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.

  • NoisyCats@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    11/22/63 is a very fun story. Like any author his writing isn’t for everyone and not all his books are good. SK creates some of the best characters I’ve read but he can be a bit wordy. I’m prepping myself to try and read IT in a few days but it’s HUGE.

    • Zatoichi_Jones@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I find the middle part of 11/22/63 pretty tough going. I have tried to finish that book multiple times and every time I get to the part where he sets up shop in Texas I just can’t get past it. Even when it starts picking up steam again leading to the JFK assassination I’m so sick of Jake and his 1960s love interest that I have no desire to finish. There’s just something about late era King I find so boring and verbose. I gave up on him after not finishing Fairy Tale.

    • mysteryofthefieryeye@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m pretty much like the OP, I don’t care for King. But after seeing Part 1 of the IT movies (and part 2 hadn’t been released yet), I couldn’t just not know the ending.

      So, it took a while, but I patiently made my way through the book. It was awesome.

      It led me to re-read Pet Sematary, which was nice and atmospheric but otherwise King constantly ruined the mood with his ridiculous interruptions—he is the only author I know that interrupts himself and takes you right out of every scary scene.

      So I was done with him again lol. (Though I did read The Institute … just in case I preferred his newer stuff, and it was tedious.)