Finished reading it yesterday well into the night... Wow...

I loved it, though it was not what I expected.

I decided to start Stephen King to try something new. I'm not the biggest fan of horrors - books or movies - because it's my experience that often they are not scary, just gory and yucky. That said, I did enjoy the few truly frightening works that I came across, which did not rely on slashing or graphic violence. And from what I heard, I expected King's books to be quite good. Real scary, that will make you want to lock them in the freezer like Joey from Friends did to The Shining.

A quick search told me that The Shining is the third book in chronological release order. Might as well read them in order then. Bought the first three and picked the first one. I did know that the author didn't like "Carrie" originally; threw it away and only his wife convinced him to publish it. I knew the basic premise of the book.

The blurb at the back called it "chilling" and "gory".

It was neither.

Seriously. Before I started it I was wondering whether the book will be scary or gory/disgusting relying on detailed graphic descriptions of body mutilations. But it was neither. The book is not frightneing; not the usual "oh-my-god-i-am-afraid-to-turn-off-the-lights-let-me-put-the-book-in-the-freezer" type of frightening. And it wasn't gory either. Nothing was really described in particularly graphic details. Unless you're suffering from haemophobia, there wasn't really anything "horrorish" in the book.

But, man. It's not often I get affected that much by a book/movie/game (and I read a lot, so I'm not saying this lightly). But I couldn't sleep after finishing it yesterday and it... she... was on my mind all day. I was working and I kept thinking about the book and there was no one to talk about it with. My mind kept wandering to the characters. I swear I'd almost at times subconsciously think of a silent... prayer? for one of them before realizing "what on earth are you doing? That's silly; they're not real".

Anyway, style-wise I enjoyed the multi-narrative technique. You could feel some sort of "roughness" in the writing; you could tell it's an author's early work. Sort of like playing an indie vs an AAA. But it only added to the appeal.

Right. I know this is a gaming forum, so apologies for the ramblings. But I had to get it off my chest. Anyone else liked/disliked the book?

On to 'Salem's Lot.

I haven't read everything Stephen King wrote, but considering what I did read, his brand of horror is very peculiar, which pleased me a lot. Even when ghosts and demons do show up, it's not done in a way that feels like a jumpscare (which games and movies nowadays tend to count on), which makes it more tense. Also, his characters feel very real, so I think empathyzing with some of them is easier because often they're not "just good" or "just bad".

If you feel like you're getting into it, he has a pseudonym he used for a while called Richard Bachman (I'd highly recommend Thinner, written under said pseudonym).

EDIT: fixed a sentence to actually mean what I meant haha

The wind is in from Africa

last night I couldn't sleep

I don't really consider King to be a horror writer. He's more of a verbose composite shlock writer, who throws stuff on the wall, which often manifests itself as juvenile sort of humour.

He tends to blend fantasy, sci-fi and at horror elements, but he's not really a genre writer either.

I like Stephen King's books when they are not too thick and not scary. Good thing he has written other things than horror too. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (that is a long title) is a very nice read and so is Dolores Clayborne.

I've only tried one Stephen King book : Desperation. I quite liked it but I didn't really find it scary at any point which is something I was hoping for. Though it does have a few expertly placed unnerving moments like when the cop inserted "I'm going to kill you" into the, Miranda rights I think. I've also heard that it's not a typical Stephen King book, so I'd definitely like to try some more. Perhaps Carrie then based on what you've said.

By the way, a book I've read that I definitely found scary at times : The Island of Doctor Moreau

Yep that is quite a read also you should read Christine

reading chronologically is a great choice, though it's likely you won't like them all

oh, and don't read the blurbs / backs of the books! terrible ideas for most books, especially horror stuff I find

feel free to ramble in this thread about them on nights you can't sleep or times you can't get whatever out of your head, I will have it "favourited" to keep an eye

ummm, have you read Poe ?

have you read Clive Barker? played Clive Barker's Undying?

have you played Realms of the Haunting?

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because I totally understand / am like you in regards to horror...

I love to be scared, and so in theory, have for a long time, always loved and been appealed to horror, but I found often times exactly as you do, that a lot of stuff is crap that relies on shallow graphics to try and 'scare' but ends up just being yuck. but, as you are discovering, there is absolutely stuff out there that isn't that, and is what you are looking for, simply what I call "good horror" -

a good amount of it, but there's tons of crap too, more crap than good stuff, of course

some of the good stuff absolutely does have graphic gore and sick twisted fucked up shit, as good horror doesn't necessarly exclude the use of those things, those things just can't be the reliant factor for what constitutes the work being frightening, worthwhile, etc.

I can recommend a couple handfuls of movies pretty easily that do the job too, if you'd like

I've only read one Stephen King story (not being a fan of horror in any way shape or form) and it was a short story set in his fantasy universe that was in a compendium.

And damn it was one of the most disturbing and unnerving pieces of writing I've ever come across.. I've seen a few movies based on his work (the non horror stuff), Shawshank and Dolores Clayborne which were both very good though.

Yes, early work was ok, the stand is good. Wouldn't really call them horror so much, more like suspense with some horror elements.

I agree with drealmer7, Clive barker you should consider also, great and secret show/everville for instance, again not quite horror as such. I like Shaun Hutson for the gruesome horror. But prefer older writers for the real mind horror.

Yep makes you feel more alive have both clive barkers undying AND realms of the haunting

Oh and get system shock 2 it's a horror pc survival shooter that actually works except the level the body of the many that was WAY TOO HARD!

8-3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoFgsqEU3lw

aye, I figure he's HAD to have played System Shock 2 - have you, ZFR? which brings up one of the top great horror movies - Event Horizon (not related, just both sci-fi ghost ship stories)

and while I've not made my way through it, I feel confident enough to say, Pathologic as well

It's not fair that I can only give you one +

Anyway, the only thing from King I ever read was half of The Gunslinger and I almost died of boredom. I'm not likely to ever read anything else of his.

The first time I've read a Stephen King book, it was Bazaar, I think (is that the english title? because it's the french one). I was actually afraid to read it because I hate horror books/movies/games. But, while it had some "horrible" moments, it was a great read.

But I started to truly enjoy King's books with the Dark Tower series. That's one of the very few books I read again and again and again (with th Lord of the Rings). I love it!

Needful things. And yeah, despite its ending (which is the same one in every King book since IT), it's a clever novel, and a great allegory on "ordinary" nazism (how every normal person is a petty cog in the system, with just a few sickos at key points).