Worst of Stephen King - Worst books or stories

[Datman]

I'm surprised Dreamcatcher isn't on this guys poll. I haven't read all the ones featured on it but at least a good amount of them look pretty short. Dreamcatcher is like 700 pages and doesn't justify its length at all. It does the "weird retarded character has magic powers, woah!" plot twist which is such a common Kingism in his stories it gets just so fucking eye rolling.

Everyone complains about the poop eel things, but honestly they wouldn't have been a problem if he didn't make them such a integral part of the story. He has weirdo borderline fetish shit reminiscent of that in almost all his books, but they are usually just present in one sequence or two.


Do any huge King fans have any recommendations? I used to read him a lot back in highschool and from memory the ones i liked the most were "The Shinning", "Pet Semetary", and "Mr. Mercedes". I also weirdly remember liking Christine even tho, also from memory, the plot was stupid as fuck.

 

[Obstacle]

I liked James Herbert's books better.
The Rats, The Lair, The Fog, The Dark etc.
He's often pitched as a poor man's King, but I found his writing more viscerally enjoyable.
Though maybe not for any reason I can articulate.

 

[Dragged Into Sunlight]

I liked James Herbert's books better.
The Rats, The Lair, The Fog, The Dark etc.
He's often pitched as a poor man's King, but I found his writing more viscerally enjoyable.
Though maybe not for any reason I can articulate.

I really liked Nobody True when I was a teenager.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Do any huge King fans have any recommendations? I used to read him a lot back in highschool and from memory the ones i liked the most were "The Shinning", "Pet Semetary", and "Mr. Mercedes". I also weirdly remember liking Christine even tho, also from memory, the plot was stupid as fuck.

I like Christine and suggest you give it a reread. Yeah the whole “possessed car” thing is retarded (love the John Carpenter movie though) but if you go into the book looking at it as King commenting on the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the tenuousness of friendships from that era, it makes for an interesting commentary on growing up and leaving old friends behind as your personalities change for better or worse.

 

[Genuine Orientalist]

Thinner is dumb and unoriginal (be careful what you wish for!!!) but the gross fat guy parts are thinspiring at least.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

@Dragged Into Sunlight

The original ABC TV version was the best. King even wrote the screenplay for it and it clarifies a lot from the original novel. Doesn't explain in the miniseries why a certain character kept masturbating on screen, but I'm surprised they had it in there.

As for the worst of King we're all agreed that he took a steep dive after he stopped taking drugs, right?

 

[McMitch]

As for the worst of King we're all agreed that he took a steep dive after he stopped taking drugs, right?

People bring up King getting clean, but a major element that gets slept on is that he also turned forty around the same time, and probably faced a massive down-turn in testosterone production as a result of both.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

There's a vlog who talk about Stephen King who have gone insane thanks to Elon Musk.

One youtuber dropped a comment when he should be in the same instituation where Rob "Meathead" Reiner is.

 

[Wodanaz]

Worst of Stephen King: definitely The Outsider, the second half of The Stand, the ending of The Dark Tower (really all of them from book 5 onward, when the self inserts start).

Do any huge King fans have any recommendations?

I'm far from a huge King fan, but read Revival. And of course, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.

I'd suggest trying the first Gunslinger story,

The first one is good but for me, the fourth book, Wizard and Glass, will always remain the highlight. Such a magical experience charyou tree is. Shame about the ending.

 

[The Un-Clit]

Worst of Stephen King: definitely The Outsider, the second half of The Stand, the ending of The Dark Tower (really all of them from book 5 onward, when the self inserts start).

I'm far from a huge King fan, but read Revival. And of course, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.

The first one is good but for me, the fourth book, Wizard and Glass, will always remain the highlight. Such a magical experience charyou tree is. Shame about the ending.

Agree with The Outsider, terrible terrible book. Strongly disagree with the second half of The Stand, that book is King's true Magnum Opus imo, and half agree on the latter half of The Dark Tower. The self-inserts are cringe AF and truly harm the story but the rest of the books (except the godawful showdown with The Crimson King at the climax of book 7) are some of the best parts of the series, especially Algul Siento, and the battle of Calla Bryn Sturgis. Frankly I think King just ran out of magic brain juice (and time) by the time the end of book 7 was wrapping up because damn....

I am torn between book 2 and book 3 being the most magical for me. I think I have to give it to The Waste Lands. Both Shardik and the nightmare city of Lud stayed in my mind and even my dreams for a good while after reading it.

 

[Wodanaz]

Strongly disagree with the second half of The Stand, that book is King's true Magnum Opus imo

I can see why you'd say that, and King says in the preface of the uncut edition that it's the book people seemed to like the most. I personally don't think I've read enough of his stuff to make a determination one way or the other, but I do know that King's website declares The Dark Tower as his magnum opus. Whether or not he personally does, or just allowed that as marketing, I don't know.

Incidentally, did you happen to watch the TV adaptation or hear anything about it? I don't watch such things but I'll never forget reading about how the scene where the Trashcan Man lights the big oil tanks on fire in his home town was changed. He sets up a lawn chair and watches the explosion while masturbating. I honestly can't think of many other adaptations that have changed so much for such retarded reasons. Dune part two comes to mind. The Trashcan Man was always tragic, seemingly unable to help himself, with much time spent in his backstory (old lady Semple's pension check) about how he associates burning things with negative memories and emotions. I don't understand how you get "masturbate to fire" from that.

I can only assume King himself was responsible, seeing as how he approved changing Roland "king arthur descendant, grey meat, blue bombadier's eyes" Deschain into the blackest motherfucker of all time.

Algul Siento

Yeah that was pretty cool. And the showdown with the Low Men in new york, along with the details about the Todash Darkness were the high points for me.

and the battle of Calla Bryn Sturgis

The robot Doctor Dooms wielding lightsabers from star wars and exploding snitches from harry potter? My jaw unhinged on its own and soy started leaking from my every pore. King was lightyears ahead of the cringe crowd with that one.

 

[The Un-Clit]

I worded the Calla Bryn Sturgis part poorly. The buildup to the battle, all the way to imprisoning and shutting down Andy was cool. The battle itself was a roflfest I agree 100%. Fucking sneetches. I don't know what point King was trying to make with the pop culture mashups attacking the fairly realistic farming community (and you must admit the reason the baddies were harvesting kids from the Callas was pretty cool) but said point didn't get across like he intended. I think 90% of people reading that were scratching their heads if not howling in laughter at the images of robot Dr Dooms on horseback throwing Golden Snitches at people or waving lightsabers around.

 

[Mola Ram]

I am torn between book 2 and book 3 being the most magical for me. I think I have to give it to The Waste Lands. Both Shardik and the nightmare city of Lud stayed in my mind and even my dreams for a good while after reading it.

Disagree pretty hard on the latter Dark Tower books; I think the rot set in sometime in Wizard and Glass and the last three were written under such pressure from himself to finish it before he died that he boofed the whole thing to a near comical degree. However ... yeah, Waste Lands is one of the best things he ever wrote, and I felt the later DT books never came close to capturing the feel of that story. Roland's world is at its best when it's in ruins, and none of the later books display that in such a way. (There are moments, though -- Roland and Susannah's escape from Castle Discordia was probably the high point.)

Incidentally, did you happen to watch the TV adaptation or hear anything about it?

The 1990 miniseries is easily the best of the 90s era King TV specials. Which isn't saying a whole lot, but it's really not terrible and it's quite good in places. Gary Sinise is excellent; Molly Ringwald and Jamie Sheridan rather less so.

The more recent streaming adaptation with Whoopi Goldberg has an awful reputation, and while I've only seen a few clips, they're universally dogshit. Bad enough that I've actually been tempted to pirate it just to see how bad it gets.

The robot Doctor Dooms wielding lightsabers from star wars and exploding snitches from harry potter? My jaw unhinged on its own and soy started leaking from my every pore. King was lightyears ahead of the cringe crowd with that one.

If you have the original hardcover of Wolves of the Calla, he even used the Harry Potter font for chapter titles! King was awestruck by JK Rowling.

 

[Wodanaz]

I worded the Calla Bryn Sturgis part poorly. The buildup to the battle, all the way to imprisoning and shutting down Andy was cool.

Aye I will admit that. I only include book 5 onward because it marks the beginning of the end.

the last three were written under such pressure from himself to finish it before he died that he boofed the whole thing to a near comical degree.

I can't recall which, but in the preface or afterword for one of the books, he mentions getting letters from fans who are excited to see where the next book goes. I forget if he pontificates about how many have died while waiting for him to finish the fucking series or relates a story about some old woman who passed while waiting, or what.

 

[Mola Ram]

Aye I will admit that. I only include book 5 onward because it marks the beginning of the end.

I can't recall which, but in the preface or afterword for one of the books, he mentions getting letters from fans who are excited to see where the next book goes. I forget if he pontificates about how many have died while waiting for him to finish the fucking series or relates a story about some old woman who passed while waiting, or what.

The old woman sounds familiar, and I remember him mentioning a guy on Death Row who promised to take the secret of the series' ending to his grave. But none of that is what lit a fire under his ass: it was the van accident that did that, and his incorporating it into the series is one of the worst elements of the final books.

 

[Wodanaz]

oh my science, a fictional character I made up just pushed me out of the way of a car and saved my life, what a wholesome chungus idea for a story this is. I will write it into the next book and then rewrite his power for the movie because the shining was a popular movie and nobody knows what "the touch" is.

 

[Lone Star]

It still baffles me how much King gets away with because his books were "in a different time" and "he was on drugs" with Susannah and Odetta. Susannah is a proper, prim, "well-spoken" black woman. Meanwhile, Odetta is basically an unhinged beastly sociopath that basically has to be tamed not to attack or try to sabotage the group for literally no reason while spouting the most stereotypical ebonics King could muster.

 

[Mola Ram]

It still baffles me how much King gets away with because his books were "in a different time" and "he was on drugs" with Susannah and Odetta. Susannah is a proper, prim, "well-spoken" black woman. Meanwhile, Odetta is basically an unhinged beastly sociopath that basically has to be tamed not to attack or try to sabotage the group for literally no reason while spouting the most stereotypical ebonics King could muster.

HONK MAHFAAAAAH!

 

[The Un-Clit]

HONK MAHFAAAAAH!

When ju goan t' git down to de pokin'? Dat's what I wants ta see, dat pokin'!

 

[Wodanaz]

Salem's Lot, 1975



Stephen "infinity immigrants are good for the economy, actually" King, 2020