Worst of Stephen King - Worst books or stories

[Quijibo69]

I just thought about doing this because I have been listening to Stephen King books at work. Got done with Four Pass Midnight. It would have been good but secret window, secret garden sucked.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

The IT orgy

 

[L50LasPak]

The worst of Stephen King is obvously the child gangbang scene in IT. I have no idea why the fuck that's not on your poll, but I can put it there if you want me to correct that error.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Stephen King was one of the authors I loved when I was a teenager and read to get away from all the Harry Potter faggotry but rereading some of his stuff now a days it's a mixed bag.

Some older titles really need an editor. IT and especially The Stand (and it's mind numbing 400 additional page turbo directors cut edition) come to mind. Really wish Flagg won over those limp wristed dorks from Free Zone.

His current output feels like a parody of himself. Cell was the first time I never bothered to finish one of his books I started.

Course he still has a solid body of work like Misery, Dead Zone, Firestarter and The Shining, one of the rare books that actually creeped me out while reading.

 

[Just A Butt]

i'm offended that "Writing himself in as god in the last three Dark Tower books" isn't in the poll.

 

[The Last Stand]

The worst of Stephen King is obvously the child gangbang scene in IT. I have no idea why the fuck that's not on your poll, but I can put it there if you want me to correct that error.

All of it. He's a bad writer.

 

[Muttnik]

King has no idea how to write children. Like, at all. The kids in It behave like college students instead of tweens. It's so weird.

 

[Damien Thorne]

Stephen King was a much better writer when he was high on cocaine and drunk off his ass. His sober writing is not very good.

 

[LordofCringe7206]

I am a-log of King's because when you were a kid in the 2000's who enjoyed writing stories and reading books, your parents and relatives always got you his crappy books to try and "inspire" you. No matter how many fucking times you told them you didn't like his work and wanted to read books you actually did like, his books were forced upon you at birthdays and Christmas time.

 

[Pimpleking55]

His tweets.....they are the worst.

 

[JohnDoe]

King is at his best in the short form. His novels are maybe 60/40 hit or miss in overall quality, but his short stories have a much higher ratio of quality.

This is partly why his short stories are usually better, because he doesn't have the time to bog himself down with drawn out endings or back and forth conflicts. In his novels, the best ones are about human dread and misery, where the conflict is more abstract and the ending more open. From a Buick 8 is a great example of this, where his strength in building atmosphere and characterization can be emphasized.

 

[Coelacanth]

His tweets.....they are the worst.

This. He's literally gone out of his way to antagonise Christian communities on twitter - in fact I'm pretty damn sure the evil Christian strawman he constantly adds to his work lives rent free in his head.

 

[Queen Of The Harpies]

Rose madder. Couldn't finish it as the overtop, purple prose sex scenes proved too much for me.

 

[Jason Wynn]

I haven’t liked most of the stuff he’s written since he got sober. Hell, I like The Tommyknockers more than most of his current stuff and that’s considered one of his worst books.

Obligatory child gangbang scene in IT is the single most objectively bad thing he’s written.

I really hated Doctor Sleep. I was so excited when it was first announced since The Shining was the book that first introduced me to King and I still have a fondness for it today. Doctor Sleep felt like Mr. Mackey was trying to write a book “alcohol is bad, mmkay!” The more subtle adult fears of trying to provide for your family while struggling with finances and personal demons, of being isolated with nothing but your thoughts, of feeling like a failure to your family and the mental weight of all that The Shining addressed was thrown completely out the window for a bog standard Chick tract on alcoholism, ghosts going “ooga booga booga!” At you instead of being ominous and menacing and The Shinjbg itself becoming a deus ex machina superpower (Abra literally turns into Daenerys from Game of Thrones at one point with it) it’s fucking ridiculous, clumsy and childish compared to it’s predecessor.

The movie sucked too

 

[Dysnomia]

King has no idea how to write children. Like, at all. The kids in It behave like college students instead of tweens. It's so weird.

The kids in The Body as well.

Also, Teddy appears in Nona and tells Ace that the unnamed MC is going to fuck Ace's girlfriend, resulting in MC getting a beatdown. This is several years after The Body. Why the hell is Teddy conversing with Ace at all? I know Teddy goes down a bad path in the future. But I'd think after all he and his friends went through with Ace's gang that he'd stay far away.

Other than that, Nona is a pretty good short story about a college dropout who has a very interesting road trip.

Rose madder. Couldn't finish it as the overtop, purple prose sex scenes proved too much for me.

I felt like it should have been less about the magical painting and more about the cannibal cop. That had more potential. I mean come on, you got a guy stalking his ex-wife skulking around and biting people and comparing the blood to tomato sauce. The rest of the story wasn't that interesting.

Stephen King was one of the authors I loved when I was a teenager and read to get away from all the Harry Potter faggotry but rereading some of his stuff now a days it's a mixed bag.

Some older titles really need an editor. IT and especially The Stand (and it's mind numbing 400 additional page turbo directors cut edition) come to mind. Really wish Flagg won over those limp wristed dorks from Free Zone.

His current output feels like a parody of himself. Cell was the first time I never bothered to finish one of his books I started.

Course he still has a solid body of work like Misery, Dead Zone, Firestarter and The Shining, one of the rare books that actually creeped me out while reading.

I liked the cut part about Jim Morrison. I found it amusing. It could have been worked into another short story related to The Stand though. Like Night Surf. I'm not sure if Night Surf was written before or after The Stand though. It might be older.

 

[Xenomorph]

The question is, did he write better when he was on coke?


Edit: can we all agree The Stand tv adaptation was god awful?

 

[DaBigBopper]

The IT orgy

The one where a turtle tells a little girl to feel empowered about being triple teamed?

 

[Jason Wynn]

Edit: can we all agree The Stand tv adaptation was god awful?

Compared to the recent version the 90s version is a masterpiece. Agreed it’s not all that great (the acting is pretty terrible, same with the effects. A lot of characters were merged together or dropped, same with plot threads) but for an early 90s ABC miniseries it could have been much worse. I think it’s one of the better of his made for tv ventures

 

[childofthedavil666]

I've got stuck after "Hearts in Atlantis". That was it. I've never bought a book anymore. Oh and also "the Storm of the Century" sucks. I guess all books/novels after those 2 suck too.

But I find IT god trier. Cujo also and Carrie.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I liked his Richard Bachman period more than his uh... real name stuff, probably for the more gritty dark human aspects that don't go too crazy or overly paranormal.

Roadwork, Running Man, Thinner, The Long Walk and especially Rage (wish I still had my copy). Explains why Misery is such a stand out because King wasn't writing another b-grade horror novel.