Board 8 > I kind of want to rank all the Stephen King books. So I will

(+) Yeah! (+)

Plus it's a good way to contain all my posts about Stephen King while I go through his stuff.

Some simple rules for ratings: They'll go in order of release(going by wikipedia bibliography), and I'm skipping any I haven't read(I'm going through his entire catalogue this year, so I'll get to it eventually). Rankings are out of 10. Collections won't be ranked as an individual book. For novella collections(except maybe Hearts in Atlantis) I'll rank the stories individually. For short story collections, I'll go through and give a quick opinion on each story. Beyond that, I'm making this shit up as I go along.

So first off, obviously, is

Carrie 1974
Carrie is fantastic. It isn't his best work by any means, but it's a short, punchy story that does its job perfectly. Honestly, other than the horror aspect, On the more intimate and claustrophobic side of things(seriously, now that I think about it, a lot of his books that aren't big sprawling stories tend to have some major part about a cramped, confined space at some point), it's just a pressure cooker of a story that builds and builds until it explodes. I really don't think he has any other story quite like it.

Salem's Lot 1975
The first of what I think of as his "small town sprawls", stories set in a small town, which use the whole town as characters and give it a much larger and more epic feel than the setting really has. These are my favorite kinds of his stories, and I absolutely love the town aspect in this. I recently went through it again, and it had some really powerful parts. But unfortunately, the horror in this one just doesn't do it for me. I'm not sure what it is, but while there are some creepy parts, it just doesn't really work, and keeps this from being in my favorites list like everyone else has it.

7/10

Tag
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tag
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Rage Richard Bachman 1977
OK, this is actually the only Richard Bachman book I've read. I'll be going through the others across the year, but this one I read long ago, when I was getting into him. And it gets a lot of praise, and a lot of controversy for its connections to school shootings, and King removing it from print. That said, it's honestly no big loss to me. I liked it back when I first read it as a teenager, but coming to it now, there's way too much suspension of disbelief. Maybe my opinions have changed now that we've seen so many school shootings so publicly, but seeing the reactions his classmates had is just too much for me to accept. The story is good beyond that, but I really think he overplayed how desensitized kids are.
6/10

The Stand 1978
It's very telling that, despite having a pressing need to go through this book again, it still holds incredibly well in my mind. This is THE epic people think of for King, and it very much deserves that distinction. Tons of fantastic characters on both sides of the spectrum, a fantastic unfolding plot, many key scenes and tragedies throughout. He builds up tons of great characters and maintains a feeling that nobody is safe and nothing is certain, right up to the ending. Unfortunately, this IS one of the worse endings King has. Certainly not the worst, not by a long shot, but it comes out of left field and doesn't end up feeling at all satisfying. But despite that, the journey to get to it is so good that everyone should read this book.
9.5/10

Tag
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where are the rankings though
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This I need to follow
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Haven't read The Long Walk yet, so skipping that for now.

The Dead Zone 1979
I actually read this one a long, long time ago, so my memory of it is fairly hazy, but I remember quite enjoying it. The opening story has a good deal of creepiness in it, and Johnny is a great main character. Plus, this gives us one of King's best endings, IMO, and that's the part I most remember about it.
9/10

Firestarter 1980
I know a lot of people that love this one, and consider it among his staples. And it certainly has some effective moments and characters. But for me, this is the start of the idea that King should just avoid Sci-Fi altogether. Firestarter starts strong, and goes on that way for roughly half the book, with a great story about a father and daughter on the run from an evil government agency. But as soon as they actually GO to the shop, the story takes a sharp turn for the worst. The story grinds to a halt, and the only redeeming factor is a superbly creepy villain. Not a terrible story, but not the best by any means.

6/10

Carrie really is one of the best things he ever wrote. It's kind of funny, I remember something he said about how he almost didn't write it at all because he was pulling Carrie's character from several real girls he knew in school and it was legitimately bugging the shit out of him to think about.
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Tag
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Cujo 1981

Another very small, claustrophobic slow burner. I'm really not sure how to rate this one. On the one hand, it's slower to build up than Carrie, and I don't like the main characters nearly as much. They aren't bad per se, just not as interesting. On the other hand, once Cujo gets going, it's way more intense than anything in Carrie - I'd probably rate it as one of the most intense final acts in all of King's writing. And that ending, after all the rest, is just a punch to the gut. I knew next to nothing about this going in other than rabid dog, and I feel like that's the best way to go in.
8/10

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger 1982

I wasn't sure how to approach this, but realistically, no matter how I went at it I'd have people disagreeing and have arguments about it. The Gunslinger is probably the most divisive book King has written. And for me, I'm on the "not very good" side of the debate - I adore The Dark Tower, but The Gunslinger is the weakest of the series for me(though we'll see if that changes when I go through Song of Susannah again). I like Roland, I like Jake, and I like the journey, but this ends up being slow and plodding, and has very little development. It's a shame this book is so weak, because I feel like this has turned off a lot of readers who would otherwise be big fans of a fantastic series.
5/10

Christine 1983

I actually only went through this for the first time earlier this year. I wasn't sure what to expect of it, because while it was one of his classics, I only ever heard of it as more the butt of jokes, and it didn't seem to get a lot of respect. And that's a goddamn shame, because this book is underrated as hell. A great tale of obsession, love, and teenage drama that never really falls into the cheesy teenage angst a lot of them do. I personally find this a far better teenage angst story than Carrie. On top of that, this book is subtle on a lot of ways as Arnie gets more and more taken by the car, and has a sort of mounting sense of tension and dread in every instance. I really have no complaints about this one, and feel like it should get far more love than it does.
10/10

Pet Semetary 1983

So you want to talk mounting terror and dread? THIS is the book. If Cujo was a punch to the gut, this is just a brutal, ongoing beating. I think King's own opinion of it, where he almost didn't publish it because he thought it was too bleak and just spirals down into darkness, says it all. And he isn't wrong - there isn't really anything uplifting about the book. It's about people dealing with loss, dealing with tragedy, and dealing with their own demons, and doesn't pull any punches in showing their pain, and their mistakes. And possibly the worst part is that you know where it's going, but can only sit there and read, helpless to stop the doom unfolding on the pages. So while this isn't one of the best King books I've read, it's easily one of the best horror stories I've ever read, and any horror fan should check it out.
8/10

And with that, I'm probably done for the day.

The Gunslinger is awesome

The Stand is a frustrating book for me because the first half of it is excellent, but then the second half is pretty much dedicated to killing everything that made it good and has probably the worst example of villain decay ever.

Pet Semetary is great, one of my favourites. Definitely one of the more depressing books you'll read though, it's pretty much dedicated to proving that no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse.
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Cujo is also the book he can't remember writing because cocaine
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Well time for what is clearly most popular Stephen King book of all time!

Cycle of the Werewolf 1983

OK seriously, this is such an easy one to miss. I'd never even heard of it until I happened upon it in a bookstore, just a tiny little novella with some illustrations. But there really isn't much to this, it's a cool concept, a story every month as a werewolf ravages a small town, but ends up being just a kill of the month. You know every character introduced is about to meet the wolf. There's not much suspense, despite some very cool scenes. I honestly feel like this could've been a fun full novel(there are enough intriguing characters to make a bit of a small town sprawl here), but as it is I get the feeling King was working on his next book, wrote about the werewolves, and had some ideas he wanted to use.
4/10

And speaking of his next book...

The Talisman With Peter Straub 1984

So, this is something of a fan favorite. Beyond the major hits, either this or The Green Mile is the most suggested book I ever hear when King's name comes up. And why not? Dark Fantasy is a rare enough genre as is, let alone one handled with such maturity, and done by two highly acclaimed horror authors. Sad to say, my opinion of it doesn't match everyone else's. I enjoyed the book(and actually finished it) more on my second outing, and it has some truly amazing parts, so I can't call it bad at all, just inconsistent. I'm really not a big fan of Straub myself, having tried and disliked Floating Dragon and Ghost Story, so maybe that explains it. Jack is a fun character, I love the feeling of the epic adventure, and Wolf is such a fantastically fun character that even not being the biggest fan I can suggest this just for him. But the third act falls apart hard for me, not being outright bad but just disappointing.
6/10

I actually liked Cycle of the Werewolf more than I was expecting going in. Some of it was just genuinely weird and creepy, like the bit with the lonely girl on Valentine's Day.
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Also it led to a funny moment when I was reading the illustrated version on a train next to a kid and his mother

Kid: What's that? *points at werewolf*

Mom: A doggie.

Kid: That's a big doggie.
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And because I haven't read Thinner, I'm just going to move on and end the day on a high note...

IT 1986

I straight up love this book. It isn't just my favorite King book, but one of my favorite book periods. Simultaneously epic and personal, touching and disturbing, this is the very definition of why I like the "small town sprawl" kind of stories. There are so many things to love about this. For one, for being a straight up villain, Pennywise is fantastic - tons of personality, creepy and hateable, and an overall menace. The town itself makes up a great character as comes across time after time in the book. The structure makes the pacing very good(I'm actually worried for the movie, because I feel like the adult portions relied on the kid portions to keep it moving). There are so many fantastic and memorable characters here, and even some of the side stories are fantastic, especially Patrick Hockstetter. There are many memorable scenes(and yes, I thought THAT scene was a good scene, creepy and oddly sweet and innocent in a way) with intensity that King rarely matches. If you want to really dive into a King book, and see what people love(and possibly what people hate) about him, this is where you should start.
10/10

DeathChicken posted...

I actually liked Cycle of the Werewolf more than I was expecting going in. Some of it was just genuinely weird and creepy, like the bit with the lonely girl on Valentine's Day.

Some of it was actually quite good, but I couldn't help but feel like it was wasted by skipping ahead a month at a time.

DeathChicken posted...

Also it led to a funny moment when I was reading the illustrated version on a train next to a kid and his mother

Kid: What's that? *points at werewolf*

Mom: A doggie.

Kid: That's a big doggie.

rofl

Here to see Desperation 10/10 then i am leaving.
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The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three 1987

And now we get into the meat of the Dark Tower series. We get to see fantastical creatures, and we find the doors that play so heavy in this, and a number of other works by King. We meet Eddie, Detta, and Odetta. We get the start of his long adventure, and get to really see the kind of guy Roland is. If you're ever curious about the Dark Tower series, don't quit until you've read this book.
9/10

The Tommyknockers 1987

I had to skip a book that's probably pretty fantastic, also set in 1987 for this, easily the most disappointing book King has done. Not the worst, not by any means, but unlike most of the bad ones, this one I felt real potential in. It starts out with an incredibly disturbing first act, with two intriguing characters, then grows into another small town sprawl as the alien menace starts to infect the town. Except...grows isn't really the right word. Leaps is more like it. Rather than building it up, our first view of the town is when it's already heavily under the influence of the aliens. We get very little character development for anyone in the town. Those two intriguing characters are wasted, as one becomes an antagonist and disappears for roughly half the book, and one spends roughly half the book either drunk or weeping over his situation and being a genuinely unlikable character. There are many, many great ideas here, and I actually feel this is a great story, but it's handled so poorly. The pacing is terrible, we rarely get any development from characters beyond the original two unless they're going to die in the next few pages, and the disturbing nature of the first act devolves into nothing more than body horror which, effective as it is, simply isn't enough to carry the story. I really want to like this book, it has so much going for it, but it just isn't what it needs to be.
4/10

Skipping The Dark Half and Needful Things for the time being. I'm listening to The Dark Half this week, then Four Past Midnight, Then Needful Things probably next week, to refresh my memory on them. I also missed Skeleton Crew, I'll go back to that shortly.

The Dark Tower: The Wastelands 1991

If Drawing of the Three really set the stage for the potential The Dark Tower has, The Wastelands perfects it. This story is near perfection. Once again Jake returns, and we meed Oy the Billy Bumbler. We get a much greater look at this world, and connections to literature. We get plenty of action and intrigue, and even some outright horror, and we get the development of Eddie and Susan, already great characters now becoming true favorites.
10/10

Tagging this.

My ranking of all the Stephen King books I've read:
1. On Writing
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On to Skeleton Crew! I'm just going to go through each story quickly.


The Mist
Easily the most famous of the stories in this, even before the movie. This is a fantastic, claustraphobic story, and I adored it just as much the second time around. 10/10

Here There Be Tygers
A bit of a quick chill. Not the best, not the worst. 6/10

The Monkey
Deserves as much attention as The Mist in my opinion. This story always disturbs me to no end, with this growing sense of dread throughout it. 10/10

Cain Rose Up
All the more disturbing in recent times. Not really too much to say on it, it's certainly effective. 7/10

Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
A surprising little lovecraftian story, more weird fiction than horror fiction, but worth checking out at least. 7/10

The Jaunt
Easily up there with the best of King's stuff. One of the few times King did sci-fi where I enjoyed it, and one of the scariest short stories you'll ever read. 10/10

The Wedding Gig
Honestly kind of forgettable. 4/10

Paranoid: A Chant
Also forgettable. 4/10

The Raft
Here we go, a personal favorite of mine. This is actually the first Stephen King story I ever read, because I saw the movie version and wanted to read the book. Great and gruesome. 9/10

Word Processor of the Gods
I feel like I've seen this story, in various forms, way too many times for this to hold much interest. Not awful, not amazing. 5/10

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
Another kind of mediocre entry. A fun idea, but not really creepy or memorable. 5/10

Beachworld
And we're back to King and Sci-Fi not mixing. 1/10

The Reaper's Image
A fun idea. Not the best haunted mirror story I've seen, but worth reading. 6/10

Nona
A nice bit of insanity. 7/10

For Owen
Not really sure how much there is to say about this. Skippable. 3/10

Survivor Type
You know any story that King considers to grisly even for himself is worth reading. 7/10

Uncle Otto's Truck
King has done better stories about cars. 4/10

Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)
I love this kind of subtle horror, where it's obvious something is off but it doesn't draw attention to itself. Makes me wish he could've finished the book this was supposed to be. 8/10

Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)
Not as good as Morning Deliveries, but shows potential for what could've been. 7/10

Gramma
Loved it. I really can't say much, other than there's a lot of creeping dread here making this worth reading. 9/10

The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
I've heard this suggested by a lot of people, but it just didn't do it for me. 4/10

The Reach
Not really scary in the least, but rather kind of sweet and heartwarming. A good end to the collection. 8/10

Up

I love The Dark Half, mainly just for the ambiguity it keeps going as to whether the protag is about as fucked up as the villain (in his own way). Needful Things is neat just for being the conclusion of Alan Pangborn's arc, which had been a slow burn through all of the Castle Rock stories.
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Late tag

What was Carrie's rating? I've read probably like 1/3 of King's books and Carrie's my 2nd favorite
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Johnbobb posted...

Late tag

What was Carrie's rating? I've read probably like 1/3 of King's books and Carrie's my 2nd favorite

Carrie was 8/10, forgot to edit it in here :/

DeathChicken posted...

I love The Dark Half, mainly just for the ambiguity it keeps going as to whether the protag is about as fucked up as the villain (in his own way). Needful Things is neat just for being the conclusion of Alan Pangborn's arc, which had been a slow burn through all of the Castle Rock stories.

First time I read The Dark Half I hated it, but going through it now, I'm liking it much more. Needful Things was one of my favorites, well see if it holds up.

Dark Half is one of my favorites too

The driving over the road full of crows scene in particular really stuck with me
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Did-a-chick?
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woodman posted...

Did-a-chick?

Dud-a-chuck?

up

OK, after a brief absence I'm back!

Gerald's Game 1992

I wish I could've come back to something better. I know some people swear by this book, but so far it is my absolute least favorite King book. I hated the characters, I hated the twist, and the themes are so ham-fisted that every time I heard the character talk about how things wouldn't go her way just because she was dealing with a man, I WANTED her to die. It had some good, shocking gore, but it did nothing to earn it. Skip this book.
2/10

Insomnia 1994

Sadly, it doesn't improve much after. Insomnia isn't bad, but it isn't good, and it's very, very weird. It's a story about a man who can't sleep, which does work for some people, but not me, and it doesn't have a lot of interesting elements for me. I can't say much about this other than try it and judge it for yourself. Might woprk better for you.
4/10

I really liked Gerald's Game but I agree that the twist was terrible
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The Read So Far

Carrie
'Salem's Lot
Rage

The Stand – Can definitely agree with the latter third falling apart. I actually liked the small-town goings-on with a lot of new characters getting some shine, but the story really wasn't progressing for like a hundred or so pages. Also, I just started watching Twin Peaks and now the mini-series makes much more sense for how it was directed. Like, I hear the theme song to Twin Peaks and the shots of birds and small-town Americana and I'm instantly thinking of Stu and Larry and everyone taking a long walk as a crow watches by.

The Dead Zone

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – This book was and is still hard to read. There are great moments in there, but it's long despite its meager size. I'd compare it to The Hobbit. There are some great and memorable moments and characters, but it's just a journey where every chapter is like its own standalone thing and people come and go with little interest, the act of reading it is boring, and it's the precursor to an amazing epic tale.

The Talisman – I don't remember this book at all despite having read it twice. The sequel, Black House, is easily one of my favorite Stephen King books though and I would recommend that over Talisman any day of the week.

IT
The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three

The Tommyknockers – I can definitely agree with the sentiment towards it. My enjoyment of it probably stems from the fact that there really is so much untapped or misused potential, and the beginnings of that book are some of the strongest visuals I have. Such a creepy, creepy book. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni.

The Dark Tower: The Wastelands
Skeleton Crew: The Mist; Here There Be Tygers; The Monkey; Word Processor of the Gods; Morning Deliveries
Insomnia

Also Read

The Shining
The Long Walk
Different Seasons (Rita Hayworth & Shawkshank Redemption; Apt Pupil)
The Running Man
The Eyes of the Dragon
The Langoliers
Needful Things
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I agree with Geralds game being the worst Stephen King book. It was the 3rd one I read (after Duma Key and Skeleton crew) and I almost quit reading King because lf it...
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To be fair I read it in high school when I hadn't really read anything else like that (and I still haven't really read any other books to take on parental sexual abuse like that) so I'm not sure how it'd hold up now.
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Desperation 1996
I'm going to give this one another chance sometime soon, but for now, it holds a "simply ok" place in my heart. It has some really good stuff, and not much legitimately bad, but it doesn't stand out as amazing.

7/10

The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass 1997
OK first off, I'm legitimately surprised at the date. I thought this book was way older than that. That said, while I haven't read this in a long time, it holds up very well. Not quite as good as The Wastelands(But that may be because I've read The Wastelands recently, this is next up in the series), but still a fantastic story.

9/10

OctilIery posted...

The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass 1997
OK first off, I'm legitimately surprised at the date. I thought this book was way older than that. That said, while I haven't read this in a long time, it holds up very well. Not quite as good as The Wastelands(But that may be because I've read The Wastelands recently, this is next up in the series), but still a fantastic story.

9/10

The first chapter is probably my favorite Stephen King chapter =D
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The Dark Half. 1989

I'm glad I reread this. Previously, it was one of my most disliked King books, but now I can't see what I disliked about it. It's by no means a perfect book, not even near the top, but it was a fun story for what it is.
7/10