Stephen King is popularly known for his spine-chilling horror stories but has also written some supernatural thrillers, suspenseful crime thrillers series full of magical realism. It is almost impossible to neglect how influential. King has been.
His dominance could be measured by the fact that till now, he is the only author was has had more than 30 best-sellers under his belt. In 21017, the website LitHub concluded that 34 of King’s books have been turned into movies most of which are horror.
Here we look at the top 5 books of Stephen King:
1. The Stand
The original draft of this book was so long that the printing press was unable to handle it. King had to cut down a major chunk out of it. This 1500 page book started when 99% of the human population was killed when a human-made virus called captain Trips was accidentally released.
The remaining survivors start living in two camps and get indulged in an ultimate war between good and evil. The uncut version came out n 1990 and 4 years later, ABC turned it into a miniseries. The book deals with topics of survival, religion, and the ultimate compass of morality.
2. The Shining
Well if you have not read this book, you might have seen the movie with the same title starring Jack Nicholson. But both these should be viewed as two different entities as King has himself said that the movie is quite different from the book.
This is the story of Jack Torrence who took a job to overlook a hotel during the off-season so he decided to stay there with his family. But some of the supernatural things happening at the hotel made this a nightmare for them. The different layers make this book a little complex but a lot interesting
3. It
Any list that includes Stephen King’s books is incomplete without ‘IT’ in it. It is a classic King novel that has more than 1000 pages. This is a favorite amongst the fans as the books allow you to track the protagonists of the stories through their lifetime from being teenagers in the 50s to adults in the 80s.
The story is about a group of teenagers who fought against a demented clown named Pennywise who feeds on the souls of children of Derry Maine and 27 years later they are again forced to reunite for the final battle. This is more than just a horror book as the author lets you inside the lives of the protagonists as they grow old.
4. Misery
The story of Misery is about a writer who gets into a serious and fatal car accident in the middle of a snowstorm and the woman who comes to rescue him claims to be his number one fan.
The novel quickly turns dark as the woman held the protagonist hostage inside her home till the time he could rewrite the ending of a book where she did not like the ending. This is a gory and gruesome horror novel with a multi-dimensional villain, an intense and graphic tale of the struggle between prisoner and captor.
5. Pet Cemetery
This is another Stephen King book that has been recently turned into a film in 2019. The story is about a family that moves into a new home that has a large land where kids used to bury their dead pets in the backyard. An unfortunate accident occurred that shattered the whole family and bone-chilling incidents followed afterward.
This is an emotional story that is a slow-burn horror, one that offers less gore but rather builds and builds on disturbing elements and skin-crawling feelings to scare readers. The book deals with the theme of grief and mourning.
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Source: TheEducationDaily
