A friend suggested I read Salem’s Lot so I did, and I loved it.
Then I read the Dark Tower series, and yes I do mean I slogged through all seven books. I could probably write a whole separate post on that, but the long and the short of it is I thought some parts were fantastic and the storyline as a whole had a lot of promise; however, King’s editor could’ve condensed the good stuff down to two or three books at most (and probably should’ve advised him to lay off the crack).
After that, I made an attempt at Holly. Couldn’t get past the kidnapping scene. The narrative style was incredibly dull and flat.
So, I decided to give it one last shot, and here I am procrastinating finishing The Shining. Now I will admit, I found the story to be engrossing, but again, I don’t care for the narrative style, and on top of that the scary stuff just isn’t…scary. Like, at all. The only part where I felt the slightest twinge off suspense was when Hallorann was driving up the mountain in the middle of a snowstorm. Other than that, I’m left scratching my head as to why so many people consider this to be a masterpiece. To each their own, I guess.
Anyway, I’m done with King.
He’s written some of my all time favorite books, and some I couldn’t get 50 pages into. His writing is really all over the place, which makes sense due to his addictions, accident (he got run over by a car), and sobriety.
If you don’t like The Shining, most of his stuff probably isn’t for you. My favorites are that, 11/22/63, The Stand (though that has a bad ending), On Writing, and Doctor Sleep.
Yeah, I’m getting the sense his style just doesn’t suit my taste. Which is disappointing, because Salem’s Lot is now one of my all-time favorites.
Eyes of the Dragon is an all-timer, plus it’s fairly short by his standards
I think also just his prolific nature means he’s not always going to be writing stuff that hits the same for everybody, but to me it seems that each of his works appeals to different people. I enjoyed The Shining a lot when I read it. It inspired me to read The Haunting of Hill House, and tbh while I didn’t find that ~scary~ in the same sense as I did certain parts of The Shining, it’s still a very good book.