I am proud to say I’ve read my way through a few bibliographies.

In 2021 and January of ‘22, I read all of Rick Riordan’s connected mythology series, excluding Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which I reread during quarantine—The Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo. After that, I went close to home and made a goal to read my way through my (recently retired) English professor Gary Schmidt’s books. (Mainly so I could yell at him for a certain creative decision in his recent book Just Like That—if you know, you know.)

But my longest term project is reading the bibliography of Stephen King.

It’s a project I started casually back in high school and continues to this day. Because I’ve read so many of his books, because people have asked me which King books are good first reads if they’re new to the wonderful world of Maine’s weird uncle, and because I needed a topic for April’s post, I did what anybody would do. I found a random selector website, typed out all the Stephen King books I’ve read, and picked ten of them to summarize, briefly review, and say whether or not newcomers to the Kingverse should make this a first read. Here we go.

Full Dark, No Stars (2011, 368 pages)

One of Stephen King’s novella collections, containing four stories. In “1922,” farmer Wilfred James decides to murder his wife for financial gain. It’s the first domino in a series of misfortunes that will end with Wilfred alone, penniless and short a hand. In “Big Driver,” a mystery writer is raped and left for dead. She’ll use her detective skills to get revenge. “Fair Extension” is the story of Dave Streeter, a businessman who makes a Faustian bargain that his neighbor will foot the bill for. And a wife searching for something in the garage inadvertently discovers her husband’s secret life in “A Good Marriage.”

Brief review: I really liked this one. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but it’s easy for me to pick a least favorite: “Fair Extension.” Coincidentally, it’s the only one of those stories that hasn’t gotten a film adaptation.

Good first King read? I’d say so. I’m rating readability based on quality and how strongly connected the story is to King’s Dark Tower series. This is some good writing completely disconnected to The Dark Tower.

On Writing (2000, 288 pages)

Half writing guide, half autobiography, On Writing is King’s take on the writing instruction manual.

Brief review: This one is great. I’ve read some writing guides that the author definitely wrote to stroke their own egos. This is not that. Yes, King brings up some of his achievements, but in an autobiographical fashion. And he gives some really great advice. I bought a copy after reading a copy from the library for a reason.

Good first King read? Most definitely.

Cell (2006, 449 pages)

Graphic novelist Clay Riddell witnesses the end of the world. He’s on the street when everyone using a cell phone turns into a violent maniac. Unfortunately, a lot of people were using cell phones. Clay inadvertently becomes the leader of a group of survivors. And his gang will witness as this becomes no ordinary zombie apocalypse.

Brief review: Eh. A pretty unique take on the zombie apocalypse, but not King’s best. Entertaining, but not quality, you know? Also, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson couldn’t save the movie adaptation of it.

Good first King read? I guess? It’s not King’s best book, guys, if you couldn’t tell.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015, 495 pages)

Stephen King’s second most recent story collection, and a good one. Notable for including the short story “Obits,” which won an Edgar Award, a prestigious mystery fiction award, in the short story category.

Brief review: This is a really good collection. Highlights for me were “Obits,” which earned that Edgar Award; “The Little Green God of Agony,” a pocket-sized cosmic horror story; “Ur,” a previously-published novella; and “Drunken Fireworks,” unquestionably the funniest Stephen King story I’ve ever read.

Good first King read? Absolutely!

Pet Sematary (1983, 395 pages)

One of Stephen King’s most famous novels centers around the Creed family as they move from Chicago to Maine. Their neighbor Jud Crandall shows them a “pet sematary” in the woods behind their house. When the family cat gets run over, Jud takes Louis back into the woods, past the pet sematary and to a place of magic. A place that can raise the dead. And Louis learns quickly that dead things should stay dead.

Brief review: This is unquestionably Stephen King’s most disturbing work. When I say “disturbing,” I mean there’s plenty of horror stuff: the undead, bodies dropping, possibly a wendigo. But more than any other King book, when I think of Pet Sematary, I remember some detail that kind of coasted by me the first time, and that detail creeps me out.

Good first King read? As great as this book is, I’ll actually say no. This is the type of book you should save for last if you’re making your way through King’s books. Yes, I say this not having done so myself, but I speak from firsthand experience.

The Colorado Kid (2005, 178 pages)

Over lunch, Stephanie McCann, an intern at The Weekly Islander newspaper, hears about the strangest case her supervisors Dave Bowle and Vince Teague have ever covered. In 1980, two teenagers discover a body on a Maine beach, having seemingly choked to death. A pack of cigarettes on his person identifies him as an artist from Colorado who mysteriously vanished after work one day. How did he end up dead on a beach in Maine? Why did he have cigarettes with him when he didn’t smoke? What’s the deal with the Russian coin in his pocket? Twenty-five years later, no one has solved the mystery of the Colorado Kid.

Brief review: The start of a new era. Going into the 2010s, Stephen King would start to split his time between his regular horror fare and crime fiction, even combining them in his 2013 novel Joyland, and he started with this. A pretty good first foray, I’d say.

Good first read? Yeah.

The Dark Half (1989, 593 pages)

Yes, Thad Beaumont is a National Book Award winner, but his money comes from the trashy, violent crime novels he writes under the pen name George Stark. After a blackmail attempt, Thad decides to “kill” George Stark, complete with a fake gravestone. Then the murders start. Bodies related to George Stark’s “death” are piling up, and all the evidence points to Thad.

Until Thad realizes that somehow George Stark has gained a life of his own.

And he’s not happy that Thad tried to “kill” him.

Brief review: One of King’s most nauseating books. All of Stark’s murders are gruesome, and every one of them King describes in stomach-turning detail. I liked it at the time, but unlike a lot of King books, I can’t see myself rereading this.

Good first King read? As long as you have a strong stomach and/or don’t eat before reading.

It (1986, 1,169 pages)

A contender for King’s most famous novel. In 1958, six-year-old Georgie Denbrough is gruesomely murdered. This sets his older brother Bill Denbrough and six of Bill’s friends—overweight Ben Hanscom, tomboy Beverly Marsh, hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak, smartmouthed Richie Tozier, Jewish Stan Uris and African-American Mike Hanlon—on a crash course to fighting an ancient evil, one that’s made Derry, Maine, a hunting ground for centuries. The kids grow up thinking they won. But in 1985, more murders bring them back to Derry.

IT is calling them.

Brief review: Even by King standards, this one is weird. And long in tooth at nearly 1,200 pages. Stephen King has been open about how he had a bad drug habit in the first few decades of his career, and IT feels the most like a novel written by someone with a mountain of cocaine in their system. A looooot of side stories and bizarre little details, as well as That Scene. If you know you know, if you don’t know, you’ll find out. Either way, for all of its tangents and all the time it takes, this is a King classic for a reason. I really enjoyed this one.

Good first King read? Much like Pet Sematary, I’d say save this one for the tail end of your King trek.

Bag of Bones (1998, 736 pages)

The sudden death of Mike Noonan’s wife is messing with him in more ways than one. Four years after an aneurysm took Jo away from him, Mike has a bad case of writer’s block, and the backlog he was using to keep his agent satisfied has dried up. Thinking a change of scenery might be good for him, he moves into his vacation house.

Mike inadvertently gets tangled up with his new neighbor, single mother Mattie Devore, whose grandfather, local millionaire Max Devore, is trying to gain custody of her daughter. That’s on top of strange visions and paranormal phenomena in Mike’s home that he begins to think might have something to do with the Devore clan.

Through all of this, a question nags at Mike, a question that seems to get more significant the stranger things get. His vacation house has a local nickname, “Sara Laughs.” Who was Sara, and what happened to her?

Brief review: Every turn in this book is a left. That’s not a bad thing. Admittedly, I’m biased to like this book. It was one of a handful of books I read during quarantine, and it taking me away from the nightmare of 2020 makes me feel more sentimental about Bag of Bones than I would if I had read it in less stressful times. With or without COVID circumstances, this is a solid spooky read.

Good first King read? Yes.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993, 992 pages)

Another short story collection. Notable for including “Dolan’s Cadillac,” made into a movie of the same name starring Christian Slater and Wes Bentley; “The Night Flier,” adapted into a movie of the same name starring Miguel Ferrer; and the previously unpublished “Sorry, Right Number,” which became the basis for a Tales from the Darkside episode of the same name.

Brief review: This was a good one to begin with, but in addition, books you dislike make books you like look that much better. After I read Nightmares and Dreamscapes, I chased it with Insomnia, which (review ten and a half incoming) in my humble opinion, is one of King’s worst. My…experience reading Insomnia made me appreciate Nightmares and Dreamscapes so much more.

 

I don’t really have a conclusion. Check these books out. Or don’t.

The sparrows are flying again.

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