leads the main character Donna with her little son right into the clutches of a monster. Is this retribution for sins or an annoying coincidence? In a fight with a rabid dog, Donna will have to rely only on herself to save her son and get out of this alteration alive.

8. Shining

Loneliness in itself can be fatal.

The huge, respectable hotel is closed for the winter. Jack Torrance, a retired alcoholic, English teacher and aspiring writer, agrees to become a winter caretaker. Together with his wife and five-year-old son, he will spend only a few months at the hotel. A great opportunity to work on a play and strengthen a relationship that has been shaken by Jack's outbursts of uncontrollable rage. So the Torrens thought until they encountered a bunch of evil ghosts who took a fancy to the hotel.

Tony, a secret friend of little Denny Torrance, warned the kid about the dire consequences of the family's stay in the Overlook. But who listens to five-year-olds? Only the chef Dick Holloran, on whom the fate of not only the family now depends, but also the hotel with a difficult past.

9. Misery

Someone could have come and rescued from the horror, but no one came … Because no one ever comes.

Successful writer Paul Sheldon after a car accident falls into the "loving" hands of his fan. Going on a trip, Paul completely forgot to warn anyone where and why he was going. The result of such carelessness is sad: Paul understands that they will not start looking for him soon.

Soon the writer realizes that he is dealing with a crazy woman. The weirdo lady is ready to fall in love with the idol to death, if only he continued to create. In inhuman conditions, struggling with excruciating pain and being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Paul Sheldon writes one of his best works about the life of Misery Chastain. The main intrigue of the novel is whether the main character will be able to escape from the clutches of an admirer of his talent, alive and well.

10. Langoliers

Sometimes you don’t notice things because they are too small, and sometimes you don’t see them because they are too big, too obvious.

What if reality ends in literally five minutes? It was in such a situation that the heroes of this story found themselves.

An ordinary flight for several passengers who suddenly woke up turns into the most terrible nightmare. Where they fly, where is everyone else, what connects those who stayed on board and who controls the plane - there are no answers to these questions. There is only another reality in which fuel does not burn, and products and things have lost their properties.

It is revealed that the group from the plane fell into an alternative and terrible version of the past. The heroes have only one attempt to return to their time, until the langolier monsters destroy time and space.