Worst of Stephen King - Worst books or stories

[Mola Ram]

Okay I gotta address the 'Steven King writes about pedophilia' thing:

He dosen't write pedo-bits into his stories because he's a secret coomer who gets off on it, he writes them because:

#1 they're fucking disturbing to read, and he writes to disturb, he's a horror fiction writer after all.

#2 because incest, child molestation and pre-teen sex are sad realities in our world, and see #1.

It's not complicated. Not every writer is automatically a proponent of the things they write about. Some are, and they say so. We were talking Clive Barker's penchant for including gay buttsex in his works. He's openly gay.

Some authors REALLY give off a pedo vibe in their writing: I present Piers Anthony, who'se Xanth books are FULL of perving on little girls, and who'se Bio of a Space Tyrant has whole multi-chapter segments about the graphic sex life of child prostitutes and whose protag fucks one. Whole ships full of women and children are borded and mass-raped repeatedly in the first book. Many of his other books contain graphic lip-smacking stories of child rape and general perving. THAT'S an author who is sus as Fuck. Steven King? He's a good horror writer who knows what horrifies and saddens.

Yeah, the "King's a pedo" thing comes almost entirely from the sewer scene in It and his reputation among his right wing / center right audience tanking after he got on Twitter and went from Mildly Annoying Liberal Celebrity to Screaming Lefty Shithead. (There are still much worse -- check out Harry Turtledove's page sometime.) The poster above who mentioned "The Raft" -- I gotta call foul, first of all because in the story there is no question the sex is consensual (the girl says "no," but she's flogging the guy's hog when she does, so I think it's pretty unambiguous), and secondly because those are college students, not "teenagers."

He does often write kids as behaving much more maturely than their ages (It is a prime example; so is The Body; 14 year old Roland in Wizard & Glass might be the most egregious, but it also might have been meant to echo the ages of Romeo and Juliet), but I think this falls more under his poor characterization skills than a prurient desire to see kids fuckin'.

I will say I have spoken to more than one King fan who had professional knowledge of child psychology who were dead certain from his writing that he was molested as a child, so make of that what you will.

 

[catsandsoup]

There's a lot of other abuse references thrown in, some with punishing detail: whole story with The Library Policeman (male child, stranger rape); iirc, the Tommyknockers has a guy and his brother molested by their dad; random character in Rose Madder (male child, familial rape); Needful Things (male children, stranger rape); Gerald's Game; Doctor Sleep; Dolores Clairbourne; Finders Keepers; Billy Summers; that odd one where the guy finds out his mom and uncle were his parents. (Also not childhood rape, but he named Trashcan man after his dad, and Trash gets raped by the Kid in the uncut Stand.)
I would say it's a trope that's at least as present in his work as say, the castrating enmeshing mom.
I'm no psychologist, but my work relates to children (not to powerlevel), and I honestly think there does come off something personal to him about this theme, particularly knowing he was raised travelling around a bunch. (Also bleak that according to his wiki, his daughter is now a they/them.)

 

[Mola Ram]

There's a lot of other abuse references thrown in, some with punishing detail: whole story with The Library Policeman (male child, stranger rape); iirc, the Tommyknockers has a guy and his brother molested by their dad; random character in Rose Madder (male child, familial rape); Needful Things (male children, stranger rape); Gerald's Game; Doctor Sleep; Dolores Clairbourne; Finders Keepers; Billy Summers; that odd one where the guy finds out his mom and uncle were his parents. (Also not childhood rape, but he named Trashcan man after his dad, and Trash gets raped by the Kid in the uncut Stand.)
I would say it's a trope that's at least as present in his work as say, the castrating enmeshing mom.
I'm no psychologist, but my work relates to children (not to powerlevel), and I honestly think there does come off something personal to him about this theme, particularly knowing he was raised travelling around a bunch. (Also bleak that according to his wiki, his daughter is now a they/them.)

In light of that, one could almost see the sewer scene as an abuse victim attempting to reclaim his own sexual innocence and turn his trauma into something empowering.

Of course, even if it's true, it probably makes a lot more sense if you're positively blitzed on cocaine when you write it.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

He and Gayman both have this ugly fascination with little boy sex, maybe Gaiman more so.

 

[William Murderface]

In light of that, one could almost see the sewer scene as an abuse victim attempting to reclaim his own sexual innocence and turn his trauma into something empowering.

Of course, even if it's true, it probably makes a lot more sense if you're positively blitzed on cocaine when you write it.

I don't know if that's the case or not. I do know he also has a lot of female characters who were sexually abused along the way, some as children, some as adults. I've never been bothered to count and see what the numbers and percentages were of abused to not abused or children to adults or male to female. And we've had plenty of characters who seemed to have never been abused (sexually, physically, or emotionally) at all until they run into some monster or entity or whatever. I guess we can make of it what you will.

 

[Jason Wynn]

It’s interesting to see the opinion presented that it’s ok King constantly includes child molestation in his novels because “he’s a horror author and that kind of thing is meant to elicit a horrified reaction from the reader”

While I agree to a certain extent that may be true, it only “works” if it is used sparingly. Once or twice using that as a scare I can kinda sorta understand, but it gets completely overused in his novels where you get to the point from being initially horrified by it to thinking “Jesus Christ, King, you’re writing about a child getting raped again? Got something you wanna tell us?” It stops being horrifying because of how often he uses it, and you start to wonder WHY he keeps returning to this particular well so often.

If there’s one thing we know about King, it’s that he loves to insert facets of his own life into his novels. How many of his works feature being set in Maine, with an alcoholic writer who grew up in a rural area having to deal with stereotypical bullies and religious nutjobs? Not too far of a stretch to wonder why pedophilia is presented so predominately in his works.

 

[The Un-Clit]

It’s interesting to see the opinion presented that it’s ok King constantly includes child molestation in his novels because “he’s a horror author and that kind of thing is meant to elicit a horrified reaction from the reader”

While I agree to a certain extent that may be true, it only “works” if it is used sparingly. Once or twice using that as a scare I can kinda sorta understand, but it gets completely overused in his novels where you get to the point from being initially horrified by it to thinking “Jesus Christ, King, you’re writing about a child getting raped again? Got something you wanna tell us?” It stops being horrifying because of how often he uses it, and you start to wonder WHY he keeps returning to this particular well so often.

If there’s one thing we know about King, it’s that he loves to insert facets of his own life into his novels. How many of his works feature being set in Maine, with an alcoholic writer who grew up in a rural area having to deal with stereotypical bullies and religious nutjobs? Not too far of a stretch to wonder why pedophilia is presented so predominately in his works.

My brother if you think it's that frequent in his works you HAVE to read you some Piers Anthony.

 

[Jason Wynn]

My brother if you think it's that frequent in his works you HAVE to read you some Piers Anthony.

I haven’t read anything by him but his name is notorious enough that I know all about the kind of shit he puts into his books. If King is just suspected of having diddler inclinations, Piers Anthony is someone who really should be out on a watchlist because it’s apparently blatantly obvious where his mind lies.

 

[Lone Star]

It’s interesting to see the opinion presented that it’s ok King constantly includes child molestation in his novels because “he’s a horror author and that kind of thing is meant to elicit a horrified reaction from the reader”

While I agree to a certain extent that may be true, it only “works” if it is used sparingly. Once or twice using that as a scare I can kinda sorta understand, but it gets completely overused in his novels where you get to the point from being initially horrified by it to thinking “Jesus Christ, King, you’re writing about a child getting raped again? Got something you wanna tell us?” It stops being horrifying because of how often he uses it, and you start to wonder WHY he keeps returning to this particular well so often.

If there’s one thing we know about King, it’s that he loves to insert facets of his own life into his novels. How many of his works feature being set in Maine, with an alcoholic writer who grew up in a rural area having to deal with stereotypical bullies and religious nutjobs? Not too far of a stretch to wonder why pedophilia is presented so predominately in his works.

It's also worth noting he'll sometimes write kids being sexualized in scenes that aren't tense or scary or anything. Like in IT he just randomly describes how Ben has a boner as a kid and in the Dark Tower series Jake's classmate pretty much said she wanted to fuck him in the classroom closet entirely out of nowhere.

 

[Constellationzero]

It's also worth noting he'll sometimes write kids being sexualized in scenes that aren't tense or scary or anything. Like in IT he just randomly describes how Ben has a boner as a kid and in the Dark Tower series Jake's classmate pretty much said she wanted to fuck him in the classroom closet entirely out of nowhere.

Ruthie Crockett in Salem's Lot. That was a little sus.

 

[The Un-Clit]

I haven’t read anything by him but his name is notorious enough that I know all about the kind of shit he puts into his books. If King is just suspected of having diddler inclinations, Piers Anthony is someone who really should be out on a watchlist because it’s apparently blatantly obvious where his mind lies.

You're right there.

As for King, I don't believe it to be as predominant as you and some others feel it to be. It stands out in your minds because it's shocking and disturbing, in the manner he writes it. However across the vast, VAST scope of his work the amount of words where child sexuality or abuse is mentioned, it only comes out to a couple hundred to low thousand words as opposed to the tens of millions of words he has written over the last 6 decades. Dude is PROLIFIC and has written hundreds of novels and short stories. Child sexual material occours in what, 10 of those? I really don't think he writes it any more then is necessary to flesh out the part of the story he's trying to tell. None of it is written as something 'sexy' but something sad and horrible.

(With the exception of Bev pulling a train of 12 year old boys in It, that could have completely have been cut without impacting the story, no question. Cocaine is the only answer there.)

Anyway, it seems far more likely that King or family members had experienced abuse in his childhood then that he's an abuser or inclined himself.

 

[Mola Ram]

Ruthie Crockett in Salem's Lot. That was a little sus.

Stephen King was a high school teacher in the early 70s, and if you think a 16-18 year old girl he considered fuckable didn't strut through his classroom a time or two then I've got some bad news for you.

 

[Constellationzero]

Stephen King was a high school teacher in the early 70s, and if you think a 16-18 year old girl he considered fuckable didn't strut through his classroom a time or two then I've got some bad news for you.

I get it. I, too, taught high school. Doesn't make it any less weird the way he wrote it.

 

[Mola Ram]

I get it. I, too, taught high school. Doesn't make it any less weird the way he wrote it.

We are fundamentally in agreement. If you find yourself tempted by some underage girl, turning her into sexual fodder for your vampire novel ("Bite them, Dud ... suck them") is a pretty tasteless way to go about dealing with it.

 

[skykiii]

It’s interesting to see the opinion presented that it’s ok King constantly includes child molestation in his novels because “he’s a horror author and that kind of thing is meant to elicit a horrified reaction from the reader”

A more blunt way to word it is: he does it because he's a hack and having sexual things happen to children is an easy way to get a reaction from people.

I recall a fan of his once telling me that this was why his books were "good," he gets a reaction. I think he said something similar in one of his non-fiction books ("if I can't scare you, I will at least gross you out" or something to that effect). Which is Hack Writing 101. Anyone can "get a reaction." It isn't that hard.

 

[Jason Wynn]

A more blunt way to word it is: he does it because he's a hack and having sexual things happen to children is an easy way to get a reaction from people.

I recall a fan of his once telling me that this was why his books were "good," he gets a reaction. I think he said something similar in one of his non-fiction books ("if I can't scare you, I will at least gross you out" or something to that effect). Which is Hack Writing 101. Anyone can "get a reaction." It isn't that hard.

Yeah, I remember that quote from his nonfiction book Danse Macabre “my first aim is to terrify, if I can’t do that I try to horrify, if that fails I go for the grossout. I’m not proud”

The fan you mentioned must have a very shallow view of what constitutes good writing if all that’s needed to be successful is a reaction. By that metric, The Eye of Argon is a successful example of good writing since it elicited a reaction.

 

[Constellationzero]

We are fundamentally in agreement. If you find yourself tempted by some underage girl, turning her into sexual fodder for your vampire novel ("Bite them, Dud ... suck them") is a pretty tasteless way to go about dealing with it.

I should've mentioned (because I forgot the character's name and didn't really care) that it was creep because of the guy who ran the town dump lusting after her and it was Straker, I think (maybe Barlow) who said he "shall have her."

 

[Mola Ram]

I should've mentioned (because I forgot the character's name and didn't really care) that it was creep because of the guy who ran the town dump lusting after her and it was Straker, I think (maybe Barlow) who said he "shall have her."

There's quite a bit of creep to Ruthie Crockett, though, including her own English teacher musing that she might lose her virginity on opening night of the school play.

 

[The Un-Clit]

Yeah, I remember that quote from his nonfiction book Danse Macabre “my first aim is to terrify, if I can’t do that I try to horrify, if that fails I go for the grossout. I’m not proud”

The fan you mentioned must have a very shallow view of what constitutes good writing if all that’s needed to be successful is a reaction. By that metric, The Eye of Argon is a successful example of good writing since it elicited a reaction.

GodBear damn you for reminding me the Eye of Argon exists. I won't be able to sleep all night with random fits of giggling now!

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

@Mola Ram The way he writes Beverley feels skeevy in general. If I didn't now there was a child sewer gangbang coming I wouldn't feel that way, probably, but in hindsight...


I really liked Roadwork and I've been reading IT.

Now, I have a bias in favor of IT because I associate it with happy memories of watching the movies (both old and new) with my friends in college, but I do think it's a genuinely very unique and good book. "Horror epic" is how I heard someone describe it. It does have flaws though.

Firstly, you can tell that Stephen King really wants to play with Beverley's nipples.

Secondly, and this is a very common problem with adult fiction (it's hard to get right), his kids don't feel like 10-11 year olds to me? In this case I'd buy it if they were just aged up another year or two, maybe. The thing is, I wasn't a normal kid for my age either, I suspect most authors aren't, and then adults tend to have trouble remembering what exactly it's like being a kid (which is already an experience with a lot of variation). But yeah, they feel really vague.

The book is very long. Repetitive in structure, too, which isn't great. It's built out of individual parts that are like separate short horror stories strung together, they don't stand alone but they're written like they could if that makes sense? I really like that kind of writing style, Charles Frazier did that well in Cold Mountain. And most of the individual stories are pretty good.

Is it scary? The weird thing is that very little of it actually feels "scary" to read, but I've legit been having more nightmares/anxiousness at bedtime.

I think what Crackhead King pulled off was he basically wrote a book that was basically built around the premise that the childhood experience of imagining monsters behind every corner is 100% justified, set that in a world that has a lot of worldbuilding (because the runtime is so long and he takes his time setting things up), and filled it with interesting characters.

Using the 1950s is a great idea for a setting, setting where kids running around having adventures actually makes sense. Contrast to the shitty creepypasta trend nowadays where it's all "I was on my laptop and then BLOODY MARIO popped up and went BOOGITY-BOOGITY-BOO and I SHIT MYSELF." I was surprised to learn he also wrote Stand by Me, but it makes perfect sense.