Worst of Stephen King - Worst books or stories

[dry roasted]

His decades of success are baffling to me. Occasionally good premises but terrible execution, terrible writing, shallow characters that he repeats over and over across his stories. Whether something's scary is obviously very subjective, but his horror elements always fall flat to me, maybe because they're too specific/physical, he reveals too much. Even when he hits something very visceral like death of a child in Pet Sematary or helplessness in Misery/Gerald's Game, he drowns it in absurd crap and Halloween haunted house cheese. Too silly to be interesting, not silly enough to be fun. Even his fans (and he himself) admit his endings always suck. But his hot takes on Twitter are somehow even worse than his shitty books. May I present his take on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict

 

[Troonologist PhD]

Did he ever reveal what drugs he was on to think that was a good idea to write?

I thought he was coked out of his gourd throughout most of the eighties? What I don't understand is why his editor didn't make him take the scene out.

 

[Constellationzero]

His decades of success are baffling to me. Occasionally good premises but terrible execution, terrible writing, shallow characters that he repeats over and over across his stories. Whether something's scary is obviously very subjective, but his horror elements always fall flat to me, maybe because they're too specific/physical, he reveals too much. Even when he hits something very visceral like death of a child in Pet Sematary or helplessness in Misery/Gerald's Game, he drowns it in absurd crap and Halloween haunted house cheese. Too silly to be interesting, not silly enough to be fun. Even his fans (and he himself) admit his endings always suck. But his hot takes on Twitter are somehow even worse than his shitty books. May I present his take on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict
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Again, he clearly lost his fucking way, and lost it Bigly.
He really pissed me off with his piss warm take in The Gunslinger (afterward) where he states that a writer who uses an outline or maps their story out is a hack.
Like, I'm sure this old lesbian looking guy who's three sheets to the wind on blow and hard liquor has all his fucking ducks in a row. Like Maximum Overdrive, huh?

 

[Pig Boss]

I thought he was coked out of his gourd throughout most of the eighties? What I don't understand is why his editor didn't make him take the scene out.

His editor probably got bored by around page 600 and just started skimming. I know for a fact I've finished that book when I was a teenager but the last third is a total blur, I couldn't even get halfway through when I tried to re-read it last year. I can't tell if I'm becoming more ADHD riddled and rarted or if my tolerance for nonsense has receded.

 

[Mega Man II Intro - GB]

Ironically the best short story in his Night Shift collection was Trucks. Which the movies Maximum Overdrive and Trucks were based on. No matter how you feel about the movies I really enjoyed the short story.

Third time's a charm now that there's so much anti-truck sentiment among the Left.

"Time to remake Trucks!" he posted, imagining Jay Bauman saying it.

 

[Cave Johnson]

Pet Sematary.

It was just boring. I kept waiting for the supernatural stuff to start happening which didn't appear until what seemed like the last ten pages.

 

[Bonesjones]

I thought he was coked out of his gourd throughout most of the eighties? What I don't understand is why his editor didn't make him take the scene out.

Once you write like 2 or 3 books that makes millions, you don't have an editor any more. Just look at any modern book series that gets big, the books grow 1 or 300 pages an installment.

 

[Hazel Motes]

That short story about Jeopardy and the teeth (was it teeth?) in the toilet.

 

[Tootsie Bear]

That short story about Jeopardy and the teeth (was it teeth?) in the toilet.

No, it was a weird long finger. The protagonists was an asshole!

 

[90 Day Beyonce]

Read a few books of his and i hate hate hate how there's always some sleazy aside about how much the narrator wants to fuck some woman, whether or not the characters' relationship is relevant to anything.
Or, god help you, something about a prepubescent or teen girl's body. Especially when it's the father.
Like ok Stephen you're a tit man and possibly a pedo. Please write with both hands on the keyboard

 

[Black Light Red Panic]

Read a few books of his and i hate hate hate how there's always some sleazy aside about how much the narrator wants to fuck some woman, whether or not the characters' relationship is relevant to anything.
Or, god help you, something about a prepubescent or teen girl's body. Especially when it's the father.
Like ok Stephen you're a tit man and possibly a pedo. Please write with both hands on the keyboard

The real problem is the dishonesty and underhanded roundabout means of injecting it. If you want to write about teenage girls getting pumped, just do it. Don't pussyfoot around it. Just do it.

Let's not mince meat. We're all perverts. We all had high school girlfriends or crushes. You don't just stop being attracted to high school girls just because you got older. That's how everyone likes to pretend it works, but fuck you if I'm expected to settle for a middle-aged hag when I'm in my functional prime.

The problem is not the problem, the problem is his loitering cowardice.

 

[Constellationzero]

That short story about Jeopardy and the teeth (was it teeth?) in the toilet.

The Moving Finger from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

 

[Hazel Motes]

The Moving Finger from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

The teeth I was thinking of was the pair which protected the dude in the car from Chattery Teeth, a short story also in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, the only King book I ever bothered with.

And to add, I would have preferred Sutter Cane bringing about the end of the world with his novels than having King around.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

So is it safe to assume he is a pedo?

Just because you write child sewer gangbang scenes that doesn't mean you condone child sewer gangbangs

 

[Skitarii]

The one where everyone goes to ant hell when they die and get swallowed by Slaanesh...


I just hope it's not in the same universe as the Green Mile, I don't wanna see John Coffey end up there

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Just because you write child sewer gangbang scenes that doesn't mean you condone child sewer gangbangs

How many creepy child centered erotica do you have to write to be considered a pedo?
One?
No. Two.

 

[Hazel Motes]

How many creepy child centered erotica do you have to write to be considered a pedo?
One?
No. Two.

Thomas Mann uped the age of the boy Aschenbach is attracted to in Death in Venice from 10 to 14.

Would we call Nabokov a pedo for Lolita? I don't think so. Mann is different, despite me being a fan. I recently read his Doctor Faustus and there is a young boy, the main character's nephew, and the narrator gushes how great and wise this young boy is, and I couldn't help but think about noncery. Off putting.

King is a pedo purely because he Tweets retarded things. The gangbangs only help the case.

edit: I get it. Mann is making a point about decadence of his own time within the decadence of himself. It is a grand point, but it is hard to read at times.

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Thomas Mann uped the age of the boy Aschenbach is attracted to in Death in Venice from 10 to 14.

Would we call Nabokov a pedo for Lolita? I don't think so. Mann is different, despite me being a fan. I recently read his Doctor Faustus and there is a young boy, the main character's nephew, and the narrator gushes how great and wise this young boy is, and I couldn't help but think about noncery. Off putting.

King is a pedo purely because he Tweets retarded things. The gangbangs only help the case.

edit: I get it. Mann is making a point about decadence of his own time within the decadence of himself. It is a grand point, but it is hard to read at times.

Don't know anything about Mann.
As far as I know about Nabokov's Lolita, I get the impression its more of a story about a weak nigger unable to control his pedo urges and eventually meeting his downfall because of it instead of some random cp fetish-fick. Don't know how raunchy the book was tho lol
Maybe Nabokov was a pedo lol

 

[Hazel Motes]

Don't know anything about Mann.
As far as I know about Nabokov's Lolita, I get the impression its more of a story about a weak nigger unable to control his pedo urges and eventually meeting his downfall because of it instead of some random cp fetish-fick. Don't know how raunchy the book was tho lol
Maybe Nabokov was a pedo lol

Lolita has an affect because it's not a common topic to read about explicitly, but it is also quite funny which is a deliberate ploy by the narrator, but you don't feel bad for laughing.

Mann is a pedo on a certain level, but Nabokov... I don't see it. He was a libertarian though so you know....

I'd recommend it. It's not going to turn you into an Ethan Ralph kid diddler or make you browse Reddit so it musn't be all bad.

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Lolita has an affect because it's not a common topic to read about explicitly, but it is also quite funny which is a deliberate ploy by the narrator, but you don't feel bad for laughing.

Mann is a pedo on a certain level, but Nabokov... I don't see it. He was a libertarian though so you know....

I'd recommend it. It's not going to turn you into an Ethan Ralph kid diddler or make you browse Reddit so it musn't be all bad.

I've heard from many folk who say that few, if anyone at all, think Nabokov as a pedo.
I've been wanting to read that book for many years since it's suposed to be a technical masterpiece, though it's hard for me to get through the bad vibe you get from the premise lol
Maybe I'll get to it one day.