I definitely recommend starting him off on ‘The Body.’ It’s fun, funny, crude and short.
Not sure what’s so girlie about Carrie except that it involves a female main character and several female supporting characters. The period blood? The killing? Anyway, it was required reading one year at my school and everyone seemed to really like it.
The Eyes of the Dragon is more of a fantasy novel, not very gory at all, and absolutely fantastic. It’s been quite a few years since I read it, but I seem to recall that the sexual mentions in the book are that the king needs a potion to inspire his lust, which he does not only to get heirs, but because he loves his wife and he recognizes that women have sexual feelings and needs, too. I think that this is one of King’s best, not that I’ve read all of King’s works, but King’s strength is that he’s a storyteller, and this is a wonderful story. I also recommend it to any adults who haven’t read it yet.
And yeah, give him a Pratchett or two. Especially Good Omens, which might be listed under the co-auther, Neil Gaiman. I think that Gaiman by himself is just a little too adult for most teens, but GO is one of the funniest, if not THE funniest, books in the English language.
I started on Carrie myself, actually. I didn’t exactly love it the way I would love his other books, but I very much enjoyed it. And it worked to turn me into quite the King fan. To be fair, I wasn’t a reluctant reader and am generally more willing to give an author a second try. It’s definitely an above average read–very different from your average book. And I agree. Other than the fact that it’s about a girl, it’s not girly. It’s not like if it had a pink cover on it, you’d confuse it for a Sarah Dessen or Helen Fielding novel.
I’d give him Bentley Little, not King. The Ignored, The Store and - especially The Collection (short stories) - this is amazing stuff. King himself is a fan of Little’s work.
Bentley Little has a more accessible writing style that’s more efficient and moves along faster than King’s style. I was always bored to death by King’s writing and still am. I think he has some of the most amazing ideas of any writer ever - incredible creativity - but I think he’s not the best at putting those ideas on paper and making them a story. His narrative can really drag on and get tedious. Just my opinion.
Meh- I was like 10 or so, and just kinda squicked out by the whole thing. I never really had “the talk” from my parents- and health class came a while later- so learning about the whole girls bleeding thing… just weird stuff there. The only other female leads I really had was the Babysitter’s Club books or the Boxcar children series, or the evil cheerleaders from Fear Street. Carrie… was a whole 'nother mess of worms.
And then in high school I just felt bad for the poor girl. It seemed so cruel and blah. Like Hostel for Highschoolers or something.
“The Shining” literally (no pun) made my neck hairs stand on end, which made me aware of my heart pounding, while I was reclining on my couch in a nice quiet brightly lit room on a beautiful sunny afternoon…
followed a few minutes later by my jumping half out of my skin because wife strolled past the open doorway.
Nothing I’ve read before or since has ever scared me that way. I was genuinely surprised to learn that the printed word could actually work like that.
Don’t know if that makes this more or less appropriate for your mission, but that’s my 2¢.
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I’d definitely recommend starting him on King’s shorter works if he’s a non-reader. Which book had The House on Maple Street? It was either Night Shift or Skeleton Crew. I read that one to my two older girls, out loud, when they were about 13. They are now 22 and 18, respectively. The oldest one isn’t much of a reader, but will read specific King short stories I recommend to her, but the 18YO has turned into a voracious reader, who will read all things King, plus Christopher Moore, and a bunch of other stuff (in fact, it was she who introduced me to the genius of Moore!)
Anyway, a number of his shorter works, The House on Maple Street, The Body, Rage, The Long Walk, The Raft focus on teenage boys, so he may be able to identify with some of them better.
I started on a book of his short stories, i really like night shift. Second book I read was the Shining.
Go for short stories first.
Being contrarian, I’d avoid Salem’s Lot. I loves me some King, but that’s one book that I could never get into. I dunno - I think the style’s wrong, somehow. IMO, it’s one of his earliest, and it shows - it just doesn’t seem mature to me, more a mishmash of Stoker and Wollstonecraft Shelley. I’ll admit, it’s one of my least favorite, and I haven’t read it in years, but I remember it as not really being in King’s voice.
I think Lynn’s got it dead on - depending on his interests, give him The Eyes of the Dragon. If he likes fantasy at all, he’ll like this book. I love it; it’s one of my favorites.
You know, I’d disagree with 'Salem’s Lot as well. It was my first King book, and it got me hooked, but I was already a dedicated reader. I was 15, my father (who never steered me wrong on a book!) handed it to me and said “Don’t read this at night” and didn’t say any more. Well, it seemed like the first half of the book was background, set-up, etc. So, (you can see this coming, right?) of course I started reading it at night. It wasn’t scary at all! Obviously, by the time it got scary, I was well into it and couldn’t put it down! I think I slept with a cross under my pillow for about two weeks. No kidding! But yeah, I think his early novels start way too slow for a non-reader. The first King novel I remember starting off with a bang was It.
In his short work, of course, he doesn’t have time to pussyfoot around and such. He has to get right into the “meat” of the story!
Yay! I think he’ll love them.
I don’t know about anyone else here, but I couldn’t really bring myself to feel any love for Roadwork. Hmmmm.
For sheer action/thrill/forecast-about-the-future-so-accurate-it’s-scary, I’ll take The Running Man. For psych-out, it’s The Long Walk, and for an all-around gripping read and peek-into-the-mind-of-a-teenaged-King, it’s Rage, which he started writing at the tender age of 17. I’m also fascinated by the father/son dynamic in that story. (“My father has hated me for as long as I can remember. . .but if really pressed, he’d probably say, at most, that he was hating me for my own good”; yowza; strong stuff).
I thought the main character in the Rage was kind of whiny and annoying and that the whole thing had kind of a Breakfast Club meets Columbine feel to it. And I was a teen. I think I failed at adolescence. 
But for teen books, I really liked both Christine, and as was mentioned. Carrie’s a great book to show just how nasty teen girls can be. Not that we didn’t already know that but Carrie came out eons before something like Mean Girls and is even more vicious.
Yes, start him on Night Shift. Short stories are a less daunting way to check out an author’s work than diving into a big novel, and Mistah King, he likes to write loooooooong novels.
Also another vote for 'Salem’s Lot. The first King I ever read, and still one of my two favorite vampire novels (the other being G.R.R. Martin’s Fevre Dream).
For a non-supernatural King book, I highly recommend Misery. I read it 20-some years ago, not long after it first came out, and some scenes have still stuck with me.
Let him work his way up to The Stand. He’s in for a treat.
Kids adore The Eyes of the Dragon. That would be my pick. (Also it’s an easy read.)
Some of King’s older stuff may come across as dated to a younger reader these days. 'Salem’s Lot may seem like his parents’ vampires to someone raised on Twilight. Christine is set partly in the fifties, isn’t it? And I love The Stand, but it’s definitely a product of the 70s.
I agree with everyone about the short story collections. Carrie may be a good one because it has girls in the shower and boobs, and the horror aspects are pretty straightforward for a younger reader. The Apt Pupil novella ought to work, because the protagonist is about his age, and Nazis are always good villains. The “Stand By Me” novella might be a good choice because it’s about a group of kids, although it’s a period piece. The Green Mile is uncomplicated and freaky.
The Shining is a masterpiece, but much of it is awfully subtle. Shawshank Redemption is a great story, but it’s not horror as such (it’s about accounting fraud!).
Some are just kind of dull, IMHO. Firestarter drags for much of the way. Cujo does feature a dog biting a guy’s junk off, but much of it just involves a person sitting in the car for ages.
Just a few flashbacks, IIRC, via stories from LeBay’s VFW “buddies”. Nowhere near as much as It at any rate.
That story seemed the most realistic to me. I could see how a guy could could really lose it like that.
That one is pretty good. And ironically, it’s not really the Nazi who’s the villain - it’s the teenage protagonist.
I think you’re kind of underestimating kids. I mean, are they so narrow minded that their reaction to something written a few decades ago is, “Dude! A history lesson?!” And suggesting that a kid would like Carrie because of “Boobs and showers!” is…kinda missing the point. Unless hurling tampons and sanitary napkins at a girl who thinks she’s hemorrhaging gets you off…
I mean, it was only ten years ago that I read this stuff as a teenager. Are kids today really all that different?
Great suggestions here. I personally think The Mist would be the best place to start. Or some of the other short stories in the book and then The Mist. Survivor Type is the ultimate gross-out story and Word Processor of the Gods–well, I’m sure he’ll be able to relate to it in one way or another.
I’m not sure why you all are recommending Pratchett, though. I can’t imagine that someone without a good base of having read certain types of novels and/or a certain sense of humor would like them very much.