Stephen King has been one of my favorite
authors since I was a kid. When I was little, I remember looking through my mom’s
books and I stumbled upon her copy of Night Shift and started reading. I was
intrigued because I noticed that it contained “Children of the Corn,” which was
one of my favorite films. Soon after, I was hooked and began searching for as
many of his books as I could get my hands on. Years later, I still find myself
re-reading through my favorites from King.
Here are my top seven favorites from Stephen
King – everything from his novels to his short stories.
The Boogeyman (Night Shift). In this tale, we
follow a man named Lester Billings, as he explains the murders of his three
children to his psychiatrist. He seems a little “off” as he shares his stories
of how each child died. Their deaths were diagnosed as “crib death” and
“convulsions.” Which are very plausible – except - each child cried “Boogeyman”
before being left alone. When the children were found dead, he noticed their
closet doors were left ajar even though he swears they were closed. It gets
even weirder from there so I won’t spoil the ending. As a kid, reading this
terrified me to the point that I couldn’t be in the room if the closet door was
left in a crack. It was worse when the doorknob on my closet door broke and it
wouldn’t fully close. I would stick a shoe in the door to ensure that it
wouldn’t come open while I slept.
Carrie. This book is one I hold near to my
heart. Being able to get back at those that tormented you was a dream that every
misfit has ever had. Carrie was the ultimate misfit; awkward and shy, didn’t
quite fit in, and not to mention her mother was a religious nut-case. It seemed
like everyone had it out for Carrie and prom night was the last straw. Word of
advice: maybe don’t dump pig’s blood on a girl that has telekinesis.
Sometimes They Come Back (Night Shift). Okay,
picture the Greaser’s from Grease – but instead of breaking into song they’re
all murderous punks from beyond the grave. Nine-year-old Jim and his
twelve-year-old brother, Wayne, had an unfortunate run in with the local gang
of greasers back in 1957 that ended with Wayne being stabbed to death. In 1974,
Jim, still haunted by his brother’s death, moves back to his hometown for a
teaching gig where he gets some unusual new students admitted to his class. One
by one, the greasers from his childhood show up to his class, all appearing to
be the same age they were in 1957. Each time one shows up, a student suddenly
disappears or dies.
Pet Sematary. The body without a soul is just
a meat suit. The loss of a loved one is never easy, but what if someone told
you about a place where they dead walk the earth after being buried? Would you
go to such lengths to be reunited with your loved one? The Creed family find
out in this novel that sometimes, “dead is better.” I used this film adaptation
as a babysitting tactic when my cousins would start fighting. You’d be
surprised how quickly kids will sit down and cooperate when a horror film is
playing.
The Road Virus Heads North (Everything’sEventual). This tale is about a successful horror writer as he drives back to
his home in Derry, Maine. If you know anything about Derry, you know nothing
good ever happens in Derry (just ask the Loser’s Club). As he’s travelling, he
notices a quirky, little yard sale where he stops and finds an odd painting.
It’s of a sinister-looking man with filed teeth driving his car on Boston’s
Tobin Bridge. The painting, titled “The Road Virus Heads North,” was painted by
a troubled artist who killed himself but not before burning all of his
paintings. The artist left a note stating he “couldn’t handle what was
happening to him.” Since he’s into weird shit, the writer bought the painting
and that’s where it gets interesting. As he continues to travel north, he
starts to realize that certain details in the painting keep changing.
Obviously, he did what any rational person would have done in this situation
and he tosses it at a rest stop – except when he gets home, he discovers the
painting has now popped back up. I don’t want to ruin the ending but let’s just
say, if you stumble upon "The Road Virus", just forget you ever saw it and turn the
other way.
Strawberry Spring (Night Shift). This short
story is about an unnamed man who sees the words “Springheel Jack” in a
newspaper and reminisces on his time in college when he was first introduced to
that name. A “strawberry spring” is similar to an Indian summer, it brought a
thick, rolling fog that covered the area, making it the perfect time for a
serial killer named “Springheel Jack” to strike. He claimed several victims
during the strawberry spring, causing a lot of chatter and confusion as the
community scrambles to find the killer’s identity. A man, Carl Amalara, is
named the killer, but while in custody another victim is found, causing the
police to let him go. They never found who the killer was. Now, eight years
later when a new strawberry spring arrives, “Springheel Jack” makes his return.
For some reason, the narrator can’t seem to fully remember his whereabouts the
night before. Well, whatever’s in his trunk might tell him.
Survivor Type (Skeleton Crew). Stephen King once told Monsterland Magazine, “As
far as short stories are concerned, I like the grisly ones the best. However,
the story "Survivor Type" goes a little bit too far, even for
me." In this tale, we meet a surgeon who finds himself stranded on a tiny
island with almost no supplies and no food. Keep in mind that this is the
result of him trying to smuggle a very large amount of heroin onto a cruise
ship so like…maybe don’t do that and this won’t happen to you? He keeps a
journal of his experiences and as the entries go on, you can read his slow
decent into madness as he struggles to survive. Things get worse after he
breaks his ankle, ending with him amputating the foot. It’s in that moment that
he realizes that in order to survive, he’ll have to eat the foot. The entries
begin to become even more incomprehensible as he slowly begins to cut more
pieces of his body for substance.
There are honestly so many other stories I could
include but for now, I’ll leave you with these. As far as King’s writings go, I
love his novels but I adore his short stories. I encourage you to check out
these stories, I’ll try to link PDFs of the short stories if I can find them.
Got any favorites of your own? Leave them in the comments.
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