# What Stephen King books/stories do you really despise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423 "2002-06-28T17:18:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/21 "2002-06-29T12:36:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Glory \* > \*\*I noticed this for the first time in It, which is a story I happen to like very much. Wonderful characters, great story told in a really interesting flashback way and then at the end there’s a big spider and deadlights and a big turtle and biting on tongues and huh? > > Insomina is another good example. Started off a great little story with an older character (rare in most popular fiction) who just can’t sleep and it just ballooned and got bizarre and there was a Red King and a hole in the ground and a quilt and huh? > > I call this Stephen King going off into “la la land.” It’s like he builds up so much momentum, no normal plot could finish the story and he has to pull ludicrous stuff out of his ass to get the job done, but it’s not very good.\*\* I think he’s said on more than one occasion that he loves the big ending, and he’s done that in most of his work. If you look at **The Stephen King Universe** , though, you’ll see what all the symbolism at the end of these books really means. In other words, the gross-out, slam-bang ending is one thing, entertaining on one level, but there’s a reason for it all. Two of his common themes is the conflict between good and evil and that between the Random and the Purpose. So personally, I’m not sure he’s just throwing in those seemingly bizarre endings because he’s not sure how to end the book; he’s doing so for a definite reason. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/22 "2002-06-29T16:38:11Z")
It’s a departure from his earlier works and I am not a fan of the “gross-out, slam-bang ending.” What that means is, I no longer buy Stephen King in hardcover. I’m sure he’s rich enough not to care if this Gentle Reader and former Number One fan thinks his current work is terrible, but I am proving my distaste in the only manner available to the public, with my wallet. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/23 "2002-06-29T16:45:47Z")
Do you mean that the slam-bang ending is a departure from his earlier works? If you’ll recall, **Carrie** had that ending. So did **Salem’s Lot** , so did **Cujo** , even. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/24 "2002-06-29T17:01:10Z")
I opened this thread solely to mention _Insomnia_, which took me forever to read just because it got so boring, but now that I think about it, I also hated _Tommyknockers_ and _Gerald’s Game_. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/25 "2002-06-29T18:35:26Z")
**Glory:** [q]One of the things I really liked about early Stephen King novels was his realism, which seems like an odd thing to say about horror novels. [/q] Very astute observation. You are exactly right… up until the end of the 1980’s, the characters in King’s novel always ended the stories having to deal with the consequences of their actions in _this_ world. I think his best ending was in _Misery_, where Paul Sheldon finally realizes there can be joy after horror… I nearly wept the first time I read that. The only time he violated this precept was in _The Talisman_, where he gave his protagonists the ability to jump between realities. Unfortunately, it seems he liked this idea. I enjoyed _Black House_ up until the very end, when the protagonist gets saved from a wrenching situation by such machinations. Or in _Rose Madder_, where they escape in some sort of freakin’ painting. To be quite honest, I am having difficulty remembering a lot of the 1990’s books, even though I bought and read every single one in hardback. I remember reading _Dark Half_ and thinking “didn’t we do this before?”, but I don’t remember how it ends (and there is no need to remind me, if I cared, I’d reach over and pull it from my bookshelves). I remember thinking “what the hell is this” when he pulled the Red King stuff out of _Insomnia_ (I liked everything about Insomnia except the plot - I thought the characters were great.) But… uh oh. Baby is awake and crying. I’ll finish this later… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/26 "2002-06-29T18:43:40Z")
Yes! She fell back asleep! Gotta type quickly though… But he has lost touch with what I thought made him special - his awareness of the small things of everyday life, the minor twitches and turns of phrase that made every character unique. It’s like he is trying to create a new horror/fantasy genre, but it isn’t coming off too well. [digression] This “real world” emphasis is why I am one of the few who liked Buffy season 6. These kids do live in our world and they do have to pay the bills, and I’m glad that Whedon understands that.[/digression] It might also be that America has passed Steven King by. Face it: he has a better understanding of the common man’s world as it existed in 1976 than as it existed in 1996. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/27 "2002-06-29T19:18:18Z")
Having a feel for the common man isn’t his only quality. He’s also gifted at imagery. The worlds of the Dark Tower series are vividly drawn out. They may read like Westerns, but they’re supposed to. Also, if you read **The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon** , it’s a great understanding of the everyday person - in this case, a little girl lost in the woods. Let’s face it, SK is not a little girl, so presumably it wasn’t easy to write the book. But I thought it felt honest and true. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/28 "2002-06-29T20:15:18Z")
Huh. _Rose Madder_ is one of my all time favorites. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/29 "2002-06-29T23:57:54Z")
I loved his early works, but like most popular authors, King became a parody of himself not too long after the release of _The Stand_. _Needful Things_ wasn’t that bad, but _The Tommyknockers_ was awful. I started on _Delores Claiborne_ but could only get through the first chapter. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/30 "2002-06-30T00:35:06Z")
I find a lot of his longer stuff is losing me sooner and sooner now. I am getting freakishly tired of constantly hearing about the damn Crimson King, but I definitely saw something like it coming. A lot of his books have always had the common threads throughout. I have to say, I am still enjoying most of his short story collections. I really enjoyed The Talisman, one of my favorite books, and not just Stephen King either, which was one fo the reason why I really DIDN’T like Black House. I digress, here’s my list - Books I read again and again - It The Talisman Herats In Atlantis (At least the stories “low men in yellow coats” and “Hearts in Atlantis”) The Green Mile Four Past Midnight Different Seasons Skeleton Crew The Running Man Nightmares and Dreamscapes The Drawing of the Three The Wastelands Everything’s Eventual Liked quite a bit - Carrie Salem’s Lot The Shining The Dead Zone Firestarter The Gunslinger Pet Sematary Cycle of The Werewolf Take Em or Leave Em - The Stand Needful Things Misery Gerald’s Game Insomnia The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon Desperation Regulators Cujo The Dark Half Did not Like - Black house Wizards and Glass Most of The Bachman Books Books I Haven’t Read - Christine Tommyknockers Dolores Claiborne Bag of Bones Rose Madder Dreamcatcher (although I own it) Storm of the Century ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/31 "2002-06-30T01:36:05Z")
Insomnia is the only SK book I started and couldn’y finish. Apparently it was written as a cure for its title. I haven’t read the majority of his stuff written in the past 10 years. I really enjoyed the first three parts of **The Dark Tower** , though. Part four was fair, but I don’t really care for the Roland history lesson. I’d rather just get little snippets of his past rather than detailed stories. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/32 "2002-06-30T13:51:49Z")
I’d completely forgotten about **Insomnia.** Some gibberish about little dwarves cutting strings with scissors, wasn’t it? The only thing that sticks in my mind about that book is that I read it in November 1994, during an 80-degree heat wave! ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/33 "2002-06-30T15:16:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you mean that the slam-bang ending is a departure from his earlier works? If you’ll recall, Carrie had that ending. So did Salem’s Lot, so did Cujo, even. I thought both Carrie and Salem’s Lot had great “realistic” endings for the plots of the book. Carrie was telekenetic and blew up the school, nothing surreal like walking through a painting or the “deadlights.” Salem’s Lot ended with with the good guys burning the town, I’m not sure how that could be considered “over the top and out there” like a giant turtle that you reached by playing the Game of Chud. (forgive me if I don’t remember the exact ending of Cujo) Like I said earlier, it’s very hard to put into words about how I feel about recent Stephen King writing (well, except for Dreamcatcher which I simply loathed). To me, there’s a difference between a “slam bam” ending like Firestarter where Charlie destroyed the research facility with a lot of pyrotechnics and the ending to Insomnia with all that going under the tree and putting on a ring and magically being on a plane with Ed and Ralph’s knitting mother appearing on the plane and the Court of the Crimson King… I just get terribly exasperated when a perfectly nice plot dissolves into surreal gobbildy gook. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/34 "2002-06-30T15:24:50Z")
Well, that’s reasonable - there is a difference between a denoument rooted in realism/our world and one that uses a deus ex machina effect. I understand that (the ending of Cujo was just the climactic battle with the dog); I just think that his supernatural endings, although not completely realistic, are rooted in some bit of plausibility. His big theme, carried over most of his work, is simply Good versus Evil. The Stand showchased this theme more obviously than some, but IT (kids versus IT/Spider/Pennywise), Salem’s Lot (nonzombies versus Barlow), Needful Things (sheriff versus Leland Gaunt), and others portrayed it as well. And of course, there’s the whole Dark Tower series. (Heck, if you’re ever looking for links between his books, look no further than Randall Flagg, who’s the Number One Bad Guy in The Stand _and_ Eyes of the Dragon, and makes appearances in a few others.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/35 "2002-06-30T16:10:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*(Heck, if you’re ever looking for links between his books, look no further than Randall Flagg, who’s the Number One Bad Guy in The Stand _and_ Eyes of the Dragon, and makes appearances in a few others.) \*\* IIRC, I remember seeing an article or interview where King said something about trying to weave all his worlds together and that Flagg was the key. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/36 "2002-06-30T21:04:12Z")
> [@](#): > > It seems to me in a lot of Stephen King books he builds up a great story and then just runs out of momentum at the end and just throws together some crazy stuff to finish the book. > > I noticed this for the first time in It, which is a story I happen to like very much. Wonderful characters, great story told in a really interesting flashback way and then at the end there’s a big spider and deadlights and a big turtle and biting on tongues and huh? Ditto. That was also my impression re: _The Stand_. Some of his very best were written early on: _The Shining, Carrie_. Had some greats among scattered in his later works, e.g., _Misery, Pet Sematary_. But it is hard to think about King without thinking about the author in _The Shining_ and the author in _Misery_, authors who engage in eventually unsuccessful attempts to write immense grandiose works with meaningful implications on dozens of levels, and who spend time contemplating themselves and their attempts to do these things in metaphorical terms; and, in the case of _Misery_, eventually finding his solace in his ability to write great entertaining “hacks”, and to heck with the “great works” heavy stuff that would make the critics rock back on their heels and say “genius”. With both _The Stand_ and _It_, there was a point in the stories where the simple linear fiction tale was becoming just a frontal façade and the real story was something more universal about good and evil and human nature. And in both cases after setting this up, he kind of meandered around awhile and then went back to telling plain old fiction (old lady representing good walks off into desert and comes back and says very little and dies; bad guys off themselves with a nuke; no ultimate truths about good or evil get reconciled // the evil underlying the American small town and the childhood of the 1950s, although briefly appearing to be something manifested in the kids’ parents and in the metaphorical, not just physical, plumbing of the town, turns out to be a spider from another galaxy). [hijack] This is not a problem unique to Stephen King. That Jack Nicholson film where he turns into a werewolf was downright fascinating until it muddled off into good werewolf versus bad werewolf and lost all metaphorical impact pertaining to civilization and savagery and whatnot. And in the Pullman trilogy (_The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass_) [spoiler:]… . . . . . . . …the author backs off from implying that this tale is going to recap the original Genesis / Garden of Eden story, possibly casting the original (and the original God) as an evil being, definitely casting the main character as “Eve” and as protagonist, posing the original Genesis incident as representing a failure on the part of the previous “Eve” and most likely having the outcome be different this time around – instead, the author makes the original God an irrelevant doddering old fool, slinks past the Eve thing by letting the main character make a change that only has implications for life after death, avoids additional details about the original Eve conflict, and generally backs off from trying to write something supremely meaningful and retreats to writing fantasy/science fiction that disappoints because of the retreat. ---
**Author:** ![Molly\_Coddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bcef8e/32.png) [@Molly\_Coddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molly_Coddle)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/37 "2002-06-30T22:17:46Z")
:smack: **Thinner** **Pet Semetary** **Langoliers** > [@](#): > > My only regret is that I have but two middle-fingers for the morons. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/38 "2002-06-30T22:55:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irish\_bill \* > \*\* > Not to hijack or anything, but is there any new horror writers today in King’s league? > > I wouldn’t mind hearing about them. \*\* Not new and not necessarily horror, and not as well-known, but here are a few who share some of the same qualities: Joe Lansdale John Shirley Simon Clark Graham Masterton (yes, **that** Graham Masterton) Jack Cady James Disch George R. R. Martin Peter Straub (okay, he’s well-known, but generally because of his connection to King) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/39 "2002-07-01T02:41:55Z")
_The Tommyknockers_; simply awful. Why did my stupid brother tell me to read that? King should, seriously, not attempt science fiction. I thought the collaboration behind _The Talisman_ brought out the worst in both King and Peter Straub. And yet I like Stephen King; I really enjoyed reading his recent memoir, _On Writing_. (Not surprising to find that he wrote _The Tommynknockers_ while doing so much cocaine he thought his heart would explode.) He just needs a hard-assed editor who’ll tell him when something is stupid. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423/40 "2002-07-01T03:08:49Z")
Heh, you’re right, he does need that kind of editor. I’d about kill for the job! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stephen-king-books-stories-do-you-really-despise/116423.md?page=1)