I just finished slogging through From a Buick 8. What a snooze. Yawn-o-rama. So this car that isn’t a car sits in a shed for 25 years? WHOOP DE FREAKIN’ DOO! Maybe the point of the book was not supposed to be the action, but was supposed to be about the characters and all, but damn was it boring! Normally, I love wordy ol’ Steve. I’ve read all of his books, and found all of them interesting (even Gerald’s Game, where the protagonist spends the entire book alone and chained to a bed.)
So, all you Stephen King fans out there in internet land, which of his books did you find the most boring?
I’m not sure of its English name, but it’s about this girl who gets lost in the forest and she imagines that a famous baseball player is there with her. And then some demon bear tries to eat her.
Reverse, the one you’re thinking of is called The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I believe. Though, I never read it.
For my money, the absolute worst I can think of is Insomnia, which is actually quite a good cure for insomnia, if you ask me. I don’t think I’ve read many King books since then, I just can’t bring myself to do it anymore. I can read It or The Talisman over and over without being bored, but pretty much nothing he’s written past 1995 or so can keep me interested.
The whole way through reading The Tommyknockers I was thinking “please someone shoot me and put me out of my misery”. What a big steaming pile of wank that was.
This is the book that caused me to stop reading King’s novels. He had obviously not only run out of ideas, but was arrogant enough to believe that people would purchase any sort of dreck with his name on it. Nothing has come along to change my mind. I look at the cover, read the synopsis and put it back on the shelf. What a wasted talent.
Just curious… if you haven’t actually read any of King’s books since The Tommyknockers, then how do you know at least some of them weren’t any better? Judging them based on the cover art and the jacket copy is a pretty poor way of deciding whether they’re any good… and for what it’s worth, you’ve missed out on some great books and stories.
Mind you, I agree that The Tommyknockers is one of King’s worst novels, if not the worst altogether. The only one that comes close in terms of flat-out badness is Dreamcatcher… but at least that wasn’t boring, just badly-written. The Tommyknockers was dull, uninspired, and a waste of a book. I second (or third) the vote for that as King’s dullest work.
As far as Buick 8 goes, the OP hits the nail on the head (by accident) when they suggest that the book is about characters and interactions more than it’s about scary stuff. Readers who go into the book expecting another version of Christine are bound to be disappointed… this book isn’t about a haunted, malevolent car that goes on a killing spree, and most of the action that takes place (with a few exceptions) is only hinted at; most of it happens out of the view of the narrators of the story. This is a very different book for King, but it played to his strengths well. To me, King has always been about creating compelling everyday characters and putting them in extraordinary circumstances… with Buick 8’s multiple viewpoints and intertwining story threads, I personally found it quite enjoyable. Not standard King fare, to be sure, but the mark of a maturing storyteller hitting his stride.
And indeed, the book Reverse refers to is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. That’s such a fast read, though (very short by King’s standards), I find it hard to imagine being too bored by it. You can read it in only a few hours. Another one I rather liked.
I suppose it depends on whether you like King as a horror writer or just as a writer who likes to experiment. While I do love a good horror novel, I find the King appeals to me because of his writing style more than his subject matter. If you prefer King solidly in the horror genre, then probably books like Buick 8 and Tom Gordon aren’t for you.
I’d flip this scenario around for my votes for most boring – with Dreamcatcher being the most boring and Tommyknockers the second most boring. With Tommyknockers, I wasn’t bored for the goodly portion of the book because it seemed like something interesting might be on the verge of happening – needless to say I was very cruelly disappointed when it turned out that no, nothing interesting was going to happen after all. At least my emotions peaked. :dubious:
Dreamcatcher edges out Tommyknockers for the first place slot, because it was clear from the get-go that this book was a flatliner.
I see Green Bean’s point about the lack of any real big action in Buick 8, although I enjoyed the characters and thought the writing was very good. I’m a little intrigued by the concept of what happens when people get used to having a supernatural thing in a shed, I liked seeing the “life goes on” events in the lives of the characters juxtaposed over the periodic activity of the car. Not one of my all-time SK favs, but not at the bottom of the pack in my opinion either.
Naw, the answer is Gerald’s Game. Almost all of the plot takes place in the bedroom, with whatsername handcuffed to the bed. That was boring.
Remember, though, the OP didn’t ask what the worst SK book was, just the most boring. I didn’t like Tommyknockers very much, but I didn’t consider it boring.
I’m gonna say Cujo, although I’m a bad source 'cause I don’t read King too often. I liked a very few of his and there is one that was so dull I couldn’t finish, but I’m not sure what the name is. “Bag of Bones” maybe?
That was probably too broad a statement on my part. I’m sure I’ve read something more recent of his. In fact, I did slog through Dreamcatcher as I recall. And I did enjoy Misery, which I think came after TK. I just don’t rush to the book store for his latest like I did when he was fresh. But yes, if the synopsis sounds like more of the same crap, I won’t buy the book.
King is (or was) at his best when in the minds of children. By far the best thing he ever wrote (IMO) was The Body (subsequently made into the decent movie Stand By Me). His ability to evoke summer and pre-teen kid behavior was nothing short of genius and instantly transported me to my own childhood, complete with smells and visuals. The hood characters of Eyeball and Ace were pure art, and the story-within-a-story (the pie-eating contest) just knocked me out.
Another vote for Insomnia. It’s the only book I read were I could skip 20-30 pages and still follow the plot. The ending bites, and middle is a muddled mess and well, to be perfectly honest, the beginning wasn’t too hot. The only two decent books by Mr King is The Dark Half and The Stand.
I guess I’m in the minority of people who actually kind of liked Insomnia. Of course, I started that book the morning I had surgery and read most of it in a pretty heavily medicated state, so who knows . . . ?
Although I love most of Stephen King’s work, I must say, I thought Hearts In Atlantis moved along like so much cold molasses.
Actually, that would have been an exciting and tense thriller about an abused wife escaping her husband. It was the pointless supernatural crap that ruined it (Well, I still liked it a lot, but it would have been better without the supernatural crap).
And I say this as a person who basically only reads Scifi/Fantasy/Horror, too. But even I could recognise that Rose Madder would have been a hell of a lot better without the eponymous painting.
Sorry, Rabid Squirrel, I came to nominate The Dark Half. I’ve read all the others, even the sucky ones, at least ten times apiece, but I’ve only forced myself through that one about three times, and it’s not getting any better. I keep expecting SK to come out and admit that Dean Koontz wrote that one.
Insomnia * was very slow, but I wept pretty hard when I finished it. (And no, not just because it was over, before the jokes begin.) It’s the only King book that has ever done that to me, so I have a soft spot for it.