PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Master of Horror author Stephen King is the end all and be all for many genre lovers when they feel it’s time to sit back, relax and grab something terrifying to read. However, not all of King’s books are created equal. Believe it or not, some are better than others. So we at PopHorror decided to rank the entire freaking list of over 60 books. To break it down and make it much easier to trudge through, we split the list up into decades. If you’re interested in another decade entirely, they’re all linked at both the top and bottom of every article. And just so you know, books written under King’s pen name, Richard Bachman, and any non-fiction books that King has written, are not included in this list.
King was on a roll in 1996, with a total of 8 books getting published: The Regulators, Desperation (technically a Richard Bachman book. I cheated. So sue me.) and the six chap books that make up The Green Mile. If you count them as separate novels, the author wrote 20 books this decade, averaging two per year. That’s freaking impressive.
Looking for another decade? Look here: 1974-1980… 1981-1990… 2001-2010… 2011-2018
#15 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)
Synopsis:
During a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant bickering between her older brother and her recently divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror. As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace she tunes her headphones to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when the reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her—the protector from an enemy who may or may not be imagined…one who is watching her, waiting for her in the dense, dark woods…
I thought The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon would be a lot scarier than it ended up being. With the way King was able to get into the heads of young Danny Torrance, Charlie McGee, Jack Sawyer and the boys from the short “The Body,” I thought for sure he’d have no problem pouring over the emotions of a little girl lost in the Maine woods. Unfortunately, I never really felt the terror that should have been emanating from the pores of Trisha McFarland, especially once she realized that something was watching her. It’s too bad, since this story had so much potential.
#14 Bag of Bones (1998)
Synopsis:
Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving following the sudden death of his wife Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his computer.
Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares, all set at the Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike returns to the lakeside getaway. There he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who will do anything to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both mother and child, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here—and what do they want of Mike Noonan?
For some reason, I always confuse this book and Duma Key. I’m not sure why, since they don’t have much else in common besides both taking place in Florida. I did feel like Bag of Bones dragged on way too long and could have benefitted from a more cut-throat editor.
#13 Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
Synopsis:
Innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery are at the core of these five interconnected, sequential tales—each deeply rooted in the 1960s, and each scarred by the Vietnam War, which continues to cast its shadow over American lives, politics and culture.
In Part One, “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror.
In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest, and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.
In “Blind Willie” and “Why We’re in Vietnam,” two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow—and as haunted—as their own lives.
And in “Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling,” this remarkable book’s denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart’s desire may await him.
Full of danger and suspense, full of heart, this spellbinding fiction will take some readers to a place they have never been…and others to a place they have never been able to completely forget.
Inside this book is a very important Dark Tower story. You’d never know it was there unless you looked, but if you missed it, many of the things that happen in the Dark Tower series would not make much sense. Plus I liked seeing what it was like from one of the collected psychics point of view.
#12 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
Synopsis:
Roland the Gunslinger, Eddie, Susannah, and Jake survive Blaine the Mono’s final crash, only to find themselves stranded in an alternate version of Topeka, Kansas, that has been ravaged by the superflu virus. While following the deserted I-70 toward a distant glass palace, Roland recounts his tragic story about a seaside town called Hambry, where he fell in love with a girl named Susan Delgado, and where he and his old tet-mates Alain and Cuthbert battled the forces of John Farson, the harrier who—with a little help from a seeing sphere called Maerlyn’s Grapefruit—ignited Mid-World’s final war.
When I first read Wizard and Glass after waiting years for a new Dark Tower book, I was wholly disappointed that the story mostly took place in Roland’s past. I was anxious to get on with the ka-tet’s journey to the tower and was frustrated by this novel-sized flashback into the gunslinger’s history. Now that I’ve finished the series, I can finally appreciate this book. It’s intriguing to get a look into what pushes Roland forward on his quest, and what broke him both physically and emotionally in his youth. Like Wind Through the Keyhole and “The Little Sisters of Eluria” from Everything’s Eventual, it was so gratifying and satisfying to get a peek into Roland’s past.
#11 Dolores Claiborne (1992)
Synopsis:
“Everything I did, I did for love…”
When Vera Donovan, one of the wealthiest and most ill-natured residents of Maine’s Little Tall Island, dies suddenly in her home, suspicion is immediately cast on her housekeeper and caretaker, Dolores Claiborne. Dolores herself is no stranger to such mistrust, thanks to the local chatter and mysterious circumstances surrounding her abusive husband’s death twenty-nine years earlier. But if this is truly to be the day of Dolores Claiborne’s reckoning, she has a few things of her own that she’d like to get off her chest…and begins to confess a spirited, intimate, and harrowing tale of the darkest secret hidden within her hardscrabble existence, revealing above all one woman’s unwavering determination to weather the storm of her life with grace and protect the one she loves, no matter what the cost….
Dolores Claiborne is one of the strongest women in horror fiction, or any fiction, for the matter. She has lived with years of mistrust and speculation on her part in her husband’s death 3 decades before the story even begins. Her entire life has been hard, dirty and joyless. Yet, she gets up every day and soldiers on. When her boss, Vera, dies and questions to her involvement are put to her, Dolores lifts up her chin and tells her story. There’s no sparkle, no facade and no glory, and Dolores tells it like it is.
#10 Four Past Midnight (1993)
Synopsis:
One Past Midnight: “The Langoliers” takes a red-eye flight from LA to Boston into a most unfriendly sky. Only eleven passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish they hadn’t. Something’s waiting for them, you see.
Two Past Midnight: “Secret Window, Secret Garden” enters the suddenly strange life of writer Mort Rainey, recently divorced, depressed, and alone on the shore of Tashmore Lake. Alone, that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger.
Three Past Midnight: “The Library Policeman” is set in Junction City, Iowa, an unlikely place for evil to be hiding. But for small businessman Sam Peebles, who thinks he may be losing his mind, another enemy is hiding there as well—the truth. If he can find it in time, he might stand a chance.
Four Past Midnight: “The Sun Dog,” a menacing black dog, appears in every Polaroid picture that fifteen-year-old Kevin Delevan takes with his new camera, beckoning him to the supernatural. Old Pop Merrill, Castle Rock’s sharpest trader, aims to exploit The Sun Dog for profit, but this creature that shouldn’t exist at all, is a very dangerous investment.
I remember watching “The Langoliers” with my kids way back when and laughing at the terrible CGI used to create those time-ripping monsters. When I read the short story, on the other hand, I did not laugh, not even a little bit. It was cool to see crusty old Pop Merrill again after meeting Ace’s uncle in the short story, “The Body” (which would be the base of the film Stand By Me) and then hearing about his untimely demise in Needful Things. His story, “The Sun Dog,” came along before Camera Obscura and was much more terrifying than the Goosebumps’ tale, Say Cheese and Die! I can still imagine that dog’s snapping teeth.The idea of someone stealing my story idea and using it as their own makes “Secret Window, Secret Garden” even scarier than it should be. Last but not least, while I know that there’s no such thing as a “Library Policeman,” I actually work at a library in my “real” life, so I can’t help but think about this story on the daily.
#9 Needful Things (1991)
Synopsis:
The town of Castle Rock, Maine has seen its fair share of oddities over the years, but nothing is as peculiar as the little curio shop that’s just opened for business here. Its mysterious proprietor, Leland Gaunt, seems to have something for everyone out on display at Needful Things…interesting items that run the gamut from worthless to priceless. Nothing has a price tag in this place, but everything is certainly for sale. The heart’s desire for any resident of Castle Rock can easily be found among the curiosities…in exchange for a little money and—at the specific request of Leland Gaunt—a whole lot of menace against their fellow neighbors. Everyone in town seems willing to make a deal at Needful Things, but the devil is in the details. And no one takes heed of the little sign hanging on the wall: Caveat emptor. In other words, let the buyer beware…
What if you could get your heart’s desire, and all you had to do was one little, seemingly random thing, would you do it? Seems a little too good to be true. But when the man who sells you this item also happens to be a master manipulator and someone who thrives on chaos, it may cost you more than you thought. The idea of one man manipulating an entire town to self-destruct, one action at a time, was a such an original concept for me when I first read Needful Things. However, the story itself takes quite a while to get going, and I always thought it could have been trimmed down quite a bit more.
#8 The Regulators (1996)
Synopsis:
On a perfect summer afternoon in Wentworth, Ohio, many of the citizens who live on Poplar Street are killed mysteriously, and at the center of the mystery is a young boy named Seth Garon, whose supernatural powers are just awakening.
This is the only book under King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman, that I’ve included in these lists, and only because of its close relationship with Desperation. The Regulators takes a group of characters, separates them from the rest of the world, and lets them loose on each other, just to see what happens. The story reminded me a bit of those old Twilight Zone episodes, “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” and “It’s A Good Life.” It’s a cool, claustrophobic story that dovetails beautifully with Desperation.
#7 Desperation (1996)
Synopsis:
“I see holes like eyes. My mind is full of them.”
For all intents and purposes, police officer Collie Entragian, chief law enforcement for the small mining town of Desperation, Nevada, appears to be completely insane. He’s taken to stopping vehicles along the desolate Interstate 50 and abducting unwary travelers with various unusual ploys. There’s something very wrong here in Desperation…and Officer Entragian is only at the surface of it. The secrets embedded in Desperation’s landscape, and the horrifying evil that infects the town like some viral hot zone, are both awesome and terrifying. But one of Entragian’s victims, young David Carver, seems to know—and it scares him nearly to death to realize this truth—that the forces being summoned to combat this frightful, maniacal aberration are of equal and opposite intensity…
King took the characters from The Regulators, switched their attributes around a bit, and sent them on another abysmal adventure in Desperation. This book hit home for me a bit more than the previous one because cops have such power over the average citizen, so to defy them in any way seems like such a bad idea, even if they do seem utterly insane. How does the average citizen say no to a cop? Especially one out in the middle of nowhere?
#6 Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)
Synopsis:
A wrong turn on a lonely road lands a wayward couple in Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon, where there’s no escaping the free nightly concert….A novelty toy becomes an unexpected and terrifying instrument of self-defense….An ex-con pieces together a map to unearth a stolen million dollars—but at what price?…A private investigator in Depression-era Los Angeles is finding his life unraveling as he discovers the shocking truth of who he really is….A third-grade teacher is willing to dig deep in order to exact revenge for his murdered wife…. These are just some of the haunting scenarios to be found in this classic collection—spellbinding tales from the darkest places and the unparalleled imagination of fiction’s master storyteller.
In “You Know They’ve Got One Hell Of A Band,” you can’t help but imagine how cool it would be to see every singer and musician you’ve ever loved all in one town, getting ready to perform together for free, right in the town square… until you realize that the people in this new and amazing band are all dead. I had read “Chattery Teeth” in another anthology and it stuck with me for awhile afterwards. Why would someone make a toy out of the one part of the human body that rips, tears and grinds flesh? Leave it to King to make it even more horrifying than it already is.
#5 Gerald’s Game (1992)
Synopsis:
“And now the voice which spoke belonged to no one but herself. Oh my God, it said. Oh my God, I am all alone out here. I am all alone.”
Once again, Jessie Burlingame has been talked into submitting to her husband Gerald’s kinky sex games—something that she’s frankly had enough of, and they never held much charm for her to begin with. So much for a “romantic getaway” at their secluded summer home. After Jessie is handcuffed to the bedposts—and Gerald crosses a line with his wife—the day ends with deadly consequences. Now Jessie is utterly trapped in an isolated lakeside house that has become her prison—and comes face-to-face with her deepest, darkest fears and memories. Her only company is that of the various voices filling her mind…as well as the shadows of nightfall that may conceal an imagined or very real threat right there with her…
Not much action and most of the story takes place in bed, but this tale is terrifying in its own right. In a time before cell phones, imagine being handcuffed to a piece of furniture, your arms spread apart and already cramping, while the only other person who knows where you are is dead on the floor in front of you… and then realizing that someone – or something – is peeking in the windows at you. You can’t get much more defenseless than that. And what’s scarier than being completely vulnerable?
#4 Insomnia (1994)
Synopsis:
Since his wife died, Ralph Roberts has been having trouble sleeping. Each night he wakes up a bit earlier, until he’s barely sleeping at all. During his late night walks, he observes some strange things going on in Derry, Maine. He sees colored ribbons streaming from people’s heads, two strange little men wandering around town after dark, and more. He begins to suspect that these visions are something more than hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep.
There’s a definite mean streak running through this small New England city; underneath its ordinary surface awesome and terrifying forces are at work. The dying has been going on in Derry for a long, long time. Now Ralph is part of it…and lack of sleep is the least of his worries.
Everyone has had insomnia, right? Or, at least a night or two with very little sleep. Remember how muddy and uncomfortable that felt in the days following? Now, imagine that feeling going on for months, and your brain is so whacked out, you start hallucinating. Or are you? I remember getting to the end of this book and reading that one of the minor characters would be very important later in his life, so I looked for him in every King book I read afterwards. Let me just say that I was not disappointed.
#3 Rose Madder (1995)
Synopsis:
“What woke her up was a single drop of blood, no larger than a dime.”
After surviving fourteen years of hell in a violently abusive marriage, Rosie Daniels finally summons the courage to flee for her life. But leaving her husband, Norman, for a new city and a new start is a very daunting prospect. It’s hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder, and with good reason—Norman’s a police officer with the instincts of a predator, a force of relentless terror and savagery…a man almost mythic in his monstrosity. He’s very good at finding people, even if he is losing his mind. Rosie’s only hope for salvation may lie in a far more dangerous place, where she must become her own myth and the woman she never knew she could be….
I absolutely loved Rose Daniel’s character. She was weak and unsure of herself in the beginning of the book, but as the story went on, she not only fought back against her crazy cop husband, but also found the courage to go beyond the veil where she could access the tools she needed to finally beat the bastard the way he deserved to be beaten. Plus, I love the cameo from Cynthia from Desperation.
#2 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
Synopsis:
Several months have passed since The Drawing of the Three, and in The Waste Lands, Roland’s two new tet-mates have become trained gunslingers. Eddie Dean has given up heroin, and Odetta’s two selves have joined, becoming the stronger and more balanced personality of Susannah Dean. But Roland altered ka by saving the life of Jake Chambers, a boy who—in Roland’s world—has already died. Now Roland and Jake exist in different worlds, but they are joined by the same madness: the paradox of double memories. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie must draw Jake into Mid-World and then follow the Path of the Beam all the way to the Dark Tower. There are new evils…new dangers to threaten Roland’s little band in the devastated city of Lud and the surrounding wastelands, as well as horrific confrontations with Blaine the Mono, the piratical Gasher, and the frightening Tick-Tock Man.
The first few Dark Tower books are some of my very favorites in King’s library, and The Waste Lands is one of the best. Here’s where we finally meet Oy, the billy bumbler that has got to be one of the cutest and most loyal of all of King’s creations. Although I was a bit uncomfortable with the paradox of double memories that both Roland and Jake suffer from, I LOVED Blaine the Mono. How could you not hold a special place in your heart for an riddle-loving, suicidal AI train?
#1 The Green Mile (1996)
Synopsis:
Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk “the Green Mile,” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final meeting with Old Sparky, Cold Mountain’s electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities over the years working the Mile, but he’s never seen anything like John Coffey—a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about John Coffey—a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs….
One of the sweetest stories King has ever written, I can never forgot John Coffey and what he did for the people in this story, and what he took on to make them better. Never has there been a more sympathetic, virtuous, tragic man than poor John Coffey. His entire life, from birth to his current place on Death Row, was nothing but heartache and misery, and yet, he still gave of himself at every turn. He would take the pain of others – literally – and let it fester within himself. Because this is a Stephen King story, you know he doesn’t get his retribution in the end.
