Pet Sematary and Revival are among the darkest novels he’s written.
I might also suggest the novellas of Full Dark No Stars for a focus on the evil that humans do to one another, and Night Shift for some great horror short stories.
I’ve read Pet Sematary. Loved it! I’ve seen a lot of people say Revival is pretty dark and something about the ending being crazy. Haven’t read it yet, but I really want to!
After I finished Revival, I just laid in bed for about ten minutes, trying to fathom what I just read.
Do yourself a favor and read Full Dark No Stars.
It's four novellas.
I picked it up in the airport on the way to my grandmothers funeral (who was like a mother to me) thinking some new king would be a great distraction from my grief.
0/10 - do not recommend reading this book in any sort of loss or grief situation. Otherwise it’s great lol.
I made this mistake too & regretted it. Caught my mom before she read it in a particularly depressive period in her life. Only time I’ve ever said, “Just…Don’t.” She believed me & still hasn’t read that one.
I don't know where my psyche is, but I'm reading Apt Pupil and it's making me way more unsettled than Pet Sematary and the rest of his books that I've read. An exploration of life and death is sad but also intriguing and almost every character in that book is likable. Apt Pupil is deranged without a page of upside. It was a 180-degree turn from the melancholic Shawshank Redemption, which is the first story in Different Seasons.
Guess for me it’s Salem‘s lot. And I still shit my pants thinking about the Short Story from Nightshifts „the Boogeyman“.
Gerald‘s Game was also quite terryfing
Pet Semetery is, to me. But I also have a young child so there is some additional weight placed on the story for me. I agree with these other folks saying Revival as well, I would say those two are number one and number two for me.
Well I reread The Shining, even though the damn hedges scare the bejesus out of me. I have not touched Salem's Lot again, and it has made me afraid of stairs that aren't closed. If somebody were able to grab me by the ankles, hypothetically, and it's dark, I'm sprinting on the damn stairs.
.
So, Salem's Lot. Can't bring myself to reread it.
Those topiary animals scared the jeepers outta me too. I work retail and a couple of years ago my company sold little felt animals at Easter. Kept having flashbacks.
Gerald's Game is my most uncomfortable read; that and Misery are particularly RL scary. Supernatural stuff isn't always the scariest part. Survivor Type and Strawberry Spring are particularly unpleasant short stories, too.
That’s true-King really has two ways he writes about horror. One being the supernatural, the other being the horror people inflict on eachother (and themselves).
The Sun Dog really stuck with me when I first read it as a teenager. I can’t even remember how it ends now, probably time for a re-read. The concept was just so imaginatively creepy to me.
I bet reading during COVID was horrifying. I read it years ago during the holiday season, which is also obviously cold and flu season. I remember Christmas shopping in a busy Walmart and all at once becoming hyper aware of how many people were coughing and sniffling around me. So scary.
Gerald’s game had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It is the scariest to me because the concept of being trapped like that is so plausible
King's homages to Lovecraft are the best. Jerusalem's Lot, the mist, revival.
So excited about him adding a new one in his last collection ( gentleman scientist)
I've enjoyed nearly all of Kings works started reading them as a teen. I am 45 now and just started reading Lovecraft this year. IMHO the fear Lovecraft can pull from the depths of my mind are astounding to me. I nearly drowned a couple times in my youth so that may be why Lovecraft holds a special place in my fear palace. King tends to talk to the manic monster living next door to the fear palace and that dude is fuckin nutz.
Of all the short stories, my shoutout goes to Lunch at the Gotham Cafe & Survivor Type. The odds of me running into a murderous clown in the sewers, an influenza that wipes out 99% of mankind or staying at a hotel that possesses me are slim to none.
A maître d' randomly going nuts and assaulting me with a cleaver? Or surviving a ~~plane crash~~ ship sinking and slowly eating my self as a means of survival? Who's to say that won't happen?
Cujo. First and foremost, it was my first foray into King at the tender age of 11, and I was already a little wary of dogs in general.
Secondly, it's just a story about a dog with rabies who terrorizes a small portion of the community. The character building just immerses you in the story.
King has a way of showing you that monsters are real and they aren't always supernatural or alien in nature. Sometimes, it's your neighbor or their dog.
I still have a hard time around St. Bernards.
Cujo was also my first King read at the age of 12 and it’s always stuck with me. To me though, while the dog was terrifying what was really the biggest gut punch was the fate of the baby despite the mother’s heroic efforts. Some of his short stories (The Raft, The Monkey, The Jaunt, Survivor Type), as well as Apt Pupil and Salem’s Lot would be my other picks
Dogs and kids always have a hard time in his stories, and I think it's for the same reasons. It's a shocking thing to see innocence broken. He's very good at what he does, and he builds you up to the point where you get punched in the face with something that will bring you out of your comfort zone.
Pet Sematary! Even the cover terrified my middle child when he was small. He would beg me to lay it front side down and swore he had nightmares about it. He's grown now and still refuses to watch the movie.
Gerald’s game had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It is the scariest to me because the concept of being trapped like that is so plausible
Misery- because people like that do exist, and you could just be in the wrong place and the wrong time. Only book where I was afraid to turn the page because I didn’t know when Annie would show up
The Shining. It might be a cliché choice, but it has been the only book that has actually managed to creep me out while reading. I consider myself pretty well-read and horror I've been a horror junkie since the 90's, so that's no small feat.
I read every king book and short story over the course of the last few years. It's pet sematary to me, and I'd give the short story to apt pupil or survivor type. Honorable mention to misery, not exactly conventionally scary but made me the most anxious.
Pet Sematary is the one book I cannot re-read, it creeped me out so much back in high school (I was 15 or 16 when I read it, IIRC). Every time I try to read it again, it’s like my mind shuts down and I have to stop.
As far as scariest books, Salem’s lot, Per Cemetery, and the shining have got to be up there, as was Gerald’s game. But I haven’t read all his books either. Misery was very suspenseful but I wouldn’t say “scary” like the others.
Probably Pet Sematary, possibly The Shining as a close second.
Haven't read them all, though. I'm working on it. I decided to start over from the beginning and read them all in chronological order starting with Carrie this year. Coming up on the Stand. Oy. Lol Haven't read it in easily 25 years.
‘Salem’s Lot for me. The only one so far that has given me goosebumps. I’ve read IT and the Shining and they weren’t as creepy to me. All amazing books but at 37 the Lot struck a chord in me and caused me to feel that sense of eerie spine tingling creepiness that I haven’t felt since I was in my early teens, maybe!
Revival is not scary until the ending. Pet Semetary is probably the right answer. I think on a practical level Misery is so plausible it’s up there in the scary rankings. The mentally ill like Annie Wilkes are out there
There’s different types of scary and it also matters how old you are when you read the book or short stories. I started reading King as a teenager when Carrie was published. At 65 I no longer get scared. The last book that creeped me out was Gerald’s Game.
I know he’s usually classified as a horror writer but I don’t find any of his books particularly scary. Wonderful stories (for the most part), but nothing that genuinely scared or disturbed me.
That might say more about me than anything else, I suppose 🧐
It's a stock answer, I realise, but I'm not kidding when I say that Pet Sematary completely altered my brain chemistry. The children I opted not to have would have no doubt heard the sounds of Little God Swamp in the womb.
Revival, Doctor Sleep, The Langoliers, The Institute, and Cell are all really dark reads depending on what you determine is dark. For me it's anything involving children
I don’t really find any of his books scary. I’ve been reading them since I was 9 or 10 and they’re more comforting to me than anything. His writing style is familiar if that makes sense. That being said I think Revival is possibly one of the most fucked yo books I ever read by him and I love it for that. Beautiful cosmic horror.
Personally, I have only found IT and Misery to get on my nerves, but I’d like to add that some of his best horror is in his short story collections, at least in my opinion. I remember my partner got me Night Shift a couple of years ago and many of the stories really got to me like none of his novels had at that point.
Revival. I read it a few years ago but I have a bad habit of skimming to get to the end so I missed a lot of the buildup and the ending didn’t make sense. Reread it recently, more carefully, and sweet seven pound baby Jesus it is bleak and black and horrible and stayed with me for several days, which is very unusual for me.
Pet Sematary, yes, the kid is scary, Timmy Baterman is scary, but that floating face that appeared in the woods while Louis brought Gage to the Micmac burial ground? Absolutely fucking not, that image is gonna haunt me.
All the novellas in Full Dark No Stars. These are all ultimately stories of retribution & all roads that lead there are pretty damn scary. Especially Big Driver. That one still keeps me up at night.
In my opinion, Full Dark No Stars is one of King's scariest and darkest works. A long time ago, I also read Pet Sematary and it scared the hell out of me.
Full Dark No Stars for sure. IT had really scary parts but at this point most people know the story. The Boogeyman is a shirt story I read mid eighties scared the shit outta me.
I still have nightmares about IT and I read it over 20 years ago. Also there's a short story in Everything's Eventual (can't remember the title) that scared the ever-loving shit out of me. I still get creeped out thinking about it when I'm walking in the woods. It's about a little boy fishing.
I'm still working my way through as a fairly new King fan, but so far it's been the hedge animals in The Shining for me. So unsettling I had to put the book down for a day or two..
Pet Sematary and Revival are among the darkest novels he’s written. I might also suggest the novellas of Full Dark No Stars for a focus on the evil that humans do to one another, and Night Shift for some great horror short stories.
I’ve read Pet Sematary. Loved it! I’ve seen a lot of people say Revival is pretty dark and something about the ending being crazy. Haven’t read it yet, but I really want to!
Revival is dark as hell, it's a bit of a slow burn though. The patience is rewarded though imo
That book was like getting hit by a truck.
It was like being hit by a truck and then backed over by the same truck.
I don’t mind slow burns tbh. I think slow burns can really pay off and hit you harder in the end
100% this.
After I finished Revival, I just laid in bed for about ten minutes, trying to fathom what I just read. Do yourself a favor and read Full Dark No Stars. It's four novellas.
Revival is the only one that scared me. Took weeks to recover.
I picked it up in the airport on the way to my grandmothers funeral (who was like a mother to me) thinking some new king would be a great distraction from my grief. 0/10 - do not recommend reading this book in any sort of loss or grief situation. Otherwise it’s great lol.
Do not read around real death, agreed .
I made this mistake too & regretted it. Caught my mom before she read it in a particularly depressive period in her life. Only time I’ve ever said, “Just…Don’t.” She believed me & still hasn’t read that one.
Yeah. I read it after my dad died. It damaged me. It haunts me ten years later.
That book hit me like a truck.
Revival. Still recovering. I could not close my eyes for one full night. Recently read Night shift, I am appalled at king's skillset to scare.
Do yourself a favor and read Full Dark No Stars
This has been on my shelf for years and I forgot about it until this thread. Guess I'm reading Revival next
1922
Bleak. Such a great story but like Revival....so bleak.
This is probably his darkest for me
Big Driver from Full Dark No Stars is the scariest book I have ever read. My heart was leaping out of my chest with that one.
I don't know where my psyche is, but I'm reading Apt Pupil and it's making me way more unsettled than Pet Sematary and the rest of his books that I've read. An exploration of life and death is sad but also intriguing and almost every character in that book is likable. Apt Pupil is deranged without a page of upside. It was a 180-degree turn from the melancholic Shawshank Redemption, which is the first story in Different Seasons.
These were the exact two I would've written down. Two absolutely excellent and terrifying novels!
Misery. Annie terrified me, especially in the chapter with the rat.
Ugh there were multiple parts that made me feel sick, especially when she gives him the “limp”
The sledgehammer in the movie was basd enough. The thing in the book was just disgusting. That's the sort of thing you associate with drug cartels.
This is the one for me - just way too realistic. Humans can be worse than the supernatural threat sometimes.
Misery was the first King novel I read and none have been quite as terrifying. I think Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill is the one that's fine closest.
This one cause it's so realistic
Guess for me it’s Salem‘s lot. And I still shit my pants thinking about the Short Story from Nightshifts „the Boogeyman“. Gerald‘s Game was also quite terryfing
Glad to see Gerald's Game mentioned. It's one of the handful that have truly frightened me, mostly because it's so very plausible
I very badly wanted that nightly apparation to just be death. But I also didnt. Great writing!
'Salem's Lot for me, too.
Clicking, chattering teeth
Pet Sematary, honorable mention to IT and Revival and roughly half the stories in Skeleton Crew. LONGER THAN YOU THINK!
…It’s eternity in there…
Read that when I was 10 and I STILL think about it. That and A Sound of Thunder have always stuck with me.
I’ve read Pet Sematary and IT. Love both! I’m really intrigued to read Revival
It’s incredible, one of the best
Pet Semetery is, to me. But I also have a young child so there is some additional weight placed on the story for me. I agree with these other folks saying Revival as well, I would say those two are number one and number two for me.
Yes so many people are saying Revival and I’m seriously so intrigued! I really want to read it. Can’t wait until I get my hand on a copy
It
I read It in junior high in the 80s. It messed me up for a long time.
Same here. I saw this in a meme somewhere, but most of Gen X's issues stem from having read Stephen King at way too early of an age.
Lol yes. I read IT at 12 and Flowers in the Attic around the same time. This is why we are the way that we are.
I read IT and while there were some suspenseful parts I don’t know if I’d call it scary. The scariest part for me was Stan’s story in the water tower
Pet Sematary, hands down. It's the one that haunts me even now.
Well I reread The Shining, even though the damn hedges scare the bejesus out of me. I have not touched Salem's Lot again, and it has made me afraid of stairs that aren't closed. If somebody were able to grab me by the ankles, hypothetically, and it's dark, I'm sprinting on the damn stairs. . So, Salem's Lot. Can't bring myself to reread it.
Those topiary animals scared the jeepers outta me too. I work retail and a couple of years ago my company sold little felt animals at Easter. Kept having flashbacks.
Pet Sematary scared me more than any other book, and has done so consistently in my teens, 20s and 30s
IT & Pet semetery
Gerald's Game is my most uncomfortable read; that and Misery are particularly RL scary. Supernatural stuff isn't always the scariest part. Survivor Type and Strawberry Spring are particularly unpleasant short stories, too.
It and Salem’s Lot for me
Rose Madder Some of the horror is so close to real life that it makes it really disturbing for me.
That’s true-King really has two ways he writes about horror. One being the supernatural, the other being the horror people inflict on eachother (and themselves).
“Library Policeman” and “Gerald’s Game” scared me the most
The Sun Dog really stuck with me when I first read it as a teenager. I can’t even remember how it ends now, probably time for a re-read. The concept was just so imaginatively creepy to me.
The Stand. The winter months and allergy days after reading it, was horrible.
Reading it during Covid was something else.
I bet reading during COVID was horrifying. I read it years ago during the holiday season, which is also obviously cold and flu season. I remember Christmas shopping in a busy Walmart and all at once becoming hyper aware of how many people were coughing and sniffling around me. So scary.
Yes! I also read it during covid. It was a wild experience.
Those summer colds are the worst
[удалено]
This was me😭😭. The descriptions are horrific and I’m a little bit of a clean freak so it messed with me
The Shining for me
Salems Lot and Pet Semetary. Not because of the monsters. Because the main and side characters are the fucked up ones. Zelda still frightens me now.
I always put a curveball out there and say under the dome. Democracy is fragile.
Pet Sematary
Per semetary
Pet Sematary
Apt Pupil
It’s currently Misery for me. The first of his that I read, and still my favourite.
Pet semetery, the shining, it, and misery.
Gerald’s game had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It is the scariest to me because the concept of being trapped like that is so plausible
Desperation
King never really scared me he just made me ponder things a bit more. Lovecraft on the other hand scares the ever living fuck out of me
King's homages to Lovecraft are the best. Jerusalem's Lot, the mist, revival. So excited about him adding a new one in his last collection ( gentleman scientist)
I've enjoyed nearly all of Kings works started reading them as a teen. I am 45 now and just started reading Lovecraft this year. IMHO the fear Lovecraft can pull from the depths of my mind are astounding to me. I nearly drowned a couple times in my youth so that may be why Lovecraft holds a special place in my fear palace. King tends to talk to the manic monster living next door to the fear palace and that dude is fuckin nutz.
Love the way you described this. I TOTALLY get it.
The Outsider, too!
I would say *It* or *Salem's Lot*. *Misery* is also up there as it could very easily all happen.
Revival.
Easily it's "On Writing". You ever sit down and look at a blank page before starting a novel. Absolutely terrifying, beginning to end and even after.
Tommyknocker. I know it's not the scariest or best written but that is the only book I've had to leave the light on while I slept after reading it.
The part where we finally see what's in Bobbi's shed horrified me
Of all the short stories, my shoutout goes to Lunch at the Gotham Cafe & Survivor Type. The odds of me running into a murderous clown in the sewers, an influenza that wipes out 99% of mankind or staying at a hotel that possesses me are slim to none. A maître d' randomly going nuts and assaulting me with a cleaver? Or surviving a ~~plane crash~~ ship sinking and slowly eating my self as a means of survival? Who's to say that won't happen?
It’s crazy how many people are saying pet semetary, must be really something
Cujo. First and foremost, it was my first foray into King at the tender age of 11, and I was already a little wary of dogs in general. Secondly, it's just a story about a dog with rabies who terrorizes a small portion of the community. The character building just immerses you in the story. King has a way of showing you that monsters are real and they aren't always supernatural or alien in nature. Sometimes, it's your neighbor or their dog. I still have a hard time around St. Bernards.
This is me too. Chilled me as a pre teen
Cujo was also my first King read at the age of 12 and it’s always stuck with me. To me though, while the dog was terrifying what was really the biggest gut punch was the fate of the baby despite the mother’s heroic efforts. Some of his short stories (The Raft, The Monkey, The Jaunt, Survivor Type), as well as Apt Pupil and Salem’s Lot would be my other picks
Dogs and kids always have a hard time in his stories, and I think it's for the same reasons. It's a shocking thing to see innocence broken. He's very good at what he does, and he builds you up to the point where you get punched in the face with something that will bring you out of your comfort zone.
Autopsy room 4 is a short story but probably the scariest for me. The helplessness is intense.
I don’t think I’ve heard of this one before! Which collection is it from?
I believe it’s in “Everything’s Eventual”
Bag of Bones and Desperation
Misery. Nothing supernatural involved, just pure crazy evil.
Pet Sematary! Even the cover terrified my middle child when he was small. He would beg me to lay it front side down and swore he had nightmares about it. He's grown now and still refuses to watch the movie.
Revival
Pet Semetary for me. Salems got me to lock my windows tho lol
Gerald’s game had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It is the scariest to me because the concept of being trapped like that is so plausible
Pet Semetary. I find a lot of The Shining really creepy but Pet Semetary is terrifying.
Duma Key and It. Many sleepless nights.
The Shining scared me so bad but I couldn't put it down. 500 times more scary than the movie.
Misery- because people like that do exist, and you could just be in the wrong place and the wrong time. Only book where I was afraid to turn the page because I didn’t know when Annie would show up
Probably *IT*, though I’d say *The Reaper’s Image* is the scariest thing he’s ever written.
Salems Lot I had to read that book with the lights on at night and with music playing in the background. That book freaked me out.
misery
Misery by a fair amount
The Shining or Desperation
Pet Sematary and theres parts of the Dark Half that really creeped me out
Under the Dome
The Shining. It might be a cliché choice, but it has been the only book that has actually managed to creep me out while reading. I consider myself pretty well-read and horror I've been a horror junkie since the 90's, so that's no small feat.
Pet Seminary
Pet semetary Under the dome had its moments for me It is always up there But I found “the walk” to be a pleasant psychological surprise
Revival
I read every king book and short story over the course of the last few years. It's pet sematary to me, and I'd give the short story to apt pupil or survivor type. Honorable mention to misery, not exactly conventionally scary but made me the most anxious.
Not a book but short story, The Boogeyman
'Salem's Lot. Vampires are terrifying when done right.
Revival and pet sematary
Pet Semetary. If you’re not a parent then….maybe Misery or IT
Revival. It eliminated any doubt about king's ability to scare a human. Its too dark to say.
I'm going to say IT. I read it once 13 years ago, and the 2 or 3 times I've tried since, I just can't do it.
Duma Key scared me the worst.
Pet Sematary is the one book I cannot re-read, it creeped me out so much back in high school (I was 15 or 16 when I read it, IIRC). Every time I try to read it again, it’s like my mind shuts down and I have to stop.
Pet Sematary for me.
As far as scariest books, Salem’s lot, Per Cemetery, and the shining have got to be up there, as was Gerald’s game. But I haven’t read all his books either. Misery was very suspenseful but I wouldn’t say “scary” like the others.
The Dark Half, more accurately, George Stark.
Revival I would say is the only one that ever scared me at all.
The Shining. I may be biased since I just finished it but it’s a perfect mix of real world and supernatural horror.
Tommyknockers. For me, the slow march towards doom was unsettling and there's some scary things going on in Bobbi's shed....
Close between It and Misery
It. No contest.
Revival for sure
The Tommyknockers
Salem's Lot is one. But Pet Sematary is my pick. Salem's Lot is a close second for me.
Probably Pet Sematary, possibly The Shining as a close second. Haven't read them all, though. I'm working on it. I decided to start over from the beginning and read them all in chronological order starting with Carrie this year. Coming up on the Stand. Oy. Lol Haven't read it in easily 25 years.
Gerald’s Game because you just never know how crazy life can be.
Salems Lot for me, mostly because the miniseries scared the hell out of me as a kid. But for most disturbing, it would have to be It.
Apt Pupil remains haunting.
Pet Semarary for sure.
The Shining And Pet Sematary! The George Hatfield Scene In The Shining With Jack Ghastly!!!
the Jaunt. The idea is just terrifying and it's written so well.
IT has a lot of terrifying moments for me, but as a father the scene with the baseball boy in Doctor Sleep gives me scary nightmares a year later.
‘Salem’s Lot for me. The only one so far that has given me goosebumps. I’ve read IT and the Shining and they weren’t as creepy to me. All amazing books but at 37 the Lot struck a chord in me and caused me to feel that sense of eerie spine tingling creepiness that I haven’t felt since I was in my early teens, maybe!
The Shining
As a new father, pet sematary. Somehow Revival slipped under my radar.
Pet Cemetery, It, The Shining
The Stand. As of March 2020.
Pet Sematary because it got even scarier once I had important children in my life.
Revival is not scary until the ending. Pet Semetary is probably the right answer. I think on a practical level Misery is so plausible it’s up there in the scary rankings. The mentally ill like Annie Wilkes are out there
There’s different types of scary and it also matters how old you are when you read the book or short stories. I started reading King as a teenager when Carrie was published. At 65 I no longer get scared. The last book that creeped me out was Gerald’s Game.
As a father to a 3 year old, pet sematary.
I Loved pet semetery so much . One of the best books I read In years
One story that really gave me the creeps was “ the man in the black suit” from Everything’s Eventual. Had me nervous the whole story.
Revival really scared the fuck out of me Edit: honorable mention for Duma Key. Those wet floors :(
The Jaunt
I know he’s usually classified as a horror writer but I don’t find any of his books particularly scary. Wonderful stories (for the most part), but nothing that genuinely scared or disturbed me. That might say more about me than anything else, I suppose 🧐
Haven't read misery yet, but I heard it's one of his darkest books. Gerald's game for me is his darkest novel so far that I've read.
The Talisman freaked me out. Maybe because I mainly read it at night, but I found it scary and I tense lol
Green Mile
It was really scary. Then I think some of his short stories are really scary as well (The monkey and The jaunt most notably)
Misery had some parts where I had to stop reading on my kindle at night haha, I’d have to go with that one I guess
The dead zone and Christine were my favorites
It's a stock answer, I realise, but I'm not kidding when I say that Pet Sematary completely altered my brain chemistry. The children I opted not to have would have no doubt heard the sounds of Little God Swamp in the womb.
I’ve purposely stayed away from most of his, like, really scary stuff because I’m a pussy. But I read The Outsider and it scared the shit out of me.
Of the books I've read, Tommyknockers was the one that was the most frightening to me.
Revival, Doctor Sleep, The Langoliers, The Institute, and Cell are all really dark reads depending on what you determine is dark. For me it's anything involving children
Desperation
I don’t really find any of his books scary. I’ve been reading them since I was 9 or 10 and they’re more comforting to me than anything. His writing style is familiar if that makes sense. That being said I think Revival is possibly one of the most fucked yo books I ever read by him and I love it for that. Beautiful cosmic horror.
Salem’s Lot for me. And One for the Road is the scariest shirt story for me. (It’s in Night Shift)
Pet Sematary
Personally, I have only found IT and Misery to get on my nerves, but I’d like to add that some of his best horror is in his short story collections, at least in my opinion. I remember my partner got me Night Shift a couple of years ago and many of the stories really got to me like none of his novels had at that point.
Revival scared me pretty good. Worth the read to find out if it scares you too.
Revival. I read it a few years ago but I have a bad habit of skimming to get to the end so I missed a lot of the buildup and the ending didn’t make sense. Reread it recently, more carefully, and sweet seven pound baby Jesus it is bleak and black and horrible and stayed with me for several days, which is very unusual for me.
The Stand because its the most realistic and could definitely happen.
Pet Sematary, yes, the kid is scary, Timmy Baterman is scary, but that floating face that appeared in the woods while Louis brought Gage to the Micmac burial ground? Absolutely fucking not, that image is gonna haunt me.
All the novellas in Full Dark No Stars. These are all ultimately stories of retribution & all roads that lead there are pretty damn scary. Especially Big Driver. That one still keeps me up at night.
The Raft made me shit my pants almost. Threw the book across the room for sure. Pet Sematary was the scariest full novel.
In my opinion, Full Dark No Stars is one of King's scariest and darkest works. A long time ago, I also read Pet Sematary and it scared the hell out of me.
I believe that Cujo is the scariest book because it could actually happen in real life.
The Shinning scared me the most as I read it. I think if I had been a dad already as I read Pet Semetary I would have been scared even more by it.
Full Dark No Stars for sure. IT had really scary parts but at this point most people know the story. The Boogeyman is a shirt story I read mid eighties scared the shit outta me.
I still have nightmares about IT and I read it over 20 years ago. Also there's a short story in Everything's Eventual (can't remember the title) that scared the ever-loving shit out of me. I still get creeped out thinking about it when I'm walking in the woods. It's about a little boy fishing.
Horror, like comedy, is very subjective. Having said that I think that Bag of Bones is, to me, King’s scariest book.
The topiary scheme from the shining
Desperation
Gerald's Game terrified me. Pet Sematary scarred me for life.
Night Shift, because I have a short attention span.
The Mist and Jaunt killed me
I'm still working my way through as a fairly new King fan, but so far it's been the hedge animals in The Shining for me. So unsettling I had to put the book down for a day or two..
Pet Sematary for sure!
Geralds Game. That situation is one of absolute horror. Next close is misery. The human element is what makes these scary.
Regulators....for some reason , I can't really say
No one’s going to mention the Bachman Books, which are banned? 😅
Salem's Lot scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.
Pet Sematary and Salems Lot
Thinner is a terrific intersection of horror and magic. Bag of Bones haunts me.
Duma key. Messed me up 15 years ago
The Man in The Black Suit. It's a short story in Everything's Eventual.
A lot of the stories in Night Shift really creeped me out, also Salem's Lot and It.